SL's response to all inquiries re: Readspeaker voices

Fri Apr 16 22:32:59 UTC 2021

Further, I believe?, that tdsr is recommended for the mac terminal, since 
voiceover cannot run effortlessly in terminal.
Mac is a Unix based system, like Linux.

On Fri, 16 Apr 2021, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> 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
>>
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