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List:       kde-accessibility
Subject:    Re: How to configure Qtspeech - was configuring speech-dispatcher - festival TTS works!!
From:       Gustav Degreef <gustav97 () gmail ! com>
Date:       2019-10-04 15:34:22
Message-ID: a1af0642-c8b1-a382-a35a-ed30b8dded7e () gmail ! com
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Hi Folks,

I got festival to work!!  I also posted on the opensuse list, and with
their help and all the input I got here, I have a new voice.  It is an
improvement.  As Simion said, it is only in English, but it is a huge
step for me.  I will eventually try to get other voices to work.

In addition to the below steps, I found out that ESC :wq ENTER is the
right command to exit and save the crontab command I had asked help
with.  After that I used the spd-conf script repeatedly to figure out
what was missing.  In opensuse (Leasp 15) festival needs an additional
package to work -   "festival-freebsoft-utils" . I got it as a tarball from

https://freebsoft.org/festival-freebsoft-utils

The install instructions are in the readme file and were easy to
follow.  Using the spd-conf script then helped me iron out the rest of
the details.

I am very grateful to all of you who gave input in helping me finally solve this.  \
The sound of the espeak voice never bothered me.  It bothers my partner and recently \
turned off a very dear friend who first heard it.  It made me realize that it gives a \
very bad impression of linux.  I am very much encouraged by people's help, and I am \
going to try to find even bette voices.  In the process of getting festival to work, \
I saw that the code has essentially not changed in 13 years!  I recently read  an \
article on the state of the art of linux TTS, it gave me a push to find a voice that \
sounds more human and gives a better impression to others.  Thanks!  Gustav




On 9/29/19 3:53 PM, Simion wrote:
> 
> Hi, crontab command will use your default CLI editor, so is probably
> opening with vim, vim is notorious for beeing imposible to exit from,
> 
.....
> 
> I can't help with festival
> 
> On 9/29/19 10:18 PM, Gustav Degreef wrote:
> > Thanks for the explanation.   I get stuck in the same place.   When I run
> > the "crontab -e" command, I get a window where I can past the command
> > specified, but then I don't know how to proceed from there.   I read the
> > man page for crontab and it says that once the commands are specified,
> > you have to exit the editor that is specified (I guess in my system) and
> > then the crontab file becomes active.   I have no idea where to proceed
> > after I past the command into the window. I tried typing exit,      q and
> > control q but nothing happens.   The menu of the window says to save the
> > output, but when I try that it gives a blank box to type a name to save
> > it to.   Any help would be appreciated.   Some years ago, I was also stuck
> > in this place.   Is there any simple way to make festival an active
> > server?   Gustav.
> > 
> > On 9/26/19 10:32 PM, Jeremy Whiting wrote:
> > > Hi Gustav,
> > > 
> > > Just out of curiosity, which distribution and version of linux are you
> > > using?
> > > 
> > > To answer your question though, crontab is an application that runs
> > > things at different times on a unix based system. crontab -e is a
> > > command to edit the cron table of commands. Running crontab -e and
> > > adding the line you mentioned:
> > > 
> > > @restart /usr/bin/festival --server
> > > 
> > > will make festival --server run at each boot of the computer I believe.
> > > 
> > > Hope that helps. Another possibility according to arch linux's wiki
> > > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Festival#Can't_open_/dev/dsp is
> > > to add some lines to the festival configuration to allow it to open
> > > the /dev/dsp
> > > 
> > > BR,
> > > Jeremy
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 7:25 PM Gustav Degreef <gustav97@gmail.com
> > > <mailto:gustav97@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > > 
> > > Hello folks,
> > > 
> > > I edited this thread some to make it easier to follow my current post.
> > > It is not directed at Simion, though his comments are helpful to
> > > make my
> > > post clearer.  
> > > As a result of these discussions I have more clearly understood
> > > the role
> > > of speech-dispatcher.  Since will be used with Qtspeech, it makes
> > > sense
> > > to work with it.    So,  Perching with google   I understood how
> > > central
> > > speech-dispatcher is to linux TTS.   I tried again to configure
> > > Festival
> > > with speech-dispatcher.   I want to try and configure a different
> > > voice.  
> > > I wan to try and experiment with different voices.   Espeak is OK,
> > > but I
> > > feel I have to move forward.   But again I am stuck.   Here is
> > > where I am at.
> > > 
> > > I could never get speech output even on the CLI.
> > > 
> > > The error I would get was -festival: can't open /dev/dsp
> > > 
> > > It is due to a bug.     The workaround is:
> > > Create ~/.festivalrc with the following content
> > > 
> > > ;use ALSA
> > > (Parameter.set 'Audio_Method 'Audio_Command)
> > > (Parameter.set 'Audio_Command "aplay -q -c 1 -t raw -f s16 -r $SR
> > > $FILE")
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I then needed to configure speech-dispatcher, so I ran:
> > > 
> > > spd-conf
> > > 
> > > as a regular user.  It creates the speech-dispatcher global server
> > > configuration file:
> > > 
> > > in ~/.config/speech-dispatcher/|speechd.conf
> > > 
> > > This configures speech-dispatcher (interactively) with a number of
> > > variables, the default voice is espeak.
> > > 
> > > I then edit speechd.conf, which allows for many different
> > > voices.  I change:
> > > 
> > > > #AddModule "espeak" "sd_espeak" "espeak.conf"||
> > > > 
> > > > AddModule "festival" "sd_festival" "festival.conf"|
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > and|
> > > > > > > 
> > > 
> > > > #DefaultModule espeak |
> > > 
> > > > DefaultModule festival 
The next step .... "|We  need to run |festival| as a server in order to
make
> > > > speech-dispatcher| use it as default. We can do that by adding
> > > the following line at the end of the file that's open when we use the
> > > command: |sudo crontab -e
> > > 
> > > > @reboot /usr/bin/festival --server
> > > 
> > > > > > I can't understand the last step.   I've never used crontab
> > > fore, any
> > > help would be appreciated, Gustav.|
> > > > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On 9/22/19 9:29 AM, Simion wrote:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > snip
> > > 
> > > > As I said I suggest to get used of using faster and faster voices,
> > > > your family will understand and you will read same texts 2 times
> > > > faster so you gain time, at that speed any voice will sound robotic,
> > > > this would not work if you want other to listen with you (but
> > > you can
> > > > have a normal speed and a fast speed talker in jovie)
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > On 9/22/19 2:54 PM, Gustav Degreef wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > snip
> > > > > 
> > > > > From what you and others are saying and from what I've
> > > read, I think I
> > > > > understand better.  Correct me if I am wrong, but don't
> > > you have
> > > > > to tell
> > > > > speech-dispatcher which voice (e-speak, festival, etc.) to
> > > use?  If I
> > > > > can figure out how to tell speech-dispatcher which voice to use
> > > then
> > > > > Jovie (or Qtspeech) will then output my choice?  I have
> > > looked
> > > > > into it,
> > > > > and there are several (about 6 different) voices I can use in
> > > Linux.
> > > > > 


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