FFFFFFF   RRRRR      222222
F         R    R    2      2
F         R     R   22     2
F         R    R         22
FFFFF     RRRR          2
F         R   R       22
F         R    R     2
F         R     R   2
F         R      R  222222222 release 2.060

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Table of Contents
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1.0 A brief description of the FR2 database
2.0 Distribution
3.0 Installation, and tests
4.0 Author

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1.0 A brief description of FR2
--------------------------------------------------------------

FR2 2.060 release is a French diphone database provided in the context
of the MBROLA project see: 
         http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis/mbrola.html

It  provides  a French  female   voice  to  be  used  with the  MBROLA
program. The central  pitch of the database  is 230Hz, and the nominal
sampling rate is 22050Hz. 

Input files    use the SAMPA  (SAM    Phonetic Alphabet)  notation  as
recommended by  the EEC-SAM  Project.  Here is a  list  of the  French
phonemes it accounts for, with examples. 

(NB :  the  table below  is encoded  as ASCII ISO8859-1;  use an ASCII
editor to see it correctly ) 

SAMPA	EXAMPLES
i	idiot, ami
e	ému, été
E	perdu, maison
a	alarme, patte
A	bâton, patte
O	obstacle, corps
o	auditeur, beau
u	coupable, loup
y	punir, élu
2	creuser, deux
9	malheureux, peur
@	petite, fortement
e~	peinture, matin
a~	vantardise, temps
o~	rondeur, bon
9~	lundi, brun
j	piétiner, choyer
w	quoi, fouine
H	huile, nuage
p	patte, repas, cap
t	tête, net
k	carte, écaille, bec
b	bête, habile, robe
d	dire, rondeur, chaud
g	gauche, égal, bague
f	feu, affiche, chef
s	soeur, assez, passe
S	chanter, machine, poche
v	vent, inventer, rêve
z	zéro, raisonner, rose
Z	jardin, manger, piège
l	long, élire, bal
R	rond, charriot, sentir
m	madame, aimer, pomme
n	nous, punir, bonne
N  ping, pong
_	(silence marker)

Limitations:
-----------
Notice that SAMPA 'h' (halte,hop) is not defined.

SAMPA 'J'  (agneau, peigner, règne) should  be entered as two separate
phonemes : 'n' and 'j'.

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2.0 Distribution
--------------------------------------------------------------

This distribution of mbrola contains the following files : 

   fr2        : the database itself
   fr2.txt    : This file
   license.txt: must read before using the database
    
and a number of example .PHO files : 
		  hier.pho
        bonjour.pho
        hier.pho
		  jaiete.pho
		  kundera.pho
		  mbrola.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.

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4.0 Installation and Tests
--------------------------------------------------------------

If you  have not copied  the MBROLA software   yet, please consult the
MBROLA project homepage and get it.

Copy fr2.zip into the mbrola directory and unzip it : 

   unzip fr2.zip (or pkunzip on PC/DOS)
   (don't forget to delete the .zip file when this is done)

On PC-Windows register fr2 with the Wizard in the control panel.

On unix platforms, try:

   mbrola fr2 TEST/bonjour.pho bonjour.wav

to create a sound  file for the word  'bonjour'.  In this  example the
audio file follows the RIFF Wav format. But depending on the extension
bonjour.au,  bonjour.aif, or   bonjour.raw you can  obtain other  file
formats. Listen to  it with your  favorite  sound editor, and  try the
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 ouput to the sound player as on
a HP : mbrola fr2 TEST/bonjour.pho - | splayer -srate 16000 -l16 

Also refer  to the readme.txt file  provided with  the mbrola software
for using it.

--------------------------------------------------------------
4.0 Author
--------------------------------------------------------------

This database  was recorded by  Celine Egea, 59r du Bas-marais, F59880
Saint Saulve, France.   For questions concerning the   database itself
contact egea@univ-valenciennes.fr 

Contact mbrola@tcts.fpms.ac.be,  for general information, questions on
the installation of software and databases.