patching synthesizer to sound card

patching synthesizer to sound card

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Hi gang,

Some of you are piping output from your speech synthesizer into
your sound card. I tried unsuccessfully to do that with
doubletalk external, using a patch cord from its headphone jack
to "line in" on the sound card. The line in is alive and works
well with other sources, and headphones work well in the
headphone jack of the synth. But there is not the slightest trace
of signal delivered to the sound card. What do I need to do to
make this work? Is there a matching transformer of some kind
required? If so, can you tell me exactly what I would need?

Thanks

Chuck

-- 
The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (94% of Full)
So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh

Simplest synth driver

[Ari Moisio]

Hi group!

  I'll like to  test speakup but because i do not have any supported
synths i'll use another computer with software synth to emulate a serial
synth.

  And here is the question: witch of supported synths does not use
handshake and has a minimal or easy distinguishable control codes.

-- 
arimo

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Glenn Ervin]

I have found that it works best to have the cord pulled half-way out of the
synthesizer.
It must have to do with having a stereo jack at the synthesizer end, and you
can get an adapter, but pulling it half way out works fine for me.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Hallenbeck" <chuckh@novocon.net>
To: "Speakup Distribution List" <speakup@speech.braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 2:27 PM
Subject: patching synthesizer to sound card


Hi gang,

Some of you are piping output from your speech synthesizer into
your sound card. I tried unsuccessfully to do that with
doubletalk external, using a patch cord from its headphone jack
to "line in" on the sound card. The line in is alive and works
well with other sources, and headphones work well in the
headphone jack of the synth. But there is not the slightest trace
of signal delivered to the sound card. What do I need to do to
make this work? Is there a matching transformer of some kind
required? If so, can you tell me exactly what I would need?

Thanks

Chuck

--
The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (94% of Full)
So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh


_______________________________________________
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Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Adam Myrow]

I bet you have a mono line-in cord.  They sell stereo ones, so if you have
one or can get one that is stereo, give it a shot.  You could also try the
microphone, provided you turn the synth volume down low.

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Scott Howell]

Chuck,

I've done this and did get sound, but it sounded like hell. Extremely 
distorted etc.
Good luck.

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Kirk Reiser]

Hi Chuck:  You need to use an audio matching transformer as sold by
Radio Shit.  You then need someone handy with a soldering iron and
some shrink rap.  You could also call I.A.M. at (519) 679-4828 and ask
Fred to make up one for you.  He usually charges about ten or fifteen
dollars for them.

  Kirk

-- 

Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk@braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Thanks for the ideas. I have a stereo cable, but slipping it half
way in does not seem to help. Maybe if I try that with a mono
cable it might get me some mileage, but actually Kirk's
suggestion sounds like the safest path. I don't want to use the
mike input since I need it for other things and it would mean
cable switching a lot.

There is actually an advantage to having a low quality speaker on
a synthesized voice. Putting synthesizer output into a quality
amplifier and speaker system reveals all the warts and warbles
and hisses and squeaks, most of which do not survive a low
quality built in speaker. But the convenience of having a single
sound source to put into a headphone, or having a single volume
control for everything, seems attractive to me.


-- 
The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (95% of Full)
So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Chuck:

I haven't tried patching back to the sound card, but I have patched into
a mixer. I hated it, and I gave up on it. There was a nasty pop every
time the Doubletalk speech started up, and every time it stopped. Also,
the signal was quite noisy. These are not things we hear from the
speaker that ships with the Doubletalk internal, or what we hear from
the external units themselves. But, it seems Doubletalk doesn't do well
with an upgraded sound system as output. Tis a shame, and I hope someone
has some good ideas about it.

Chuck Hallenbeck writes:
> Hi gang,
> 
> Some of you are piping output from your speech synthesizer into
> your sound card. I tried unsuccessfully to do that with
> doubletalk external, using a patch cord from its headphone jack
> to "line in" on the sound card. The line in is alive and works
> well with other sources, and headphones work well in the
> headphone jack of the synth. But there is not the slightest trace
> of signal delivered to the sound card. What do I need to do to
> make this work? Is there a matching transformer of some kind
> required? If so, can you tell me exactly what I would need?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Chuck
> 
> -- 
> The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (94% of Full)
> So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Gregory Nowak]

If you would have lowered the volume on the synth, you probably would have gotten a better signal as a result.

Greg


On Sun, Feb 16, 2003 at 03:08:38PM -0800, Janina Sajka wrote:
> Hi, Chuck:
> 
> I haven't tried patching back to the sound card, but I have patched into
> a mixer. I hated it, and I gave up on it. There was a nasty pop every
> time the Doubletalk speech started up, and every time it stopped. Also,
> the signal was quite noisy. These are not things we hear from the
> speaker that ships with the Doubletalk internal, or what we hear from
> the external units themselves. But, it seems Doubletalk doesn't do well
> with an upgraded sound system as output. Tis a shame, and I hope someone
> has some good ideas about it.
> 

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Alex Snow]

I havwe an accent pc that's hooked into a pretty good speaker system and I
don't here any pops or crackles or anything.  the sound is pretty good.

