Heh. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Echo, simply because that was what I used on our old Apple computers for so many years! So I got pretty used to the sound. Jayson. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Holmes" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 5:41 PM Subject: Re: A good synth? > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Hey no! I don't personally own a Double Talk but when I've heard them > in the past, they began to grow on me. Personally, I use a Speakout > from GW Micro but first of all and very unfortunately they have > stopped production as with so many hardware synths and second, when > they were sold, they went for something like $695 or so. It is/was a > very fast and pretty easy to understand at those high speeds and best > of all, it does *NOT* force abbreviations down your throat like so > many of the software synths do. I want to hear it say "M N" not > Minisota!!!"; ever heard of Sunday Micro Systems:)? > > The worst synth I think I ever heard was a Type & Talk or possibly a > votrax and the old Echo from Street Electronics was another bad one. > At least the Echo was dirt cheap - something like $100. > > I think the Accents sound pretty good and you can wind them up to be > pretty fast and you can still understand them once you're used to its > speech quality. Again, they aren't made any more either. I one an > Accent PC and it still works good but the SA model I also have just up > and died for no reason last year. I hadn't had it for any more than a > year before it just up and quit so I wonder about the quality of Acent > synths in general. My Speakout has been used a lot for something like > 7 years now and I've carried it around places, replaced the internal > battery twice and I only had one incident of breakage in that whole > period. I sure wish more hardware synths would be built. Thank God > the Double Talk is still around. The Tripple Talk is another option > but I don't think progress has been made yet concerning the driver for > Speakup to talk to it. This would present another hardware synth > option. I still feel that hardware synths are far more responsive > than any software thingy out there Software synths are nice for > portability and possibly economy but that's about it. > > On Mon, Jul 19, 2004 at 12:01:57PM -0400, Sina Bahram wrote: > > Are you serious? Wow, I thought DoubleTalk had to be the worst one > > ever....that's sad that hardware synths are so bad.... > > > > Thanks for your reply > > > > Take care, > > Sina > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca] > > On Behalf Of nick G > > Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 11:32 AM > > To: sbahram at nc.rr.com; Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. > > Subject: Re: A good synth? > > > > > > That's as good as it gets. Doubletalk is second only to dectalk in the > > hardware arena in my opinion. Thanks, Nick > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram at nc.rr.com> > > To: "'Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.'" > > <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> > > Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 11:05 AM > > Subject: A good synth? > > > > > > > Hi guys, > > > > > > I need a good hardware synth. My employer is willing to spend around > > > 300 bucks or so....I need it to work with a variety of linux apps, > > > like > > SpeakUP > > > for sure, and possibly EmacSpeak as well. Also anything else that uses > > > a hardware synth if that's possible. > > > > > > What's a good one people? In my opinion the DoubleTalk's quality is > > > just > > > *shutter* but if that's the best for that price range, I guess I'll have > > to > > > go with that. > > > > > > Thank you all for any replies. > > > > > > Take care, > > > Sina > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Speakup mailing list > > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > - -- > HolmesGrown Solutions > The best solutions for the best price! > http://ld.net/?holmesgrown > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQFA/EAVWSjv55S0LfERAvL4AKCkn/e3nje8iLaR8Y/mw05Se6aSFwCg84Fe > uhttL2TLOBk2zEctLPbh2TE= > =fjD7 > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
