Slow Spelling with Heather

[SFCurley]

I have a regex that targets 3-character, all cap words (e.g., ABC) to spell them out using the spell tag. (I tried using a regex that allowed back references to the three letters to be read as $1 $2 $3, but the letter "A" always gets sounded out as a short A, which is annoying.) All works fine with the two NeoSpeech voices. The problem is that Heather spells the letters out too slowly. A. . . . . . . . B . . . . . . . C, which is also very annoying. Tried putting a rate tag (both inside and outside of the spell tags) using both speed and absspeed settings set to 10 (and to 30, just for kicks), but it does not help.

So, two questions:

1. Is there a way to have Heather spell faster than might be appropriate for a first grader?

2. If not, anybody have any ideas about how to accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish (including "A"s been spelled out as a long A) and have Heather (and the other voices) spell out at faster speed?

Thanks.

[D.Leikin]

Hi Sean,

A possible solution is to create a custom alias for Heather by using VMan.exe, permanently switch this alias into spelling mode and adjust its rate. So when you need Heather to spell out some text you will just have to tag the alias on that text:

Word: {{re=(your expression)}}
Pronunciation: <voice required="name = [The name of the custom alias]">$1</voice>

To create a custom alias:

1. Launch VMan.exe
2. Right click Heather
3. Select New
4. Enter a name for the new Heather (say, ‘Heather Spelling’)
5. Under the Reading tab, switch to spelling mode
6. Under the Pauses tab, set the Comma pause to 'Very short'
7. Under the General tab, select comfortable rate
8. Press the ‘floppy’ button to save the new voice

Heather’s custom alias will show up in TextAloud as a new Acapela voice. So you will now have two Heathers, one of which (Acapela Heather22k) will continue to read as it used to, and the new Heather (Acapela Heather Spelling) would spell out any text you give her.

P.S. If VMan.exe is still sitting in the BIN folder, just move it to \Program Files\NextUp-Acapela Multimedia\ to be able to run it.

[SFCurley]

Thank you VERY much, Dimtry (or is it Dimitri?). It worked perfectly and an excellent idea. I knew it would be you, Jim, or Ken who might have an idea. I am in your debt.

A related question just out of curiosity: is there a way to create an alias for the NeoSpeech voices? Not that I need it, but just curious.

Thanks again.

--Sean

[D.Leikin]

Glad to know that recipe worked.

I’ve got the impression that custom aliases can only be created with Acapela and Cepstral voices, but Cepstrals’ aliases wouldn’t show up in TextAloud and are only visible in Swifttalker.

Dmitry - Del

P.S. Yeah, my name is an issue, so people usually call me just Del (DEL are my initials). Much easier on the ear, even if it gets spelled out

[SFCurley]

Thanks, Dmitry (or DEL). Personally, I like Dmitry -- more of a "ring" to it.

Regards,

Sean

[Bunger Henry]

What is VMan.exe?

[SFCurley]

VMan = the Acapela Voice MANager, which lets you create aliases of the voices, so you can essentially copy an Acapela voice, say Heather, and change that voice's properties so you have Heather and Heather-2, which may have didn't speed and pitch properties.

As it turned out, I implemented Dmitri's idea, and then came up with an even simpler idea . . . If I parse a three character abbreviation into it's component letters, and then had it pronounced as $1 $2 $3, the NeoSpeech voices pronounced the "A" correctlyas a long "A", but Heather did not. The simpler solution was to use the Acapela dictionary editor to change Heather's pronounciation of a capital "A" to make the long A sound. Problem solved!

[D.Leikin]

Sean, I was not at all sure what indefinite articles at the beginning of a sentence would sound like after changing pronunciation rule for uppercase letter ‘A’ with DicoEdit. Just curious if Heather pronounces them correctly on your machine.

[SFCurley]

Hi Dmitri,

Yes, I thought about that and Heather does, as a result, pronounce the "A" at the beginning of a sentence as a long A, which is fine with me as a I personally do the same thing in speech. I imagine there is a regex workaround to have a lone A at the beginning of a sentence, paragraph, or article pronouned as a small "a", which would cause the more usual short a sound.