Fw: a good russian synthesizer
- From: "Steve Britt" <swimmer953@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2007 10:37:36 -0500
Folks, I received this message from Oleg Shevkun a week ago, but have been
experiencing problems with my Internet connection. Sorry for the delay, and
I hope this message is of help to someone.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Oleg Shevkun" <oleg@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Steve Britt" <swimmer953@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 9:31 AM
Subject: Re: a good russian synthesizer
Hello Steve,
Since I am not on the JFW mailing list, could you please forward the
following in response to the message about the Russian synth?
Thank you!
There are several options for a Russian synthesizer. However, even though
synthesizers are a very subjective preference, I'd say none of these is
perfect.
Here are some of your options, with a brief description of their pros and
cons.
1. L&H TTS (Russian)
Available from: http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp#tts
A pretty outdated SAPI4 speech synthesizer, originally developed by L&H, and
now available for free from Microsoft.
Pros:
- It's free.
- It can speak decent Russian and English.
- It's fairly compact and responsive.
Cons:
- The voice quality leaves much to be desired.
- The synthesizer is no longer developed or updated.
- SAPI4 support does not come preinstalled with modern operating systems.
RealSpeak Katerina
Available for free with JAWS 8.0
Pros:
- A SAPI5 synthesizer
- Fairly responsive for reading long texts
- Available for free with JAWS.
Cons:
- Several obvious mistakes in reading individual characters and words.
- Intelligibility could be improved.
- Responsiveness is not sufficient for use as an every-day synthesizer.
MyMouse Free
Available for free from: http://ser-vol.narod.ru/
A very old Russian speech synthesizer, slightly modified and improved by
Sergey Volkov.
Pros:
- Very compact and responsive.
- Interfaces directly with JAWS through its own JLS file.
- Available for free.
- Does not need an installation--you just copy the relevant files into your
JAWS folder.
Cons:
- A very robotic voice.
- No intonation whatsoever.
- Makes pauses between each and every word.
- Knows nothing about syllable stress.
- Overloads the CPU while speech is silent.
- Causes frequent JAWS crashes.
MyMouse Commercial Version
Available for $25 from Sergey Volkov (http://mymouse.netfirms.com/)
An improved version of the previously described synthesizer
Pros:
- Very compact and responsive.
- Interfaces directly with JAWS through its own JLS file.
- A significant improvement over the original version.
Cons:
- A very robotic voice.
- No intonation whatsoever.
- Knows very little about syllable stress.
- Is somewhat difficult to purchase for someone outside the United States.
Please contact the author.
Speaking Mouse SAPI
A SAPI5 variation of essentially the same voice as described above. This
synthesizer was pretty much a failure due to its slow rate and substandard
speech quality. It used to be sold with the localized version of JAWS5, but
it is no longer legally available.
Speech Cube
Formerly from Elan Informatique, currently distributed by Acapela Group
(http://www.acapelagroup.com/).
This voice, named Nikolay, has had a number of incarnations. It was
initially featured in Russian synths from Elan, including the $29.95 Digalo.
The SAPI4 version of Digalo is no longer available. The currently available
incarnation is called Speech Cube, and is designed mainly for enterprise
users.
Pros:
- Excellent voice quality.
- Very intelligible.
- Very comfortable for listening to longer texts.
- Features both SAPI4 and SAPI5 interfaces.
Cons:
- Responsiveness is not sufficient for use as an every-day synthesizer.
- Some versions had problems with lockups. I am told this has now been
corrected.
- Prohibitively expensive.
Sakrament TTS
A commercial speech synthesizer priced around 30 dollars. Several versions
and voices of varying quality have been developed. Available from
http://www.sakrament.com.
Pros:
- There is a version specifically designed for JAWS.
- Some voices are of excellent quality (such as Boris, version 2.5).
- Coexists nicely with other SAPI5 engines.
- Excellent intonation and responsiveness.
- Extensive configurability.
Cons:
- In my opinion, their best voice was Sakrament Boris, version 2.5. This
version is no longer sold. The current version is V3.
- Under Windows 2000 and XP, version 2.5 will only run if you are an
Administrator or a Power User. Besides, in order to install it, you must
make the user an Administrator for the time of the installation, and you can
then return their status to PowerUser. Failure to do so will result in an
error.
- Under Windows Vista, version 2.5 will only run with UAC turned off.
- Their latest version, which is version 3, will run properly as a regular
user, and will run with UAC enabled under Vista. However, the voice quality
is markedly inferior to version 2.5.
Note: Sakrament TTS for JAWS, version 2.5, has been my favorite speech
synthesizer for the last three years. That is what I still use on my XP
machine.
ESpeak
A freeware open-source speech synthesizer, available from
http://espeak.sourceforge.net.
Pros:
- Very compact and responsive.
- Available for free.
- Open-source.
- Available for both Windows and Linux.
Cons:
- Robotic voice quality.
- English pronunciation of Russian texts. (It uses English phonemes).
- Problems with intelligibility.
Vikno
A fairly decent speech synthesizer. A couple of versions of this synth have
been developed in the Ukraine.
Pros:
- Supports both SAPI4 and SAPI5.
- A fairly nice voice.
- The synth is quite responsive.
Cons:
- Apparently, developers have no idea how to market their product.
- Almost impossible to purchase, unless you travel to the Ukraine and meet
the right people.
- Somewhat overpriced - they want 50 euros.
Well, this has been a brief presentation of your options. As you see, there
are plenty of synthesizers, but none of them are fully sattisfactory.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Thank you!
Oleg
--
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