Re: How to configure Qtspeech - actually configuring speech-dispatcher

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 <[email protected]> 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 I do not understand: "|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
> >>
> >> Â 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.
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>