It generates speech from plain English or Chinese by reading files on the microSD card.
Timing
Real-time
The various voice parameters are applied just before triggering the speech and are ineffective while speaking.
They are applied to the next utterance. The best is to fiddle a bit with the knobs for the desired effects.
While playing with the interface, the display shows the parameters changes.
Robovox’s design is inspired by the Patent “System for and method of synthesizing singing in real-time” filed on 03.05.90 by Florian Schneider, Gert Joachim Ott, and Gert Jalass.
It describes a musical instrument that can produce a speech and sing in real-time via MIDI controls. A magical speech synthesizer chip lives at the heart of the instrument: the Votrax SC-02 invented by Richard T. Gagnon. The Votrax SC-02 chip can generate speech by stringing phonemes together. The Votrax SC-02 contains registers that allow software control of the speech rate, pitch, pitch movement rate, amplitude, articulation rate, vocal tract filter, and of course, phoneme selection. Most of these functions are implemented in the MIDI control software.
In Robovox, we also implemented an undocumented function of the chip: the internal audio carrier can be replaced by an external one to produce vocoder-like effects. The result is simply excellent. You can also use this feature as an effect to apply to the carrier! Check this demo where I play with the pitch of the external carrier with a Genki ring (@ 0:48) (sorry for the lousy audio -video sync)
MIDI note ON note OFF mapped to the SC02’s phonemes
Velocity
Pitch (coarse control by clocking the chip)
CC2 Note Pitch (fine control using the chip inflection/pitch register)
Mod Wheel mapped to filter
CC 64 sustain ON/OFF to choose between the internal and external carrier
Emy / Terminal EMY Firmware
The code runs on Terminal or Emy. It comes in 2 versions, depending on how you want to sequence it. You can drive it either as a USB MIDI instrument or via a classic MIDI serial TRS connector. The code also allows CV controls so it can be used in a Eurorack setting
Here are a few Kraftwerk covers made by Andrew Shaw. These are astonishing variants of the original ones: respectful to the original songs but with their specificities or identities.
Andrew is using the Robovox precisely as Kraftwerk used to do: first by finding the correct phonemes to be uttered, then launching them in perfect timing and duration, and finally tuning the pitch to have the chip sing in tune! ( all parameters sent live to the Robovox from within the DAW)
The casing allows adding any of the Vox modules inside just by removing four screws.
As with Emy, Terminal can be used in a CV-controlled environment or act as a MIDI instrument.
You can install the various firmware on the SD card before powering the device.
A pair of shunts allows the user to connect Terminal either as a MIDI USB unit or as a host for a USB keyboard for text entry.
On request, a serial TRS jack MIDI Type B connector can also be added. (note: not all firmware are supporting MIDI yet. MIDI support is under development)
100 % Emy compatible, including adding additional voices USB port for power or MIDI or USB connection Optional TRS jack MIDI Type B connector USB host connector for computer keyboard Shunts (must be removed when connecting a keyboard, otherwise, they must be placed vertically) Line in & out stereo jack 1/4″ (line in only used for the Robovox module) Trimpot to adjust the audio level input (only used for the Robovox module)
Dectalk was a speech synthesizer and text-to-speech technology developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1984, mainly based on the work of Dennis Klatt at MIT.
The Dectalk Express what connected to the serial port and would speak what was being “printed.”
The synthesizer can process text and produce speech with nine different voices. The Dectalk engine includes a parser that gives users fine control over the synthesized speech’s quality, pitch, and intonation. Dectalk can also be programmed to play phonemes and sing with quite a realistic expression.
The command syntax for musical coding sequences is:
[phoneme<duration, pitch number
Timing
Latency
There is a latency of 200 ms between the trigger and the start of the speech. This latency is very consistent, allowing the speech to stay in the tempo even if not precisely on the beat. The firmware uses the gate going down to stop the speech, preparing the chip for the next utterance, so when sequencing some stutter-like speech in a loop, they still fire up in sync with the tempo.
Real-time The various voice parameters are applied just before triggering the speech and are ineffective while speaking. They are applied to the next utterance. The best is to fiddle a bit with the knobs for the desired effects.
LPC data are read from the SD card so an infinite vocabulary can be loaded
Sound and vocabulary can be produced by concatenating allophones and prosody markers from the text file to affect rate, duration, and pitch. No limits here!
The OLED crisp display allows browsing amongst the files and the lines within files to pick the sound the user wants to generate.
Speech rendering can be tweaked in real-time to affect, rate, stretch, bend, pitch, and energy.
All the potentiometers have CV entries attached to them
Emy produces sounds in 3 major modes: Speech, Repeat, and VCO.
In Speech mode, the speech starts with a gate signal and is completed before waiting for a new gate signal. The speech has priority.
In Repeat mode, the speech starts and stops with the gate signal going high or low.
The gate has the priority, and the speech repeats while the gate is high. This mode is handy to create crazy rhythms.
In VCO mode, the LPC engine loops while the gate is high, producing steady notes.
Technical Details
16 hp
micro SD card reader to read the text or update the firmware
Diode for reverse polarity protection on power lines
Consumption : +12V 60mA / -12V 18 mA
Cortex-M0 ARM processor
All inputs: 100k impedance, 12-bit ADC.
CV control designed for 0-5 V entries
aux out signal 5V
OLED display
mikroBUS host
Output level 8 Vpp
A USB port for communication, firmware updates, and USB keyboard text entry
Midi notes are named to match Mea's 40 phonemes. (See MIDI mode in the manual)
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Use with a microcontroller
The hardware is compatible with the mikroBUSTM standard, allowing rapid prototyping and easy integration into existing projects.
The onboard class-d amplifier can drive a small 8 ohms speaker.
This vox board was designed to be used with EMY and its appropriate firmware. (in this case, the audio signal is forwarded via the “PWM” pin – the jack is not used with Emy)
It can also be used in robots, toys, or any other retrocomputing speaking devices you may think of.
Thanks to the popular mikroBUS™, this board can be instantly connected to multiple different platforms like the Arduino, the STMT32 of the Clicker2.
The onboard amplifier is quite powerful and is just waiting for the speaker to be plugged in!
The chip can string phonemes to produce quite realistic speech (although with a French accent). It can also sustain notes for a nice singing effect. Here is how the Arduino code looks like :
dire("/bonj+w_r");
delay(400);
dire("&l&kt€Ronik miwzik");
delay(400);
dire("i$ b+i-n ka+I+n -ma/$=+_ine");
delay(400);
dire("+?je pE ossi murmur*?");
delay(400);
dire("je suis un arduino qui parle"); // à corriger ;-)
delay(400);
You will find more information about the various phonemes and the prosodic markers in the following manual.
100 % Emy compatible, including adding additional voices
