FFFFFFF RRRRR 333333 F R R 3 3 F R R 3 F R R 3 FFFFF RRRR 333333 F R R 3 F R R 3 F R R 3 3 F R R 333333 release 2.060 -------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents -------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 A brief description of the FR3 database 2.0 Distribution 3.0 Installation, and tests 4.0 Author -------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 A brief description of FR3 -------------------------------------------------------------- FR3 2.060 release is a French diphone database provided in the context of the MBROLA project see: http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis It provides a French female voice to be used with the MBROLA program. The central pitch of the database is 110Hz, and the nominal sampling rate is 16000Hz. 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 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'. -------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 Distribution -------------------------------------------------------------- This distribution of mbrola contains the following files : fr3 : the database itself fr3.txt : This file license.txt: must read before using the database and a number of example .PHO files : bonjour.pho greetings levai.pho Long press review nouspouvons.pho Plato, 300 before JC ceserait.pho Leonard Euler jaiete.pho Made in Belgium mavoix.pho mbrola kundera.pho Milan Kundera "L'insoutenable legereté de l'être" claire.pho -> popular song, A la claire fontaine trenet.pho -> song of Charles Trenet (Je chante soir et matin) tagada.pho that's all folks 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. -------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 Installation and Tests -------------------------------------------------------------- If you have not copied the MBROLA software yet, please consult the MBROLA project homepage and get it. Copy fr3.zip into the mbrola directory and unzip it : unzip fr3.zip (or pkunzip on PC/DOS) (don't forget to delete the .zip file when this is done) On PC-Windows register fr3 with the Wizard in the control panel. On unix platforms, try: mbrola fr3 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 fr3 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 Vincent Pagel for Babel Technologies SA. For questions concerning the database itself contact pagel@babeltech.com Contact mbrola@tcts.fpms.ac.be, for general information, questions on the installation of software and databases.