2015-12-04 18:35:07

Indeed it is fun. I do prefer Dave over the "natural" orpheus voices, but that might just be because I'm more of a formant synthesis person for most things.
DECtalk is not what Stephen Hawkin uses. He is actually using the voice that was in the Prose2000, which was actually a synthesizer that I think some blind people used back in the day. Some people in the MESS project are actually working on emulating that thing. I  kind of like it. It sounds a bit like TruVoice, but the voice quality is better. The only problem is that it sounds like something is pinching it's nose all the time.
@FamilyMario TrippleTalk has the same voices as DoubleTalk, I believe. The only problem is that they are really overpriced for what they are. Hell, I could technically still buy a Doubletalk LT from RCSystems themselves, but they're not worth it at the moment. I might try to get just the RC8660 and hook it up to a Raspi0 or something, that would probably cost about $60 as opposed to the $180 for a new DTLT or trippletalk.

A fight we cannot lose.
An enemy we cannot defeat.
A destiny we cannot escape.
Follow me on twitter @guilevi2000

2015-12-04 23:39:52

Ah, I must've got things wrong then.
Back in about 2000, I temporarily used a very short lived screen reader called wind vision that came with a voice synth "perfect paul" which was the exact one Steven hawkin uses, I assumed that was decktalk, but I could be wrong.

Sadly the hardware box for the synth died a death about two months after I got the thing, and I switched back to supernova, indeed it turned out that the features I liked in windvision were in fact in supernov already, Ijust hadn't known how to use them previously.

The only major advantage windvision had, is at the time because it was a hardware synth, it was very! quick and responsive, though I believe synths have now caught up due to improvements in technology.

I'm afraid I disagree on synthetic dave though. I used Dave for years, right from when I first started with windows 3.1 and Supernova version 3 in 19994 at the age of twelve. Personally, I was glad to get shot of him asap big_smile.

I used to have a rather fun game trying to emulate the 1960's "you shal be like us!" of the original cybermen with Dave. It wasn't quite doable, sinse Dave doesn't emphasise the ends of words quite the way the sixties cybermen did, but you could do a pretty good job big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2015-12-05 00:27:56

Ah. You must have had a Prose2000 then. They were quite damn rare, I think. Nowadays perfect Paul seems to be the default voice for everything.
I haven't had much experience with external synthesizers. I have a BNS2000, which is pretty responsive but has problems with it's buffering; a Ciber232 and Ciber232P, which are both ridiculously unresponsive although the 232P has a pretty cool voice; an Eureka A4, which I need to find a way to get to work because I don't know the speech commands; and a Sonobraille, which is actually very responsive, even more than some software synthesizers. Which is quite ironic because that one is the only one I have which is using software synthesis itself. I'll have to see what happens when I get this VoiceNote.
Another fun synthesizer is SoftVoice. if you know the right commands, you can really mess with the way it talks. It's intonation may be a little weird, but it's fun to mess with.

A fight we cannot lose.
An enemy we cannot defeat.
A destiny we cannot escape.
Follow me on twitter @guilevi2000

2015-12-05 03:23:05

Guilevi, talking about the bns2000 and cyber232: In this year they sell that synts, so I can by it. I think that you are in Spain, but tell me your full name to find you, your sity, your province, ETC to travel on to use it with NVDA. It's because I want that 3 or so synts that We want to develop for NVDA.

73 Wj3u

2015-12-05 18:34:14

Moderation!

I would strongly advise against revealing personal information on this forum. The forum is of course viewable by the public on google. While there's no need to be paranoid, at the same time, you don't know who could be reading this even if you trust the identity of whomever your talking to.

Myself, I would suggest that if Guilevi and Luis want to exchange details the two of you start communicating via e-mail and share personal information slowly, the operative word being share, perhaps even have some phone conversations before you start giving out addresses. Either way, I'd very much be against this being done on the forum for reasons of protection.

As to synths, to be honest I've not used many. I used to have an appolo box running orphius on an old acer machine, but that was back in the nineties. Other than the windvision thing, that was the only external synth I ever used. Actually, it's a funny story, sinse in one history lesson while plugged in the appolo literally melted due to a faulty wire. The scary thing is had I charged my laptop the previous night it probably would've done the same at midnight in my house with everyone asleep which wouldn't have been good.

