acapela multimedia 6 user guide - narod.rutts-alenka.narod.ru/pdf/acamul-user-6.pdf ·...

www.acapela-group.com, [email protected] > In Belgium: 33 boulevard Dolez, 7000 Mons. Tel +32(0)65 37 42 75 > In France: 3939 La Lauragaise, BP58309, 31683 Labège cedex. Tel + 33(0)5 62 24 71 00 > In Sweden : Englundavägen 7, PO Box 1328, 17126 Solna.

Acapela Multimedia 6

User guide

Ref. : AcaMul-User-6

Date : 26/03/07

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Acapela Multimedia TTS

User guide

AcaMul-User-6

www.acapela-group.com

Document revisions

Version Date Subject Author(s)

V 1.0 02/11/27 First Version BabTTS 1.0

Laurent Hubaut Jean-Michel Reghem

V 1.1 Rev 23048

03/02/19 Update Francois Bataille Laurent Hubaut

Jean-Michel Reghem

V 1.1

Rev 23076

03/03/17 Update Laurent Hubaut

Jean-Michel Reghem

V 1.2 03/05/19 Update Laurent Hubaut

Jean-Michel Reghem

V 1.3 04/07/05 Update (BrightSpeech 1.3 and Babil 4.1)

Laurent Hubaut

Jean-Michel Reghem

Francois Bataille

V 1.4 04/09/05 Update BabTTS 1.4 Laurent Hubaut

V 1.5 05/08/29 Update BabTTS 1.5 François Bataille

V 6.0 05/12/22 Update Acapela Multimedia TT6 Windows

François Bataille

V 6.001 06/09/04 Update Acapela Multimedia TTS 6 for Mac

OS X

Jean-Michel Reghem

V 6.002 06/10/19 Update Jean-Michel Reghem

V 6.003 06/11/02 Update Jean-Michel Reghem

V 6.010 07/01/19 Update Acapela Multimedia 6.010

windows

Laurent Hubaut

Jean-Michel Reghem

V 6.011 07/02/12 Minor update (dongle) Jean-Michel Reghem

V 6.012 07/03/12 Update Acapela Multimedia 6.010 Mac

OS X

Jean-Michel Reghem

V 6.013 07/03/26 Update Acapela 6.010 Win32

François Bataille

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Terms and Conditions By using this software you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions below:

Software License Agreement

ACAPELA GROUP SA

Bvd Dolez 33 B 7000 MONS BE 0460.125.240 RPM MONS


IMPORTANT - READ BEFORE USING

Licence Agreement and Limited Warranty

Please read this license agreement ("license") carefully before pressing the "agree" button. By pressing "agree," you are agreeing to be bound by the terms of this license. If you do not agree to the terms of this license, press "disagree" and (if applicable) return the ACAPELA GROUP software to the dealer where you obtained it. Depending on the terms of delivery of your dealer you are eligible for a (partial) refund.

LICENSE

You may use the programs and manuals on a single computer and copy the programs for back up purposes in support of your use of the programs on a single computer, provided all copyright and other proprietary notices are included on such copy, and true and accurate records of such copy are kept.

The term "Use", used above, shall not include the right to replicate, redistribute, broadcast or perform in public the sound files generated by the ACAPELA Text-to-speech technologies for commercial purposes. This specific type of use of ACAPELA TTS technology is subject to a separate licensing agreement.

You may not decompile, disassemble or transfer the programs or manuals in whole or in part, except upon ACAPELA GROUP’s prior written approval, or your license and any express warranties granted herein will automatically terminate. In addition, you may not use or copy the programs or manuals, in whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license or upon ACAPELA GROUP's prior written approval, or your license will automatically terminate.

TERM

This license is effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by returning it to ACAPELA GROUP or destroying the programs and any copy you have made of them, and the manuals. This license will also terminate upon conditions set forth elsewhere in this Agreement or if you fail to comply with any term and condition of this Agreement. Unless otherwise stated in this Agreement, you agree upon such termination to return to ACAPELA GROUP or destroy the programs together with the copy, and the manuals.

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DISK, PROGRAMS AND MANUALS

The programs and the manuals are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the software is with you. Should the software prove defective, you (and not ACAPELA GROUP or any ACAPELA GROUP's representative or any ACAPELA GROUP's licensors) agree to assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing or repair to the computer you are using it on.

ACAPELA GROUP does not warrant that the functions contained in the program will meet your requirements or that the operation of the programs will be uninterrupted or error free. However, ACAPELA GROUP warrants the disk on which the programs are furnished, to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of delivery to you as evidenced by a copy of your receipt. ACAPELA GROUP's sole liability in the event of a defective disk shall be to give you a replacement disk. To obtain warranty service or replacement, you must take the disk, or deliver it prepaid, together with a copy of your receipt, to ACAPELA GROUP.

Except to the extent prohibited by applicable law, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose on the disk is limited in duration to the duration of this limited warranty.

LIMITATIONS OF REMEDIES

In no event will ACAPELA GROUP, ACAPELA GROUP's representatives or ACAPELA GROUP's licensors be liable to you for any damages in excess of the license fee paid by you including, without limitation, any lost profits, business goodwill or other special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the disk, the programs or the manuals, or for any claim by any party, even if ACAPELA GROUP, ACAPELA GROUP's representatives or ACAPELA GROUP's licensors have been advised of the possibility of such claims or damages.

GENERAL

Some jurisdictions may not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, or allow limitations on how long a limited warranty lasts, so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you. You may not sell, rent, sublicense, assign or otherwise transfer this agreement or the programs or manuals in any form except upon ACAPELA GROUP's prior written approval. ACAPELA GROUP or ACAPELA GROUP's licensors retain title to and ownership of the programs and manuals and all trade secrets therein at all times. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, the other parts will remain valid.

