[access-uk] Re: Iona voices
- From: "john coley" <johncoley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:14:50 +0100
Hi Andy, apart from ESpeak, which is the NVDA onboard synth, so to speak, which
you may well find unacceptable, you can use SAPI5 voices, SVox Pico, which is
more human sounding than ESpeak, but not as natural sounding as the SAPI
voices, and I seem to remember, following a lot of requests for Eloquence from
NVDA users they were going to look into providing it, or rather offering to
sell it to users as an optional extra. As I don't use NVDA as a rule I'm out of
the loop as far as the current state of play is concerned, but no doubt people
on the list who regularly use NVDA will know.
John.
----- Original Message -----
From: ANDY COLLINS
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 12:56 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Iona voices
Perhaps I'll spend a bit of time and see if I can get to grips with NVDA.
Which synths/voices are available? -
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Beasley
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 11:58 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Iona voices
I don't know about other screenreaders, but NVDA has the option to have
beeps for capitals.
----- Original Message -----
From: john coley
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 11:39 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Iona voices
Hi Andy, yes, it's a great shame that they can't find a way of getting
the SAPI voices to support pitch. So many people have got used to pitch change
denoting capitals. I'm sure those creating these voices could find a way, it's
more, I suspect, that they aren't bothered enough to try. It's easy to spot
people using SAPI voices, as their capitalisation's out of the window.
On your point about Amy's diction she can't say T in a lot of cases
either. She says D. Another odd thing about the voices is not only the way they
say things, for example world war the second instead of world war 2, but also
seemingly made up words they come up with sometimes. I have the Goodmans digi
box, and the synth they've used for that can't say x or ex, as in X men or
Exfactor. I'd be interested to get from anyone with a Goodmans box who've
noticed these made up words to hear their guesses as to what the made up words
are.
John.
----- Original Message -----
From: ANDY COLLINS
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 10:55 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Iona voices
Hi John -
Shame that. Would it really have been so difficult to have included
pitch change with the Ivona voices, and why are there such strange anomalies
such as the way Amy yells the letter Y, and pushes some syllables so hard it
sounds like she's constipated! -
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: john coley
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2012 11:29 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Iona voices
Hi Andy, none of those voices support pitch. The same goes for
Realspeak and the other human sounding SAPI voices. I've only come across one
vaguely human sounding synth that supports pitch, and that was SVox Pico for
use with NVDA.
John.
----- Original Message -----
From: ANDY COLLINS
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2012 6:03 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Iona voices
Hi all -
I'm using the Iona voices in demo mode for now, thinking about
buying a license. I'm not very impressed with Brian and Emma [uk voices] but
Amy [uk] is pretty reasonable, even though I don't like the way she pronounces
certain words.
I was trying to make changes in JAWS, so that she would speak
capitol letters in a higher pitch, the way I am use to under Eloquence, but no
matter how much I Play around with this setting, it makes no difference. All
letters are read in the same pitch, when reading character by character. The
odd thing however, is that when Amy comes across the letter y [case doesn't
matter] she seems to yell it out, and in a slightly raised pitch too, as if
there is something special about the letter y!
Anybody have similar experiences? -
Andy
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