Hi Sarah, Josh, and Others, The "say" command used in Terminal has switches for options like rate that can get applied to the file or string as a whole, and also has a switch that lets you select a voice for the argument to the "say" command as a whole. Embedded speech commands are meant to let you change the way that speech works within a string of text -- so you could have a section of text that is speeded up, and then another section of text that is slowed down. If you enter the embedded command argument to speak at a rate of 300 words per minute, that stays in effect for the file you convert until you issue another command to change the rate to some other value. To answer Sarah's question, she can use any of the many embedded speech commands either within the text files she is passing to the "say" command or within text that she types within quotation marks to pass as an argument to the "say" command instead of using a file as an argument.
Josh, the "say" command can be used to make quick tests of the way embedded speech commands when you're learning about them, without having to create files in iTunes, opening that app, and then deleting your experiments. So you can treat it as a way to experiment with speech commands rather than to produce final converted spoken audio files. However, I suspect that Sarah would say that there are at least a couple of advantages to her method of creating files: 1) the load on the system resources is lower and 2) she doesn't have to edit the text file to insert the embedded commands for speeding up the speaking rate, since she can use the "-r" switch of the say command to type in a rate parameter. The developer's document on customizing spoken output covers topics from very easy things (like changing the rate of your spoken text, or speaking a string of letters or numbers literally), to fairly complicated things (like changing the way certain names and words are pronounced). Some commands to modify text to speech output are pretty easy to use, once you know about them. But there are also commands that are specific to third party software. For example, in my first earlier post replying to Phil's question in the "slow text to speech with sending to iTunes as a spoken track" thread, I mentioned that with the Infovox/iVox voices in a program called GhostReader you could switch the voice and language of the Infovox voice with an unofficial command sequence that selected the voice. So you could use GhostReader to create dialogs with different Infovox/iVox voices speaking parts of the file, and even have the speakers speak in different languages when you created your spoken audio file using that app. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 28, 2013, at 6:34 PM, Josh Gregory wrote: > With all respect, wouldn't it just be easier to convert it in iTunes? I don't > think the common user, myself included, is going to go through all the steps > when it can just be converted in iTunes. > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Mar 29, 2013, at 12:05 AM, Sarah k Alawami <[email protected]> wrote: > >> wo! is all that in the say command? If so I missed it and will have to go >> back as I convert all of my stuff via the say command and text files. >> >> Take care. >> On Mar 28, 2013, at 8:04 PM, Esther <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi Phil, >>> >>> Yes, there is a 4-letter embedded speech command for setting baseline >>> pitch, "pbas", and there is 4-letter embedded speech command for modulating >>> pitch, "pmod". You'll have to read through the guide for details of how >>> each command works, and to get an overview of the basic principles of >>> customizing speech. They also give example of how to adjust pronunciation >>> of words. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Esther >>> >>> On Mar 28, 2013, at 1:49 PM, Phil Halton wrote: >>> >>>> I am completely incapable of understanding all this stuff. Can someone >>>> simply tell me if there is a pitch or an intonation parameter similar to >>>> the rate parameter? >>>>> >>>>> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/SpeechSynthesisProgrammingGuide/index.html >>>>> >>>>> Embedded commands are described in the section titled "Techniques for >>>>> Customizing Synthesized Speech" > "Use Embedded Speech Commands to >>>>> Fine-Tune Spoken Output". <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
