[JAWSLite] Re: accessible text to mp3

I agree with everything being said here except for one point. I'm not sure why FS shouldn't include the RealSpeak voices with JFW. You don't need to install them and, if you do, you don't need to use them except in certain situations. I think the issues being pointed out here are pretty well understood limitations of the concatinative voice technology, and I think FS has been pretty up front about this, hence the say all feature in the first place. I think this is the future of synthetic speech though, and I think this is where most of the research is being directed right now. I'm not aware of any new development going on with Eloquence or that voice technology. If RealSpeak voices and it's ilk are the future then I hope the blind get involved early, and our issues with things like responsiveness, get addressed. 

Steve Gomes wrote:
Hi Chris and list. I was excited about the real speak voices and tried to get use to them. For me I thought Samantha was the clearest to understand. I have two cochlear implant hearing devices. After a few months of trying to get use to it. I unchecked the say all with SAPI 5 and just use eloquence. It is too bulky and when you use it for the first time after you start the computer, it takes a ling time to get going. and you have to go slow or it seems to trip over itself. Other people have said the same thing to me. And I agree that freedom should not have added this to the product. I like crystal of at&t natural voices. But again eloquence is fine. 

    ----- Original Message -----
    *From:* Christopher Collins <mailto:ccollins1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
    *To:* jawslite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:jawslite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
    *Sent:* Friday, March 30, 2007 7:33 PM
    *Subject:* [JAWSLite] Re: accessible text to mp3

    Hi, Mohammed and greetings to all:

    Though I don't have a direct answer to your question, you make an
    excellent point about Eloquence.  On December 4, 2006, I posted a
    message to the yahoogroups JAWS list shortly after I had installed
and tried out the RealSpeak synthesizer I received with JAWS 8. The subject of my post at that time was Raining on the RealSpeak 
    Parade.  I agree with you, Mohammed, about Eloquence.  Here is
    what I said at that time.

    Greetings to all:

    The old saying goes that it's difference of opinion that makes
    horse races.  A few folks on this list have been very excited
    about the addition of the RealSpeak Sapi5 Solo Synthesizer to the
    new JFW8.  Well, here I come to express just the opposite
    viewpoint and to say that I can not share in the enthusiasm.  In
    fact, after having installed it and tried it out, I have gone so
    far as to remove it once again from my computer.  I'm writing this
    to make it known that not everyone necessarily likes it.  What are
    the reasons I don't like it?  Let me try to tell you all why.  If
    you simply consider only the actual quality of the voices
    themselves, you would have to be enthusiastic,  because they are
    of announcer quality.  As far as just the vocal quality itself,
    these synthesized voices have never yet been equaled.  But just
    hearing the vocal quality alone is not the whole story of what
    synthesized speech should be.  It doesn't stop there.  Because
    while Eloquence does not have the vocal quality of RealSpeak, it
    does a much better job of handling something just as (and, maybe
    more) important which is the inflection, the cadence and the
    ultimate emotionality of the reading.  I find the RealSpeak speech
    to be rather stilted and unnatural.  You can almost hear the
    speech being pieced together.  The phrasing and the emphasis is
    often all wrong.  At times, some words seem to get almost
    swallowed up and mumbled over.  Even with its poorer actual voice
    quality, I still feel that Eloquence wins hands down when it comes
    to capturing the emotional eexperience and communicating the real
    meaning of what I am trying to read.  I think FS should not have
    added this product to JAWS until some of the inflection issues
    became  handled in a more advanced manner than they are at
    present.  Sorry, folks! At 08:04 PM 3/30/2007 +0700, you wrote:

    HI!

    Does anyone know of an accessible program which can convert text
    to mp3
    using via voice/eloquence?

    God willing, I'll be away from computers for about 4 months to a
    year and I
    definitely do have many books to read.

    So far I only like and understand eloquence the most in
    comparison with any
    other speech synth.

    Thanks in advance

    Muhammad Islah Busakorn

    Unsubscribe from the list by sending email to
    jawslite-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject
    field.

    View the list's information at
    http://www.freelists.org/list/jawslite

    View online , searchable archives of the list at
    http://www.freelists.org/archives/jawslite

    Check out http://www.blindprogramming.com
    <http://www.blindprogramming.com/> for lots of cool info all
about programming while putting your eyes in vacation mode. 



--
Christopher

cchaltain@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


Unsubscribe from the list by sending email to jawslite-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
View the list's information at http://www.freelists.org/list/jawslite 

View online , searchable archives of the list at
http://www.freelists.org/archives/jawslite

Check out http://www.blindprogramming.com for lots of cool info all about 
programming while putting your eyes in vacation mode.

Other related posts: