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- VOICE: Voice driver for PC-VCO
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- VOICE driver for PC-VCO
- Phoneme-to-sound driver for the IBM PC
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- COM-AND, and VOICE.EXE are copyright 1992 by CABER Software.
- VOICE.EXE is distributed with the PC-VCO visual conferencing
- accessory, and with COM-AND (with the TALKER script/overlay).
- PC-VCO and COM-AND are "shareware". If you USE the program
- after evaluating it, you MUST pay for it (see REGISTER.DOC).
-
- The complete user license and registration information is to be
- found in the file REGISTER.DOC. Limitations on redistribution
- of COM-AND are set out in the file VENDOR.DOC. These two files
- are included with the COM-AND program release.
-
- The author will make arrangements with registrants for other
- uses of VOICE. The author may be reached:
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- CABER Software
- R. (Scott) McGinnis
- P.O. Box 3607 Mdse Mart
- Chicago, IL 60654-0607
-
- GEnie, Delphi: TARTAN
- CIS .......... 73147,2665
- Internet ..... 73147.2665@compuserve.com
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- Version 1.1: 921012
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- VOICE: Voice driver for PC-VCO
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- VOICE version 1.1 is a part of the COM-AND communications package.
- COM-AND is copyright 1992, by CABER Software. All rights are
- reserved world wide, excepting redistribution under the shareware
- concept. COM-AND is distributed freely and may be copied by anyone
- for any number of machines, for purposes of evaluation.
-
-
- Restrictions on redistribution are set out in the document file
- VENDOR.DOC. You may NOT distribute COM-AND or its documentation in
- connection with ANY commercial venture, product, publication or
- service without written approval from CABER Software.
-
-
- COM-AND is distributed as shareware. You may try COM-AND without
- charge, to evaluate its usefulness to you. You may evaluate COM-AND
- for a period of up to 30 days. If you continue to use COM-AND after
- 30 days, then you must pay for it. Please read REGISTER.DOC for the
- terms and conditions of the User License.
-
-
- The author supports COM-AND through electronic mail on the various
- on-line services. Several BBSes focused on COM-AND exist at this
- time. Voice support for COM-AND is also available from Support
- EtCetera in Long Beach, CA. Please read REGISTER.DOC for details
- on support, and COM-AND BBSes.
-
-
- CABER Software is a member of the Association of Shareware Profes-
- sionals (ASP). The ASP offers an ombudsman service to help you
- resolve shareware related disputes with ASP members. Please read
- the file REGISTER.DOC for information on how to contact the ASP
- Ombudsman.
-
-
- COM-AND is supplied "as-is" with no warranties expressed or implied.
- Neither CABER software nor the author will be liable for any damages
- or lost revenues incurred through the use of this program or any of
- its accessories and utilities beyond the registration price paid.
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- Version 1.1: 921012
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- VOICE: Voice driver for PC-VCO
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- Table of Contents
- -----------------
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- I. Introduction .............................................. page 1
-
- A. What is COM-AND? What is PC-VCO? ........................ page 1
- B. The SPEECH.COM Driver ................................... page 2
- C. The VOICE.EXE Driver .................................... page 2
- D. This document ........................................... page 2
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- II. Using VOICE.EXE ............................................ page 3
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- III. Program Requirements ....................................... page 4
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- IV. Program and Author Information ............................ page 5
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- Appendices
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- A. VOICE.EXE arpabet .......................................... page 6
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- B. SPEECH.COM arpabet ......................................... page 7
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- Version 1.1: 921012
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- VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 1
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- I. Introduction
-
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- A. What is COM-AND? What is PC-VCO?
-
-
- COM-AND for the IBM PC and compatibles is a communications
- program for use by itself, or for use with several integrated
- accessory programs (which themselves may be used independent of
- COM-AND). COM-AND provides standard comm program functions: a
- dialing directory, macros, disk logging, binary and ASCII file
- transfers, scripted execution and so on.
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- PC-VCO for the IBM PC is an accessory program, intended for use
- with a 'base' communications program. PC-VCO is integrated as an
- accessory into the communications program 'COM-AND'. However,
- PC-VCO may be used with any comm program that supports a 'DOS
- gateway' which does not break an established comm link.