You acknowledge that you have read this agreement, understand it and agree to be bound by it. You further agree that unless otherwise expressly agreed to in writing, it is the complete and exclusive statement of the agreement between us which supersedes any demonstration, advertisement, proposal, prior or contemporaneous agreement, oral or written, and any other communications between us or between us and the ACAPELA GROUP representative relating to the subject matter of this agreement.

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Notes

You may use this software for a 30-day trial. If you wish to continue using the software beyond the 30-day trial, you should purchase it.

Acapela Multimedia and Acapela Multimedia documentation are copyright Acapela Group 2006. All rights reserved. Infovox iVox is a trademark of Acapela

Group. Macintosh, Power Macintosh, Mac, and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft and

Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

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Table of contents 1. Introduction _________________________________________7

1.1. Acapela’s Text-To-Speech product range ________________________ 7

1.2. The technologies __________________________________________ 7 1.2.1. The Text Processor__________________________________________________ 7 1.2.2. Speech Synthesizers ________________________________________________ 8

1.3. HD and HQ/HQM voices _____________________________________ 9

1.4. About Manuals ____________________________________________ 9 1.4.1. Differences between operating systems _________________________________ 9 1.4.2. Documentation_____________________________________________________ 9

1.5. Package content__________________________________________ 10

2. Installation of the Software ____________________________12

2.1. Hardware and Software Requirements ________________________ 12 2.1.1. Hardware Requirements ____________________________________________ 12

2.1.1.1 IBM PC-Compatible Platforms _______________________________________ 12 2.1.1.2 Apple Macintosh Platforms__________________________________________ 12

2.1.2. Operating Systems Supported________________________________________ 13 2.1.3. Programming Languages Supported ___________________________________ 13

2.2. Installing the software_____________________________________ 14 2.2.1. Windows based systems ____________________________________________ 15 2.2.2. Linux based systems _______________________________________________ 18 2.2.3. Mac OS X based systems____________________________________________ 19

3. Testing the TTS engine ________________________________22

3.1. Testing the TTS engine in Microsoft Windows ___________________ 22 3.1.1. Playing a text _____________________________________________________ 22 3.1.2. Opening text files__________________________________________________ 23 3.1.3. Using the virtual keyboard___________________________________________ 23 3.1.4. Adapting Parameters _______________________________________________ 24

3.1.4.1 Pitch___________________________________________________________ 24 3.1.4.2 Speed__________________________________________________________ 24 3.1.4.3 Frequency ______________________________________________________ 24

3.2. Testing the TTS engine in Apple Mac OS X _____________________ 25 3.2.1. Testing with AcaCocoaDemo _________________________________________ 25 3.2.2. Testing the Speech Synthesis Manager installation________________________ 26

4. Text Tags __________________________________________27

4.1. Exceptions ______________________________________________ 27

4.2. Text Tags Syntax _________________________________________ 27

4.3. BabTTS supported tags ____________________________________ 28

5. Acapela Multimedia TTS License_________________________31

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5.1. The License Identity_______________________________________ 31 5.1.1. Site Authorization _________________________________________________ 31 5.1.2. Dongle Authorization _______________________________________________ 31 5.1.3. Bundling_________________________________________________________ 31

5.2. The License File __________________________________________ 32

5.3. The License Manager ______________________________________ 33 5.3.1. Microsoft Windows _________________________________________________ 33

5.3.1.1 Getting a free 30 days trial license ___________________________________ 33 5.3.1.2 Getting a developer license (computer locked) __________________________ 33 5.3.1.3 Other operations _________________________________________________ 34

5.3.2. Linux Systems ____________________________________________________ 36 5.3.2.1 Getting a commercial license________________________________________ 36 5.3.2.2 Starting the server________________________________________________ 36 5.3.2.3 Configuring the client _____________________________________________ 36

5.3.3. Apple Mac OS X ___________________________________________________ 37 5.3.3.1 Getting a free 30 days trial license ___________________________________ 37 5.3.3.2 Getting a developer license (computer locked) __________________________ 37 5.3.3.3 Developer license troubleshooting____________________________________ 37

6. User lexicons _______________________________________39

6.1. Definition _______________________________________________ 39

6.2. Features of lexicons _______________________________________ 40

6.3. Using the user lexicon editor ________________________________ 41 6.3.1. Location _________________________________________________________ 41 6.3.2. File Management __________________________________________________ 42 6.3.3. Editing Entries ____________________________________________________ 42 6.3.4. Other functions ___________________________________________________ 43

7. The Voice Manager (Microsoft Windows only) ______________44

7.1. Definition _______________________________________________ 44

7.2. The Voice Manager________________________________________ 44 7.2.1. Introduction ______________________________________________________ 44 7.2.2. The selection tree _________________________________________________ 44 7.2.3. The parameters tabs _______________________________________________ 45

7.2.3.1 Info tab ________________________________________________________ 45 7.2.3.2 General tab _____________________________________________________ 45 7.2.3.3 Reading mode tab ________________________________________________ 46 7.2.3.4 Pauses tab ______________________________________________________ 46 7.2.3.5 Equalizer tab ____________________________________________________ 47 7.2.3.6 Other controls ___________________________________________________ 48

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1. Introduction

1.1. Acapela’s Text-To-Speech product range

Acapela Group is a global player on the speech market providing a wide range of multilingual Text-To-Speech (TTS) and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) solutions covering most of the market needs. Please visit our website http://www.acapela-group.com for more information on our wide range of products.

