Thus why I want to use Ger's Roller Coaster intro instead. More futuristic, and ya can taylor it to your own, adding your own voice style to it, which has a spacy feel to it. Oh, and its only 15 seconds long! Both! themes. Any time I use his HPR intro and exit music pieces, I'm making sure to give him credit at the end of my shows. They are on the HPR themes page, if no one has heard it yet.
BTW, to that post saying that eSpeak is terrible, if I was able to change that eSpeak voice to the klatt4 one, I surely would! And even though the command for it is: en-us+klatt4 or en+klatt4 if ya don't want it to sound US-like, I sadly do not know how to change it with whatever software HPR is using to generate it. I'm sure someone else could though... PS. Ger was very pleased I sent him an email, and for praising his HPR theme! On 11/25/14, Mike Ray <[email protected]> wrote: > > In reply to this piece of 'constructive criticism': > > 1. eSpeak is NOT eighties t3echnology. It is a very small footprint and > very fast software speech synthesiser which has been written at great > pains by a developer kind enough to release it under GPL. > > 2. eSpeak is currently making IT accessible at zero cost for hundreds > of thousands if not millions of folks. > > 3. I remember the eighties and the early nineties and well remember the > synthesised voices we had then and eSpeak is a leap forward compared to > them. > > 4. No other open source speech synthesiser has the language support of > eSpeak. > > 5. Stop listening to the voice and listen to the content. Just like a > few sighted folks occasionally manage to stop tweaking their wallpaper > and actually do some work. > > 6. We don't use the word 'handicap' any more. > > 7. MaryTTS leaves a lot to be desired because it clips very badly and > I, for one, think it is inferior to eSpeak in almost every way. > > All the above points aside I do think the length of time we now have to > wait 'for the meat' is too long. > > > > > > > > > On 25/11/2014 17:01, Ken Fallon wrote: >> My reply below. I was also sent a very nice voice produced by espeak but >> unfortunately neither the license nor platform is not compatible with >> our current work flow. >> >> Ken. >> >> >> -------- Forwarded Message -------- >> Subject: Re: Constructive criticism >> Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 13:48:24 +0100 >> From: Ken Fallon <[email protected]> >> To: ****************, [email protected] >> >> Hi ****************, >> >> First. You owe me a show. >> >> Second. This is currently been discussed on the mailinglist >> >> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.network.syndication.podcast.hacker-public-radio/569 >> >> You can add this to the discussion by joining here >> http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org >> >> Or I can forward it with your permission and you can follow along here >> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.network.syndication.podcast.hacker-public-radio >> >> But I'll give a summary for you below. >> >> Ken. >> >> On 2014-11-24 13:00, **************** wrote: >>> Hello, >> >>> I have been listening to HPR for about 6 months now. When I first >>> started listening my immediate reaction was "This intro music is WAY too >>> long, especially when some of the shows are only a few minutes long." >>> Since then advertisements and an annoying synthesized voice have been >>> added to the front as well, in some cases lasting almost 2 minutes >>> before getting to the content. >> >>> I'm not opposed to the synthesized voice idea (I think it's actually a >>> great idea to make the show more handicap accessible), but this voice >>> comes from the technology of the 1980s, and since this is a show for >>> techies there MUST be something available out there that was generated >>> in the past 20 years and sounds a little better! Half the time I can't >>> understand what the voice is trying to say! >> There are technologies out there used by apple and google that give >> excellent voices. In the FLOSS world we do not have those yet. I >> (personally - not as an admin) feel that the more people that get >> exposed to it, the more people will try and do something about it. This >> was brought up as a point by Jonathan Nadeau, of the Accessible >> Computing Foundation, but has received most complaints from blind >> listeners. >> >> http://accessiblecomputingfoundation.org/?page_id=8 >> >>> I also know that advertisements are needed to generate revenue for the >>> show, but is it really necessary on shows that are only 2 or 3 minutes >>> long? >> >> It's not an advertisement. >> >> We thank the people who provide us with free hosting, so depending on >> where the files are served from you get the appropriate thank you >> message. I have not been asked to do that but we do as it's the right >> thing to do. >> >> We could put the thank you at the very end I suppose, but do people >> listen to the end ? >> >> >>> If I were king of the world, I would either shorten the intro music, or >>> come up with a new intro all together that lasts about 10 seconds or >>> less. >> The cool thing about HPR is that you are a king as far as you're happy >> to share the role with all the other HPR members. So Join the maillist >> and let your opinion be heard. >> >> On your own shows you are free to include a very shortened intro if you >> like. The text to speech stays (....for now see below) >> >>> That's really all that is needed for the listeners to recognize >>> the show. I would also find another voice synthesizer out there, or >>> have the host create a short sound clip of the show title and content to >>> be submitted with the actual content. >> Please find another voice synthesizer, write up how to install it, and >> of course record a show about it, and I will implement it. Simple as >> that. >> >>> This would be MUCH less annoying to the listeners. Advertising would >>> be restricted to shows that have content greater than 5 minutes. >> If you are willing to pay the service we can remove the sponsor mention >> but I will still feel bad for not mentioning your generosity. >> >> >>> I often collect a few weeks of HPR before listening, and it is extremely >>> frustrating to try to fast forward through the intro while I am driving >>> down the road. >> Then can I suggest that you use sox to truncate the first two minutes of >> the show. However you have no guarantee that the intro will always be 2 >> minutes. I do have the option to post a show without anything except >> what the host includes, sometimes that's with the intro/outro sometimes >> not. However asking someone to host another 70G of shows without >> branding is a big ask. >> >>> I would be much more inclined to listen to the entire >>> intro if it were shortened. Sometimes I will just skip the entire >>> episode if it only has 2 or 3 minutes of content. I'm sometimes tempted >>> to stop downloading the show entirely because the frustration usually >>> isn't worth the pay off. >> The whole point of the spoken intro is that it allows people to know >> what the show is about so they can choose to delete it, listen to it >> now, or later. It means that they can continue doing what ever task they >> are doing by just pressing delete, or next. It has been the most >> requested feature over the years. >> >> >>> I hope this is helpful. If I continue listening in the future I may >>> contribute some episodes myself, but I'm right on the edge of dropping >>> the feed entirely. >> As I said HPR is yours and you have a way to change the direction if you >> wish. Don't let the fact that I personally disagree with you on some >> points stop you :). There have been many many occasions where I have >> been over ruled, and I am happy when that happens as I know that HPR is >> working as advertised. >> >> >>> **************** >> >> >> I will have a think about it and see if there are other solutions to the >> issue. Feel free to think along as I'm very interested in better >> solutions. >> >> Ken. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Hpr mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org >> > > -- > Michael A. Ray > Analyst/Programmer > Witley, Surrey, South-east UK > > "Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla" > (It's a long way by the rules, but short and efficient with examples) > > Interested in accessibility on the Raspberry Pi? > Visit: http://www.raspberryvi.org/ > From where you can join our mailing list for visually-impaired Pi hackers > > _______________________________________________ > Hpr mailing list > [email protected] > http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org > _______________________________________________ Hpr mailing list [email protected] http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org
