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From:
Doug GeoffraySubject:
Re: SWITCHING LANGUAGE ON-THE-FLY??Date:
Fri, Dec 7, 2007 9:23:54 amNathan,
I couldn't find you in our database by Nathan Normal but I did find you
under a different name with your email address which I won't say in this
public email. If this is you, I'm showing you as having Window-Eyes
5.0. 5.0 doesn't have everything I'm about to talk about so this may
not apply to you but it certainly applies to the current 6.1 version of
Window-Eyes.
As you know, not all synthesizers are created equal. Some have 10 rates
others have several Hundred for example. So how can we adapt to handle
this wide range? With Window-Eyes we decided to store the percentage
instead of the value. So for example if you have a synthesizer with 10
rates and you select 5 then we store 50 in the set file. This means use
50 percent of the capable rate. So if you then switch to a synthesizer
with 100 rates you would start at 50 percent of that or rate 50. But
obviously 50 percent of one synthesizer still may not be usable at 50
percent of another.
This thread has talked about even within the same SAPI 4 version of
Eloquence the English version seems to be slower than the equivalent
Spanish version. To combat this we have setup the ability to override
what the default set file has when you start with any synthesizer. So
for example when you switch to DECtalk you can guarantee it will start
at 75 percent regardless of what the default set file has set for it.
Then when you switch to English Eloquence you could make it
automatically jump to 60 percent regardless of what the default set file
has set for it. Then when you switch to Spanish Eloquence you could
make it automatically jump to 40 percent. I think you see the pattern
here .
This all works as long as you have the voice settings for all your sets,
set to be using global settings. If for example you have your Notepad
set file set to not use global then when you go to Notepad it will use
the voice setting stored in the set regardless of what synthesizer you
are using. So this breaks us but there is very little reason to not use
global voice settings in all your sets. All our factory sets are set to
use global voice settings.
So how do you actually set this up? If you go to the Select Synthesizer
dialog which is found under the Window-Eyes file menu you will noticed a
checkbox called "Use Specified Speech Parameters" and another called
"Use Engine Specific Specified Speech Parameters" and a button called
"Set Speech Parameters To Current". It is these three controls that
allow you to override the global speech settings in the wineyes.000 set
(that is the global set file). These parameters are stored for each
synthesizer and in the case of SAPI and ViaVoice, it goes further and
stores them for each engine within SAPI or ViaVoice.
Lets say you want to set your speech rate to 70 for English Eloquence
and you want 50 for Spanish Eloquence. First, lets select English
Reed. Then set the speech rate to 70. Go into the Select Synthesizer
dialog and check the Use Specified Speech Parameters checkbox. Because
we don't want to set all SAPI to rate 70 you then need to check the Use
Engine Specific Specified Speech Parameters checkbox. Then tab to the
Set Speech Parameters To Current and select it. This will take the
current setting of 70 (that you just set) and store it with the
Eloquence Reed engine ONLY. Meaning any time you switch to Eloquence
reed your speech rate will go to 70 no matter what. Now select apply on
the dialog. Then select the Spanish engine you want (I'm not sure of
the names). Set your rate to 50 and again make sure both checkboxes are
checked and hit enter on the Set Speech Parameters To Current button.
Go ahead and select the OK button to accept all the settings and close
the dialog. Now whenever you switch to English Reed it will be 70 and
when you switch to the Spanish name you selected it will be 50. Again,
the set file is overridden by this setting as this setting is stored
globally in a special location.
Now when you set synthesizer specific voice settings, don't forget you
did this . One of our top support questions is people saying
they change their rate, save the set and when they relaunch Window-Eyes
the settings they stored don't hold and they believe they found an ugly
bug. But as you guessed, this isn't a bug but a feature. This is
because you told it to override the set file for that synthesizer and/or
engine. If you continue to keep the synthesizer specific settings but
you want to adjust them then you will need to go back into the
synthesizer dialog and accept the Set Speech Parameter To Current button
instead of saving the set.
Section 7.9 of the Window-Eyes manual also discusses this. I hope this
help clear things up and show the power you really have which makes the
fact that Spanish Eloquence may be faster than English a non-issue.
Regards,
Doug
Nathan Normal wrote:
Doug Geoffray
GW Micro, Inc.
Voice 260-489-3671
Fax 260-489-2608
http://www.gwmicro.com
If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original
sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and
your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending
your message to gw-info@gwmicro.com so the entire list will receive it.
All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search
form at the bottom of the page.
If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to
listserv@gwmicro.com and include leave gw-info in the body
of the message.
I couldn't find you in our database by Nathan Normal but I did find you
under a different name with your email address which I won't say in this
public email. If this is you, I'm showing you as having Window-Eyes
5.0. 5.0 doesn't have everything I'm about to talk about so this may
not apply to you but it certainly applies to the current 6.1 version of
Window-Eyes.
