Skip is horrid! My friend Amanda likes him, though. She adjusts the pitch
and frequency all the way up. It has a hell of a lot of inflection, but my
dear sweet Perfect Paul (LOL) left at default except rate which is changed
to 6 is my prefference. I got my book port in 2004,...I think. The School
for the blind here in TN started giving them to students like myself, and
they were a really big hit. I love mine! I use rechargeable alcoline (is
that how you spell that?) batteries bought from Radio shack. They work
wonderfully!
James
June says she likes Skip the best of the voices. I haven't heard Skippy actually, just Paul and Pete and they are both pretty good.
Littlekat
----- Original Message ----- From: "Hope Hein" <hmhein@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 2:51 PM
Subject: [bookport] Re: Book port Speech
Good point!
Smile. Hope
-----Original Message-----
.From: "Walt Smith"<walt@xxxxxxxxxx>
.Sent: 9/14/06 11:59:15 AM
.To: "bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"<bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.Subject: [bookport] Re: Book port Speech
.
.The present synth (which, after a relatively brief period of adjustment, I
.find perfectly adequate) has two very distinct advantages:
.
.* It is small, allowing for installation in a device with relatively
limited
.software and hardware space.
.
.* I strongly suspect that it's also inexpensive, helping keep the cost
down.
.
.Almost any of the newer software-only synthesizers will violate both of
.these requirements. The AT&T synthesizer is out because of the huge amount
.of space it takes up. Eloquence doesn't use quite as much, but I suspect
.that the licensing costs would be prohibitive. I very seriously doubt that
.there are a fraction as many Book Ports out there as copies of JAWS.
.
.Arguing over synthesizers is nothing but a religious discussion. No
.synthesizer is superior or inferior--it's only superior or inferior to the
.person listening to it. By spending some time with the voice, rate, pitch,
.and frequency settings, I've been able to find a voice that is perfectly
.acceptable to me. Over the years, I've also learned that a lot of
.dissatisfaction with a given synthesizer is based on the fact that the user
.has never varied the settings that are defaulted to and this is a serious
.mistake. I don't know how many people I've heard on the various
JAWS-related
.lists cry and whine about how incredibly bad Eloquence is only to have them
.admit that they've _never_ made any attempt at all to change the pitch or
.rate that are set by JAWS by default.
.
.----- Original Message ----- .From: "Milano Hyacinthe" <nicemilano@xxxxxxx>
.To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 11:47 AM
.Subject: [bookport] Book port Speech
.
.
.The Bookport is a great device but it doesn't have a great sounding voice
.synthesizer. I think that's a pore design for a reading device. I think
that
.the APH engineers should work on a more realistic voice synth for the
.Bookport. Due to the fact that realistic synths are not as expensive as
.before and are more easier to implement. Almost all new devices that are
.develop now a days contain some great sounding voice synth. For instance,
.the Eloquence voice synth software and the ATT Real speak software are some
.great voice synthesizers. I possess a Pacmate and a Voicemate and these
.devices contain some nice sounding speech.
.
.
.Milano Hyacinthe
.
.
