How to configure Qtspeech - actually configuring speech-dispatcher

[Gustav Degreef]

Thanks a lot Jeremy.  I am about to travel, so I will post back about my
results in a bit.

I am using opensuse 15.0, kde plasma version 5.12.8, frameworks 5.45.0,
Qt 5.9.4, kernel 4.12.14-lp150.12.70-default

Gustav

On 9/26/19 10:32 PM, Jeremy Whiting wrote:
> Hi Gustav,
>
> Just out of curiosity, which distribution and version of linux are you
> using?
>
> To answer your question though, crontab is an application that runs
> things at different times on a unix based system. crontab -e is a
> command to edit the cron table of commands. Running crontab -e and
> adding the line you mentioned:
>
> @restart /usr/bin/festival --server
>
> will make festival --server run at each boot of the computer I believe.
>
> Hope that helps. Another possibility according to arch linux's wiki
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Festival#Can't_open_/dev/dsp is
> to add some lines to the festival configuration to allow it to open
> the /dev/dsp
>
> BR,
> Jeremy
>
> On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 7:25 PM Gustav Degreef <gustav97 at gmail.com
> <mailto:gustav97 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     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
>     >>
>     >>  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.
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>