1. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DE5 DATABASE 2. DISTRIBUTION 3. INSTALLATION AND TESTING 4. CONTACT 1. --- BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DE5 --- DE5 (release 1.0) is a diphone database for German provided in the context of the MBROLA project (http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis/). It provides a German female voice to be used with the MBROLA program. Input files use the SAMPA (SAM Phonetic Alphabet) notation as recommended by the EEC-SAM Project. Here is a list of the German speech sounds it accounts for: CONSONANTS: p f pf m l b v ts n R t s tS N 6 d z j k S g Z x C h VOWELS: i: I aI E^ (= E~:) y: Y aU a^ (= a~:) e: @ OY o^ (= o~:) E: E E~ 2: 9 a~ u: U o~ o: O a: a PAUSE: _ ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS: w T D Please note: You can synthesize short closed vowels (e.g. [i, e, u, o]) using the corresponding long vowels. A glottal stop [?] will occur if a vowel is preceded by a pause. Limitations: Notice that not all diphones are possible in German. Impossible ones will probably produce a distorted output. 2. --- DISTRIBUTION --- This distribution of DE5 contains the following files : de5 : the database itself de5.txt : This file and the example .PHO file in the TEST directory : de5test.pho Additional languages and voices, as well as other example command files, are or will be available in the context of the MBROLA project. Please consult the MBROLA project homepage : http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis/ Registered users will automatically be notified of the availability of new databases. To freely register, simply send an email to mbrola-interest-request@tcts.fpms.ac.be with the word 'subscribe' in the message title. 3. --- INSTALLATION AND TESTING --- If you have not copied the MBROLA software yet, please consult the MBROLA project homepage and get it. Copy de5.zip into the mbrola directory and unzip it : unzip de5.zip (or pkunzip on PC/DOS) Try : mbrola de5 de5test.pho de5test.wav to create a sound file. In this example the audio file follows the RIFF Wav format. But depending on the extension .au, .aif, or .raw you can obtain other file formats. Listen to it with your favorite sound editor, and try other command files (*.pho) to have a better idea of the quality of speech you can synthesize with the MBROLA technique. On Unix systems you can pipe the audio output to the sound player as on a HP : mbrola de5/de5 de5/TEST/de5test.pho - | splayer -srate 16000 -l16 Also refer to the readme.txt file provided with the mbrola software for using it. 4. - CONTACT - ATIP GmbH Daimlerstr. 32 D-60599 Frankfurt/Main phone: ++49 69 941 963 178 fax: ++49 69 941 963 188 http://www.atip.de Email: info@atip.de, for questions concerning the database DE5. Email: mbrola@tcts.fpms.ac.be, for general information, questions on the installation of software and databases.