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"DECtalk Express, external speech synthesizer, sound module used by composers, scientists, sound designers and disabled people users include Dialogic, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Stephen Hawking, ATT and others.
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DECtalk PC is a speech synthesizer card designed to translate ASCII text files into synthesized speech output. From there, it can get interesting.
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This is an external Dectalk Speech Synthesizer useable with virtually every computer PC, Mac Linux et al... This is considered to be the gold standard, the best and most well known of all the hardware speech synthesizers. There are a number of on board standard voices including "Perfect Paul” the default voice of the unit, appearing on the Momentary Lapse of Reason album. There are 8 basic presets plus a user defineable voice : Perfect Paul, Huge Harry, Betty , Rita, Ursula, Kit ,Dennis, Frank, NV (user defined). There are voices in British English and other languages available. At one time the software and voices were quite expensive but time and ubiquity has eroded the cost and it is an inexpensive proposition to design voices now.
This is a very programmable and playable useful board. It can be used as a musical instrument or voice output in place of a monitor. It is easily modified both input and output and the 7.2 rechargeable flat pack battery makes it completely hum and noise free. The power supply has a ferrite bead that cuts down in hf noise and some ESDI.
