eSpeak - Introduction

[Lorenzo Taylor]

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The idea of embedded commands sounds good, but the current Speech-dispatcher
module is using eSpeak's command line interface.  Allowing embedded control
commands would, I think, require a specific eSpeak module, which wouldn't at all
be a bad thing, and in fact is probably needed anyway,but the sound device fix
would no longer work properly.  At this point, eSpeak is going to exit when the
sound device is in use.  If we implement embedded control commands, it would
require that eSpeak keep running no matter what until Speech-dispatcher is
stopped.  In that case, if the sound device is in use, eSpeak will need to
simply skip speaking rather than exit completely.  Over all, I really like the
idea, and the Doubletalk command set, if you can find it, :) would be a good
place to start.

Regarding your pitch adjustment question, the pitch adjustment should be plus or
minus the base pitch of the voice in question.  For example, the base pitch
could be 0, a negative number would lower the pitch, and a positive number could
raise the pitch.  Another way to implement this option would be to set your
default pitch in the middle and define a highest and lowest pitch.  Then 0 could
map to the lowest pitch and 100 or whatever could map to the highest pitch for a
specific voice.  I personally prefer the plus/minus implementation, but most
other hardware and software synthesizers available today seem to use the default
to middle approach.  It's your call.  In either case, the formant frequencies
probably don't need to be changed along with the pitch, at this point you can
try just changing the pitch itself.

Thanks much and hope this helps some,
Lorenzo
- -- 
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