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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas">Hi all,</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"></font> </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas">I hope that I'm not breaking protocol too much by posting a message in this group about a problem that I'm having with an Asterisk Business Edition installation, but the reason that I'm posting here is because the problem that I'm having isn't really with the Business Edition, it is with the Cepstral text to speech product that I'm using with it, and also because
<font face="Consolas">this group has so much more activity that I'</font>m really hoping that somewhere in this great Asterisk community there are some clever people who might have some good suggestions to help me improve the voice quality on this system.
</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"></font> </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas">I have a phone switch configured with Asterisk Business Edition (B.2.3-2-1) and I have installed a single license for the Cepstral voice, Callie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>I am using the Swift application call within the asterisk dialplan:</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Within /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf --</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>exten => s,n,Swift(Callie^Hello this is a cepstral voice named Callie.)</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"> </font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas">And the php class phpAGI2, for interfacing with the Asterisk Gateway Interface:</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Within /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin/lookupAgency.php --</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>$agi->swift('The agency nearest to your store is '.$agency_name);</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"> </font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas">Both of these calls use the Callie voice and translate the text into speech, but the voice quality seems to be less than ideal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The voice sounds much more 'robotic' than the demonstration on the Cepsral site, and the pronunciation is noticeably slurred in areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have looked and looked all over to try and find documentation on how I can make any improvements to the voice quality.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have contacted Digium and Cepstral, but neither had much to offer in the way of support. I have googled and googled, but I can't seem to find anything that helps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>I see that there is a file called '/etc/asterisk/swift.conf' but all that is in it is the single entry:</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>[general]</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>voice=Callie<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>; the name of the Cepstral voice</font>
</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"> </font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas">I'm wondering if there are other swift.conf entries that I might be able to use to help improve the voice quality?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
Command line options?? </span>Or, maybe there are other options available?? I am open to anything that might help.</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"> </font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas">Anyone who is interested in hearing the quality can call in and hear it at 865-288-6300.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is an IVR system that will be rolled out to support World Hunger Week. Stores will begin calling in during the week of October 1st, so we are very near the roll out date.
</font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"> </font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas">I have not yet purchased the concurrency license from Cepstral because of the voice quality concerns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> So if more than one call is received simultaneously right now, all but the first will hear a licensing alert along with the scripted text.
</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span></font> </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">Any help or suggestions as to what I can do to improve the voice quality is greatly appreciated.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Consolas"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span></font><font face="Consolas"></font><br>Sincerely,</p></div>
<div>Larry Costigan</div>
<div>Food Donation Connection</div>