SL's response to all inquiries re: Readspeaker voices

Fri Apr 16 22:15:03 UTC 2021

If you made this synthesizer compatible with Speech Dispatcher then it
could be compatible with any screen reader that used Speech Dispatcher.  I
know that Orca and TDSR use Speech Dispatcher and others are probably able
to use it as well.

On Fri, Apr 16, 2021, 5:56 PM Linux for blind general discussion <
blinux-list at redhat.com> wrote:

>
> Hi all,
>
> Thanks for yourinterest and for all your good questions. It seems like
> maybe some ofyou missed the link to the demos that was posted in the first
> email.So for those who didn't see it, I am pasting it again here for you
> toclick and listen. I'm putting the link first so you don't miss it.But
> then, under that, I will endeavor to answer each of yourquestions as best I
> can. So please continue reading after clickingthe link:
>
>
>
>
> https://www.readspeaker.com/text-to-speech-demo/
>
>
>
>
> To Rudy:
>
> Hopefully the linkin this email will give you an idea of how the voices
> sound. When youclick it, it brings you to Readspeaker's official demo page
> where youcan hear short samples of the voices available. If they are not
> longenough for you to get a sense of the flow with longer text, you
> canemail me for some samples in mp3 format. I tried to include my
> emailbefore but it just blanks out the punctuation. So I will spell outthe
> punctuation, and you will know to just insert the actual symbolsinstead. My
> email is:
>
> software dotliberators at slmail dot me
>
> To A:
>
> If there is enoughinterest in this project to make it official, then the
> goal is tomake Readspeakr  voices available to any of the most widely
> usedDistros that have Orca or Speakup. Similar to how Voxin offers
> Nuancevoices that you can install on most Distros with screenreaders.
>
> Yes, Readspeakerdoes offer both Swedish and Finnish along with many other
> languages.
>
> Please click on thelink I included at the top of this email. On that page,
> you will seea combo box to select your language for a demo. Scroll up in
> thatcombo box and you will find Swedish and Finnish, then, once youselect
> the language, tab down, and press enter on "listen".
>
> To the person whosuggested further platforms of usage such as Mac
> terminals and Linuxon Windows, I appreciate the suggestion and this is
> certainlysomething to look into.
>
> Personally I onlyhave experience with stand alone Windows, and stand alone
> Linux.
>
> I really don't knowanything about the workings of Mac OS, but if a Mac
> terminal runs onLinux compatible software, then it might be possible to
> incorporateReadspeaker voices. However, with Mac, I'm assuming you're
> dealingwith Apple and whatever protocols they have as a company to
> approveof third party TTS providers. That is an avenue that I am really
> notfamiliar with, but if anyone hear is a Mac afficionado withexperience
> with Apple's protocols for approving third partyproviders, please feel free
> to share that knowledge with me.
>
>  Mac and Windowsalready have so many natural sounding speech options
> available thatI'm really focusing on trying to bring Readspeaker to Linux
> inparticular, to give Linux users more choices for natural soundingspeech.
> So if Apple already provides natural voices for the Macterminal, then it
> may be better to focus solely on stand alone Linuxsystems.
>
>  However, it seemsthat the Linux on Windows that you speak of, should be
> able toutilize these voices if its essentially still Linux software.
>
> I'm still open toany ideas about Mac terminal and Linux on Windows, its
> just that Idon't have any experience with that, I don't know if there
> arealready existing natural voices for them seeing as it seems to be Linux
> software but running on top of Mac or Windows, but any input on that would
> be great.
>
>  To Chime:
>
> We might be able torequest Heather if we get enough interest to get this
> project up andgoing. Although the only place where I have seen Heather
> utilized isin their web-reader solutions which are a bit different from
> theirLinux compatible SDK. They do offer the option to have
> customizedvoices though, so we might be able to request Heather if we
> reallywant that. Personally, for US English I like the Julie voice which
> isavailable to demo on the Readspeaker site, as well as the Sophievoice
> which is what they used to record that mp3 file for Consoleusers that you
> listened to.
>
> Let me know if youever end up finding any samples of the Voxygen Hypra