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- PC-VCO, used with network conferencing services such as People-
- Link's PARTY, CompuServe's CB and GEnie's RTC conferencing,
- provides a way to 'see' and 'hear' people talking. PC-VCO is a
- graphics communications program (the 'see'ing...) interfacing to a
- speech driver (the 'hear'ing...).
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- The speech function of PC-VCO is supplied by a resident speech
- driver. Currently, PC-VCO interfaces two speech drivers: VOICE
- (created for PC-VCO) and SPEECH.COM (the original driver, public
- domain). PC-VCO only implements an interface to the driver.
- Text-to-phoneme conversion is performed in PC-VCO.
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- Version 2.6 of COM-AND makes the voice driver available to scripts
- directly through the TALKER.OVL overlay. TALKER.OVL only inter-
- faces VOICE.EXE... TALKER does not use SPEECH.COM.
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- VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 2
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- I. Introduction (continued)
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- B. The SPEECH.COM driver
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- The resident speech driver SPEECH.COM and associated programs (SAY
- and READ) were originally found on a public domain Bulletin Board
- in Chicago. The author's name is not contained in the document,
- and no statement is made as to its ownership or copyright.
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- The author IS identified within the executable object files (as
- Andy McGuire... I incorrectly referred to Douglas Sisco in
- earlier documents). I have attempted to find anyone who knows of
- Andy McGuire, with no success to date. SPEECH.COM is not
- included in this release (nor has it has been in any - it's not
- mine to give). It is available on most services as SPEECH.ARC.
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- The current speech driver (by Andy McGuire) does not function
- with DOS 3.xx (so its document states), without patching.
- The driver is limited to a 4.77 Mhz clock as well. I published
- a patch for SPEECH.COM... but the patch is mostly ineffective
- above 8Mhz.
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- C. The VOICE.EXE driver
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- Beginning with version 2.2 of PC-VCO, PC-VCO includes its own
- speech driver (VOICE.EXE). VOICE.EXE was created to support
- PC-VCO, and provides the following advantages over SPEECH.COM:
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- o VOICE.EXE is not CPU speed dependant
- o VOICE.EXE does run with any version of MS-DOS after 2.0
- o VOICE.EXE implements a broader 'arpabet' (the phoneme set)
- compatible with the MacIntosh/Amiga arpabet
- o VOICE.EXE permits a limited variance of speech pitch and
- speaking rate
- o VOICE.EXE may be loaded 'on top' of PC-VCO and deleted after
- use (and it may be used TSR as well!)
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- D. This document
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- This document describes the use and function of VOICE.EXE. At
- this time, programming specifics are not included - VOICE.EXE is
- offered ONLY for use with PC-VCO. Registrants of PC-VCO may make
- private arrangements with this author for other uses.
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- Version 1.1: 921012
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- VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 3
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- II. Using VOICE.EXE
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- VOICE.EXE is a voice driver for standalone use, or use through
- PC-VCO or COM-AND. When used standalone, load VOICE.EXE (run it)
- BEFORE loading COM-AND or PC-VCO. Used this way, VOICE.EXE becomes a
- terminate and stay resident utility.
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- If NO TSRs have been loaded AFTER VOICE.EXE, the VEND.COM utility may
- be used to remove a TSR VOICE driver. This is true even if COM-AND
- or PC-VCO have loaded VOICE and then terminated without terminating
- VOICE. WARNING: If you load VOICE, then load another TSR, DO NOT
- remove VOICE with VEND. You would leave a 'hole' in DOS's memory
- map... and DOS gets cranky...
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- Both PC-VCO and the TALKER.OVL overlay are capable of loading VOICE
- on demand, and terminating when complete. This is the best usage,
- as memory isn't tied up by VOICE except when it is used.
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- -------------------------------------------------------------------
- That's all there is to it. PC-VCO and TALKER both perform text-to-
- phoneme conversion and pass the phonemes to VOICE.EXE for sounding.
- The quality is about what you'd expect without digital-to-analogue
- conversion... but its a start.
