software speech problem after latest also upgrade

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

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woops! Did I really type "also" instead of "alsa"? Sorry about that.


On Tue, Mar 04, 2008 at 08:06:36PM -0500, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
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> Greg,
> 
> On my system, a similar problem with software speech followed the
> upgrade of the alsa libraries (libasound2) from 1.0.15 to 1.0.16, and
> takes the form of the disappearance of the first couple hundred
> milliseconds of a wave file played by aplay.
> 
> The problem does a real number of software speech with espeak, which is
> made up of numerous very short wave files, so it is more noticeable.
> When you use flite, each wave file produced by that engine contains
> leading and trailing silent periods, which makes it seem more sluggish,
> but protects you from the alsa problem.
> 
> If your recent upgrade of also was from 1.0.15 of the libraries to
> 1.0.16, perhaps you have the same problem.
> 
> Look more closely at how aplay handles wave files with abrupt onset of
> audio and see if there isn't a very slow startup for the sound. I have
> lots of sound effects here with fast onsets, such as the morse code
> characters, cuckoo clock sounds, etc., where the problem is very
> noticeable when aplay plays the files.
> 
> And it doesn't help to switch to play any more either, since play now
> uses alsa by default if it is present. 
> 
> I wish I knew how to backtrack to 1.0.15, but that version of the alsa
> libraries is no longer available in the Debian unstable archive.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> - -- 
> The Moon is Waning Crescent (8% of Full)
> 
>    My web site is: http://hallenbeck.ftml.net, my phone is: 1-518-334-9022,
>          and sometimes I  Jabber. My JID is: chuckh at jabber.org
>                                 --------
>        For every vision there is an equal and opposite revision.
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- -- 
The Moon is Waning Crescent (8% of Full)

   My web site is: http://hallenbeck.ftml.net, my phone is: 1-518-334-9022,
         and sometimes I  Jabber. My JID is: chuckh at jabber.org
                                --------
       For every vision there is an equal and opposite revision.
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