RE: speakup using different synths with software speech?

["James Homuth" <james@the-jdh.com>]

That's just it, exactly. And the general attitude of "if you want
improvement, use another package" just doesn't sit all that well with me.
Again, it's why I still hang onto Windows on my primary machine. Like I
said, I can probably get used to espeak with speakup and/or orca. But I
think it would still be somewhat hard to listen to for lengths at a time.
Again, my opinion. I've met people who actually prefer Espeak over
Eloquence, though I may never understand why other than one's still being
developed for linux and the other isn't.

-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
On Behalf Of Tony Baechler
Sent: June 1, 2009 2:09 PM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: speakup using different synths with software speech?

Hi,

This is very well said. I've felt the same way for a long time which is why
I still use Windows for email and ssh to my Linux machines. I would prefer
to use Linux as my primary OS, but I have a few sticking points as well. The
biggest is the quality of ESpeak, exactly as you say. To me, it reminds me
of an Echo with a British accent. With Speakup, that isn't a big problem
because I have an external Doubletalk LT, a Trippletalk and a DEC-talk
Express. However, unless I'm mistaken, (someone, please correct me here)
there is no way to get Orca to use hardware speech. I realize that there are
better software synths out there, but either they're just as bad (look at
Festival), they're non-free (Mbrola comes to mind), or they cost money, such
as TTSynth. 
Until there is a high quality speech synth for Linux that works with Orca, I
will not be completely switching.

My other sticking point is that there is no equivalent to Sound Forge or
professional audio editing software that's accessible. There are Sox and
Ecasound, but they aren't GUI apps and are difficult to use for long,
comprehensive editing and post-production. I like Wedit, but it has the same
limitations. I know there are GUI audio processors but I read that they're
not accessible. While I'm at it, it would also be nice to find something for
manipulating MIDI files, but I can get by with Timidity for now.

James Homuth wrote:
> Somewhat related, what's the likelyhood of Espeak voices getting 
> improvements to be more... I'm not sure what the word for it is, other 
> than human-sounding? That's been one of my main sticking points for 
> why I'm still with Windows on my primary machine; that, plus I've not 
> until now had time to test the accessibility of my particular 
> preferred distribution. I did hear a demonstration a while back of a 
> version of Espeak, and while I could definitely get used to it, I 
> think I'd like it a whole lot better if it didn't sound quite as 
> robotic. I'm not saying it should equal eloquence by any means, but 
> the demo I heard kind of reminded me of the old Echo synths used on the
early Apple computers. Good, but could be better, IMHO.

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