Re: [orca-list] Slightly off-topic: new prototype speech synthesizer from NV Access

[Jason White <jason jasonjgw net>]

Kyle <kyle4jesus gmail com> wrote:
> I remember hearing in a podcast just this past week that they had pretty
> much abandoned that project in favor of attempting to incorporate the
> Klatt algorithms used by the speech player into Espeak. It would be
> interesting to know just how far along that project is, as Espeak is far
> more cross-platform than the speechplayer code, even though it does
> require building for each OS that runs it.

Agreed. I would be interested in listening to the result if they manage to
incorporate the Klatt synthesis algorithms into ESpeak.

Klatt synthesizers also provide a large number of adjustable parameters to
vary voice characteristics. These are used, for example, by Emacspeak to
convey useful information efficiently with different voices. Orca doesn't use
these techniques, but it could do so in the future if a free/open-source Klatt
synthesis system were available.