Re: Free TTS engines

Hi.
I'll try that. Right now mine's running at 60, and I find it a bit tough, I can handle 55 comfortably. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 7:44 PM
Subject: RE: Free TTS engines



Does everyone stay stationary?

I know that for me, I try to nudge it up by 5% every so often, and never
turn it back down ... so, I hope to be at 85% comfortable soon.

Take care,
Sina

-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sean Mealin
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 7:29 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Free TTS engines

Hi;
I have mine set to 136, 87% in the jfw voices window.  I will slow it down
to 84% if I am reading code.
All of my friends have a hard time understanding it. <Smile>

Happy holidays to everyone!

Sean

-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of tribble
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 12:44 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Free TTS engines

I figured sina would crank it up faster than most--I would probably go up
that high for browsing as you say, but since I also have a hearing loss in
the high frequencies I tend to need it a little slower to catch all the
consonant sounds, which are the most important sounds to differentiate
words.

Anyone else go up to 85?
Cheers.
--le

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 10:59 PM
Subject: RE: Free TTS engines
I tend to use 75% for normal use, and then 65 or so for relaxed reading ... sometimes 80 or 85 if I'm just browsing ... don't know how slow or fast this 
is compared to others.

Take care,
Sina

-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of tribble
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 1:56 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Free TTS engines

I have mine on 65 with punctuation set to all, which a lot of people don't
like, but since I listen to a lot of computer science mail in which
punctuation is significant, it is what I have gotten used to.  Still it's
kind of a pain to listen to "we apostrophy l l" and other contractions even 
if it is at high speed.  I'm impressed that you have it on 64 with english
not being your native language.
--le


----- Original Message -----
From: "Octavian Rasnita" <orasnita@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 5:43 AM
Subject: Re: Free TTS engines


I am using Jaws with Eloquence, and In the menu
Options/Basics/Voices/Global  adjustment, I have set the rate to 64%.
This is because english is not my native language, but maybe other users use 
a higher rate.

Octavian
----- Original Message ----- From: "Andreas Stefik" <stefika@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 1:03 AM
Subject: Re: Free TTS engines



People talk quite a bit about how fast they have the TTS engines going.

Would anyone mind posting a couple soundfiles of your screenreader
reading computer code at your "usual" pace? I'm curious how fast folks
typically have it going. I suspect that, in our pilot studies, we have
the TTS engine going way slower than you folks do.

Andreas



On Dec 21, 2007 2:38 PM, tribble <lauraeaves@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Should have read ahead -- thanks Lloyd and all.  I agree.
--le

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lloyd Rasmussen" <lras@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:41 PM
Subject: RE: Free TTS engines



Natural Voices, VoiceText, Loquento and other modern synthesizers are
concatenative, requiring speech segments to be looked up, best match
found,
then interpolated in order to be modeled on a particular human voice and
sound natural.  To adjust their speed, you have to do some more
interpolation and matching, as you do for time-scale modification of
natural
speech, and this begins to get rough and less intelligible as you go to
twice normal speed or faster.

The older synthesizers, such as DecTalk, Eloquence and the SSI263 speech
chip used by Artic, Braille 'n Speak, Votrax, Accent, etc. are formant
synthesizers.  They work on a vocal tract model, and the parameters can
be
varied systematically to alter the speed without creating quite as much
distortion or losing consonants.  Of course they don't sound as natural,
but
this is mostly a hindrance to people who don't spend days and days
listening
to them, for whom speed is more valuable than naturalness.  The other
advantage of the vocal-tract synthesizers is that they don't require as
much
data to be handled, so they work better for echoing individual keystrokes than the ponderous concatenative synthesizers. Even on modern computers, 
these speed and responsiveness issues are important.

Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, Maryland
Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls


> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-
> bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andreas Stefik
> Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 7:34 PM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Free TTS engines
>
> Peter says:
>
> > I have several of these voices.
> > Wonderful sound for reading but to slow for use in a Gui.
>
> I say
>
> You talking about the AT &T ones? Can't you just speed them up? I know
> that, on windows at least, there is a slider bar you can adjust. Maybe
> you mean something else, though. Might not be true for every OS, or
> every voice though. I readily admit I'm not an expert on such things.
>
> Inthane says:
>
> I have used the AT&T voices and find them to be the best of the TTS
> voices
> that I have herd, (well, except for there attempt to make one sound
> like a
> Scotsman, ouch! LOL),
>
> I say
>
> lol, yaa the Scotsman is hilarious. Well, I guess it's a tough
> decision on what to get.
>
> Thanks for the thoughts, all.
>
> Andreas
>

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