How to configure Qtspeech - actually configuring speech-dispatcher

[Gustav Degreef]

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.
>>
>>
>>