I can certainly set the default pitch in the init_string if folks like. Maybe you guys should make a joint decision over a period of time and I'll change them to the consenses attitude. I don't remember anymore why that period delay was changed it's been to long. Maybe I found the pauses iritating and so shortened them. John Covici lent me an Express for a while back when I wrote the original driver. I've never liked DECTalk synths so was not unhappy to give it back to him when I got them finished. Kirk Kirk Reiser The Computer Braille Facility e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca University of Western Ontario phone: (519) 661-3061