Problems with software speech

[Michael Whapples]

On Sun, 2007-03-11 at 09:08 -0400, Erik Heil wrote:
> Hi their.  This isn't related to Intel hardware, but this is actually 
> something in my opion they should implement.  It wouldn't require much 
> cost up-front at all.  On my Sun workstation, their is actually a 
> dedicated headphone output on the back of the machine.  Also, to make 
> things better, their is actually a real speaker embedded in the front.  So 
> this means that even if you didn't have a set of speakers, flite, 
> festival, etc. will by default use /dev/audio which in this case by 
> default accesses the system's speaker.  No of course if you want to use 
> speakers, go right head, the capability is there.  No sorround sound, but 
> certainly CD-quality audio.  Along with this, you have your standard 
> line-in and MIC inputs.
> That's interesting about the in built speaker, probably is useful.
I question though the advantage of a headphone socket on the back,
surely the front would be better. Some PC cases have front panel audio
connectors for headphones, but I don't know if they automatically will
turn off the speaker connection, and it does also require the soundcard
has front panel connectors to accept the wires for these sockets.
> On Sun, 11 Mar 2007, Michael Whapples wrote:
> 
> > Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:23:17 +0000
> > From: Michael Whapples <mikster4 at msn.com>
> > Reply-To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> >     <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> > To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> > Subject: Re: Problems with software speech
> > 
> > On Sat, 2007-03-10 at 23:08 -0600, Farhan wrote:
> >> Hello, i'm not sure about your second question about the headphone issues, but most laptop soundcards now a days are cingle channel only, they don't do multichannel, sinse Windows xp has some weird kernel implementation to do that all for you, I think the only true multichannel soundcards you can get for laptops are the soundblaster external pcmcia cards.
> >>
> > Let's be helpful here, now the reason may be known, but how to solve it.
> > Well as far as I know, alsa can do software mixing as well, you will
> > need to use a dmix device in the alsa configuration files. All the
> > possibilities with alsa configuration is quite wide, so it would be best
> > to read about it in the alsa documentation or search the internet for a
> > suitable solution. Also make sure that the software itself is really
> > using alsa, some programs still use OSS (trplayer, realplayer, flite,
> > freetts (so firevox plugin if you are using freetts), etc). If you need
> > to use something which uses OSS then it is still possible to use
> > software mixing, get it to use the alsa-OSS compatibility system by
> > putting the aoss command at the beginning of your command for the app
> > which uses OSS (eg. "aoss realplayer" will run realplayer with OSS
> > output going through alsa-OSS compatibility layer).
> >
> > I don't actually know about your headphone issue, but it sounds like
> > alsa doesn't know about configuring (or it isn't configuring) a setting
> > for muting speakers when using headphones (it sounds like the switch is
> > software based rather than being a simple switch system. I think due to
> > the comment about the behaviour when using windows). Guesses at a
> > possible fix:
> > Check that alsa doesn't have a control for it somewhere.
> > See if the problem is solved in updated versions of alsa (if you are not
> > using the latest).
> > Last resort might be to find out if headphone and speaker volume can be
> > set separately (I know my laptop soundcard alsa gives a headphone
> > volume), and then you create two scripts (or one which either takes
> > options or knows how to toggle) that you run to mute speakers but not
> > headphones and to unmute speakers, and then you run this/these when
> > connecting and disconnecting headphones.
> >
> > Hope some (if not all) of this is useful.
> >
> > From
> > Michael Whapples
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> 
> eheil at sdf.lonestar.org
> SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
> 
>