voices for version 7 text-to-speech
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg95947] voices for version 7 text-to-speech
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:46:12 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
- Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematica 7 has the function Speak, and related functions, that read the argument aloud, using the OS's text-to-speech (TTS) capability. I'm using this with Windows XP. What happens, evidently, is that Mathematica calls the Windows SAPI (SAPI4? SAPI5?) interface. And that interface in turn calls the built-in Windows TTS engine/voice. The Microsoft-supplied voice is very unnatural. I want to replace it. But I'm confused as to whether the 3rd-party TTS products such as NaturalReader and Neospeech VoiceText will in fact accomplish what I want. I think my confusion stems from the fact that a TTS voice also involves a specific voice "engine". I have been trying to get a straight answer from NaturalReader tech support as to whether, if I installed their product, it would work with Mathematica's Speak or not. But their English is not too good. The first time I asked, they responded, "Natural voices always work in NaturalReader. NaturalReader can read any text correctly including mathematical expressions." When I asked for clarification, they responded, "Natural voice only works with NaturalReader." I can't figure out whether this simply means that the engine behind the NaturalReader TTS application is required to use the voices they supply -- which would be what I want, I presume -- or whether, instead, that the only way to use the voice is to go directly through text in the NaturalReader application. Any information would be appreciated. -- Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 Amherst, MA 01003-9305