1.2. The technologies

Generally speaking, a Text to Speech algorithm is composed of two main software modules:

• The text processor (Natural Language Processor – NLP) converts the text into a phonetic representation together with required information to generate the appropriate intonation;

• The speech synthesizer converts this phonetic representation of text into a speech signal.

These two software modules use databases to perform their assigned operation. All databases are language dependent. Databases used by the speech synthesizer are also language and voice dependent.

Text

Processor Text

Speech

Synthesizer Speech

Phonetic Representation

of Speech

1.2.1. The Text Processor The Text processor performs the analysis of the input text and converts this text into a sequence of phonemes combined with prosodic information. This software code is language independent for most of the Indo-European languages. The databases contain all information specific to the language. The Text Processor module is composed of:

• Pre-processor: analyses the text and defines each text unit (word), it extracts the

numbers, dates, abbreviations. • Phonetizer and dictionaries: converts each text unit received from the pre-

http://www.acapela-group.com/

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processor into a sequence of phonemes. Prosody generation: maps the rhythm• and the intonation onto the phonetic

This block transmits a phonetic string (phonemes, intonation and duration) to the speech synthesizer

o ensure a correct pronunciation of special words, access to USER dictionaries is implemented. The

1.2.2. Speech Synthesizers

representation of the text.

block. TUser Dictionary brings huge flexibility to the application developer and the final user. It allows the TTS to handle some linguistic info for specific words: proper names, specific professional terminology, abbreviations, acronyms, etc. (see section 4 for more details)

uring the last decades, the quality of TTS systems has moved from a robotic speech to a warm,

Formant synthesis: implements language-specific rules that model the production

Diphone concatenation: provides high quality speech synthesis based on

Unit selection: a library of pre-recorded human speech units generates a clear

Dnatural sounding voice. Our wide range of products is based on three technologies:

of speech by humans. The software is characterized by a very small footprint as well in terms of memory as CPU. This technology is available through the products Infovox 2xx and Kernel (Microsoft Windows only). For more information about those products, please contact our sales team ([email protected])

technique like the Babel’s patented Multi Band Resynthesis Overlap Add (MBROLA) systems. This approach allows spectral smoothing of the concatenation points, producing a much more natural voice than with other concatenative systems. The product using this technology are marked with letters HD (High Density). With this technology, only one instance of each speech unit (diphone) is stored in the database and signal processing (MBROLA) is applied to the units to modify its duration and pitch curve.

and natural-sounding voice, achieving a superb quality level unequalled before. This new-generation TTS solution significantly improves intelligibility and listening comfort of speech output. HQ (High Quality) or HQM (High Quality Medium size) is added to the name of the products using a synthesizer based on Unit Selection Speech Synthesis. Here, the approach is to try to find a unit in the database that almost matches the needed right duration and pitch curve and to apply to it as little as possible signal processing. HQ and HQM voices are based on the same technology, but the voice database size of a HQM voice is smaller than a HQ voice by using a bigger compression rate. The quality of HQ voices is better than for HQM.

mailto:[email protected]

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1.3. HD and HQ/HQM voices

While HD and HQ/HQM voices are based on different technologies, they are based on the same software architecture, called “BabTTS” in the sequel. Hence, the development of an application integrating HD or HQ/HQM voices is identical from the developer’s point of view. Only the selection of the voice will determine the underlying technology.

1.4. About Manuals

1.4.1. Differences between operating systems Acapela Multimedia 6 contains some small differences between Microsoft Windows, linux based systems and Mac OS versions. In the following sections, such specificities are highlighted by 3 different icons:

• for Microsoft Windows family

• for Linux based systems

• for Apple Mac OS X

1.4.2. Documentation

The documentation is divided in several documents:

User Guide, this document, describing the installation procedure (section 2) after a brief introduction to the products (section 1). The Software Development Kit comes with a “Type-and-Talk” demonstration (Microsoft Windows only) which is described in section 3. Section 4 explains how licenses are managed by Acapela Multimedia. Section 5 introduces the tags you can embed in text. Section 6 describes how to handle specific pronunciations through out the Lexicon Editor. Finally, Section 7 describes how to personalize voices to your needs throughout the Voice Manager (Microsoft Windows only).

Developers Guide

o The main document is Acapela Multimedia Software Development Kit (AcaMul-Sdk-6.pdf) which describes the BabTTS API. It initiates the developer to the basic mechanism involved in the development of applications in section 2 (Getting Started), section 3 (Creating your first Application with BabTTS API), section 4 (Using Callback). Section 5 explains how you can personalize the produced speech. Finally, section 6 gives detailed information on each function and structure available in the proprietary API BabTTS.

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o The Bundling Developer's Guide (AcaMul-Bundling-6.pdf) and the Custom Installer Guidelines (AcaMul-CCD-6.pdf for Microsoft Windows and AcaMul-CCD-OSX-6.pdf for Apple Mac OS X) describing how to bundle your application with Acapela Multimedia TTS 6.

o NSCAPI Reference Guide (AcaMul-NSCAPI-6.pdf) describing how to use the NSCAPI API in Acapela Multimedia 6. This API is a wrapper to the BabTTS API, and provided for compatibility with old application done with NSCAPI.

o Sapi 4 Supported Interfaces (AcaMul-Sapi4.pdf) and SAPI 5 Supported XML tags (AcaMul-Sapi5.pdf) giving you some information for using Acapela Multimedia with Microsoft SAPI4 and SAPI5.

o Acapela Active Speech Control Reference Guide (AcaMul-ActiveX-6.pdf) describing how to use the ActiveX AGASpeechCtrl.

o Apple Speech Synthesis Manager Support (AcaMul-SSM-OSX-6.pdf) describing the support level for each function and feature of the Apple Speech Synthesis Manager API. It also reviews the support level for embedded speech commands.

