Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
Festival could be a lot more useful if the proximity alerts didn't get fired off by the movement of your station. For a fixed station wathcing people drive by, it works pretty good. Every time the mobile station moves, it will tell you the callsign and distance information for that station. I tried it while driving one day, and I had the audio queued up for 1/2 an hour because I drove past 2 fixed stations within the alert proximity. I was 40 miles down the road by the time that Xastir stopped telling me that VE6*** was 5 miles away. (That can get the XYL a little upset!) Xastir needs to ignore movement updates of itself for creating audio alerts. At least it needs to ignore most of them, perhaps firing off an alert every 1/2 mile or so. This could be a user configurable parameter. It should always fire off an audio alert when remote stations send APRS position updates, but hold off due to it's own position updates. James VE6SRV ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Tom Russo wrote: > Yes, festival is speech synthesis as opposed to playing canned sounds. You > can configure xastir to read out the call-signs of new stations (really > annoying in busy areas), the fact that you have incoming messages and who > they're from (sometimes useful), the contents of those messages (sometimes > useful, especially while driving), and also read out proximity alerts, as in > "Proximity Alert, KM5VY five miles from station KM5VY-9" I had my first message read to me by Festival while I was driving, in my noisy Jeep down the freeway. I had just mentioned to another friend on a 2m repeater that I had voice running. Yet another friend decided it'd be the perfect time to send me a message. Was probably funny watching me try to drive, shift, talk on the 2m, and listen to the message all at the same time. For the most part I don't use Festival, but I like to use it sometimes when I'm driving to/from hunting or SAR missions. Keeps me entertained. > I have found that festival, while occasionally useful and initially > entertaining, is more often an annoyance that I turn off most of the time. > Your mileage, of course, may vary dramatically. The best use of it is for demo's. The "wow" factor. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 09:32:04PM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> flavor, containing: > > From what I believe, Festival will read the call of a new station, > maybe the message text, etc. Just a bit fancier than the vanilla audio > alerts. I was just trying to figure out how to get Festival speech > working as more of a learning process. Of all the times I have ventured > into Xastir over the past two years, this is the farthest I have ever > gotten towards getting everything working and understanding it. Festival > is my last hurdle. Yes, festival is speech synthesis as opposed to playing canned sounds. You can configure xastir to read out the call-signs of new stations (really annoying in busy areas), the fact that you have incoming messages and who they're from (sometimes useful), the contents of those messages (sometimes useful, especially while driving), and also read out proximity alerts, as in "Proximity Alert, KM5VY five miles from station KM5VY-9" I have found that festival, while occasionally useful and initially entertaining, is more often an annoyance that I turn off most of the time. Your mileage, of course, may vary dramatically. -- Tom RussoKM5VY SAR502 DM64ux http://www.swcp.com/~russo/ Tijeras, NM QRPL#1592 K2#398 SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM "And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" --- The Tick ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
Looks like a lot of us are learning. Festival is not as important to me as long as I have the audio alerts working. My main concern is getting an audio announcement when I have an incoming message or if there are weather warnings. From what I believe, Festival will read the call of a new station, maybe the message text, etc. Just a bit fancier than the vanilla audio alerts. I was just trying to figure out how to get Festival speech working as more of a learning process. Of all the times I have ventured into Xastir over the past two years, this is the farthest I have ever gotten towards getting everything working and understanding it. Festival is my last hurdle. Duffy www.wb8nut.com Robbie, wa9inf wrote: Thanks Duffy, That clears that up, so what do I use Festival and Xastir with? As you know, I am just getting my feet wet here... I must have misread the instructions, so back to the reading... Robbie Amateur Radio WB8NUT wrote: The audio alerts and speech with festival are two different items. One has nothing to do with the other. I have sounds working fine also. Festival is not required to play the sounds. Duffy www.wb8nut.com Robbie, wa9inf wrote: Interesting. The wav files I downloaded this afternoon and put them in the sounds folder. Started working without starting Festival. I did get an error, unable to open Festival socket.. Worked anyway.. I then shut Xastir and festival down, rebooted the computer and this time started festival first then Xastir, got the same error and it still played the "clear" sounding wav files??? I did the shutdown, reboot thingy, and ran Xastir witout Festival, it stills speaks nice clear perfect English.. What did I do right? Xastir 1.8.3 and Fedora Core 5 Pentium II 300 mghz Robbie Curt, WE7U wrote: On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Curt, WE7U wrote: Yea, if it's a true SB16 and not a clone card from somebody else, you've probably got real hardware there. One of the more compatible cards you can get. What are you running Xastir on? Any emulation happening? I know you mentioned VMWare before, so just wondering if you're trying to run Festival on Linux under VMWare or something like that. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir -- "One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -- Winston Churchill ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
Thanks Duffy, That clears that up, so what do I use Festival and Xastir with? As you know, I am just getting my feet wet here... I must have misread the instructions, so back to the reading... Robbie Amateur Radio WB8NUT wrote: The audio alerts and speech with festival are two different items. One has nothing to do with the other. I have sounds working fine also. Festival is not required to play the sounds. Duffy www.wb8nut.com Robbie, wa9inf wrote: Interesting. The wav files I downloaded this afternoon and put them in the sounds folder. Started working without starting Festival. I did get an error, unable to open Festival socket.. Worked anyway.. I then shut Xastir and festival down, rebooted the computer and this time started festival first then Xastir, got the same error and it still played the "clear" sounding wav files??? I did the shutdown, reboot thingy, and ran Xastir witout Festival, it stills speaks nice clear perfect English.. What did I do right? Xastir 1.8.3 and Fedora Core 5 Pentium II 300 mghz Robbie Curt, WE7U wrote: On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Curt, WE7U wrote: Yea, if it's a true SB16 and not a clone card from somebody else, you've probably got real hardware there. One of the more compatible cards you can get. What are you running Xastir on? Any emulation happening? I know you mentioned VMWare before, so just wondering if you're trying to run Festival on Linux under VMWare or something like that. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
The audio alerts and speech with festival are two different items. One has nothing to do with the other. I have sounds working fine also. Festival is not required to play the sounds. Duffy www.wb8nut.com Robbie, wa9inf wrote: Interesting. The wav files I downloaded this afternoon and put them in the sounds folder. Started working without starting Festival. I did get an error, unable to open Festival socket.. Worked anyway.. I then shut Xastir and festival down, rebooted the computer and this time started festival first then Xastir, got the same error and it still played the "clear" sounding wav files??? I did the shutdown, reboot thingy, and ran Xastir witout Festival, it stills speaks nice clear perfect English.. What did I do right? Xastir 1.8.3 and Fedora Core 5 Pentium II 300 mghz Robbie Curt, WE7U wrote: On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Curt, WE7U wrote: Yea, if it's a true SB16 and not a clone card from somebody else, you've probably got real hardware there. One of the more compatible cards you can get. What are you running Xastir on? Any emulation happening? I know you mentioned VMWare before, so just wondering if you're trying to run Festival on Linux under VMWare or something like that. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir -- "One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -- Winston Churchill ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
Interesting. The wav files I downloaded this afternoon and put them in the sounds folder. Started working without starting Festival. I did get an error, unable to open Festival socket.. Worked anyway.. I then shut Xastir and festival down, rebooted the computer and this time started festival first then Xastir, got the same error and it still played the "clear" sounding wav files??? I did the shutdown, reboot thingy, and ran Xastir witout Festival, it stills speaks nice clear perfect English.. What did I do right? Xastir 1.8.3 and Fedora Core 5 Pentium II 300 mghz Robbie Curt, WE7U wrote: On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Curt, WE7U wrote: Yea, if it's a true SB16 and not a clone card from somebody else, you've probably got real hardware there. One of the more compatible cards you can get. What are you running Xastir on? Any emulation happening? I know you mentioned VMWare before, so just wondering if you're trying to run Festival on Linux under VMWare or something like that. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Curt, WE7U wrote: > Yea, if it's a true SB16 and not a clone card from somebody else, > you've probably got real hardware there. One of the more compatible > cards you can get. What are you running Xastir on? Any emulation happening? I know you mentioned VMWare before, so just wondering if you're trying to run Festival on Linux under VMWare or something like that. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Amateur Radio WB8NUT wrote: > The soundcard is a SoundBlaster 16. That card is about a year old (well > at least in my system, actual card is probably older as I bought it at a > close-out price at Staples). I'm not sure, but I do not believe the > SoundBlaster cards are software-emulated. It works great when using > other APRS applications such as AGWTracker which also has a speech > capability. Yea, if it's a true SB16 and not a clone card from somebody else, you've probably got real hardware there. One of the more compatible cards you can get. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
