Hi everyone,
This is SL.
Some of you may remember that lastmonth, Chime and I were trying to
find a way to legally port Ivonavoices to Linux.
We have been in communications withReadspeaker, a company which
creates its own quality TTS voices andis also an official distributor of Ivona.
Unfortunately, due torestrictions and incompatibility, we are unable
to bring Ivona toLinux at this time.
However, Readspeaker is willing to considerthe possibility of
working with us to bring their own high fidelityReadspeaker brand
voices to Linux as a TTS option to use with Linuxscreenreaders if
there is enough interest in the community and if theventure would be commercially viable.
Right now, we are onlysending this to the Blinux list, so please do
not forward it, as thisis not an official survey.
If there is confirmed interest withinthe Blinux list as a baseline
sample group, then we would send anofficial survey which would be
reviewed by Readspeaker beforehand,and widely dispersed amongst
multiple blind Linux/tech groups to gageinterest, pricing, language
preferences, screenreader preferencesetc.
Right now, we simply want to know if anyone else on thislist would
want to have Readspeaker voices to use as a TTS option forLinux
screenreaders before engaging in any further outreachefforts.
We first need to know that we are not the only ones whothink it
would be worth it to have Readspeaker's high fidelity voiceson Linux.
If there is enough interest in this potential project,it would
likely be a model similar to Voxin, where the consumer paysa
yet-to-be-determined fee to have their choice of Readspeaker voicefor their Linux screenreader.
We can refine those particulardetails later.
For now, we just want to know if anyone on thisBlinux list would be
interested in having Readspeaker voices on Linuxfor a more natural
sounding TTS experience.
If so, then we wouldknow whether to confirm interest with
Readspeaker and work on anofficial survey which would help us
determine price range and whichlanguages to focus on etc.
So, in this email we are including adirect link where you can listen
to demos of Readspeaker voices andwe ask that you let us know if you
would be interested in havingReadspeaker TTS on Linux.
Please abide by Readspeaker's termsand conditions which prohibit the
recording of said demos.
Inthis email there is a direct link to Readspeaker's official demo
pageon their website which features a variety of voices to sample.
Justselect which voice you want to hear in the combo box, then press"listen".
This link is preferable as you can accessmultiple voices which can
be included in a Linux compatibleSDK.
However, you will need to use Firefox in Graphical toaccess it. If you
have the ability to use graphical Firefox, pleasedo as this will give you
the largest variety of choices.
Weunderstand that some users may be accustomed to only using
Consolebrowsers, and some multi media websites that work just fine
withGraphical Firefox will not render on Lynx.
If you areexclusively a Console user and cannot use Graphical
Firefox to access the link below in this email,Readspeaker sent us
two mp3 files, one with a sample of a US Englishvoice, and the other
with a sample of a UK English voice for Consoleusers to listen to if
they cannot switch to Graphical and use Firefoxto access
Readspeaker's official demo page on their website.
It is ourunderstanding that mp3 files cannot be posted to this
mailinglist. (If this is incorrect, I can send a second email with
the mp3 files if mp3 files are allowed on the Blinux list).
Otherwise, if anyone on this list is exclusively a Console user and
cannotaccess the link to Readspeaker's demo page included in this
message,please feel free to email me, SL, at my email address which
I willpost at the bottom of this message and I can send the two mp3 filesto you.
However, the mp3files are only one sample of a US English voice, and
one sample of aUK English voice. They are created for Console users
who cannotaccess Readspeaker's official demo page which has the full
variety ofvoices.
Even if you are a graphical user, you may still want to listen tothe two
mp3 files because even though they are only a sample of two select
voices as compared to the variety on the demo web page, they read a very
long sample of text and itcan help you get a feel for the flow. So
anyone who wants to listento the mp3 files, just email me.
If you have theability to use Graphical Firefox on your setup,
please use Graphicalto click on the direct link to Readspeaker's
demo page included belowin this email, which offers the full variety
of voices, multiple options for US English, multiple options for
UKEnglish, as well as other languages. If you would like to hear
longertext read in two select voices, email me for the mp3 files.
Graphicalusers please click this link to Readspeaker's official demo
web page,select any voice from the combobox list and press"listen":
https://www.readspeaker.com/text-to-speech-demo/
Consoleusers, if you cannot access Readspeaker's official demo page
andwould like to listen to two mp3 samples, also to graphical users
whowould just like to listen to the mp3 files which read a rather
longpiece of text where you can really get acquainted with the flow,
feelfree to contact SL at:
software.liberators@xxxxxxxxx
Thanks for your timeand we look forward to your feedback, SL and
Chime _______________________________________________
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