[gui-talk] identifying a speech synthesizer

[Steve Jacobson]

Mike,

Here is what puzzles me about both of these recordings.  I should probably say that I owned, over a long period of 
time, an Echo, a Votrax Personal Speech system, a Sounding Board, a Type 'n' Talk which is different than a Type 
'n[' Speak, and a Braille 'n' Speak.  Gosh, I am shuttering at what I have spent over the years when I see this.  
What is odd is that the Echo synthesizer tended to inflect with detectable separate pitches.  It sometimes sounded 
a little like what autotune does now.  I hear some of that in these recordings as well, but the tone quality does 
not sound like an echo.  Who knows, though, what was used for text-to-speech in these demonstrations.  The ability 
to shift the voice envelop and the pitch independently on the SSI263 means it can sound quite a bit different with 
different settings, even with the same TTS algorithm.  Therefore, I would lean toward the conclusion that this is 
probably an SSI263 or possibly Votrax chip with a text-to-speech algorithm that was not commonly in use in the 
technologies that we used.  However, it is all guesswork, so I would not bet a huge amount on any conclusion if I 
were you.  <smile>

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Wed, 03 Sep 2014 15:16:20 -0400, Mike Arrigo via gui-talk wrote:

>I don't know if this will help, here is another clip, I guess you could 
>change the pitch and tone of the voice, because this demo sounds a bit 
>different.
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eI3oQVK7iA
>Original message:
>> I used a PSS once but it didn't sound at all like this to me. I always
>> said the PSS sounded both bored and permanently smiling at the same
>> time, but it sounded less mechanical than this example.

>> On Wed, Sep 03, 2014 at 10:46:09AM -0500, Steve Jacobson via gui-talk wrote:
>> Lloyd,

>> Didn't some of the old Votrax synthesizers use another chip?  I'm 
>> thinking of the old Votrax Personal Speech
>> System which I used for a while in the 1980's.  This reminded me of 
>> that synthesizer.  I remember that Votrax did
>> have a board that used the SSI263 chip as well.

>> Best regards,

>> Steve Jacobson

>> On Wed, 3 Sep 2014 10:17:13 -0400, Rasmussen, Lloyd via gui-talk wrote:

>>> This does not sound like an Echo synthesizer at all.  I expect it is 
>>> some kind of Votrax synthesizer that
>> predates the SSI263.

>>> Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer
>>> National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
>>> Library of Congress   202-707-0535
>>> http://www.loc.gov/nls
>>> The preceding opinions are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those 
>>> of the Library of Congress, NLS.


>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: gui-talk [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike 
>>> Arrigo via gui-talk
>>> Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2014 9:56 AM
>>> To: gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: [gui-talk] identifying a speech synthesizer

>>> Hey everyone, saw this youtube video of the hro robot from the 1980's.
>>> I would have loved to have had one of these, I think only 1000 were
>>> made, and for their time, they did quite a bit. Does anyone know what
>>> speech chip this is, I'm guessing it was either the echo or the ssi263
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8dUL9qgU1M


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>> --
>> Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org                http://www.dlee.org
>> SSB BART Group           doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com   
>> http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
>> "I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum."
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