--
A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up yours!"
On Sun, 16 Feb 2003, Gregory Nowak wrote:

> If you would have lowered the volume on the synth, you probably would have gotten a better signal as a result.
>
> Greg
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2003 at 03:08:38PM -0800, Janina Sajka wrote:
> > Hi, Chuck:
> >
> > I haven't tried patching back to the sound card, but I have patched into
> > a mixer. I hated it, and I gave up on it. There was a nasty pop every
> > time the Doubletalk speech started up, and every time it stopped. Also,
> > the signal was quite noisy. These are not things we hear from the
> > speaker that ships with the Doubletalk internal, or what we hear from
> > the external units themselves. But, it seems Doubletalk doesn't do well
> > with an upgraded sound system as output. Tis a shame, and I hope someone
> > has some good ideas about it.
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Hi Janina,
I was afraid of that. I hear some of those noises when using
headphones too. Not as bad as you indicate, but definitely more
than on an original open speaker shipped with the devices.

Chuck


On Sun, 16 Feb 2003, Janina Sajka wrote:

> Hi, Chuck:
>
> I haven't tried patching back to the sound card, but I have patched into
> a mixer. I hated it, and I gave up on it. There was a nasty pop every
> time the Doubletalk speech started up, and every time it stopped. Also,
> the signal was quite noisy. These are not things we hear from the
> speaker that ships with the Doubletalk internal, or what we hear from
> the external units themselves. But, it seems Doubletalk doesn't do well
> with an upgraded sound system as output. Tis a shame, and I hope someone
> has some good ideas about it.
>

-- 
The Moon is Full
So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Scott Howell]

Actually I've spent a great deal of time with this problem and have yet 
to find a solution. Regardless of what I've done in terms of volume or 
input on a mixing board, I've not found anything that worked well. It 
was as Janina said about pops and distortion to even virtually no 
volume. I've offten thought maybe it had to do with the impedence of the 
Doubletalks, but not to sure. They generally are configured in such a 
way to work with headphones and small speakers and there even with 
speakers you have to be careful. I can't recall what the impedence is on 
a walkman type headphone, but I imagine its nowhere what most inputs are 
on sound cards nor mixing boards.
I also believe that if its impedence, getting a device to change this 
would be expensive. I remember the transformers for microphones when I 
was playing in a band to go from low to high impedence were not cheap.



On Sun, Feb 16, 2003 at 05:18:03PM -0600, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> If you would have lowered the volume on the synth, you probably would have gotten a better signal as a result.
> 
> Greg
> 

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Janina Sajka]

Pops aren't explained by impedence. Neither is a noisy background in the
signal.

The pops themselves are exactly the kind of pop you get by going from 0
to full volume instantly in a voltage gate. Maybe some of you folks
might know about that? On the other hand, ramping the signal up quickly
would avoid that kind of pop entirely.

For the record, line level impedence is 500 ohms, and headphone
impedence is 8 ohms. So, plugging your headphone into the line output
will get you hardly any volume. Plugging a headphone output into a line
on a mixer will work, but you have to be very careful to keep the volume
extremely low, as the signalo is very hot that way. Generally, this
isn't recommended, of course.

Scott Howell writes:
> Actually I've spent a great deal of time with this problem and have yet 
> to find a solution. Regardless of what I've done in terms of volume or 
> input on a mixing board, I've not found anything that worked well. It 
> was as Janina said about pops and distortion to even virtually no 
> volume. I've offten thought maybe it had to do with the impedence of the 
> Doubletalks, but not to sure. They generally are configured in such a 
> way to work with headphones and small speakers and there even with 
> speakers you have to be careful. I can't recall what the impedence is on 
> a walkman type headphone, but I imagine its nowhere what most inputs are 
> on sound cards nor mixing boards.
> I also believe that if its impedence, getting a device to change this 
> would be expensive. I remember the transformers for microphones when I 
> was playing in a band to go from low to high impedence were not cheap.
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2003 at 05:18:03PM -0600, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> > If you would have lowered the volume on the synth, you probably would have gotten a better signal as a result.
> > 
> > Greg
> > 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Re: patching synthesizer to sound card

[Luke Davis]

Have you tried a compressor to solve this problem?

Luke


On Mon, 17 Feb 2003, Scott Howell wrote:

> Actually I've spent a great deal of time with this problem and have yet
> to find a solution. Regardless of what I've done in terms of volume or
> input on a mixing board, I've not found anything that worked well. It
> was as Janina said about pops and distortion to even virtually no
> volume. I've offten thought maybe it had to do with the impedence of the
> Doubletalks, but not to sure. They generally are configured in such a
> way to work with headphones and small speakers and there even with
> speakers you have to be careful. I can't recall what the impedence is on
> a walkman type headphone, but I imagine its nowhere what most inputs are
> on sound cards nor mixing boards.
> I also believe that if its impedence, getting a device to change this
> would be expensive. I remember the transformers for microphones when I
> was playing in a band to go from low to high impedence were not cheap.
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2003 at 05:18:03PM -0600, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> > If you would have lowered the volume on the synth, you probably would have gotten a better signal as a result.
> >
> > Greg
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>