Old voice synthesizer chips required...

I use a program called SayzMe to read text aloud. I think it sounds very much like his voice. Perhaps the software could be adapted. Russell

Hard to find the chip since no numbers were mentioned? What is the part number etc. One of us may have 1 or 2

I highly doubt that a 20-year-old voice chip is going to work better than today's speech synthesis. I have some difficulty understanding Prof. Hawking. Maybe he should just suck it up and work something out with these people:

Of all people to embrace new technology, you'd think Hawking would be the first.

But the article makes it seem like he wants to keep his old voice. Not really unexpected, since we have gotten used to it.

There really can't be a problem in emulating the old one. Get the existing sounds by sampling the outputs if there's no other way. Then someone can write a synthesizer program for a cheap laptop that does the same thing using those sounds. One can even build up a keyboard just like he has now.

A lot of thsoe old voice synthesizers were popular becasue they could be used in embedded systems where resources were low, and because back then any small computer had limited resources. Who had space, in ROM, or on floppy disks, to store sounds? But small computers have dwarfed anything from twenty years ago (except for mainframes), and there should be no limitation in emulating that old voice synthesizer on a cheap used laptop.

Michael

...or taking it 'down' for a few minutes in order to dump the contents of the actual voice chip, in order to program a PROM.

jak

I was going to say something like that, but it really depends on the IC. The ones that come to mind were not readable in that way.

I suppose the article wasn't really silly, but in the context of this newsgroup it is silly that the article didn't mention the IC number. As someone suggested, someone might have one, but will never know unless the part gets publicized. And if we had the part number, unless it was completely obscure, we could all be looking at the datasheet to see what is needed to emulate the thing.

Michael

exactly - they should spend time sampling everything from that chip before it goes. Then they can use software to model the chip, and it will sound the same. They do this kind of stuff with audio gear all the time - for example Native Instruments and Emagic. They make software that sounds like vintage keyboard instruments (which weigh like 300 pounds and are huge) - I am sure they would cut a deal with Mr. Hawking... maybe even make a buck or two selling the software to other people who want to emulate his voice.

Given that the various conditions which necessitate these sorts of devices are often fatal, someone, somewhere; has one of these units, which a deceased family member no longer needs....

In fact I know a person who uses one...maybe not the same brand, and he's not dead; but it demonstrates that this shouldn't be all that big a problem, given Mr. Hawking's status and worldwide reputation.

I wonder what the 'real' reason for posting this is.

jak

I've asked, and no response so far.

-A

Ummm....I don't think any of us should really worry about 'ol Steven, after al, he has more money than all of us put together. If he needs a new synth chip, I'm fairly certain that a couple of hundred thousand thrown around would loosen them up from their respective dusty drawers. Maybe if he hadn't decided to bang the wife of the guy that designed the unit for him, then ultimately fire the guy as well, once the story became known, he wouldn't have this problem. Oh...and I forgot...he also never got around to paying the original guy that made/designed the unit as well, after banging the guys wife, and firing him. Poor, poor Mr Hawking....whatever shall he do???.