In general with synths I've found  the ones that work for me, ie, scansoft daniel and Orphius. I wouldn't deliberately experiment with others for the hell of it, but if another turned up to try I'd give it a go with an open mind, eg, when I upgrade my Iphone (which possibly might happen with the 7 series depending upon what advantages they have over the five), I'll give alex and the other voices a go to see if there is something preferable to Daniel, though I'm rather sorry the siri voice can't be used for vo on the phone.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2015-12-06 22:14:32

@Dark, actually, you can use the Siri voices with VO with iOS 9. I personally like the UK female voice.
@Luis, I don't understand why you need my address to develop these synths for NVDA. I doubt you can still get Ciber232/232P boxes. I got my 232P from my dad who used to own it, and the 232 was given to me by the national organization for the blind, together with the Sonobraille. They are fully external synthesizers, so there is still no way to emulate them. I do ahve a driver that I made so that NVDA can send the right stuff to the synth to make it work, but you still need the hardware and the cables. I do live in Spain, but I don't see how all the other information is relevant to you at this point. If you can find a way to obtain a BNS or a Ciberveu, I can help you set it up via Skype or some other chat service so that you can use them with NVDA.

A fight we cannot lose.
An enemy we cannot defeat.
A destiny we cannot escape.
Follow me on twitter @guilevi2000

2015-12-06 22:22:31

OK, Dark, Don't make me fill annoying to me smile
Guilevi, about the Cyber232, Well, If I try to call the national organisation for the blind, I think it is from spain, Right? If in my vacation jerny I have to travel from Panama to Spain, I'm really appreciated to by the sinth, but thers an alternative, bying it online? and SonoBraille included, maybee.

73 Wj3u

2015-12-06 22:25:48

I don't understand what you're trying to tell me. I am not interested in selling the synthesizer. If you are looking for samples, or information on it, you can ask me. If you wish you can add me on Skype, my skype name is up on my profile page. It may be a bit easier for you to talk in your native language, as well.

A fight we cannot lose.
An enemy we cannot defeat.
A destiny we cannot escape.
Follow me on twitter @guilevi2000

2015-12-07 05:23:48

my favorites are: eloquence, macintalk, softvoice, dectalk, text assist (the lh based version that comes with proty parrot), espeak (with mbrola), cereproc, orphius, cepstral, mstts5.x, acapella tts/ivox, artic/votrax (the one used on the old braille n speak), keynote gold multimedia, nv speech player, and the mother fucker of all vintage hardware synthesisers: echo2.

be a hero and stop Coppa now!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dkm … DkWZ8/edit
-id software, 1995

2015-12-07 06:03:30

Guillem I cant see your skype contact. So can you tell me what is your skype to add you?

73 Wj3u

2015-12-07 12:21:13

@luis I just sent you a PM with the Skype username.
@ammericandad I honestly don't like the Echo too much. It's fun to mess with, but it's pronunciation tables are horrible. Same for the BNS synthesizer. The Votrax was used in a bunch of devices, and the BNS probably has the worst pronunciation tables. I heard that Artic synthesizers like the transport sounded just like a bns, but with waaay better pronunciation tables. I have never had the chance to hear one of those. The Accent had pretty good tables, the PocketBraille seemed to bemostly  OK, and the Speakout I think had similar tables to the BNS. I can't remember anything else that used the Votrax, but I'm sure there are more.

A fight we cannot lose.
An enemy we cannot defeat.
A destiny we cannot escape.
Follow me on twitter @guilevi2000

2015-12-08 21:35:50

my first favorite is Keynote gold multimedia for windows3.1 win95 and windows98. second is eloquence, 3rd is vocalizer, 4th is decTalk.

2015-12-08 21:39:21

on espeak-general since Jonathan duddington seems to have gone I think soon a crowd funding campaign will be started and developers hired to greatly improve espeak with many more klatt voices, better phonetics more languages and so on.

