Hi everyone, like Dave, I have found no difference in the way Alex sounds in Yosemite versus Mavericks, but I agree responsiveness is excellent and this makes me want to give it yet another go. I've been lucky for some reason as I've not been affected by any lag issues since Yosemite. Well, at least, no new lag issues. The issue with activities and Vocalizer voices is very frustrating and has caused me to delete them all. My preferred voice is compact Daniel, which I can crank up to 100% and still find him intelligible. Next best thing to Eloquence, which would be my dream for VoiceOver. I find Alex is quite good at slow speed, but too much is strung together for it to be intelligible to me at very fast speeds. I also find that Alex mispronounces an awful lot. But speech is indeed highly subjective, so it's great that there is a wide range of options to suit our preferences.
Jonathan Mosen Mosen Consulting Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training http://Mosen.org > On 10/02/2015, at 4:10 am, Erik Heil <ehe...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi, > Verry interesting to look at all your replies. On the subject of delayed > responses using software speech, one has to consider the possibility that > Apple may in fact employ private API's that are non-published, and therefore > are undocumented. Remember that Apple controls the entire software stack, so > they would have access to proprietary software optimizations that could be > non-published. Then again, it may be a case of less than standard hardware. > We should run a memory profile analysis to see where any potential > bottlenecks are. Mainly, what is the memory footprint used by the Alex voice > specifically? Back to the API situation for a bit, and then I'll post this. > We already know that the Alex voice is probably running as a part of a > system-wide service. Perhaps the "private" API's (if, in fact their are any) > may give the process higher resource utilization when its in active use. i.e. > speaking text. This may account partially for the standards of responsiveness. > > On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 12:43 AM, Faisal ali <faisal.a...@icloud.com > <mailto:faisal.a...@icloud.com>> wrote: > I really wish Apple would reduce the lag in some of the other voices as well. > I’d love to be able to use Eva again. > Also, I just stick to Alex and have done so for a while since he use to be > the only voice who could read emojis > >> On Feb 8, 2015, at 9:16 PM, Alex Hall <mehg...@icloud.com >> <mailto:mehg...@icloud.com>> wrote: >> >> Yes, this is Yosemite. As I said in my original message, speech synthesis is >> one of the most subjective things about accessibility software. For >> instance, I'm in that crazy minority that love ESpeak and KeynoteGold. >> <smile> >>> On Feb 9, 2015, at 12:01 AM, Traci Duncan <our4p...@gmail.com >>> <mailto:our4p...@gmail.com>> wrote: >>> >>> I take it, this new Alex is in Yosimity only? I have consistently used >>> Compact Samantha on my Mac. I have mostly found Alex difficult to >>> understand after long periods of reading. He seems to blur his words >>> together. I was using him on my iPad mini for a while, but ended up going >>> back to trusty Compact Samantha. >>> >>> When I upgrade to Yosimity, maybe I’ll give Alex another whirl. :) >>> >>> Traci >>> PS. Compact Samantha says OS X correctly. As in OS Ten. :) >>> >>> >>> On Feb 8, 2015, at 7:27 PM, Devin Prater <d.pra...@me.com >>> <mailto:d.pra...@me.com>> wrote: >>> >>>> I've had the studdering issue for a while now, but I'd always use Fred and >>>> forget about it. >>>> >>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>> >>>> On Feb 8, 2015, at 9:04 PM, Alex Hall <mehg...@icloud.com >>>> <mailto:mehg...@icloud.com>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Thanks for the confirmation, everyone. I never thought I'd say it, but I >>>>> plan on keeping Alex as my primary voice for the foreseeable future. Of >>>>> course, that's assuming some genius doesn't port ESpeak over to the Mac. >>>>> :) >>>>> >>>>> Odd that you're encountering suttering, Devin. Nuance voices would >>>>> definitely stutter and lag, even in the latest Yosemite, but Alex has no >>>>> such problems. In fact, VoiceOver with Alex is way more responsive, and I >>>>> often feel like I have that immediate response the Mac has been lacking >>>>> for so long. It used to be that a Windows screen reader had the immediacy >>>>> down - hit a key, hear speech, no delays at all - but now the Mac is >>>>> getting there too. Alex is the only voice to offer it, though; the Nuance >>>>> voices I've tried still have a bit of lag to them in all situations, and >>>>> can lag terribly every so often. >>>>>> On Feb 8, 2015, at 9:56 PM, Devin Prater <d.pra...@me.com >>>>>> <mailto:d.pra...@me.com>> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> The only thing I don't like is that Alex seems to studder and skip a >>>>>> little on the mac, but he doesn't do that on the iPhone. So I use Fred >>>>>> on the mac because of that. >>>>>> >>>>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>>>> >>>>>> On Feb 8, 2015, at 7:59 PM, Jessica Moss <junglebookfa...