Hello there,
The possibility of having the Readspeaker voices on Linux sounds quite
interesting and useful to me, because, as others already said, there are
few high quality voices providers at the moment, and because if we have
more high quality voices to choose from, we'd have more possibilities,
and maybe, more folk would start using Linux as well, who knows?
Best regards.
Francisco
On 4/16/21 12:46 AM, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
Hi everyone,
This is SL.
Some of you may remember that lastmonth, Chime and I were trying to find a way
to legally port Ivonavoices to Linux.
We have been in communications withReadspeaker, a company which creates its own
quality TTS voices andis also an official distributor of Ivona.
Unfortunately, due torestrictions and incompatibility, we are unable to bring
Ivona toLinux at this time.
However, Readspeaker is willing to considerthe possibility of working with us
to bring their own high fidelityReadspeaker brand voices to Linux as a TTS
option to use with Linuxscreenreaders if there is enough interest in the
community and if theventure would be commercially viable.
Right now, we are onlysending this to the Blinux list, so please do not forward
it, as thisis not an official survey.
If there is confirmed interest withinthe Blinux list as a baseline sample
group, then we would send anofficial survey which would be reviewed by
Readspeaker beforehand,and widely dispersed amongst multiple blind Linux/tech
groups to gageinterest, pricing, language preferences, screenreader
preferencesetc.
Right now, we simply want to know if anyone else on thislist would want to have
Readspeaker voices to use as a TTS option forLinux screenreaders before
engaging in any further outreachefforts.
We first need to know that we are not the only ones whothink it would be worth
it to have Readspeaker's high fidelity voiceson Linux.
If there is enough interest in this potential project,it would likely be a
model similar to Voxin, where the consumer paysa yet-to-be-determined fee to
have their choice of Readspeaker voicefor their Linux screenreader.
We can refine those particulardetails later.
For now, we just want to know if anyone on thisBlinux list would be interested
in having Readspeaker voices on Linuxfor a more natural sounding TTS experience.
If so, then we wouldknow whether to confirm interest with Readspeaker and work
on anofficial survey which would help us determine price range and
whichlanguages to focus on etc.
So, in this email we are including adirect link where you can listen to demos
of Readspeaker voices andwe ask that you let us know if you would be interested
in havingReadspeaker TTS on Linux.
Please abide by Readspeaker's termsand conditions which prohibit the recording
of said demos.
Inthis email there is a direct link to Readspeaker's official demo pageon their website
which features a variety of voices to sample. Justselect which voice you want to hear in
the combo box, then press"listen".
This link is preferable as you can accessmultiple voices which can be included
in a Linux compatibleSDK.
However, you will need to use Firefox in Graphical toaccess it. If you have
the ability to use graphical Firefox, pleasedo as this will give you the
largest variety of choices.
Weunderstand that some users may be accustomed to only using Consolebrowsers,
and some multi media websites that work just fine withGraphical Firefox will
not render on Lynx.
If you areexclusively a Console user and cannot use Graphical Firefox to access
the link below in this email,Readspeaker sent us two mp3 files, one with a
sample of a US Englishvoice, and the other with a sample of a UK English voice
for Consoleusers to listen to if they cannot switch to Graphical and use
Firefoxto access Readspeaker's official demo page on their website.
It is ourunderstanding that mp3 files cannot be posted to this mailinglist. (If
this is incorrect, I can send a second email with the mp3 files if mp3 files
are allowed on the Blinux list). Otherwise, if anyone on this list is
exclusively a Console user and cannotaccess the link to Readspeaker's demo page
included in this message,please feel free to email me, SL, at my email address
which I willpost at the bottom of this message and I can send the two mp3
filesto you.
However, the mp3files are only one sample of a US English voice, and one sample
of aUK English voice. They are created for Console users who cannotaccess
Readspeaker's official demo page which has the full variety ofvoices.
Even if you are a graphical user, you may still want to listen tothe two mp3
files because even though they are only a sample of two select voices as
compared to the variety on the demo web page, they read a very long sample of
text and itcan help you get a feel for the flow. So anyone who wants to
listento the mp3 files, just email me.
If you have theability to use Graphical Firefox on your setup, please use
Graphicalto click on the direct link to Readspeaker's demo page included
belowin this email, which offers the full variety of voices, multiple options
for US English, multiple options for UKEnglish, as well as other languages. If
you would like to hear longertext read in two select voices, email me for the
mp3 files.
Graphicalusers please click this link to Readspeaker's official demo web page,select any
voice from the combobox list and press"listen":
https://www.readspeaker.com/text-to-speech-demo/
Consoleusers, if you cannot access Readspeaker's official demo page andwould
like to listen to two mp3 samples, also to graphical users whowould just like
to listen to the mp3 files which read a rather longpiece of text where you can
really get acquainted with the flow, feelfree to contact SL at:
[email protected]
Thanks for your timeand we look forward to your feedback,
SL and Chime
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https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
[email protected]
https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