2015-12-08 21:57:14

Oh, didn't know you could use the siri voices with Ios 9.
I've been hesitating to upgrade to Ios 9 for a few versions until the bugs are fixed and programs and games and such are upgraded to work with it, though of course I've got an Iphone 5, still it'll be good to see if those are available as I like the Siri male voice better even than Scansoft Daniel as I said.
The Female is okay, but for some reason I've generally preferd male over female synths.

I did use a braille n speak once as a teenager, but stopped when the wire got pulled out by someone running around the classroom and I lost a couple of weeks work. I can't say I thought much to the voice, though I did have fun experimenting with the voice, I still remember hearing the tone change as it said "chire, chire chire" or "Looer, Looer, looer!" big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2015-12-09 18:39:03

Oh, the good old days. My classmates back in either Pre-K or 1st Grade always thought it said, shyer, shyer, shyer, shyer when it actually said higher, but don't remember what they thought lower was. I even remembered one of my friends saying, "Play some music on that thing!" This was when I was typing up some notes back in 3rd grade or so.

2015-12-10 06:06:28

Lol yeah, that synth was great. The other thing you could do that was really amusing was to go into the speech settings, and play around with the pitch and frequency. If you set the frequency up to as high as it would go, then got the pitch just right, it was really funny to listen to.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2015-12-10 19:52:19

Oooooh yes those good times that I wish I could turn back the clock and could go back to them! I did that once with my BNS, and no, I'm not kidding. People often thought I had a robot mouse inside my unit when I first started it up. I got lots of laughs in my classroom. Fortunately though I didn't get in trouble as my teachers also started laughing, and just for fun, I spent one whole day with pitch and frequency turned up all the way. It sounds crazy of me doing that sort of thing, I admit, but it was one of those times that you wish you could go back to and say, "I really did that?"
Back on topic though, my favorite synthesizers would have to be ETI-Eloquence, eSpeak, DECtalk, MacinTalk, Orpheus TTS (both synthetic and natural voice types), SoftVoice due to how crazy you can get with that synth, Nuance Vocalizer, Acapela TTS, IVONA, and some Japanese language synthesizers like ProTALKER and VoiceRoid. I like using Alex on my iPad Air because of how human he sounds, especially when reading long passages of text.

2015-12-12 11:56:40

Writing for the third time, and after checking out again some other voices, I find Ava - US english from vocaliser expressive a truly nice voice and in my opinion it is the best English voice from nuance that doesn't sound robotic.

Has anybody from here checked Brian - UK english from Ivona? It is a great voice to have. It has a good intonation and it is nice for reading books.

2015-12-12 18:56:58

I've used that voice in my tts series on sue and cristal productions as the voice of the bird scientest brian davidson.

be a hero and stop Coppa now!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dkm … DkWZ8/edit
-id software, 1995

2015-12-13 05:31:06

hello
eloquence is very eloquent.  it is more human like voices and it pronounces everything is very clearly.
My second choice will be ava.
I prefer google TTS for hindi.
Thanks
Ishan

life's battle do not always go to the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later who win the one who thinks he can!

2018-03-01 04:07:54

bump.
some votrax ISA cards (personal speech system, type n talk) are now supported in mame.'you know what that means?
time to pester petermach to try to make a driver that routes the dos output to mame's tts drivers!

be a hero and stop Coppa now!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dkm … DkWZ8/edit
-id software, 1995

2018-03-03 04:16:21

yes i agree. maybe someday keynote gold will come to mame?

2018-03-03 04:55:28

On PC:
1. Microsoft David
2. Nuance Ava

My Solo album, "A Life Seen Through Broken Eyes", available now:
iTunes Spotify YouTube
My YouTube Channel

2018-03-03 15:51:44

Who is the creator of the voice of Ava? I like her

73 Wj3u

2018-03-03 19:37:54

My preferred synthesizer is Eloquence using the US English Reed voice. I use it because it's the default voice JAWS uses and I'm used to it, it also doesn't hurt that in my opinion it's the best sounding voice out there.

I also have Eloquence for Windows for games that use SAPI. For that synthesizer I use the US English Rolo voice with the pitch lowered a notch. It creates a deep voice that is perfect for games.