dectalk issues

[William Hubbs]

All, I am looking over documentation on the dectalk express and pc that
was sent to me by Kirk and Tony, and I see that there some issues with
them that I would like to discuss.

First, I want to know if all dectalk pc commands will work on a dectalk
express.  If so, in fact, there is a volume command that is recommended:
[:volume set x], where x is between 0 and 99.  It isn't recommended
that you go above 95, so if I implement this, I will keep the range
between 0 and 94.

The other issue is with the way voices and the average pitch setting
[:dv ap xx] interact.  The default setting for this value is different
for each voice, and there is not a way to do relative settings.  The
issue comes because the caps_start and caps_stop commands have absolute
average pitch settings in them.

To see the issue I am concerned about, switch to a voice other than Paul
on the dectalk, then review character by character with a mix of upper
and lower case.  I think you will find that the voice gets really
messed up until you switch the voice again.

In a nutshell, the way we are indicating caps (setting the average pitch
of the voice) is not compatible with Dectalk's voices, since I am not
finding a way to do relative pitch settings.  I could calculate new
average pitch settings based on the default settings for each voice and
use them, but if I do that, I have to hard code the caps_stop and
caps_start strings which would mean a user can't change them in the sys
files.  So dectalk users would not be able to change what we do to
represent caps.

So, the way I see it is we have two options:

1) drop voice support and force everyone to use paul.

2) find another way to do caps indication such as say "cap" or use the
tone generator facility in the dectalks (see the [:tone] command).

Any input, or alternatives, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

William