Re: [gnuspeech-contact] Quickstart for the latest Gnuspeech?

[David Hill]

Thank you for your positive, supportive comments.

If you find the speech less intelligible that it should be there are two 
possibilities.

First you are encountering a new accent that is different to the computer 
voices to which you are accustomed.

Second, the speech quality is optomised for a high-fideility audio system. A 
typical computer audio system tends to distort the spectrum (e.g. losing either 
the low frequencies or the high frequencies, depending on the system).

You may also prefer a higher or lower pitch than the samples. That is a matter 
of setting the controls, which is why a man page is really necessary for 
gnuspeechsa.

Informal subjective tests suggested that the speech over a good quality audio 
system is highly intelligible, and much less tiring to listen to for long 
periods than other systems because the intonation and rhythm are so much more 
natural.

Am I right in thinking that you do not have normal sight?

All good wishes.

david

On Nov 1, 2015, at 9:45 15AM, Advrk Aplmrkt wrote:

> Thanks for the links, and I agree a proper man page or quickstart
> guide would be super useful for end users! (and not just speech
> synthesis researchers)
> 
> I checked out the YouTube videos, and I confess it was hard for me to
> understand what Gnuspeech was saying... Is there a reason why it
> doesn't sound nearly as natural as, say, Siri yet???
> 
> I think Gnuspeech is a great project, and really appreciate the
> development effort. I just wish it can be a real Free Software Siri
> text-to-speech killer! Thanks.
> 
> On 28/10/2015, David Hill <address@hidden> wrote:
>> I hope to create a proper man page and add it fairly soon. It is clearly
>> necessary.
>> 
>> You may be interested to listen to:
>> 
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUrODiSkWk8&feature=youtu.be
>> 
>> 
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkwS3_gk69w
>> 
>> and
>> 
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=png5B836yT4
>> 
>> The last item provides a comparison of gnuspeech and natural speech,
>> repeated three times (the examples are all repeated three times, in fact).
>> 
>> All the artificial speech samples were created by gnuspeech from normally
>> punctuated plain text with no adjustments. The first set of samples were
>> created from the command line input option of gnuspeechsa without any change
>> in the initial options, as described in Appendix D of the Gnuspeech manual.
>> The second and third items were generated from Monet using the gnuspeech
>> program suite that runs on Mac OS X.
>> 
>> I hope this helps.
>> 
>> david
>> 
>> --------
>> David Hill
>> address@hidden
>> http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuspeech/
>> http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnuspeech
>> https://savannah.gnu.org/users/davidhill
>> --------
>> Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures
>> (Tao Te Ching #67)
>> ---------
>> 
>> On Oct 26, 2015, at 10:23 50AM, Advrk Aplmrkt wrote:
>> 
>>> Yes, it works now. But after hearing the defaults it sounds like lots
>>> of tweaking to the configuration is need to make the voice sound more
>>> real? Right now it sounds very funny, and not nearly as good as, say,
>>> Siri. Let me know if you have any tips for optimising the voice.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for the instructions!
>>> 
>>> On 23/10/2015, Marcelo Y. Matuda <address@hidden> wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> To synthesize a short text:
>>>> 
>>>> ./gnuspeech_sa -c ../gnuspeechsa-0.1.5/data/en/ -p param.txt \
>>>>  -o out.wav "This is a test."
>>>> 
>>>> To synthesize from a text file:
>>>> 
>>>> ./gnuspeech_sa -c ../gnuspeechsa-0.1.5/data/en/ -i input.txt \
>>>>  -p param.txt -o out.wav
>>>> 
>>>> To test another voice, change the parameter voice_name in
>>>> ../gnuspeechsa-0.1.5/data/en/trm_control_model.config.
>>>> 
>>>> You can change other parameters in that file, for example tempo and
>>>> pitch_offset.
>>>> 
>>>> Try this in voice_male.config:
>>>> vocal_tract_length = 22.0
>>>> reference_glottal_pitch = -20.0
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Marcelo
>>>> 
>>>> On 10/21/2015 01:28 PM, David Hill wrote:
>>>>> As a first step, check out what is written in Appendix D of the Monet
>>>>> Manual concerning producing speech from gnuspeechsa.
>>>>> 
>>>>> gnuspeechsa is a command-line program, and you should be able to
>>>>> produce
>>>>> speech by entering an appropriate command, which will result in a sound
>>>>> file in the location you specify which you can play. For example, if
>>>>> you
>>>>> are in the directory into which gnuspeechsa has been compiled, the
>>>>> command would be:
>>>>> 
>>>>> ./gnuspeechsa -v -c ../../data/en -p trm_param_file.txt -o
>>>>> do-you-happen.wav "Do you happen to know by chance what time it is?"
>>>>> 
>>>>> (Note that the manual has unfortunately got a misprint for this command
>>>>> example, by inserting a "\_" in gnuspeechsa.)
>>>>> 
>>>>> There's a recording on YouTube of the resulting speech output that is
>>>>> produced, repeated three times at:
>>>>> 
>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUrODiSkWk8&feature=youtu.be
>>>>> 
>>>>> I have also passed a copy of your email to the contributor responsible
>>>>> for gnuspeechsa. He has had to drop  participation in GNU project for
>>>>> now, in order to take time out for other things, but may be able to
>>>>> make
>>>>> some helpful comments which I can pass on to you.
>>>>> 
>>>>> In GNU/Linux applications users may use Gnuspeechsa for output from an
>>>>> application by using Speech-dispatcher:
>>>>> 
>>>>> YELAVICH, LUKE , JAN BUCHAL, TOMAS CERHA, HYNEK HANKE, MILAN ZAMAZAL,
>>>>> C.M. BRANNON, WILLIAM HUBBS, ANDREI KHOLODNY (undated). Speech
>>>>> Dispatcher, http://devel.freebsoft.org/speechd, accessed 2015-07-24.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yes, the release manuals are quite technical, but the technology
>>>>> underlying synthetic speech is not simple. You can learn a lot by
>>>>> studying the background matyerial in the manuals, as well as some of
>>>>> the
>>>>> papers that are linked.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Happy hacking!
>>>>> 
>>>>> david
>>>>> --------
>>>>> David Hill
>>>>> address@hidden <mailto:address@hidden>
>>>>> http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuspeech/
>>>>> http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnuspeech
>>>>> https://savannah.gnu.org/users/davidhill
>>>>> --------
>>>>> Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest
>>>>> treasures  (Tao Te Ching #67)
>>>>> ---------
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Oct 21, 2015, at 5:58 49AM, Advrk Aplmrkt wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I just read about the latest release of Gnuspeech, and am eager to
>>>>>> take it for a spin. I'm not a speech synthesis researcher, I just like
>>>>>> to easily do text to speech with Free Software.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I found the Gnuspeech Monet Manual 0.9 and the Gnuspeech TRAcT Manual
>>>>>> 0.9, but they look very dense and technical. I've got gnuspeech-sa
>>>>>> compiled and installed on my Fedora Linux system, but I have no idea
>>>>>> how to run it by feeding it either a .txt file or just direct input of
>>>>>> text from the command line. It seems to ask for some sort of
>>>>>> configuration file?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> What should I do to just get it to start speaking text? Is there a
>>>>>> quickstart guide or tutorial? Or maybe some preset "voices" I can pick
>>>>>> from? Thanks!!
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> gnuspeech-contact mailing list
> address@hidden
> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnuspeech-contact
> 
>