1.5. Package content

The components of the BabTTS Software Development Kit (SDK) are the following:

Programming interfaces

o Proprietary BabTTS API in C/C++ that could be used with most of the compilers (VC++, Borland, gcc, …);

o NSCAPI wrapper library to BabTTS provided for compatibility purposes

o Microsoft SAPI 4.0a standard interface

o Microsoft SAPI 5.1 standard interface

o An ActiveX for projects in VB6 or Delphi.

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o Speech Synthesis Manager components

One or several engines (Voices) each composed of:

o A Language Module (i.e. English, French) able to transform a text into a phonetic string

o A Voice Module that converts this phonetic string into speech. Each voice is defined by the speaker name and the sampling rate allowing using the SDK in a wide range of applications.

Several development tools:

o AcaDemo: Type-and-Talk application that allows users to quickly verify the correct installation of the software.

o AcaCocoaDemo: Type-and-Talk application that allows users to quickly verify the correct installation of the software.

o The Lexicon Editor allows user to create “user dictionaries” in order to

change the pronunciation of words according to their needs.

The voice Manager allows creating new voices, based on original ones but with some modified characteristics according to your specific needs.

o

o The License Manager is used for providing “License identities” to users

for generating purchase requests; Managing your installed licenses.

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2. Installation of the Software The Acapela Multimedia TTS SDK is generally distributed on a CD-ROM containing the required components of the TTS. In the major case, you will receive either a HQ edition package or a HQM edition package. Each package could also contain HD voices.

2.1. Hardware and Software Requirements

2.1.1. Hardware Requirements

2.1.1.1 IBM PC-Compatible Platforms

HD HQ

Processor Pentium II 233 MHz Pentium II 350 MHz

Memory 16 MB At least 128MB (Depends of application)

Free Disk 30 MB 100~150 MB for multimedia Space 60~80 MB for telecom

(per voice) (could be bigger for some languages)

A 16-bit digital audio board or a 16-bit external audio adapter supported by the operating system must be installed for multimedia applications. Minimum memory has to be

2.1.1.2 Apple Macintosh Platforms

HD HQ

Processor PPC: G4/G5 900 MHz PPC: G4/G5 900 MHz

i386: All Apple MacIntel i386: All Apple MacIntel Platforms Platforms

Memory 512 MB 512 MB

Free Disk 30 MB 100~150 MB for Space multimedia

(per voice) (could be bigger for some languages)

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Apple Mac OS X Universal binaries

The binaries of Acapela Multimedia Mac are Universal Binaries ppc 32 bits/i386 32 bits and can be used natively on both G4/G5 platform and Mac Intel platforms.

2.1.2. Operating Systems Supported

Microsoft Windows 98 SE, NT4 SP6, 2000 and XP

Apple ppc platforms: Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher

Apple i386 platforms (Mac Intel): Mac OS X.10.4.1 and higher

2.1.3. Programming Languages Supported

C/C++ interface (Microsoft Visual C++ 5, 6, 7, GCC, …) and all languages using standard WINAPI Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL)

Microsoft SAPI 4.0a

Microsoft SAPI 5.1

VB .Net and C# using the SpeechLib component of Microsoft SAPI5.1

VB6 and Delphi using the ActiveX component

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C/C++/Objective-C interface with XCode 2.0 and higher, gcc 3.3 and higher

Carbon speech synthesis API (also called Speech Synthesis Manager) in the ApplicationServices Framework (C/C++/Objective-C)

NSSpeechSynthesize Object of the Cocoa Speech Synthesis API in the AppKit Framework (Objective-C and Java).

C/C++ interface with gcc 3.2 and higher

2.2. Installing the software

The Acapela Multimedia TTS SDK comes with a fully automatic installation procedure ( “Acawizard” on windows-based systems and Linux, “Apple Installer” for Mac OS X) It is highly recommended to use this software for installing the TTS. If your application needs specific installation procedures (i.e. for packaging), please refer to the “Custom Installer Guidelines” (AcaMul-CCD-6.pdf or AcaMul-CCD-OSX-6.pdf).

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2.2.1. Windows based systems

When you insert the CD, the Acawizard program automatically starts. You can also start it by yourself by double-clicking on Acawizard.exe.

Click Next to go to the next screen.

Carefully read the license agreement, if you agree, select “I agree” and click Next.

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In the next two screens, you can choose

The location of the directory where you want to install the software. Note that all further installation of modules will use the same directory structure.

The start menu folder where you want to insert link to the different tools.

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You can then select the modules you want to install (by selecting the corresponding check box). By default, all components are selected.

As you see in the legend: items listed in black are already installed; items listed in blue were not installed and will be installed; items listed in red were already installed but will be updated by a newer version. To uninstall one of the items, simply, uncheck the corresponding box.

Click Next for beginning installation:

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Once the installation is finished, click Finish

2.2.2. Linux based systems

The command line version of Acawizard is called “wizard” With administrative privileges, go to the directory where you’ve copied the modules and invoke ./wizard –p BABTTS –ia

When installation is finished, a directory /usr/babtts is created containing all required files

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2.2.3. Mac OS X based systems

The installer comes in a .dmg file. Open the file to mount the image disk and click on the .mpkg file to start the installer. The welcome screen dialog will pop up. Press “continue”.

Carefully read the license agreement, if you agree, select “Agree” and click “Continue”.

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Select the system disk (where is installed Mac OS X). You cannot choose an other disk as Acapela Multimedia will be installed in the /Applications directory Click on :“Continue”.

