Search found 1184 matches

by bwinkel67
Thu Aug 05, 2021 8:49 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Speech Synthesis
Replies: 30
Views: 5992

Re: Speech Synthesis

Thanks - that's of interest to me as I'll explain below. ... I had started on the Spectrum by writing machine code routines (called using FN statements from ZX Basic IIRC - the code is in one of my early Spectrum books) to get simple zaps, etc from the Spectrum speaker as opposed to the usual simpl...
by bwinkel67
Thu Aug 05, 2021 8:38 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Speech Synthesis
Replies: 30
Views: 5992

Re: Speech Synthesis

Looka like QTALK was a serial device that synthesized speech for the QL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5slnMemLtgs
by bwinkel67
Thu Aug 05, 2021 10:10 am
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Speech Synthesis
Replies: 30
Views: 5992

Re: Speech Synthesis

Thank you Dilwyn!

Btw, here is what digitized speech sounds like on a ZX81...maybe someday we can have that on the QL too...

https://youtu.be/UnfJG_H_Dsc
by bwinkel67
Wed Aug 04, 2021 10:48 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Speech Synthesis
Replies: 30
Views: 5992

Re: Speech Synthesis

Thank you Jan, this is amazing. I will take a look at it and see if I can figure out how the digitizer on the ZX81 worked. Maybe we can get some audio out of the network ports as a sort of pseudo sound card. I've read up on the Kansas City standard (4 pulses for zero and 8 pulses for one) is pretty ...
by bwinkel67
Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:09 am
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Speech Synthesis
Replies: 30
Views: 5992

Re: Speech Synthesis

Wow, that's pretty interesting that the network port could save and load ZX tapes. That would suggest you could play digitized sounds (voice and music) out of it. I know there was software on the ZX81 that turned it's mic port into a small electronic piano. I have the Z80 machine code that outputs d...
by bwinkel67
Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:30 am
Forum: Hardware
Topic: Old media - could it be 3D-printed ?
Replies: 2
Views: 922

Re: Old media - could it be 3D-printed ?

I think for MDV's it would be simpler to just create a small mold and create the parts that way. Doing molds isn't that difficult, just requires a bit of hand labor. I had planned to create a mold of the QL case (bought top and bottom on eBay for that purpose) but COVID has interrupted that since I ...
by bwinkel67
Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:05 am
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Speech Synthesis
Replies: 30
Views: 5992

Speech Synthesis

I recently recovered software for my ZX81 that I bought in 1985. It was labeled a TS1000 Speech Synthesizer though in reality it just had 273 words digitized (over 9 libraries at about 500 bytes per word). Today I was able to recover the BioTalk program...after years of sitting in a box, the first p...
by bwinkel67
Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:18 am
Forum: Hardware
Topic: driving magnetic heads ( floppy, auudio etc)...
Replies: 2
Views: 897

Re: driving magnetic heads ( floppy, auudio etc)...

I found this resource from the Council on Library & Information Resources (CLIR) useful for magnetic tape information:

https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub54/index/

Especially this subsection on what can go wrong:

https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub54/2what_wrong/
by bwinkel67
Wed Jul 28, 2021 11:48 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: Gold Card initial release date
Replies: 3
Views: 1072

Gold Card initial release date

What year did the Miracle System Gold Card first come out? It's not stated on the QL Wiki.
by bwinkel67
Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:02 am
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Loopy bugs
Replies: 21
Views: 4165

Re: Loopy bugs

By 'grammar' I suspect you all mean syntax 'railway line' graphs, as defined for example in Jan Jones' handbook. I tend to use Backus Naur Form (BNF) to specify a grammar though it's an old format that may not be as common as the inline mechanism used by lex/yacc, antlr and the like. Syntax diagram...