Software synth

[Tony Baechler]

On 12/3/2015 7:07 AM, - wrote:
> I'm new to speakup.  Reading on the web speakup was originally used with a
> hardware synth such as dectalk.  Is there now a software synth available?

Yes, several.  As Kyle stated, ESpeak is the most popular, but there is also 
Festival.  If you want to use something other than ESpeak, you'll need 
Speech Dispatcher which can be a bear to configure.  Also, using the 
speechd-up connector apparently has more latency than espeakup.  Even though 
most people don't seem to like the ESpeak voice quality, it remains the best 
free, open source software synth available.  Gnuspeech is in early 
development, but can't talk by itself; it must first write to a .wav file.

>
> Is there a choice of voices if a software synth exists?  Where on the web
> can one read more about one if it exists?  Are there examples of voices to
> hear?


As Kyle stated, espeak.sf.net is the official ESpeak homepage.  I don't know 
if there are voice demos or not.  A good way to try it without having to 
install and configure a Linux distro might be my BATS live test CD.  BATS 
stands for Baechler Access Technology Services and specializes in low cost 
support for the beginning to intermediate Linux user.  We also offer VPSs 
and domain registrations.  Here are the download links:

32-bit: http://classicradio.us/iso/livetest32.iso
64-bit: http://classicradio.us/iso/livetest5.iso

Here are the login accounts:

Username: user
Password: user

Username: root
Password: root

Please test the CD images and let me know how they work for you or if you 
run into problems.  They both use ESpeak with the espeakup connector.  The 
default voice is UK English, but this is configurable.  ESpeak supports many 
languages with various degrees of completeness.