Hi David and thanks for the info. Later: Rick USA -----Original Message----- From: David [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 11:13 AM To: Rick Thomas; 'Window-Eyes Discussion List'; 'Rod Hutton' Subject: Re: Cap enhanced app
Yes, Rick. All the feature handling of a voice, is done inside the synth engine itself, and has nothing to do with any hardware or driver of the computer. True, sometimes disabling certain features of your hardware, like sound card enhancements, will improve your speech responsiveness or quality. But that is simpy due to the fact that such features could conflict or slow down the processing of the data thrown on the sound cardby the speech engine. Such interference should be avoided, and that's why you are encouraged to turn off enhancing features of your hardware. In its very basic, look on it this way. The screen reader sends some text to the Speech engine. The engine converts it into speech, made up of a line of tiny pieces of sound. This chain of sound, now is being sent to your sound card, which sees it just like a music file, and plays it back to you through the speakers. All the text-to-speech processing, including all speed, pitch and tone settings, is handled directly inside the speech engine. Usually, this engine is a piece of software directly inside your computer. If you are using a hardware synth, the software has been burned onto an EProm inside the hardware box. The technology is exactly the same, only difference is the physical media for storing the software, and the factual connection method. A couple of years ago, I wrote a quite extensive article on the matter of processing text-to-speech data, and how a speech synth is basically built up. It was posted on the GW info list, and you may find it in the archives. For those who does not want the hazzle of searching archives, and who still want to dive a bit more into the matter, write me off-list and I can mail you a Word-document version of the article. It is only dealing with the very top of the iceberg, but still is about 14 pages long. Does that give an idea about the high-tech issue of voicing text? Smile. Good thing that we have a set of easy switches provided through the screen reader, to handle the individual settings of the synth. Smile. True, there does exist a few standards for the interface of a synth, like the SAPI standard. But they are somehow vague, and what works for one synth, may not work for another. Even what works for one voice, may differ from another voice, even inside the very same synth. Make perfect setup of one Microsoft voice, switch to another Microsoft voice, and you can start all over, should you want the best results. Enjoy. David On 3/26/2015 1:04 PM, Rick Thomas wrote: > Hi David: > Actually, I didn't know that. > I am not big on accessibility or sound or anything at the lower levels and > pretty much do Application Programming for Business Systems. > So, it is the synth that handles the pitch and the sound card is not > involved in the Process to any great extent? > Is that what you are saying? > If that is the case the best bet might be to research the various synth > features to see if they support engine pitch changes. > That is also why I let Rod build the script - it is not in my technical > wheel house. > So, you guys might build a list of synths that allow for pitch changes and > those that don't and then the community would know which ones they might > want to look at without slogging through all of them guessing. > I can say Eloquence does since I am using it with Rods Script and it works > quite well indeed. > So there is one paid synth you can put in the "Supported" category. > Rick USA > > -----Original Message----- > From: David [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 7:43 AM > To: Rick Thomas; Window-Eyes Discussion List; 'Rod Hutton' > Subject: Re: Cap enhanced app > > Rick, > The fact that a sound card can play music, has absolutely nothing to do > with its capabilities of adjusting the pitch of a voice. Playing music, > the sound card merely plays back a pre-recorded sound file. The sound > file can be pitch-adjusted, since you can affect what bits are sent to > the sound card. For instance, a music file can have its frequency bits > altered, and it wil affect the pitch to a certain degree. Sound that is > a playback of the recordings of some sort, can be altered in the > playback software, not on the harddware of the sound card itself. > > Synthetic speech, although partially being pre-recorded snip-its of > sound, is a whole other chapter of that story. The voice does not make > use of any music playback software - as you well are aware of. It has > its own dedicated software, built into the synth itself. If the > manufacturer has not built in pitch support with this software, no > matter what your software, the screen reader, or any app attempt to send > for pitch-adjusting calls, the voice will not be pitched. No matter what > sound card you use, or the rest of your computer specs. Its like with > your car. If it hass no hook on the rear end, you cannot have it pull a > caravan or trailer. > > Neither has this to do with any sound card driver. The pitch support of > a voice, is solely a matter of what is built-in with the sound library > of that voice. Numerous synths on the market has no support for > pitching, and this cannot be altered by anyone else but the manufacturer > of that very synth directly. Like it or not, but your app, or other > screen readers will be out of luck in such cases. It's been one of the > missings of many a synth up through the computer history. I even have > quite a number of voices available here, running under a handful > different software. Try what you want, they do not support pitching. > Simply fact stated. > > > David > > On 3/26/2015 12:05 PM, Rick Thomas via Talk wrote: >> Hi Rod: That was a good script and you approached it in a good manner - >> don't ReInvent the wheel just make it roll better. >> There are indeed variables beyond your control that only some large scale >> testing by others can provide feedback on. >> As you mention, I do think most synths provide for pitch changes but since > I >> have not researched it I cant say for sure - so didn't. >> I actually forgot that a sound card and the