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Author Topic: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud. (Read 17361 times)

Offline gflorez

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #15 on: 2016.June.09. 23:14:43 »
Yes, only the sound samples of the allophones are needed for a close emulation of Speakeasy, as they are canned, not modifiable. You even doesn't need the Speakeasy device to obtain them, as they can be recorded simulating the chip on PC with the provided code.  

I've been playing with Bliss, another Intellivision emulator written in Java, with the five vocal games that where released for the console. The sound is very robotic for actual standards, but on the other side I can understand clearly the words spoken. There isn't noise under the phonemes, and it aids to comprehend better the messages. Curiously there is some form of intonation on the games, aspect that I've not seen on the SP0256 documentation.


But.... if the complete chip can be emulated, then a new bigger Rom can be created with 256 allophones instead of only 64, with space to obtain "foreign" sounds for our country languages. I am only dreaming....

Offline lgb

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #16 on: 2016.June.09. 23:27:59 »
Well, yes. Someone can even record his own voice for samples :) Or other source, for a better quality. And even allophones needed for other languages. However it raises a question at a point, that what we need. To emulate a hardware? Which sounded as ... well as it sounded ... Or an imagined better one which is nothing to do then with any actually existing hardware. But that point is already a bit out of scope, as it's not an "emulator" anymore, at least not an emulator which emulates existing hardware ... Which is maybe not a bad thing, however it's kinda specific to the actual emulator only ...

Offline gflorez

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #17 on: 2016.June.09. 23:43:43 »
I have found a set of "distorted" allophones. distorted because they are repeated the wrong number of cycles.


If for me.... I would go for a complete emulation, then for a complete alternate Rom, then to implement a form of intonation, then....

But I'm not the emulator writer...

Offline gflorez

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #18 on: 2016.June.10. 00:02:55 »
That was 8bit wav, but this set is 16bit and the proper number of cycles.

Offline lgb

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #19 on: 2016.June.10. 00:15:57 »
But I'm not the emulator writer...

You can be :) Actually, around the year 2000, I read about EP-128, without even knowing what it is (I haven't seen/used EP before ...), so I wanted to write an emulator since about 16 years? :) And actually only in the last few years, I have some "sane" result only. So I guess, if somebody is really serious (much more than I was ...) it's not so hard to do it after all :)

Offline endi

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Offline endi

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #21 on: 2016.June.10. 09:09:40 »
That was 8bit wav, but this set is 16bit and the proper number of cycles.

wow, interesting, on the internet we can find everything
but the sample quality is bad. why? when I started to develop a text to speech program (17-18 years ago), I started to build a sample data base like this (digitizing my voice) and the quality was much more better.
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Offline gflorez

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #22 on: 2016.June.10. 11:12:55 »
This is an "electronic" throat, not real recorded voices. It is seventies technology....

Think of that times, the memory was the most expensive part of a computer. What was achieved with the SP0256 was to have a speech stored like a text instead of large sample files.

Inside the chip there is a "little" 2Kb Rom with recipes to mould the vocal filter to form the 59 English allophones. There aren't samples of the voices inside.


Offline endi

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #23 on: 2016.June.10. 11:44:27 »
This is an "electronic" throat, not real recorded voices. It is seventies technology....

Think of that times, the memory was the most expensive part of a computer. What was achieved with the SP0256 was to have a speech stored like a text instead of large sample files.

Inside the chip there is a "little" 2Kb Rom with recipes to mould the vocal filter to form the 59 English allophones. There aren't samples of the voices inside.

ah I see
but I think a sampled talk-to-speech program is possible on EP with 128k mem, with very good voice quality
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Offline gflorez

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #24 on: 2016.June.10. 19:15:47 »
You started to develop a text to speech program.

It was for the Enterprise?



Offline gflorez

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #25 on: 2016.June.11. 02:10:54 »
I have joined some allophones....

Offline endi

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #26 on: 2016.June.11. 10:39:25 »
You started to develop a text to speech program.
It was for the Enterprise?

no it was pc
but the code was very simple (it fades the samples into each other), but I havent time/energy to make the samples.
so I only made the ab ac ad ae etc samples and some others for test.
so it can say "elmegyek haza" (Im going home) and other simple words. but the quality was very very good.
I made a simple editor where I can set the fade points, sample lenghts etc.
sad, I have no source left (it coded in Delphi)
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Offline gflorez

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #27 on: 2016.June.11. 23:56:47 »
Meanwhile....

I have found that Prodatron has adapted a CPC speech commercial program to SymbOS("SSA-1" Amsoft 1986 or "Speech" Superior Software 1986, as I think they are the same program).

The Speech app only works on the CPC port of SymbOS, as it is hardware specific(probably it uses the AY chip), but Prodatron has gently released the disassembly.

« Last Edit: 2016.June.12. 01:55:44 by gflorez »

Offline gflorez

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #28 on: 2016.June.12. 02:24:36 »
Now I have discovered that SSA-1 for CPC was a peripheral also based on the SPO256-AL2 Speech Synthesizer, so I think Prodatron has adapted other software only application made by Amsoft or sponsored by the Amstrad software distribution company.

Observe that the SPO256-AL2 chip has fixed pitch, and the SymbOS app has a pitch selector like the "SPEECH" Superior Software program has.

Offline Zozosoft

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Re: Speakeasy, HDIGI, digitalization, allophones and read-aloud.
« Reply #29 on: 2016.June.12. 08:27:58 »
Then this program can be converted to Speakeasy?

On Spectrum the Currah uSpeech also use SP0256, about 70-80 games support it. Probably these also can be converted to the Speakeasy.