Greetings: It is not possible in the words of a mere mortal to describe how much I loathe Keynote Gold speech. I cannot wax eloquently enough on this subject. However, being for the most part a rational human being I realize that these are purely subjective thoughts. Music, art, food, and speech synthesizers are truly things that we do not agree on, and why should we? Frankly Keynote Gold sounds to me like an angry insect with its mouth full! It sounds as if it is lying under a pillow. Now, this does not mean that Eloquence doesn't have its issues, especially when it comes to the Braillenote. I have used all of the major note taking devices on the market. The Braillenote mPower is the only such device on which Eloquence stutters. Often when I am showing a student how to become accustomed to the Braille note's keyboard, I will have that student type with the keyboard voice set to spell. Eloquence cannot even come close to keeping up with what is being typed. This is quite frustrating for new students. Since many of my students are not competent enough in Braille to take advantage of that media, they must rely on speech. And, I will tell you this. I have never found one student who prefers Keynote Gold over Eloquence. But, I am confident that one day, I shall!
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of kathleen shelton Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 1:05 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: [Braillenote] reflections on elequence1,keynote gold and speaking with an accent or dialect I purchased the voicenote thinking that I would prefer the Eloquence after using it with JAWS but now exclusively work with Keynote. Eloquence is piercing to my ear. Keynote is soothing and just goes right into my brain. Years ago I preferred the Artic voice over the supposedly human sounding decktalk. There is something creepy with a synthesizer trying to sound human! Keynote has done a passible job with various dialects. By which I mean that it was not distracting to me to read book characters speaking with scottish, or Cockney dialects. I did use the pronunciation dictionary for just a few words and names which was easy! u for utility, p for pronunciation dictionary, a to add word follow prompts. It would be fun to be able to switch to a different dialect such as Irish, Scottish or British all within the English version. Another problem with Eloquence is that it will speak French for no reason. Whats with that? Question: are the rates of speed equal for each voice? I mean, do you get the same words per minute for each number chosen. Eloquence sounds faster and maybe more jarring. Have there been studies on this stuff? One voice which sounds terrible to me is that of the bookport. Where is that Artic voice? I think it was the 263 chip. That's all. Thanks for listening. ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