As you know, not all synthesizers are created equal. Some have 10 rates
others have several Hundred for example. So how can we adapt to handle
this wide range? With Window-Eyes we decided to store the percentage
instead of the value. So for example if you have a synthesizer with 10
rates and you select 5 then we store 50 in the set file. This means use
50 percent of the capable rate. So if you then switch to a synthesizer
with 100 rates you would start at 50 percent of that or rate 50. But
obviously 50 percent of one synthesizer still may not be usable at 50
percent of another.
This thread has talked about even within the same SAPI 4 version of
Eloquence the English version seems to be slower than the equivalent
Spanish version. To combat this we have setup the ability to override
what the default set file has when you start with any synthesizer. So
for example when you switch to DECtalk you can guarantee it will start
at 75 percent regardless of what the default set file has set for it.
Then when you switch to English Eloquence you could make it
automatically jump to 60 percent regardless of what the default set file
has set for it. Then when you switch to Spanish Eloquence you could
make it automatically jump to 40 percent. I think you see the pattern
here .
This all works as long as you have the voice settings for all your sets,
set to be using global settings. If for example you have your Notepad
set file set to not use global then when you go to Notepad it will use
the voice setting stored in the set regardless of what synthesizer you
are using. So this breaks us but there is very little reason to not use
global voice settings in all your sets. All our factory sets are set to
use global voice settings.
So how do you actually set this up? If you go to the Select Synthesizer
dialog which is found under the Window-Eyes file menu you will noticed a
checkbox called "Use Specified Speech Parameters" and another called
"Use Engine Specific Specified Speech Parameters" and a button called
"Set Speech Parameters To Current". It is these three controls that
allow you to override the global speech settings in the wineyes.000 set
(that is the global set file). These parameters are stored for each
synthesizer and in the case of SAPI and ViaVoice, it goes further and
stores them for each engine within SAPI or ViaVoice.
Lets say you want to set your speech rate to 70 for English Eloquence
and you want 50 for Spanish Eloquence. First, lets select English
Reed. Then set the speech rate to 70. Go into the Select Synthesizer
dialog and check the Use Specified Speech Parameters checkbox. Because
we don't want to set all SAPI to rate 70 you then need to check the Use
Engine Specific Specified Speech Parameters checkbox. Then tab to the
Set Speech Parameters To Current and select it. This will take the
current setting of 70 (that you just set) and store it with the
Eloquence Reed engine ONLY. Meaning any time you switch to Eloquence
reed your speech rate will go to 70 no matter what. Now select apply on
the dialog. Then select the Spanish engine you want (I'm not sure of
the names). Set your rate to 50 and again make sure both checkboxes are
checked and hit enter on the Set Speech Parameters To Current button.
Go ahead and select the OK button to accept all the settings and close
the dialog. Now whenever you switch to English Reed it will be 70 and
when you switch to the Spanish name you selected it will be 50. Again,
the set file is overridden by this setting as this setting is stored
globally in a special location.
Now when you set synthesizer specific voice settings, don't forget you
did this . One of our top support questions is people saying
they change their rate, save the set and when they relaunch Window-Eyes
the settings they stored don't hold and they believe they found an ugly
bug. But as you guessed, this isn't a bug but a feature. This is
because you told it to override the set file for that synthesizer and/or
engine. If you continue to keep the synthesizer specific settings but
you want to adjust them then you will need to go back into the
synthesizer dialog and accept the Set Speech Parameter To Current button
instead of saving the set.
Section 7.9 of the Window-Eyes manual also discusses this. I hope this
help clear things up and show the power you really have which makes the
fact that Spanish Eloquence may be faster than English a non-issue.
Regards,
Doug
Nathan Normal wrote:
Hey, Raul, I, too notice what everybody's been talking about as to the
rate differences between the English and Spanish eloquence voices.
I don't consider myself a native speaker of Spanish, but, studied it
in school for a long time, and can understand what is said while
reading it or listening on the radio, internet, etc.
Now, my question is, say, if I save Spanish rate 40, then, english
rate 60, then, save the set file, am I still not going to get 60 rate
for the Spanish engine, instead of 40?
And, vice versa, say I set the Spanish rate at 40, then save the set
file, won't the rate for the other synthesizers still be at 40?
I'd say that's a little confusing.
Well, for another example, I downloaded the standalone version of
Espeak a couple weeks ago, now, Raul, I most of the time use the
Dectalk, as I go back with all the dectalks as far as 1992.
Now, when running the Espeak, which, I was really surprised how well
it works with Window-Eyes, when I went into the control panel, I only
saw rates from 0 to 21
now, say, I save a set file with that rate 8 or 10, I honestly don't
see how that setup is gonna correspond to the rates of most of the
other synthesizers I've got set up on these machines, mind you, with
none of the conflicts and bugs that so many people have been
experiencing.
I now have almost 70 different SAPI voices, which, as I said, I use
for foreign languages, monkeying around with different files, etc.,
but, not for every day text, still prefer that good old Dectalk.
Anyway, maybe you can shed some light on this subject for us.
