Just to followup on Cepstral.  I used Cepstral for an Asterisk project a while back.  So my information may be dated. I had not considered the for this project based on quality of voices.

Pros:
- Cheaper than other solutions ($50/port, $30/voice)
- Well documented
- Good Support
- Supports MRCP
- Has ASP Model
Cons:
- Voices sounded a bit too digital
- Limited Languages available
- Somewhat difficult install
- Lacking a wide range of tuning options


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Freeswitch-users] text to speech IVRs and MOH
From: Saeed Ahmad <saeedahmad1981@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, May 22, 2009 2:01 am
To: freeswitch-users@lists.freeswitch.org

Thanks guys for a detailed reply specially pete.

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 7:31 PM, Peter P GMX <Prometheus001@gmx.net> wrote:
Thanks for this overwiev.

One question: How does this compare to Cepstral TTS?

Best regards
Peter

pete@privateconnect.com schrieb:
> I've spent the last 2-3 months on researching TTS and ASR for FS for a
> project.  Best TTS depends on what you consider important.  Also, how
> do you plan on using it.
>
> Here's some of the TTS engines I've run across with some pros/cons:
>
> Festivate Lite (flite)
> Pros:
> - Free (comes with FS)
> - simple to use
> - 16K voice sounds decent
> - Completely customizable
> Cons:
> - 8K voice sounds horrible over cell phone
>
> NeoSpeech (VoiceWare) (around $300/port for 1 voice + $75 each addl voice)
> Pros:
> - My selection for best soundig voices
> - Recently select by Stephen Hawkings for his voice (geek points!)
> - Lots of Languages supported
> - Free trial available
> Cons:
> - Custom C-Based API (FS interface coming soon)
> - Large file size (Engine + SDK + 1 Voice = 900MB)
> - Support is lacking (Company beed in Korean, time zone issues, etc)
>
> Nuance ($500/port for 1 voice)
> Pros:
> - Wide Variety of Products
> - Support MRCP
> - Supports ASR as well (add'l fees)
> - Excellent support
> - Free trial
> - Decent sounding voices at 8K and 16K
> - Wide range of tuning parameters
> Cons:
> - Pricey
> - Limited voice selection
> - Limited support for 64-bit linux
>
> AT&T (NaturalVoice) (no pricing info available)
> Pros:
> - Big company (solid in marketplace)
> - Good suppport (user and developer)
> - ASP model means no software to maintain
> Cons:
> - ASP model incurs delay
> - Voices sound too digitized
> - Limited support for 64-bit linux
>
> Loquendo ($500/port for 1 voice + 15% addl voice)
> Pros:
> - Good sounding voices (almost as good as NeoSpeech)
> - Wide variety of languages
> - Excellent support
> - Has free 30 day trial
> - Supports MRCP
> - Support ASR and Voice Recognition as well. (add'l fees)
> - Small footprint (< 150MB)
> Cons:
> - Pricey
> - Complicated install process
> - Limited management/tuning capabilities
>
> In the end, it was down to NeoSpeech or Loquendo for our application.
>  We are currently running tests with NeoSpeech and assuming all goes
> well, we will select them.  Though don't let that color your opinion
> too much after several "focus groups" we discovered the most important
> element in the equation is does your customer/boss like the sound of
> the voices, and that is a completely subjective decision.
>
>
> -pete
>
>     -------- Original Message --------
>     Subject: [Freeswitch-users] text to speech IVRs and MOH
>     From: Saeed Ahmad <saeedahmad1981@gmail.com>
>     Date: Tue, May 19, 2009 12:40 am
>     To: freeswitch-users@lists.freeswitch.org
>
>     Hi all,
>
>     Could you guys recommend me any online text to speech IVR software
>     which works OK with FS. i am using AT&T site and for some IVRs i
>     get sample rate errors. Also some resource to download more MOH
>     wav files.
>
>     Many thanks
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     _______________________________________________
>     Freeswitch-users mailing list
>     Freeswitch-users@lists.freeswitch.org
>     http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
>     UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-users
>     http://www.freeswitch.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Freeswitch-users mailing list
Freeswitch-users@lists.freeswitch.org
http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-users
http://www.freeswitch.org