LANE@sumex-aim.arpa (Christopher Lane) (01/10/86)
I am looking for a speech module for a personal computer, something along the lines of a Votrax, Type N' Talk, etc. I need something that takes RS232 input and can produce a reasonably good set of phonemes and possibly, but not necessarily, some set of pre-programmed words. I'd also prefer it to be reasonably priced (of course) and easy to write a driver for. If anyone has any recommendations along these lines I'd appreciate them, a one line letter is more than sufficient! Also any information on text to speech algorithms would be quite welcome. Thanks, - Christopher -------
GUBBINS@radc-tops20.arpa (Gern) (01/10/86)
I have developed a sound/speech (SSI-263A)/clk-cal/Analog & Digital joystick board for S-100 IEEE-696 systems which will not do you any good, BUT: In my quests I have stumbled apon this info that might be useful to you. The best Phoneme based speech chip (within price) is the SSI-263A, refer BYTE MAR 84. There is a RS-232C with Z-80 and TXT-2-Speech using SSI-263 that was at one time advertized in Computer Shopper in a small ad. Warning: JDR and several other mail order houses sell the SSI-263 chip, which is the recalled non-A version which will not hardware reset as it should. The SSI-263A is superior to Votrax SC-01. SSI designed and manufactured the SC-01 for Federal Screw Works Votrax Division Radio Shack sells a General Instrument speech and a TXT-2-Speech chip that is not anything great. It may be fun to play with, but does not come close to the quality speech capabilities of the SSI-263A. This month's Micro Cornucopia DEC-JAN 86 issue has RS-232C construction artical on it. SIMTEL-20 PD library has a rather good TXT-2-International Phonetic Alphabet program in C that is quite good and easy to alter. It is the only TXT-2-Speech software I currently have. Cheers, Gern -------