@gmail.com >>>>>> <mailto:junglebookfa...@gmail.com>> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> What words did you find he ran together? I use him as my default all >>>>>>> the time, and only thing I've found that sounds really weird, is when >>>>>>> you try to log in anywhere and go to the usual "remember me," checkbox, >>>>>>> when he speaks the "remember me," he sounds like he either has his >>>>>>> teeth clenched, or has something in his mouth, which always makes me >>>>>>> cringe, and I've always thought it really weird that he sounds like >>>>>>> that. >>>>>>> On Feb 8, 2015, at 7:41 PM, Alex Hall <mehg...@icloud.com >>>>>>> <mailto:mehg...@icloud.com>> wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Hi all, >>>>>>>> First, yes, this is about a speech synthesizer, and will thus be very >>>>>>>> subjective. I wanted to see, though, if anyone else might have come to >>>>>>>> the same conclusion I have. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> I got a Mac in the days of Lion, and quickly switched to the Vocalizer >>>>>>>> voices (Serena or Lee, mostly). When we got new ones in Mavericks, I >>>>>>>> favored Ava, and she is still among the best voices I know of, except >>>>>>>> a couple from Ivona. In testing things for Yosemite, I kept switching >>>>>>>> from Ava to Alex, just to see if any problems were being caused by the >>>>>>>> use of Nuance voices. I accidentally made a startling discovery: Alex >>>>>>>> used to be pretty bad a few years ago, but now, he's quite good. I've >>>>>>>> always liked the breathing thing, but Alex would constantly run words >>>>>>>> together, mispronounce syllables, and have other small problems that >>>>>>>> made him hard to understand, especially at higher speeds. The more I >>>>>>>> use him in Yosemite, though, the more I look for reasons to switch >>>>>>>> back to Ava, but the more those reasons allude me. Ava misses the >>>>>>>> period after certain words, like "app", Alex doesn't; Ava says >>>>>>>> "capital" before uppercase letters, although that setting is disabled, >>>>>>>> and Alex doesn't; VoiceOver has delays when opening the VO Utility or >>>>>>>> bringing up VO menus while using Nuance voices, but with Alex, I find >>>>>>>> no such delays; and more. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> So, is it just me, or has Alex gotten way better? I don't mean >>>>>>>> "better" in that VoiceOver runs faster while using Alex, although it >>>>>>>> certainly does. I mean "better" in that, compared to a few years ago, >>>>>>>> he's far clearer when speaking and makes far fewer mistakes. Maybe I'm >>>>>>>> misremembering, or maybe I'm the only one to notice, since the change >>>>>>>> was likely gradual and thus invisible to those who have used Alex all >>>>>>>> along. Either way, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts, and I'm >>>>>>>> more eager than ever to obtain a 64-bit iPhone so I can start using >>>>>>>> Alex there as well. My only complaint about Alex is that he doesn't >>>>>>>> speed up very well - sure, he can go crazy fast, but I find I miss >>>>>>>> things at more than 70% speaking rate. Anyway, what do you all think? >>>>>>>> If you haven't used Alex in a long time, give him another chance. If >>>>>>>> you use him all the time, have you noticed anything? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> -- >>>>>>>> Have a great day, >>>>>>>> Alex Hall >>>>>>>> mehg...@icloud.com <mailto:mehg...@icloud.com> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> -- >>>>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>>>> Groups "MacVisionaries" group. >>>>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>>>>>> an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >>>>>>>> <mailto:macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. >>>>>>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >>>>>>>> <mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com>. >>>>>>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries >>>>>>>> <http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries>. >>>>>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout >>>>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> -- >>>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to 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<http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries>. >>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout >>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >>>> <mailto:macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. >>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >>>> <mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com>. >>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries >>>> <http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries>. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop 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