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

[Advrk Aplmrkt]

Hello!

Thanks for responding so quickly.

Actually I do have normal sight (other than moderate-severe myopia
which I have to wear glasses for), do a lot of people without normal
sight use Gnuspeech? I'd love to learn how to tweak the voice to be
more intelligible for me.

I'd like to use text-to-speech for several use cases, but at this
moment I am exploring whether I can have the computer narrate a video
my group is making, instead of having to have a real human record it.
In this case I hope the synthesised voice can sound as natural as
possible. So I guess this leads back to the man page. :)

I am especially excited to hear that listening to
Gnuspeech-synthesised voice is less tiring, this would also help with
the narration I hope for it to do!

Thank you for developing a great piece of software. I am not a speech
synthesise academic, nor a programmer, do let everyone know how to
support development! What about something on
https://freedomsponsors.org/?

On 01/11/2015, David Hill <address@hidden> wrote:
> 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!!