[orca-list] Should Orca have a separate "reading" voice? (was: audio demo of Neospeech and Svox-Pico with Orca/speakup)

[Joanmarie Diggs <joanmarie diggs gmail com>]

Hi Willem, all.

> I got a fifteen day trial license for Neospeech under Linux and tested it 
> with speakup and Orca through speech-dispatcher.
>
> I also recently did a similar test using the open-source Svox-Pico tts.
>
> I have recorded a demonstration of these two synthesizers which can be 
> found at:
> ftp://ftp.csir.co.za/MI/National_Accessibility_Portal/wvdwalt/ttsdemo.mp3

Willem, thanks for doing this! Ignoring the issues you found, the
Neospeech voice does sound awfully nice.

This raises a question in my mind: If we're potentially going to have
access to speech synthesizers which are more human-sounding but perhaps
less performant, should Orca have a separate reading voice or SayAll
voice or some such thing? In other words, when you're typing, navigating
in menus and dialogs, etc., Orca would use one voice. When you're
reading text (and/or doing a SayAll), Orca would use another voice.

Just a thought....

Take care.
--joanie