Polaxis Terminal / Emy Speech Synthesizer

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via this auction

You can find demos in previous posts here.

"Terminal is a standalone modular speech synthesizer containing Emy and a little PCB to provide power and extended connectivity.

It is powered via a USB connector. The casing allows adding any of the Vox modules inside just by removing four screws.

Terminal / EMY can be used in a CV-controlled environment or act as a MIDI instrument.

You can install the various firmware on the SD card before powering the device.

A pair of shunts allows the user to connect Terminal either as a MIDI USB unit or as a host for a USB keyboard for text entry. TRS jack MIDI Type B connector.


Emy is a versatile speech synthesizer that can host a hardware synthesizer on its back via a mikroBUS port. This port allows transforming Emy in a matter of a minute. TMS5220/TMS5100 / TMC0281 (Speak & Spell) included.

LPC data are read from the SD card so an infinite vocabulary can be loaded

Sound and vocabulary can be produced by concatenating allophones and prosody markers from the text file to affect rate, duration, and pitch. No limits here!

The OLED crisp display allows browsing amongst the files and the lines within files to pick the sound the user wants to generate.

Speech rendering can be tweaked in real-time to affect, rate, stretch, bend, pitch, and energy.

All the potentiometers have CV entries attached to them

Emy produces sounds in 3 major modes: Speech, Repeat, and VCO.

In Speech mode, the speech starts with a gate signal and is completed before waiting for a new gate signal. The speech has priority.

In Repeat mode, the speech starts and stops with the gate signal going high or low.

The gate has the priority, and the speech repeats while the gate is high. This mode is handy to create crazy rhythms.

In VCO mode, the LPC engine loops while the gate is high, producing steady notes."

Polaxis Mea MIDI

video by Polaxis

Playlist:

1. Mea MIDI

Mea vox now behaves as an external MIDI instrument :
- MIDI note assigned to 39 phonemes.
- Velocity and Pitch bend supported.
- Can hold the note for singing effect.

I renamed the notes with Ableton Live MIDI Effects rack to help in sequencing phonemes by their sound. It is very easy to build a sequence!

2. Mea numbers

Emy with Mea-vox addon board. Testing the new version of the code with number grouped (0-1,0-9,0-20) Emy's Usb port is connected to a computer to render the video. (driven by the speech) inspired by Alva Noto & Anne-James Chaton

3. MEA now with phoneme groups (video done with Processing)

Emy hosting the vintage MEA8000 french speech synthesizer chip.
New Phoneme groups (Voyelles/Consonnes/Syllables/Tous)
Playing with phonemes, inspired by Alva Noto & Anne-James Chaton
Emy’s serial port connected to Processing to display the phonemes in sync.

Emy VAX as talking printer

video upload by Polaxis

"Emy/ VAX firmware update.
It can now behave like a talking printer.
Use a standard USB port to 'print' to Emy and have VAX vocalize the text.

Here an infinite text generated by markovify a Markov chain algorithm in python using a text from Project Gutenberg: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle"

Polaxis Emy Colors

Published on Apr 18, 2018 Jean-Luc Deladrière

"Emy too has some new colors"

Emy

Emy firmware update: now with the Speak & Spell sounds

Published on Oct 16, 2019 Polaxis

"Added the beeps and the voice from the Speak&Spell to Emy’s latest firmware. Here in the standalone Terminal version with wireless keyboards.⁣"

Polaxis Emy USB Qwerty Keyboard Demo

Published on Jan 30, 2019 Polaxis

"Emy can now be connected to a USB keyboard and render sounds in 4 modes : Single key, Spell, Speak and ... Morse code"

Dystopian

Published on Aug 4, 2018 Polaxis

"Emy playing a phonetic file while displaying the text on a BA63 display.(thank to a MikroElektronika click board attached to Emy's mikroBUS port)"

Extended Speech Synthesis with Emy & Kaiwa from Polaxis at Superbooth 2018

Published on May 12, 2018 DivKidVideo

"Polaxis originally came into the eurorack format with their module Talko (demo here - https://youtu.be/hYwyYMML8Rg) but they've since expanded their speech synthesis range with Emy & Kaiwa. So here they are at Superbooth!

We're proud to have our Superbooth 2018 content sponsored by www.thonk.co.uk"

Radio FM vox on Polaxis Emy

video upload by Polaxis

"A little demo to show the Radio FM vox in action

The module is built with the RDA5807 FM radio chip and hosted on Emy"

MEA now with phoneme groups (video done with Processing)

Published on Dec 7, 2019 Polaxis

Emy hosting the vintage MEA8000 french speech synthesizer chip.
New Phoneme groups (Voyelles/Consonnes/Syllables/Tous)
Playing with phonemes, inspired by Alva Noto & Anne-James Chaton
Emy’s serial port connected to Processing to display the phonemes in sync.