> voices, I'd liketo know what they sound like in English and I havn't found
> any Hyprasamples either.
>
> To Debin Prater:
>
> Thanks for theinput.
>
> I'm a beginnerso I don't have experience with the Emacspeak servers you
> speak of.But if we move forward with a project with Readspeaker, the
> goalwould be to offer the voices for the most widely used Distros
> thatinclude Orca or Speakup for people to install the voices and use on
> their localsystem.
>
> I really havn'tsmoothed out the finite details on that as to how exactly
> the interface making Readspeaker available for Linux screenreaders would
> work in terms of the technicalities. For example, how to make it available
> both for Debian based systems and for something like Arch, just throwing
> out examples. But Voxin has done it with Nuance, so it should be doable
> with Readspeaker and the guys at Readspeaker are apparently willing to
> consider developing an interface to make it possible, as long as there is
> enough interest in the community, and so long  as it would be commercially
> viable for them.
>
> My first step is to simply find out ifthere is any interest, which, it
> seems like there is a small handful here on this list that would be
> interested.
>
> Other Consolereaders might be considered as well, and would be mentioned
> in an officialsurvey before actually getting started on the project, to
> determinewhat is the most popular Console screenreader for Linux users
> andstart with that. Hopefully offering voices for Orca graphical, and
> atleast the most widely used Console reader. I know there's quite a
> fewConsole readers out there, but we'd have to really decide where
> thedevelopers at Readspeaker would focus their time and effort intomaking
> their Linux compatible interface to bring Readspeaker voicesto
> screenreaders.
>
>
>  I think startingwith Orca for Graphical, and then one Console Reader,
> would be good.
>
> Havn't even gotteninto Emacs yet, but if that uses a seperate screenreader
> and iswidely used, then that would be something to consider including
> ifpossible. I'm just trying to cover the basics of something forgraphical,
> and something for console. As far as I know, isn't Emacslike a text editor
> and used for programming etc? Do people also useit like a screenreader to
> access daily tasks on Linux instead of OrcaOr Espeakup?
>
> To Didier:
>
> Wow, didn't know youalso reached out to Readspeaker as an Ivona
> distributor back in theday. Good to know. Its too bad that something can't
> be done to bringIvona to Linux seeing as one of their original pages said
> that anIvona SDK was compatible. But when I asked them, I got the
> sameresponse that Ivona is linked with Amazon now so Ivona is not an option.
>
>  I'm not the only oneto inquire. You asked them years before me, and I
> wouldn't besurprised if we're not the only ones to ask for Ivona.
> Quitefrustrating that Ivona is not more open to collaborating
> foraccessibility solutions on multiple platforms. Even from a
> strictlybusiness standpoint, Ivona could make additional proffits from
> selling solutions to Linux users. Oh well.
>
> As for theReadspeaker brand voices, when I contacted them, they did say
> thatthey usually only sell to businesses, not individuals; but they
> saidthat in this case, they would be willing to consider developing
> aninterface to bring Readspeaker voices to Linux screenreaders providedthat
> there is enough interest in the community, and that it would becommercially
> viable. Thats why I'm trying to get a baseline ofinterest, to see if its
> worthwhile to try to move forward with this.
>
> To Francisco:
>
> Yes, I totally agreewith you. Thats why I started this endeavor, first
> trying to bringIvona to Linux but that didn't work out. Now trying to
> bringReadspeaker's own brand of voices  to Linux. I too want to see
> morenatural sounding voices become available to Linux. Allowing Linuxusers
> to have a similar range of natural TTS choices as Windowsusers, and in
> return, more people may decide to give Linux a try.
>
> Thanks to all forthe inquiries, hope I was able to answer at least some of
> yourquestions, feel free to keep asking questions or sharing ideas, andfor
> those of you who missed the link the first time around, please dotry
> listening to the demos available on Readspeaker's web page.
>
> Thanks,
>
> SL
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list at redhat.com
> https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list