If you want to select which voices to install, click on the “Customize” button.

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Click on “Install” to achieve the installation process.

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3. Testing the TTS engine

This chapter presents a simple way to check that the package has been correctly installed and explains how to quickly have a demonstration of our text to speech technologies.

3.1. Testing the TTS engine in Microsoft Windows

3.1.1. Playing a text

Launch AcaDemo.exe from the start menu (under Start\All programs\Acapela Group\Acapela Multimedia v6\bin\TTS Demonstrator)

If BabTTS is correctly installed, the demonstration software AcaDemo appears on your screen. Select a voice (and thus a language) in the dialog box.

Type a text and click on the "play" button . You hear the synthesized text on the audio output (headphones or speakers). The word synchronization is shown on the text with a blue highlighting.

Press "stop" button to halt the audio output.

It is possible to stop temporally the speech by pressing "pause". Click on “pause” again to resume.

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3.1.2. Opening text files

Press the "open a new file" button to load the content of a text file into the edit box.

For easy demonstration purpose, if you check the box "Auto Load", the content of the file language.txt will be automatically loaded. For example, if you use the voice Julie22k (language=French), the file French.txt (in the “demotext” directory) is loaded if this file exists, otherwise nothing happens.

3.1.3. Using the virtual keyboard

AcaDemo has a useful feature if you want to write some special characters into the edit box, specially when testing languages using different charset of the base charset of your system. To open this tool,

press the "virtual keyboard" button .

Choose a special character (a "magnifier square" shows you the pointed character) and double-click to insert it in the edit box.

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3.1.4. Adapting Parameters

3.1.4.1 Pitch

If the user chooses a HD voice (MBROLA technology), he has the possibility to change the pitch. Each voice has a default internal pitch ( +/- 180 – 190 Hz for female voices, 100 – 110 Hz for male voices). The pitch can be modified in a range from 50% to 200% of the default pitch. The actual pitch fluctuates above and below this setting, following the prosodic rules.

With a HQ voice (Unit Selection technology), users cannot modify the default pitch.

3.1.4.2 Speed

Each voice has a default speed (180-190 words / minute, depending on the voice). Users can modify the speed setting from 33% to 300 % of the default speed.

3.1.4.3 Frequency

This information is read-only. It represents the sampling rate of the voice. For example, Julie22k has a sampling rate of 22050 Hz.

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3.2. Testing the TTS engine in Apple Mac OS X

3.2.1. Testing with AcaCocoaDemo

To have a quick demonstration of our voices, you can use AcaCocoaDemo located in /Applications/AcapelaMultimedia/.

Choose an Acapela Multimedia voice, type your text in the main window and press speak

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3.2.2. Testing the Speech Synthesis Manager installation

You can quickly check that the package has been correctly installed by using the integrated Speech capability of Mac OS X.

Open “System Preferences” and choose “Speech”

Select an Acapela Multimedia TTS Voice. The name of our voices in the speech manager is composed like this: “XXXXXX Acapela Multimedia HQ/HQM/HD” where XXXXXX is the name of the voice and HQ/HQM/HD refers to the quality of the voice. Press “Play”. If you hear an “evaluation” message (like “This is an evaluation version of Acapela Group Text to Speech Synthesizer”), the installation is OK, but you don’t have a valid license. Go to Section 4 and read how to activate 30 days demo license or import a time-limited license file sent to you by Acapela Group. If you have a valid license, you will hear a “voice presentation” like “Hi, I’m Heather, the female American English speech synthesis voice from Acapela. Efficient, fast and of very high quality, why not try me out with yours own words!”

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4. Text Tags Acapela Multimedia uses the "Microsoft SAPI 4 tag pattern" to read at runtime some specific information in the text.

4.1. Exceptions

The only exception is if you are using the SAPI5 layers. If you do so, you will have to use XML Tags. Please refer to the document “Supported XML SAPI 5 tags” (AcaMul-Sapi5-6.pdf) for more information on those.

If you are using Acapela Multimedia through the Speech Synthesis Manager (Cocoa Speech Synthesis API or Carbon Speech Synthesis API), you should use in priority the Embedded Speech Commands. Please refer to the document “Apple Speech Synthesis Support” (AcaMul-SSM-OSX-6.pdf) for more information on those.

4.2. Text Tags Syntax

Sapi4 tags follow these general rules of syntax:

All tags begin and end with a backslash character ( \ ).

The backslash character is not allowed within a tag.

Tags are case-insensitive. For example \RST\ is the same as \rst\ or \Rst\.

Tags are white-space-dependent. For example, \Rst\ is not the same as \ Rst \.

To include a backslash character in tagged text, but outside a tag, use a double backslash ( \\ ). If user wishes to speak a filename as "c:\windows\system\test.txt", then it should double up the backslashes (e.g., "c:\\windows\\system\\test.txt").

When the engine encounters a tag it does not understand, the tag is simply ignored (not read).

Tags are persistent from one text to another. For example, if the \spd=150\ is present in a text, all following texts will be spoken with a speed of 150 words per minute, until a reset tag is encountered or language is changed.

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4.3. BabTTS supported tags

Here is the list of tags supported by BabTTS. All these tags are correctly processed with a HD voice (MBROLA technology). Due to the unit selection technology, some tags are not processed with a HQ voice.

\Pau=number\

This tag inserts in the speech a pause of the specified number of milliseconds.