The soundcard is a SoundBlaster 16. That card is about a year old (well at least in my system, actual card is probably older as I bought it at a close-out price at Staples). I'm not sure, but I do not believe the SoundBlaster cards are software-emulated. It works great when using other APRS applications such as AGWTracker which also has a speech capability. Duffy www.wb8nut.com Curt, WE7U wrote: On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Amateur Radio WB8NUT wrote: I really doubt that is the issue. This particular system is 2.6Ghz Intel with 1GB of memory. I'm running good Festival speech out of a P133 computer, but it has real sound hardware. Newer computers may have software-emulated sound systems, in which case you need a lot more processor power, plus CPU load can drastically affect it. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" -- "One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -- Winston Churchill ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Amateur Radio WB8NUT wrote: > I really doubt that is the issue. This particular system is 2.6Ghz Intel > with 1GB of memory. I'm running good Festival speech out of a P133 computer, but it has real sound hardware. Newer computers may have software-emulated sound systems, in which case you need a lot more processor power, plus CPU load can drastically affect it. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
I really doubt that is the issue. This particular system is 2.6Ghz Intel with 1GB of memory. Andrew Rich wrote: Eeeek sounds like your PC is slow - Andrew Rich Amateur radio callsign VK4TEC email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: http://www.tech-software.net Brisbane AUSTRALIA -Original Message- From: Amateur Radio WB8NUT [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 15 November 2006 5:39 AM To: xastir@xastir.org Subject: [Xastir] Festival & Speech Curt, I did as you suggested and started festival with "festival --server &" Then started Xastir. Well I can tell it is sort of working - the speech is very distorted - almost sounds like a raspy machine gun when is it trying to say a call. But you cannot understand it. Any idea what may be causing this? Duffy www.wb8nut.com ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
RE: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
Eeeek sounds like your PC is slow - Andrew Rich Amateur radio callsign VK4TEC email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: http://www.tech-software.net Brisbane AUSTRALIA -Original Message- From: Amateur Radio WB8NUT [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 15 November 2006 5:39 AM To: xastir@xastir.org Subject: [Xastir] Festival & Speech Curt, I did as you suggested and started festival with "festival --server &" Then started Xastir. Well I can tell it is sort of working - the speech is very distorted - almost sounds like a raspy machine gun when is it trying to say a call. But you cannot understand it. Any idea what may be causing this? Duffy www.wb8nut.com -- "One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -- Winston Churchill ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] Festival & Speech
On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Amateur Radio WB8NUT wrote: > I did as you suggested and started festival with "festival --server &" > > Then started Xastir. > > Well I can tell it is sort of working - the speech is very distorted - > almost sounds like a raspy machine gun when is it trying to say a call. > But you cannot understand it. Any idea what may be causing this? Could be your soundcard settings. Try bringing up a mixer and messing with settings. It could also be something else mucking with the soundcard while you're trying to talk to it, or something busying the CPU during that time. -- Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer "Lotto:A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown "Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U "The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
[Xastir] Festival & Speech
Curt, I did as you suggested and started festival with "festival --server &" Then started Xastir. Well I can tell it is sort of working - the speech is very distorted - almost sounds like a raspy machine gun when is it trying to say a call. But you cannot understand it. Any idea what may be causing this? Duffy www.wb8nut.com -- "One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -- Winston Churchill ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
