Zoë Blade's notebook

ST Speech

ST Speech tech specs

ST Speech
ST Speech

  • Released: 1986[1]
  • Authors: Andy Beveridge, Martin Day[1]
  • Type: Speech synthesiser
  • Platform: Atari 520ST

ST Speech (short for the Atari 520ST Speech Synthesiser, filename STSPEECH.TOS) was a public domain[2] speech synthesiser application for the Atari 520ST.

As the Atari ST was an affordable home computer with built-in MIDI ports, it was used by many European musicians of the era. It's little wonder, then, that this application's distinctive voice ended up in various songs.

As for its developers, Andy Beveridge and Martin "Spiny Norman" Day, they created the SNASM 68000 assembler for the ST, Amiga,[3][4] and eventually Mega Drive. SNASM became part of the Mega Drive's official development kit. They then made SNASM's successor, an assembler featured in Psygnosis's Psy-Q development kit. Psy-Q became the PlayStation's official development kit. Not bad going.

Tips

You can change the speed with the percent symbol and a number, between %1 and %127. A lower number is quicker, and a higher number slower. I believe %100 makes it regular speed.

You can change the pitch with the exclamation mark and a number, between !60 and !127. A lower number is higher pitched, and a higher number is lower pitched. I believe the original's somewhere around !75 or !80.

You can toggle between English text mode and phoneme mode with a full stop by itself. Whenever you type in text in English text mode, it displays the phoneme equivalent. Phoneme mode lets you type that in directly.

Notable users

References

  1. "ST Speech" Vince, Jun 2011
  2. "Cover Disk" ST Format, Sep 1990, pp. 29—32
  3. "Who the Hell Do the Assembly Line Think They Are?" Amiga Format, Mar 1990, p. 10
  4. "Vaxine" The One for Amiga, Atari ST, and PC Games, Jun 1990, p. 23
  5. "Insert Coin. Pac-Man. Eat them up, yum yum! Power-Pill. Whoops!" "Pac-Man (Original Full Version)" Power-Pill, Pac-Man, 1992
  6. "...electronic techno music, controlled manually by Aphex Twin's programs." "UT1 — Dot" Polygon Window, Surfing on Sine Waves, 1992
  7. "The Future Sound of London" "Transmission 3: Edinburgh, Forth FM, 1996-10-28" The Future Sound of London, ISDN live, 1996
  8. "Moving further into the future. The Future Sound of London." "Transmission 11: Berlin, 1996-12-06" The Future Sound of London, ISDN live, 1996
  9. "Lionrock sound system" "Packet of Peace (No More Fucking Trumpets)" Lionrock, Packet of Peace, 1993
  10. "Quadrophonia" Quadrophonia, Quadrophonia, 1990
  11. "Ex-Terminator" Snap, The Madman's Return, 1992
  12. "Das Boot (Techno Version)" U96, Das Boot, 1991
  13. "I Wanna Be a Kennedy (US-Mix)" U96, I Wanna Be a Kennedy, 1992
  14. "Boot II" U96, Club Bizarre, 1995
  15. "Yes. No." "Mmm Skyscraper I Love You" Underworld, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, 1993
  16. "Can you hold me in your dreams? Can you feel me like I feel you? Goodbye, Mother Earth." "M.E." Underworld, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, 1993

Downloads

Software

Atari ST: 4-Op Deluxe | Creator | Cubase | Dump-It! | M | Pro-24 | Realtime | ST MIDI sequencer timeline | ST Speech | Sweet Sixteen | Tiger Cub

Software speech synthesisers: ST Speech