## ## ## ## ## ######## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ######## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ######## ######## ########## release 0.3 - February 98 -------------------------------------------------------------- US1 - An American English male voice for the MBROLA synthesizer Created by : Babel Technology SA Speech Synthesis Group -------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents -------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Description of the US1 diphone database 2.0 Installation and tests 3.0 Announcement 4.0 Acknowledgements -------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Description of the US1 diphone database -------------------------------------------------------------- US1 is a diphone database for american english, consisting of 2025 diphones, male voice. The following phoneme symbols are assumed in our diphone sets. It slightly differ for the SAMPA alphabet since american english is not british english. SYMBOL PRONOUNCED LIKE IN p drop proxy p_h pod (aspirated allophone of p) t plot tromp t_h top (aspirated allophone of t) 4 later (flapped allophone of t) k rock crop k_h cot (aspirated allophone of k) b cob box d nod dot g jog gospel f prof fox s boss sonic S wash shop tS notch chop T cloth thomp v salve volley z was zombie Z garage jacques dZ dodge jog D clothe thy m palm mambo n john novel N bong l doll lockwood r star roxanne j yacht w show womble h harm r= her urgent i even A arthur O all u oodles I illness E else { apple V nut U good @ about EI able AI island OI oyster @U over aU out The diphone matrix is square, no diphone lacking... of course diphone like t-N may not sound optimal :-) -------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 Installation and Tests -------------------------------------------------------------- If you have not copied the MBROLA software yet, please consult the MBROLA project homepage and get it. Copy us1.zip into the mbrola directory and unzip it : unzip us1.zip (or pkunzip on PC/DOS) Try mbrola us1 TEST/alice.pho test.wav to create a sound file for a short excerpt of Alice in Wonderland. In this example the audio file follows the RIFF Wave format. But depending on the extension test.au, test.aif, or test.raw other file formats can be obtained. Listen to it with your favorite sound editor, and try the other command files (*.pho) to have a better idea of the quality of speech that can be synthesized with MBROLA and the US1 database. On Unix systems you can pipe the audio ouput to the sound player as on a HP : mbrola us1 phone.pho - | splayer -srate 16000 -l16 Also refer to the readme.txt file provided with the mbrola software for using it. -------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 Announcement -------------------------------------------------------------- This database is a beta release, and we will take your comments into account for future updates. Updates will be announced on the mbrola-interrest mailing list. For more information and demos, consult the Babel Technology SA home page at: http://www.babeltech.be -------------------------------------------------------------- 4.0 Acknowledgments -------------------------------------------------------------- We would like to thank Vincent Pagel for his efforts in desingning this database before xmas. -------------------------------------------------------------- Babel Technology SA Speech Synthesis Group 33 bvd Dolez B7000 MONS Belgium Tel: +32 65 37 42 75 Fax: +32 65 37 42 76 Email: secr@babeltech.be WWW: http://www.babeltech.be --------------------------------------------------------------