Re: dtk-soft

[Doug Smith <bdsmith@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

You were wondering why the voices in these other multi-voice synths
sound so much worse than what outloud did. The answer is far from
proprietary information. I have read about some of these synthesizers
because of a project I am working on and I have found the cause. 

The voices in those other programs are just c programs that create
audio recordings on the fly and attempt to play them back as fast as
possible. This is difficult, even with the greatest processors. What
viavoice does is just to send a fast-paced sequence of clicking sounds
to the card in order to produce speech. It works just like the synths
of old which had to have their own dedicated cards. It uses the sound
card in the same way as, for example, the echo II for the Apple II
series did. It just sends the sounds through to be played, speeding
them up and slowing them down and varying the rate just enough to make
it sound like intelligible words. 

The algorithm? No, I don't know exactly, but above is stated the
general idea. I have an idea for a new open source synth, but I don't
have the time right now to conduct research, experiments and to
determine how to get it to work at an optimal level. i hope to begin
working on it this summer, and, if possible, have it out soon. 



I hope this helps you understand the quality issues. 

-- 
Doug Smith: C.S.F.C.
Computer Scientist For CHRIST!

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