Nate Normal, Montego Bay, Jamaica ,
----- Original Message ----- From: "Raul A. Gallegos"
To: "GW Info Discussion List"
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: SWITCHING LANGUAGE ON-THE-FLY??
Josh.
Just so you remember, you can set speech parameters specific to a
specific engine. Meaning for English Eloquence Reed I can have rate90 and Spanish speaking Jose I can have 75.
Hope this helps.
josh n rivera said the following on 12/6/2007 2:55 PM:But Raul,
I am a native speaker of Spanish, and I wrote a sentence in Spanishin an
email to a friend, and reviewed it with the Mexican voice. It stillsounded much faster than the English voice.
JoshOn Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:15:11 -0500 "Raul A. Gallegos"
writes:I personally think it sounds faster if one is studying, however, my
prior opinion still stands that there may also be some differencesin the way the speech engine does the speaking of words. For
example, if I am listening to Eloquence at rate 90, I usually haveto slow it down to rate 85 or 80 to fully understand and appreciate
Spanish speaking. Also, because I have just a regular version ofWindows without the Spanish
dialog boxes and menus, it's actually speaking the English words,but they are Spanishafied which does not sound real good. So,
usually the only time when the Spanish sounds as it should is whenyou are reading text which is already in Spanish to begin with.
Robert Spangler said the following on 12/6/2007 12:40 PM:Raul,
Since you're a native speaker of Spanish, perhaps you can answer
thisquestion. Does the synthesizer actually speak Spanish faster or
does itsound faster to someone studying the language because it is not
theirnative language? I know that when I switch it to Spanish I must
slow itdown quite a bit in order to understand what I am reading because
itsounds so much faster. In fact, and although this may be getting
alittle off-topic, it seems to me that native Spanish speakers talk
faster anyways
Robby----- Original Message ----- From: "Raul A. Gallegos"
To: "GW Info Discussion List"
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 12:16 PMSubject: Re: SWITCHING LANGUAGE ON-THE-FLY??
I honestly don't think it's running at twicr the speed. I do thistimes, I
frequently and even though I have to slow down the speech atthink it has to do with the way the speech engine pronounces
words.josh n rivera said the following on 12/6/2007 12:01 PM:Raul,I have a question about the language thing also. If I switch to
theMexican Spanish voice, it is running at twice the speed as my
EnglishEloquence voice is running. Why is that, and what can I do to
make itrun
at the same speed as the English voice?On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:38:51 -0500 "Raul A. Gallegos"
writes:You can do this by using the switch-language hot key which ismay
control-window-l in version 6.1 of Window-Eyes. Prior versionsnot have the hot key defined. Also, this will only work with
SAPIEloquence synthesizer. You will have to have the other
languagesinstalled as well.Hope this helps.
Olusegun -- Victory Associates LTD, Inc. said the following on
12/4/2007 10:56 AM:Hi Everyone:Hmm, I hope I am writing this out correctly, !!knows how
Anyoneto SWITCH A LANGUAGE on-the-fly using Window-Eyes? Say, for
example, Iwant to SWITCH between Spanish and English, how would I
accomplishthat?If this CANNOT BE DONE on-the-fly, what other methods for
accomplishingsame task are there in Window-Eyes?
Thanks for all help!!Sincerely,
OlusegunDenver, Colorado
original
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themessage.Raul A. Gallegos .. GW Micro Technical Support
--Voice: 260-489-3671 .. Fax: 260-489-2608
WEB: http://www.gwmicro.comFTP: ftp.gwmicro.com
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originalsender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list
andyour message is related to GW Micro, then please consider
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listserv@gwmicro.com and include leave gw-info in the body ofmessage.Raul A. Gallegos .. GW Micro Technical Support
--
Voice: 260-489-3671 .. Fax: 260-489-2608
WEB: http://www.gwmicro.comFTP: ftp.gwmicro.com
If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the
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your message is related to GW Micro, then please consideryour message to gw-info@gwmicro.com so the entire list will
receive it.All GW-Info messages are archived at
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message.If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original
sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and
your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sendingyour message to gw-info@gwmicro.com so the entire list will
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listserv@gwmicro.com and include leave gw-info in the body of the
--
Raul A. Gallegos .. GW Micro Technical SupportVoice: 260-489-3671 .. Fax: 260-489-2608
WEB: http://www.gwmicro.comFTP: ftp.gwmicro.com
If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original
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sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and
If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the originalyour message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending
your message to gw-info@gwmicro.com so the entire list will receive it.
All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo,and can be searched through and sorted using the search
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listserv@gwmicro.com and include leave gw-info in the body of themessage.
--
Raul A. Gallegos .. GW Micro Technical SupportVoice: 260-489-3671 .. Fax: 260-489-2608
WEB: http://www.gwmicro.comFTP: ftp.gwmicro.com
If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original
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--
Doug Geoffray
GW Micro, Inc.
Voice 260-489-3671
Fax 260-489-2608
http://www.gwmicro.com
If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original
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