Polaxis Emy LPC1

Published on Jun 15, 2017

"Cette vidéo traite de Emy LPC1"

See the Polaxis label below for more.

VAX singing compilation

Published on Nov 16, 2019 Polaxis

"In action: VAX the DECtalk speech engine for EMY in singing mode, reading song files from the SD card.

These files are just text files with phonemes duration and pitch. Many songs are lying around on the web. Check for 'DECtalk' singing or Moonbase Alpha songs...

Can you recognize them?"

Funny, almost thought someone was singing through the system. You can find more posts featuring the Polaxis EMY here.

Emy Allophone mode

Published on Jan 31, 2018 Jean-Luc Deladrière

"Emy reading allophones from a text file on the SD card. An 8 step sequencer is connected to the Sound jack to choose the line within the file. The Gate triggers the speech."

See the Polaxis label below for more.

Kaiwa-vox on Emy

Published on Mar 26, 2017 Jean-Luc Deladrière

"Testing Kaiwa-vox mikroBUS submodule on Emy first prototype"

See the Polaxis label below for more.

SpeakJetVox

Published on Apr 29, 2018 Jean-Luc Deladrière

"Testing the Speakjet chip on Emy. Just playing random phonemes while fiddling with speed/pitch/bend/duration."

Polaxix Emy.

Emy new firmware loader

Published on Dec 23, 2019 Polaxis

"You can now keep various firmware on the SD card to switch from one version to the other from the main menu.
Useful if you have an add-on board or you want to play with the MIDI version of the code."

Atarivox+ Speech Synthesizer Review | Gray Defender

Published on May 16, 2018 GRay Defender

via Atari Age

"The AtariVox+ is a self-contained speech/music synthesizer and memory card for the Atari 2600 and 7800, Vectrex, and other video game consoles with compatible controller ports.

The heart of the unit is the SpeakJet--an amazing chip with phonetic speech, preset sounds and a five channel music synthesizer. All of these are controlled by the console via a serial interface emulated through the driver software.

Similar to chips used in 80s speech synthesizers but with extended capabilities, the speech retains a nice retro quality, making it a perfect partner for classic consoles.

Also onboard the AtariVox+ is 32K of non-volatile memory which can be used as a memory card. The flash memory will retain data without power for 200+ years.

An allocation scheme has been devised so that no file is ever overwritten, allowing many different games to store data on just one unit.

Dip Switch Settings

The AtariVox+ contains a bank of dip switches that allow you to select which mode the AtariVox+ will operate in:

AtariVox - for the Atari 2600 and 7800 (default setting)
VecVoice - for compatibility with earlier Vectrex speech synthesis - mainly for the speech-hacked version of Berzerk (Verzerk) and Y.A.S.I.
VecVox - for the Vectrex."

The SpeakJet has been used in a number of synth projects including the Flame Talking Synth and the Polaxix Emy eurorack module. See the SpeakJet label below for more.

Robovox Numbers demo

Published on Apr 4, 2020 Polaxis

"Robovox installed in Terminal, the standalone version of Emy
Sequenced in MIDI, white noise as an external carrier for the growling vocoder effect."

Superbooth 2018 Videos by Thonk

Published on May 4, 2018 Thonk Synth DIY

Website: http://www.thonk.co.uk, where you can find kits for the above.

Playlist (1st six previously posted):
Superbooth 18 - Hyperwalkthrough
Superbooth 18 - Bastl Timber DIY
Superbooth 18 - Sonic Potions Buzzcut and Dispatch
Superbooth 18 - Touellskouarn Strakal Orsel
Superbooth 18 - Worng TMLPGX
Superbooth 18 - Befaco Muxlicer, Burst and KickAll
Superbooth 18 - LPZW
Superbooth 18 - Evaton Technologies RF Transmitter and HDMI Link
Superbooth 18 - Music Thing Modular Startup
Superbooth 18 - Polaxis Emy and Kaiwa
Superbooth 18 - Shakmat Clock O'pawn, Gemini's Path and White Gallop
Superbooth 18 - Ginkosynthese New Sampleslicer & Mic modules
Superbooth 18 - God's Box 'Loose Fruit' and 'Lollipop'
Superbooth 18 - Random Source TKB, Sequencer and Ring

VAX reading the complete Apollo 11 Mission transcript.⁣

Published on Nov 27, 2019 Polaxis

"Various DECtalk voices are used to mimic the dialog between Eagle and Houston.
End of lines are used to trigger beeps via the Aux signal.
Morse message is done with Emy in keyboard-Morse mode.
Audio Ring Modulation processed by the Zoom MS-50G.
(the VAX file is available here: https://www.polaxis.be/download/apoll...)"