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- VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 4
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- III. Program requirements
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- This program can only function on an IBM PC or DOS compatible
- machine.
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- Certain I/O is done through the 'Handle' oriented I/O routines
- added to DOS 2.0. Therefore DOS 2.0 is a minimum requirement.
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- VOICE (Version 1.1) requires 21K for itself. You need 117K
- (minimally) for PC-VCO, and considerably more it you load PC-VCO
- through a DOS gateway, or COM-AND's accessory menu. 384K is
- recommended, as a minimum.
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- VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 5
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- IV. Author information
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- VOICE was written using Microsoft Macro-Assembler. The author likes
- assembler. Assembly language is an entirely appropriate vehicle for
- some of the program, and a not-inappropriate vehicle for the rest.
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- The author of this program is R. Scott McGinnis of Chicago,
- Illinois. GEnie and Delphi ID: TARTAN. Comment and suggestions
- (and criticism in moderation) are welcomed:
-
- CABER Software
- R. (Scott) McGinnis
- P.O. Box 3607 Mdse Mart
- Chicago, IL 60654-0607
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- I wish to thank my wife, Elizabeth, for offering her voice for
- digitization. Her voice provides a reasonable mid-range value. My
- own voice is rather low. Speaking pitch is varied by control of the
- output sample frequency (varying the speed of output if you wish),
- and her voice is nicely centered in the desirable range. My voice
- turns 'Donald Duck' quickly.
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- This TSR utility may not be distributed without PC-VCO or COM-AND.
- It is offered ONLY for use with PC-VCO and COM-AND. COM-AND/PC-VCO
- are 'shareware". If you USE COM-AND/PC-VCO/VOICE after evaluating
- it, you MUST pay for it (see the file REGISTER.DOC).
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- Registrants of PC-VCO are invited to contact the author if they wish
- to use VOICE.EXE in other applications.
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- VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 6
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- A. VOICE.EXE arpabet
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- Phonemes are represented to VOICE.EXE textually.
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- Vowels Consonants
- ------------------------- -----------------------
- IY beet IH bit R red L yellow
- EH bet AE bat W away Y yellow
- AA hot AH under M men N men
- AO talk UH look NX sing
- ER bird OH border S sail SH rush
- AX about IX solid F fed TH thin
- Z has ZH pleasure
- Dipthongs V very DH then
- ------------------------- CH check J judge
- EY made AY hide /H hole /C loch
- OY boil AW power B but P put
- OW low UW crew D dog T toy
- G guest K camp
- Special symbols
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- DX pity (tongue flap)
- Q kitt_en (glottal stop)
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- RX car LX call
- (postvocalic R and L)
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- QX (silent vowel)
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- Contractions
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- UL = AXL IL = IXL
- UM = AXM IM = IXM
- UN = AXN IN = IXN
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- Punctuation
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- Digits 1-9 stress marks (unimplemented in version 1.1)
- . sentence terminator
- ? sentence terminator
- - phrase delimiter
- , clause delimiter
- ( ) noun phrase delimiters (unimplemented in version 1.1)
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- For example:
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- "I can talk" would be written "ay kaen tawk "
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- Version 1.1: 921012 Appendices
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- VOICE: VOICE driver for PC-VCO Page 7
-
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- B. SPEECH.COM arpabet
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- Phonemes are represented to SPEECH.COM textually. Individual
- phonemes are separated by "-" to make them sound smoothly.
- Phonemes are:
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- a - tApe ae - hAt ah - fAther
- aw - AWful b - Book ch - CHurch
- d - Dog ee - fEEt eh - sEt
- f - Find g - Get i - I
- ih - sIt j - Just k - King
- l - Look m - Make n - New
- oh - hOE oo - bOOt p - Peek
- r - Ring s - See sh - SHeep
- t - Tool th - tooTH tz - THe
- u - lOOk uh - Up v - View
- w - Window wh - Where y - You
- z - Zoo zh - whatever.
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- " " - pause between words
- "-" - connect two or more phonemes
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- For example:
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- "I can talk" would be written "i k-ae-n t-aw-k "
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