Help with minor issue with Loquendo 7 TTS voices and Primo 2.4

So I've always preferred Loquendo TTS voices compared to Nuance TTS voices - Loquendo TTS voices just sound so much more natural (less "computerized"). Loquendo 6 voices always worked fine in iGo 8, but I recently upgraded to Primo. In Primo, you have to use the Loquendo 7 TTS engine if you want to use Loquendo TTS.

The problem that I'm having is that in Primo 2.4, the "you're speeding" message can also say what the actual speed limit is (using the "%s" variable in dictionary.voice) - which is kind of nice - the *only* issue that I have is that I can't seem to get the Loquendo voices to say "miles per hour' instead of "M P H". For example, when speeding, instead of saying "Slow down - the speed limit is 45 miles per hour", it'll say "Slow down - the speed limit is 45mph".

This is only an issue with the Loquendo voices. The Nuance voices will correctly say "miles per hour" using the same map files and the same lang file.

I've tried adding the line:
- mph="miles per hour"
to the dictonary.voice file for the Loquendo voices (as well as m.p.h., mp/h, m/ph, etc) - and no matter what I do, it just says "mph" instead of "miles per hour".

I have a 2DIN setup in my office that I use for testing this kind of stuff (instead of having to run out to the car!). I've been testing using the voice 'test sound' (so when you select a voice, I have it say "45mph" - works fine with Nuance voices (says 45 miles per hour", but not with Loquendo voices (says "45mph").

Anyone have any ideas?? While it obviously not a big deal, I would like to get it working properly...

Thank you!!

Thank you!

Yeah, I possibly can. Delete your Loquendo 7 TTS folder and replace with this one. Post your results.

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Thank you very much!

May I ask how you got a plain-text version of the EnglishUS.lex file (my original version is encoded)? Obviously, that is the key. I'm kinda of curious why changing the dictionary.voice file didn't work though - obviously, the TTS system uses the file, because that is where I change the "you're speeding" message, which works fine.

I did notice that this changed the pronunciation of other things though, so I will have to test a little more to make sure it didn't "break" the proper pronunciation of anything else in the process (although, now I supposed I could fix those issues myself with the plain text version of the EnglishUS.lex file).

I sure would like to be able to convert my existing EnglishUS.lex file to plain text so that I could edit it directly. I saw it mentioned that there was an Android app to allow decoding of the .lex files, but I wasn't able to find it with a quick search - any idea where to obtain it?

Thanks again - I appreciate the assistance!

EDIT: Never mind - I now see that it's actually the .lex file from the Loquendo 6.9 engine, which is available in plain text. I think I can make it work - already fixed some of the issues I noticed right away.

Glad to help. But did it work? The .lex file over rides the others for pronunciation. If you are planning to make modifications, then I strongly suggest you use Textpad and make all corrections at the beginning of the file. Anywhere else breaks the format and you lose TTS.

Well, it seems to work - at least when testing via the 'Test sound' that is played when I select the voice (I put "45mph" in the test sound string to test, which used to say "45mph" before - now it says "45 miles per hour").

As far as making modifications to the file, I just use Wordpad and I've be able to successfully add/remove things anywhere in the file. For example, I removed the "/" = "Slash" line because it just wasn't needed and caused iGo to spell out "s l a s h" when the slash was in a string like "45m/ph"). Probably doesn't matter, but just messing around. I also changed some other items (SR = State Route instead of State Road), etc. Wordpad seems to work perfectly for me. I also use Wordpad to modify voice files without even extracting the files first - works perfectly there a well.

Now I need to actually test on the road to make sure it works when speeding (I also customize the "your're speeding" message in the dictionary.voice file) and to make sure it doesn't "break" any other pronunciations (dr (drive instead of doctor), pa (PA896 instead of "pa 896", etc). But like I said, at least if something is wrong now, I can correct it.

Thanks again.

Glad it worked for you with your modifications. When I was testing the .lex file years ago, unless I used Textpad and not Notepad and only made changes at the beginning of the file - well, it just didn't work.

Yeah, I think WordPad handles the different formats properly (CR/LF differences) - unlike Notepad. Probably works just like Textpad in that respect.

Although, I have used Textpad previously, and from what I remember, it's a nice editor! I'll have to check it out again. It may be able to handle the original Loquendo 6.9 .lex files as well - Wordpad can't handle the "strange" text encoding of some of the other 6.9 .lex files (such as the "Dave.lex" file under the Dave folder - or even the original, unmodified EnglishUs6.9.lex file). Apparently, once you load them with the correct encoding, you can then save them as plain text and they still work). Otherwise, with Wordpad, they just show up as gibberish...

Another reason I like Loquendo 6 - the files aren't encoded like they are in Loquendo 7! :-)

I just use NUANCE with my Android 2.4. It seems to work just fine and the few modifications I made in the config_tables file seem to fit my needs. If you have the English Loq 6 voices and the necessary files/folders to make them work with Android, please make an upload so I can try them. Also, you might include any instructions that I and others might need. Thanks.

Just to clarify - I don't use iGo on Android at all. I was referring to the WinCE Loquendo 6.9 TTS files... I only use iGo on my car head-unit, which is WinCE.

Oh, OK. Thanks anyway.

Can someone please upload a complete Loquendo 7 TTS with English voices that work with Primo 2.4 9.6.13.405512. Does it work with all Primo 2.4 versions?

Thanks

Sent you PM with link from my Google Drive (Google is busting balls!). However, it seems it's stuck in my "Outbox" - do you not accept PM's?

So I finally tested the plain-text 6.9 .lex file supplied by @chas on the road yesterday and it definitely has some issues that I'll need to work on. A few of the issues I noticed:

- Instead of saying "US 1 south", it says "Usouth 1 south". And instead of saying "Slow down. The speed limit is 45 miles per hour" when speeding, it says "Slow Down. The speed limit isle 45 miles per hour" (I think that's what it was saying). I'm sure that there are going to be other issues related to N/S/E/W and other abbreviation-releated issues as well.

Will work on fixing the .lex file up and post a revised version when I get it working correctly.

Here is an updated plain-text version of the "USEnglish.lex" file that was included in the archive that Chas uploaded. Since it's plain-text, you can fix or change the way that the Loquendo 7 TTS driver says certain things. Besides fixing the "mph"/"miles per hour" issues, I made some changes to fix issues like shown in the following examples:

- Now says "Turn right onto US 1 South" instead of "Turn right ontoo U south 1 south" (the "ontoo" was pronounced very strangely before!).
- Now says "Pike" instead of "Pikeway" (before, was substituting "Pikeway" for "Pike")
- Now says "The speed limit is 45 miles per hour" instead of "The speed limit island 45 mph" (was saying "island" instead of "is" before)
- Now says "Turn left on State Route 896" instead of "Turn left onto State Road 896"

I think that is about it. May need further corrections, but they are the only issues I've found/corrected so far... Seems perfect so far.

This file replaces the default encrypted version that resides in the "tts_loq_7\languages\English" directory. Make sure to save a backup copy of the file before you replace it, just in case you run into significant pronunciation issues with this one (which is from the Loquendo 6.9 TTS engine).

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@jtrosky, How do you convert the encrypted version of the "USEnglish.lex" to a plain text version and don't you have to convert it back to an encrypted version when done editing?