Example: "I am \Pau=2000\ ready." a pause of 2 seconds is introduced after the word "am". The algorithm is limited to pauses of 10 seconds

\Prn="phonetic string"\

With this tag, a user can synthesize a specific pronunciation inside a text. The phonetic string is composed of phonemes followed by space characters (phonetic alphabet is language dependant). This tag is only suitable for inserting single word into the text. Unpredictable errors (mainly prosody) can occur when inserting greater units.

Example: "I will say: \Prn=h @ l @U\." is equivalent to "I will say: hello.".

Remark: This tag has not the same meaning in BabTTS than in the standard SAPI norm, it doesn’t apply the same pronunciation for future words.

\Mrk=number\

This tag indicates a user bookmark in the text.

When BabTTS encounters this tag, it notifies the user's application (see chapter "Using CallBacks" in the Developer Guide - AcaMul-Sdk-6.pdf). \Mrk=0\ is reserved. This tag has no use in the AcaDemo application.

\Spd=number\

This tag sets the baseline average talking speed of the voice to the specified number of words per minute. Each voice has a default speed (about 180 words per minute, depending of the voice). Call \Rst\ to reset to the default speed. Range: 1/3 to 3x the default speed (typically \spd=60\ to \spd=539\.

\RSpd=number\

This tag sets the relative speed. 100 is the default speed (about 180 words per minute, depending of the voice). Call \Rst\ to reset to the default speed.

Rmk: Not processed with HQ voices.

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\Pit=number\

This tag sets the baseline pitch of the voice to the specified value in Hertz. The actual pitch fluctuates above and below this baseline following the prosodic rules. Default is about 180-190 Hz for a woman and 100-110 Hz for a man (voice dependent). Range: 50 % to 200% of the base pitch. \pit=70\ will have no effect on a female HD voice, but will work on a male voice.


\RPit=number\

This tag sets the relative pitch. 100 is the default pitch of the voice. (Min 50, max 200)


\Rst\

This tag resets the engine to the default settings for the current mode.

Note that this tag has not effect to settings changed with BabTTS_SetSettings.

\RmS=number\

Sets reading mode to spelling out each letter of each word (number=1), or turns it off (number=0).

\RmW=number\

Sets reading mode to leaving audible pauses between each word (number=1), or turns it off (number=0).

\Equ=Preset\

Change the equalizer preset at runtime. You can manage the list of presets with the Voice Manager, see Chapter 7 for more information about Presets (Windows only)

\Equ=val1;val2;val3;val4\

where val1, val2, val3, val4 are in a range from -100 to 100 and apply to the frequency bands of 275Hz, 2.2kHz, 5kHz and 8.3kHz, respectively.

\Vce=charact=value\

Instructs the engine to change the speaking voice, according to the specified characteristics. The pitch, speed, volume, etc. revert to the defaults for the new voice

charact represents the name of the characteristic and can be one of the followings :

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• Language=language. Requests the engine speak in the specified language (Language can be arabic, belgiandutch, brazilian, british, canadianfrench, czech, danish, dutch, french, german, italian, norwegian, portuguese, spanish, swedish, turkish, usenglish, icelandic, finnish, americanspanish. Example: \vce=language=Spanish\

• Speaker=speakername. Specifies the speaker value of the voice. !!! Speaker Name is different from Voice Name. Heather22k, Heather8k and Heather22kM are Voice Names. Heather is the Speaker Name. Example: \vce=speaker=ryan\

Note: The Vce tag only works for voices with the same sampling rate. It cannot be used for changing voices designed for different sampling rates.

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5. Acapela Multimedia TTS License Acapela Multimedia TTS uses a licensing system that allows a fine control of the resources and provides the stability and reliability that is needed in a professional application. Note that this licensing system is the same for HD and HQ voices. This licensing scheme is based on a unique license identity, which can be provided from different locations (dongle, computers, …) and a license file describing the type and information of the license associated with the license identity (number of concurrent channels, authorized features, remaining days for evaluation,…). This concept permits the Babel TTS system to be compliant with all kind of applications you expect. During the development process, you will probably use licence files that are “computer” locked while in the final product, you will have to bundle the TTS engine within your products. In order to get a working license, you will have to use the License Manager. Consult the sales department ([email protected]) to determine which type of license best suits your needs.

5.1. The License Identity

5.1.1. Site Authorization With this kind of identity, the License Manager first computes a primary key that will uniquely identify your computer, based on several hardware components. Once you send your primary key belonging with your requests, you will receive a license file that will allow the BabTTS to work on your particular computer. This file will be locked to your computer and will not work with any other computer.

5.1.2. Dongle Authorization

For advanced applications (like telecom), the need to have a robust system is a priority. The software site identity is not relevant for such applications, as it implies the creation of a new license file each time the application is moved from one computer to another. The hardware key (or dongle) is independent of the architecture of the computer you use thanks to a unique identifier stored in this hardware key. The license file can be easily and safely saved or copied, which means that moving the license to another computer is as simple as copying a file and moving the hardware key between two computers. Contact us for more information.

5.1.3. Bundling

This special licensing scheme is for CDROM distributed applications where the final user has no relation with Acapela Group and/or his local distributors.


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5.2. The License File

The license file is the complement to the license identity and is used to verify the validity of this identity. This file contains also information about:

• The voices you are allowed to use in your application

• The number of channels (for telecom applications)

• The features you are allowing to use (see below)

• The remaining days after which the license will become invalid (depending of your license agreement) (not applicable for bundling licenses)

The features allowed are depending of the type of license agreement you have:

• Saving the produced speech to files

• Retrieving the produced buffers at runtime (telecom based license)

• Retrieving generated phonemes info at runtime

• Authorizing the user to work with the SAPI 4 or the SAPI 5 layers

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5.3. The License Manager

5.3.1. Microsoft Windows

For Windows based systems, all license related operations are made through the License Manager.

administrator rightIMPORTANT: You need s to manage licenses.

