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From: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org (Eric Bohlman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: SPEECH SYNTHESIZERS
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Date: 22 Apr 91 19:14:06 GMT
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Index Number: 15088

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

It depends on whether you want an internal or external and on how much you
want to spend.  A very good internal synthesizer is the $279 Doubletalk PC
from RC Systems.  Like all synthesizers, it takes a bit of getting used to if
you've spent years with another one, but I for one think the quality is
exceptionally good.  A big advantage is that it does all the text-to-speech
translation with its internal processor, so it doesn't steal time from your
computer's processor.

The same "speech engine" is available in a portable external unit as the
Laptalk from Roger Smith (not to be confused with the Laptalker from AFI).

Slightly more expensive is the Soundingboard from GW Micro, which has received
very good reviews here.  Doug Geoffray from GW can tell you more about it;
he's a regular participant here.

As far as software goes, the latest version of Tinytalk, the $75 shareware
screen reader, will be available shortly on many of the boards carrying this
conference (some of them have an earlier version which should give you a good
feel for what it can do).  It supports nearly all the major synthesizers,
including the ones mentioned here.

--
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