Re: Anyway possible using Svox Classic TTS engine with Ubuntu?
I totally agree that we need to work on FoS alternatives to the IBMtts; but for now for some languages voxin is the most viable alternative. I don't want to see the day where folks must keep using old operating system(s) just to have an understandable voice in their language, but this day is at hand, or close to it. As I said in another msg having more than one option is also important both because what is good for one person isn't for another and because just feeling that one has a choice makes people feel better. The pico voices I tried in Windows were certainly equalized for phone speakers, and for most people with "nnormal" hearing found the tone quite muffled. I tried English pico a few times for minutes on my Linux installation(s) and think it was the same or similar; but one would think adding a bit of mid-high pitch in to the voices to improve clarity. The other drawback to svox was how it sounded at relatively high word per minute rates, but my brief experiments under Linux were pretty responsive at voice rates fast enough to be practical in production use for, I think, most users. Bottom line: WE should all try and do what ever we can to advance work on Linux voice alternatives asap. I wasn't so impressed with openmari, but it seems that many found this quite listenable and saw/see promise...The more the merrier. -- B.H. On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 09:13:19AM -0400, Kyle wrote: > According to Fernando Botelho: > # Well, since Voxin is no longer for sale, this might be a good time for > # us to get started on improving espeak in Spanish. > > Googling and looking on the website, I don't think it's no longer for > sale, but it's so badly outdated, and takes so much ancient code to run, > that it might as well be no longer for sale. It will only get harder and > harder to run Voxin as hardware and software become newer. It's like > putting that old floppy drive in new computer after new computer until > it eventually no longer fits, even with adaptors. Eventually, if you > still want to use your old floppy collection, you will need to move the > files to something like a flash drive or purchase a USB floppy drive. > Voxin is much the same, in that eventually people who are currently > making it work will need to improve the more maintained bits of code > such as eSpeak, because eventually, all the adapted and ancient > libraries in the world won't make it work. The website indicates that it > just uses an old C++ library, but there's no way that old library will > work in the future, as it's already well over 10 years old. Eventually > it will become incompatible with the entire system bit by bit. I said > all that to say that Voxin may still be for sale, but it's much more > profitable for the community to work to improve eSpeak, SVox Pico, > Festival, Flite or any of the other freedom synthesizers available with > source code that can be freely modified and improved than it will ever > be to keep trying and trying to make Voxin or any other packaged version > of this speech synthesizer run just a little longer. > ~Kyle > http:/kyle.tk/ > -- > "Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?" > Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie" > > -- > Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list > Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Re: Anyway possible using Svox Classic TTS engine with Ubuntu?
According to Fernando Botelho: # Well, since Voxin is no longer for sale, this might be a good time for # us to get started on improving espeak in Spanish. Googling and looking on the website, I don't think it's no longer for sale, but it's so badly outdated, and takes so much ancient code to run, that it might as well be no longer for sale. It will only get harder and harder to run Voxin as hardware and software become newer. It's like putting that old floppy drive in new computer after new computer until it eventually no longer fits, even with adaptors. Eventually, if you still want to use your old floppy collection, you will need to move the files to something like a flash drive or purchase a USB floppy drive. Voxin is much the same, in that eventually people who are currently making it work will need to improve the more maintained bits of code such as eSpeak, because eventually, all the adapted and ancient libraries in the world won't make it work. The website indicates that it just uses an old C++ library, but there's no way that old library will work in the future, as it's already well over 10 years old. Eventually it will become incompatible with the entire system bit by bit. I said all that to say that Voxin may still be for sale, but it's much more profitable for the community to work to improve eSpeak, SVox Pico, Festival, Flite or any of the other freedom synthesizers available with source code that can be freely modified and improved than it will ever be to keep trying and trying to make Voxin or any other packaged version of this speech synthesizer run just a little longer. ~Kyle http:/kyle.tk/ -- "Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?" Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie" -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Re: Anyway possible using Svox Classic TTS engine with Ubuntu?
Well, since Voxin is no longer for sale, this might be a good time for us to get started on improving espeak in Spanish. If anyone is interested, please write to me off list. Thanks, Fernando On 05/10/2013 01:46 AM, B. Henry wrote: The svox voices were donated I thought, or was this only for Windows usage? I don't like pico svox at all for English, but found them quite listenable in French, and a much better alternative to espeak for Spanish; and at the moment the only alternative for Spanish in Linux that's of quality for the average user to use on a production system is Voxin, (IBMtts). I certainly don't mind paying the $5 U.S. that a Voxin voice costs, but alternatives would certainly be welcomed. I am a big espeak fan, and do want to work with J.D. to try and improve Spanish when ever I get the chance to make some decent recordings, but no one nor two synths will be for everyone. BTW-does anyone have experience with Festival and Spanish? -- B.H. On Tue, May 07, 2013 at 08:28:46AM -0400, Kyle wrote: According to Fernando Botelho: # Someone with experience adapting voices for use with Orca/speech # dispatcher is: # Bohdan R. Rau # etha...@polip.com # # He was working on adapting SAPI voices for use in Linux through Wine. # Maybe his experience would help with this. Android voices should be even easier than SAPI voices to make work with speech-dispatcher, since x86 builds of Android are now available, and the voices need to be built for it, making them one step closer to x86-based desktop Linux. The main issue is going to be convincing the developers of such voices that many of us would be interested in purchasing them for a desktop Linux operating system, which would go a long way toward resolving any remaining incompatibilities and also would avoid licensing problems that could arise from running a voice on something other than the intended platform. Only the speech-dispatcher module would need to be figured out at that point. Of course the voices would need to be built for x86_64 as well, but in most cases this shouldn't cause significant problems. ~Kyle http://kyle.tk/ -- "Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?" Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie" -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