5.3.1.1 Getting a free 30 days trial license

Once installed, you are allowed to test our software for 30 days. Simply click the “30 Days Free Trial” button

5.3.1.2 Getting a developer license (computer locked)

• Copy your site code (primary key). You can use the “Copy to Clipboard” button to

copy it to your clipboard

• Ask your contact person at Acapela Group to generate a license file corresponding to your site code or send it to [email protected].

• Import the license file: import the license file sent to you into the License Manager using the “import license” button or, more simply, drag and drop it into the application.


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5.3.1.3 Other operations

• Import Old BabTTS License: If you already own a commercial license, you can import them to the new license system

• Backup License File: Once importing one or several license files, you can merge them in one backup file that can be reimported later. It is strongly recommended to make a backup of your license

• Apply Reset Code: If you encounter problems while importing or using the license system, you can ask our support a “reset code” allowing to completely reset your computer. Follow the instruction to proceed to a reset :

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• Use the “Copy Error Code to Clipboard” button to copy in your

clipboard the reset information

• Send this information to our support team, explaining the problem you encountered

• After acceptation, you will receive an unlock code.

• Simply paste this code to the “Unlock Code” edit box

• Click “Apply”

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5.3.2. Linux Systems

Under Linux, the license system only uses a client/server based scheme. First, You will have to configure babTTS for selecting the server and port you want to use

5.3.2.1 Getting a commercial license

• Invoke “/usr/babtts/bin/babttslic –pk” for getting the primary key of the computer

you want to install the license.

• Ask your contact person at Babel Technologies to generate a license file corresponding to your site code or send it to [email protected].

• Import the license file by invoking : “/usr/babtts/bin/babttslic –import file.lic”

5.3.2.2 Starting the server

• Invoke /usr/babtts/bin/licserver [-p <port>] [-s]

o -p <port> : Changes the TCP port on which the server is listening for new connection (default is 7777)

o -s : silent mode

this will start the server.

• Press ‘q’ for exiting.

5.3.2.3 Configuring the client

• Invoke “/usr/babtts/bin/babttslic –server <host:port>

Where

o host is the name/IP address of the server

o port is the same as the listening port of the server

by default host:port is configured as localhost:7777 Remark: You can also start automatically the license server with a bash script. You just have to create a file containing the following command lines in the /etc/rc.d/init.d/ folder: #!/bin/bash /usr/babtts/bin/licserver –s &

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5.3.3. Apple Mac OS X All license related operations are made through LicenseManager.app which is located in /Applications/AcapelaMultimedia/

5.3.3.1 Getting a free 30 days trial license

Once installed, you are allowed to test our software for 30 days. Simply click the “30 days Demonstration” button

5.3.3.2 Getting a developer license (computer locked)

Ask your contact person at Acapela Group to generate a license file corresponding to your primary key or send it to [email protected]. Import the license file sent to you into the License Manager using the “import license” button. PS: Don’t forget to close and reload your speech enabled application.

5.3.3.3 Developer license troubleshooting

If you encounter problems while importing or using the license system, you can ask our support a “reset code” allowing to completely resetting your computer. Follow the instruction


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to proceed to a reset:

• Launch the ResetLicense.app tool which is located in /Applications/AcapelaMultimedia/

• If the system works without error, there is only a "There is no error in the license system of Acapela Multimedia" message … otherwise, an error code will be displayed.

• Use the “Copy Error Code to Clipboard” button to copy in your clipboard the reset information

• Send this information to our support team, explaining the problem you encountered

• After acceptation, you will receive an unlock code.

• Simply paste this code to the “Unlock Code” edit box

• Click “Apply”, enter your admin password

• You can now re-enter your license file using LicenseManager

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6. User lexicons

6.1. Definition

When using the synthesizer, you might want to change the way a word is spoken. This happens often when you have names, acronyms, foreign words or other peculiar words that do not follow the default pronunciation rules. Creating a user lexicon (or user dictionary) gives you the opportunity to set the pronunciation of a word exactly the way you like it. A user lexicon consists of a list of names (which works as a lookup string) and translations. For instance, let’s suppose that we want the Text-to-Speech Engine to actually speak the sentence ”as soon as possible” every time the acronym ”ASAP” is encountered in the text. To achieve this, you have to add to the active user lexicon file an entry whose name is ”ASAP” and whose translation is ”as soon as possible”. The translation string can either be specified as text or as phonetic text, by preceding it with phonetic prefix character (#) and using the phonetic symbols defined for the language in use.

New in version >= 6.010 For simplicity of use, a default lexicon is always created for each voice. This lexicon has the same name of the voice. If there is several account on your computer, each user will have its own lexicons.

These lexicons are installed in "C:\Documents and Settings\[UserName]\Application Data\Acapela Group\Acapela Multimedia\UserLexicons\" and have the name of the voice + ."dic" (for example: Heather22k.dic). Each lexicon is created the first time a voice is loaded.

These lexicons are installed in "/Users/[UserName]/Library/Application Support/Acapela Multimedia/UserLexicons/" and have the name of the voice + ".dic" (for example: Heather22k.dic). Each lexicon is created the first time a voice is loaded (excepted for the user who has installed Acapela Multimedia where all lexicons were created during installation) Note: These default lexicons are different of the default user lexicons defined in § 6.3.4

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6.2. Features of lexicons

• A lexicon is language dependent; it cannot be used with different languages. But inside the same language, different voices can share the same lexicons.

• Each voice can use as many lexicons as you want. You can define a list of default lexicons with the lexicon editor.

