From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from 216.55.105.70.hera.net ([216.55.105.70] helo=mediacast1.net) by speech.braille.uwo.ca with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 1B0w5n-0002lg-00 for ; Wed, 10 Mar 2004 00:17:19 -0500 Received: from hanksmith (c-24-17-228-185.client.comcast.net [24.17.228.185]) by mediacast1.net (8.12.10/8.12.8) with SMTP id i2A5H33b091393 for ; Wed, 10 Mar 2004 00:17:08 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from hank@hanksmith.net) Message-ID: <003001c4065e$f3f63d30$6401a8c0@hanksmith> From: "hank" To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." References: <5.1.0.14.2.20040309231556.00a6a098@pop.cogeco.ca> Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 21:17:10 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2720.3000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2727.1300 Subject: Re: ViaVoice Tidbits X-BeenThere: speakup@braille.uwo.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list Reply-To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Id: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 05:17:20 -0000 are you writing your own linux distro? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Sutherland" To: Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 8:33 PM Subject: ViaVoice Tidbits > Hmmm this is interesting regarding viavoice ... > > I really like the sound of this software synth, and it wouldn't work on > slackware 9.1, so I decided to build a custom linux system from source > (using the linuxfromscratch books). > > I determined that viavoice cannot deal with glibc 3.2.2 or higher. So I > build a system with glibc 3.2.1, but compiled all of the newer software > for it. I was hoping viavoice would just work, but it failed trying to > find a certain libstdc++ shared object. I got it working by copying the > c++ libraries from slackware 9.1 into /opt/lib/slackware and adding this > directory to ld.so.conf. It worked! Perhaps this is something that is > worth trying if you can't get viavoice working but have glibc 3.2.1 or > older. Note that I had to create the same symbolic links that patrick > used in slack9, but in the /opt/lib/slackware dir. To do so, I just > took the lines right out of his doinst.sh for that package. That's the > first interesting tidbit. > > This part is good, not only can I use the TTS, but the compiler is also > working fine with that shared object from slackware :) I am now writing > code with direct calls into the viavoice ECI API. > > Now here's another interesting tidbit. There are 3 versions of the TTS, > they are Outloud 5.0, Outloud 5.1, and TTS 5.1. I made a script that > would configure my system for any of these three on the fly. There are > only 3 files needed for viavoice TTS, the enu50.so (dictionary), the > libibmeci50.so (runtime), and the eci.ini. I made a script that will > generate the eci.ini using the inigen program supplied by IBM. > > So I was writing code, the speech kept dropping off before it finished. > I thought I was doing something wrong, or that the timing of the VV > eciSynchronize method was off. This method is supposed to return when > the synthesis is done. I kept running the same code with varying > results, sometimes it would speak the whole sentence, sometimes it > would drop the last word or two. Then I remembered I had my system > set up to switch TTS versions. I switched from TTS 5.1 to Outloud 5.1 > and the same things happened. Then I switched to Outloud-5.0 and > suddenly the synchronization problem is fixed! Using the oldest of > the three (ViaVoice_Outloud_rtk-5.0.1.0) corrected my problem. So if > your viavoice is dropping words, try this older rev. > > It may seem crazy to write code for an old unsupported product, but > it sounds so much better than festival. I'm going to test out all the > outloud API calls then decide what to do from there. One option might > be to try adapting the that software synth middleware program to work > with viavoice. Another might be to write my own voice server. And if > viavoice doesn't work I'm going to shell out the $50 for dectalk. > > -- Doug > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup