[sci.electronics] What is the best buy in text to speech converters?

youngqd@jacobs.cs.orst.edu (Dean Youngquist) (04/18/91)

Hello Netlanders,
 
 I am in the market for a text to speech converter.  Can anyone 
 recommend some good models to choose from?
  
  A company by the name of B.G. Micro has a text to speech converter
  for about $70.  I am considering this one.  Has anyone bought one 
  of these?  How well do they work?
   
Dean Youngquist                 youngqd@jacobs.cs.orst.edu
428 NW 9th St.                  Amateur Radio Operator N7LPE
Corvallis, Oregon 97330         Tel. (503) 757-0335

wm1h+@andrew.cmu.edu (Wayne Alan Martin) (04/18/91)

It works fine for one syllable words, but become unitelligable at about
three.  It sounds rather mechanical and perform poorly for words outside
its vocabulary, unless you sound spell it out yourself.  For those who
are interested, it is based on the GI SPO-256 chips.  I have one, and I
would recommend against it if this is a serious application, but it is
fun to play with and any thing else I have see costs >$1000.

Wayne Martin
EE Carnegie Mellon