• You can add new entries by several ways :

o A “sounds like” method: the translation consists of a plain orthographic word that is pronounced as you want.

o A “Phonetic” input: By preceding the translation by ‘# ’, you can insert phoneme code (each separated by spaces) and expect a fine tuned pronunciation. See the language specific manual for more information about the phone set.

• If you want your user lexicons to be always loaded when starting the engine, you

have to defined them as “default ones” (see 6.3.4) • (New in version >= 6.010) The default lexicon for the voice is automatically loaded

and can be edited at any time using the lexicon editor.

It is located in "[Documents and Settings]\[UserName]\Application Data\Acapela Group\Acapela Multimedia\UserLexicons"

/Users/[UserName]/Library/Application Support/Acapela Multimedia/UserLexicons/

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6.3. Using the user lexicon editor

6.3.1. Location

DicoEdit is installed in your Acapela Multimedia directory (For example: "c:\Program Files\Acapela Group\Acapela Multimedia\DicoEdit.exe")

LexiconEditor.app is installed in “/Applications/AcapelaMultimedia/”

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6.3.2. File Management

Create a new lexicon file for use with the language of the selected voice.

Open an existing lexicon file. Only lexicons compatible with the selected voice can be correctly open.

Save changes.

Save As… Permits to save changes using a different file name.

Remove the lexicon from the current list. The file is not deleted, only removed from the loaded list of the current mode.

Import a text file (ASCII) into lexicon. The text file can be in several formats. (tabulation, CSV,…)

Export entries in current lexicon to a text file (ASCII) The text file can be saved in several formats (tabulation, CSV, …)

Open an information dialog editor that permits to changes information and properties of the selected dictionary.

Possible information are: • The name of dictionary

• Its version and revision (number of changes that occurred)

• The date of creation and last modification

• Properties of the dictionary (Read, write, password enabled, …)

6.3.3. Editing Entries

Create a new entry in the active user lexicon file.

The name of the entry is taken from the “word” edit box and its translation is take from “translation” box

Delete the current entry

Play the entry (or the translation).

When the “Auto Speak” is checked, any character input in the

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translation box will play it, for easy correction.

6.3.4. Other functions

Show the list of entries registered in the active user lexicon file. Selecting an entry will adapt the word and translation edit box for

easy editing.

Show the list of phonemes of the language with some examples. Double-clicking on an example will play it for listening reference.

Show the default list for the selected voice. You can add dictionaries that will be loaded by Acapela Multimedia each time you open a new

instance of the voice. Higher dictionaries have priority if the same entry exists.

and As these systems uses a BabTts.conf file in XML format instead of the windows registry, this xml file is loaded only one time per process (to increase the runtime performances). So, after setting a default dictionary with the Lexicon Editor, be sure you have restart your application, otherwise this default dictionary will not be loaded by your voices (even if you close the TTS channel and reopen it, it will re-use the BabTts.conf loaded at the start of process).

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7. The Voice Manager (Microsoft Windows only)

7.1. Definition

The Voice Manager is an application providing you a way to customize voices. You simply choose a base voice, change the settings of it and then save the new voice with a new name. Every BabTTS or SAPI compliant application will then list your customized voice among the available voices.

7.2. The Voice Manager

7.2.1. Introduction The voice manager application (VMan.exe) is divided in three panels: the selection tree, used for selecting, creating and removing the voices; the parameters tabs, used for modifying parameters; the sample text box, used for testing your changes

7.2.2. The selection tree This tree enumerates all voices you have installed on your computer: Voices in black are original, voices in blue are custom. From this tree, you can:

• Select a voice (left click).

• Create a new custom voice based on the currently selected voice (right click)

• Remove a custom voice (right click)

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7.2.3. The parameters tabs

7.2.3.1 Info tab

This read-only tab shows you information about the selected voice.

7.2.3.2 General tab

Allows you to modify:

• the speed rate,

• the volume,

• the pitch (HD voices only),

• the pitch dynamic/range (HD voices only)

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7.2.3.3 Reading mode tab

Allows modifying the way the texts are spoken:

• Normal: the text is spoken normally

• Word: each word is followed by a pause (similar to the tag RmW=1)

• Spelling: each word is pronounced letter by letter (similar to the tag RmS=1)

For spelling and word mode, you can also modify the duration of the pause.

7.2.3.4 Pauses tab

Allows you to change the duration of each type of pause:

• Punctuation, end of sentence ( . ! ? )

• Comma ( , : )

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• semi-colon ( ; )

• Brackets ( [ ] ( ) { } )

For each pause, the possible values are: • Default : prosodic dependant

• Very Short : 100 ms

• Short : 250 ms

• Medium : 500 ms

• Long : 1s

• Very Long : 2s

7.2.3.5 Equalizer tab

The equalizer allows you to change the acoustical features of each voice by amplifying or attenuating each of the frequency bands. When you start the property box the equalizer is usually off and all rulers are disabled. Click on the "Use Filter" button to turn the Equalizer ON. After you activated the Equalizer you can simply drag the rulers to change the sound of the voice. Each ruler corresponds to a specific frequency band; the rulers on the left can be used to control the lower frequencies, while the ones on the right can be used to control the higher frequencies. You can also use “Presets” that can be used by all voices. Simply select it with the combo box. For creating a preset, you only have to adapt the rulers until you have the correct equalizer and, then typing in the combo box a new name and click the “add” button.

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7.2.3.6 Other controls

Exits the voice manager.

Permanently save changes. Can only be used with a custom voice.

Undo : Reset the parameters to the values before change occurs

Open the lexicon editor for the selected voice.