Each string or text can be read out using a different voice.
The voices which are included with the current and older Speech Manager software are listed with the tables below.
MacinTalk II voices:
Ben
Boris
Brenda
Mariel
Marvin
Mr. Hughes
Otis
Robovox
Xero
Votron
MacinTalk III voices:
Albert
Bad News
Bahh
Bells
Boing
Bubbles
Cellos
Deranged
Fred
Good News
Hysterical
Junior
Kathy
Pipe Organ
Princess
Ralph
Trinoids
Whisper
Zarvox
MacinTalk Pro:
Agnes
Agnes, small
Agnes, high quality
Bruce
Bruce, small
Bruce, high quality
Female Voice
Female Voice, Compressed
Male Voice
Male Voice, Compressed
Victoria
Victoria, small
Victoria, high quality
All voices are supposed to be used with English text only. And I agree, the Speech Manager isn't doing a very good job when speaking Dutch!!! But it does a nice job of special strings like amounts.
For some unknown reason the MacinTalk III voices don't return control until they are finished speaking. Also, the open and pause option with SP Voice Text doesn't seem to work with them.
When you have received other voice files from any other source, you can put them into the System Folder or the Extensions Folder and restart the computer. Also restart the computer when any voice file is trashed or moved outside the System Folder. All the installed voices are then available to you inside 4D using Speech Pack.
Additional voices for different language can be purchased from:
TELIA PROMOTOR INFOVOX AB
TTS Sales Division
P.O. Box 2069
S-171 02 SOLNA
SWEDEN
Phone: +46 8 764 35 00
Fax: +46 8 735 78 76
E-mail (internet): tts-sales@infovox.se
They provide hardware solutions but also several languages: American English, British English, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. But not Dutch! :-(
Each string or text can be read using a different voice. You specify the type of voice by the name it has, or you use an asterik (*) to use the Speech Manager's default voice. The wildcard ”#“ is also possible, which gives you a robot voice (”Xero“ if available or otherwise the first robot voice found).
Any voice name you pass must be the exact name of a voice installed and is case-sensitive.
In the future a control panel will be included with the Speech Manager which allows the user to set the default voice. Now it is set by the Speech Manager and cannot be changed without special software. Because the default voice will be a user changable setting, Speech Pack doesn't allow you to set it.
But suppose there are two voices with the names ”Female Voice“ and ”Female Voice, Compressed“. If you don't mind which one is used then specify ”Female Voice“, if it's not installed the first voice found which starts with that name will be used. Thus pass ”Female Voice“ and if it's not installed ”Female Voice, Compressed“ is used. It doesn't work the otherway around.
After you opened a speech channel by using SP Voice Open you reference to it by the value you received from the same function. A reference value of zero (0) is the default value for an unopened channel. See the description of the SP Voice Open function for more details.