drivers might impact this as >> well and the combinations of synths and sound drivers, cards, on many >> peoples machines will vary almost at every client machine. >> So, the more feedback you get, and hopefully information about synths and >> sound cards, the better. >> Either you can have folks do the research about synth pitch or you can try >> and do it yourself but it will need to be done me thinks. >> As for sound cards and drivers I don't know, but don't think, they should > be >> a problem since they all respond to pitch changes or there wouldn't be > music >> so it depends on whether AI Squared is providing the necessary hooks to > the >> various synths, if that is how it is done, and how the target synth > handles >> pitch changes in their engine - likely from a performance standpoint as > you >> noted with the Microsoft Test. >> Anyway, I cant thank you enough for this little app since it takes away > one >> of those annoyances that just add up and up and up if you spend hours and >> hours and hours working with things you need to identify as having > specific >> letters capitalized. >> Rick USA >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Rod Hutton [mailto:[email protected]] >> Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 6:48 AM >> To: 'Rick Thomas'; 'Window-Eyes Discussion List' >> Subject: RE: Cap enhanced app >> >> Hi Rick, and this is for everyone too trying out CapEnhance, >> >> A couple of things in your note I'd like to respond to. >> First, I'm not sure if I've ever heard of a synthesizer which did not >> support pitch changes. >> If this were so, then, for the synthesizer in question, it would be >> impossible to change pitch on the fly using the speech parameters hotkeys. >> Does this actually ever happen, namely, that you cannot change pitch use >> thing those hotkeys? >> CapEnhance uses exactly the same method of changing pitch as the user does >> using hotkeys. >> Second, in my latest version of CapEnhance, I inserted a routine which >> temporarily disables both the screen and keyboard capitalization before >> speaking a cap and then resets them to their previous states. >> This was to address the problem you had with my earlier version of the app >> which produced choppy speech even with Eloquence. >> Of course, I'm no wizard, and who can know what effect the app will have >> with all of the various synthesizers, not to mention audio devices and > their >> accompanying software. >> One thing I could do is produce a version of the app which allows for tone >> changes for caps along with pitch. >> Again, only real-world testing would prove its effectiveness. >> This app was my attempt to help you out in your difficulties, and, while > I'm >> glad it works for you with Eloquence, I had serious doubts whether it > would >> help everybody with all synthesizers. Smile >> Indeed, I have noticed a little delay when moving over caps using the >> Microsoft Speech Platform synthesizer. >> Ah, but this is how we learn and progress, isn't it? smile >> >> Thanks to you and everyone for the feedback, and please keep it coming. >> >> Best regards, >> >> Rod >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Talk >> [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf >> Of Rick Thomas via Talk >> Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 4:51 AM >> To: 'Don H'; 'Window-Eyes Discussion List' >> Subject: RE: Cap enhanced app >> >> Hi: >> I peeked at the code and it looks like he sends the request to however WE >> Handles the request and then WE forwards the request to the synth, think >> that is what is going on. >> You can google to see if your synth allows for pitch changes and if it > does >> Contac t AI Squared since I don't know if there is a way of working > directly >> with the synth via a script without getting pretty deep. >> It works well with my Eloquence synth but I don't think I remember it >> working with the Microsoft synth and I think I remember the Microsoft > synth >> supporting pitch changes but since I am so weak in this arena will just >> mention that googling or contacting a synth manufacturer is a good jump > off >> point to find out what is possible. >> It is really nice to have my caps spoken in a higher pitch again and > should >> be a basic feature of any screen reader - and usually is. >> PS: I had to turn off the speaking of caps in a higher pitch in the WE >> Control Panel for the Screen since it was really slowing down speech but > the >> CapEnhance does not have this problem at all. >> Rick USA >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Talk [mailto:[email protected]] > On >> Behalf Of Don H via Talk >> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 5:27 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Cap enhanced app >> >> Is the Cap Enhanced app supposed to raise the pitch on caps when using >> either the vocalizer or vocalizer Expressive speech syns? On my system >> it does not. >> _______________________________________________ >> Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the > author >> and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. >> >> For membership options, visit >> > http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/ofbgmail%40mi. >> rr.com. >> For subscription options, visit >> http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com >> List archives can be found at >> http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the > author >> and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. >> >> For membership options, visit >> > http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/rod_hutton%40h >> otmail.com. >> For subscription options, visit >> http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com >> List archives can be found at >> http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the > author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. >> For membership options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/trailerdavid%4 > 0hotmail.com. >> For subscription options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com >> List archives can be found at > http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com >> > > _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. 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