singing speech synthesizers

Does anyone succeeded in using latest eloquence or iBM TTS with backquote tags enabled? I've enabled it, but still, nothing changes.

Hmm, very strange, but it doesn't work in jaws neither :( it's just reading me the backquote tags, and that's all.

I get the tags read as such but then the pitch or whatever changes, not proper behavior for sure.

yeah, I managed to get them also in jaws, but the syllables are very separated.

You need to pass the ` symbol to the synthesizer. Also you may want to consider deleting the file "builtin.dic" in the NVDA program folder.

I got good results by deleting that file you said. Actually I just moved it and restarted NVDA. I don't know if the back quote is being passed to the synthesizer, but it seems to work without that file in the NVDA program folder.

The only thing I've noticed is that now something like TWBlue is pronounced twblue, rather than t w blue as it used to pronounce it.

Well this is because this file has some rules in it, for example two words written as one, but each word capitalized, should be treated as two separate words. But there are some advantages to this file not being there, like the better processing of speech tags like the ones in eloquence.

How about we just choose to pass the symbol to the synthesizer without deleting or having to rename/move this file every time we want the backquote voice tags enabled?

Well, this would work except for the vf parameter for inflection. If this file is gone, vf works as well.

where is builtin.dic

In the NVDA folder in program files, or, if you're on 64 bit windows, program files(x86)

Hm, strange, but after deleting the builtin.dic, it's still not working. Eloquence just reading tags as normal words.

And as well, is it the same for you that when singing, eloquence is making spaces between syllables?

Yes, and there unfortunately is no way to change that. And in your case too, I think you either don't have the ` symbol passed to the synthesizer or you don't have the backquote voice tags enabled. In the former case, which I think is the more likely one, you know that symbol pronunciation dialog in the NVDA menu? This is where you can change that. Just search for "graav" in the filter.

I've added the actual ‵ symbol and have made it to send to the synthesizer. The symbol to the left of 1 doesn't work in my version of IBMTTS.

Got it, but why could that be?
-- (hozosch):
Well, this would work except for the vf parameter for inflection. If this file is gone, vf works as well.

--

Yes, I just had a look again. There is a part in that file "break words that have numbers at the end" and then the line:
((?:(?=\D)\w)+)(\d+)    \1 \2    1    1

So, deleting that should be enough for correct processing of tags. I myself have reasons though for deleting that file with all of these rules.

I wish there was a way to have both those rules and processing of backquote tags.

somebody mentioned the utsu singing synthesizer. Where can I get it?