Voice samples
Hear how each Retroreader speech engine approaches the same text at a comfortable demonstration rate.
The numerical rate scales differ between engines, so the values are not directly comparable. These samples use the same synthesis code and voice data as their corresponding firmware builds. Dates identify the earliest relevant public lineage; where the sample uses a later build, both dates are shown.
OpenEVV
1999 lineage. OpenEVV reconstructs IBM's Embedded ViaVoice text-to-speech engine from 1999 Windows objects: technology that screen-reader users subsequently came to know through Eloquence. Sample rate: 80.
Pico
2009. Pico is the small-footprint SVOX speech synthesizer released through the Android Open Source Project and included with Android's early text-to-speech support. Sample rate: 100.
DECtalk DTC-01
1983. The DTC-01 was Digital Equipment Corporation's original DECtalk hardware speech synthesizer. Its first owner's manual appeared in December 1983, before its commonly cited 1984 commercial release. Sample rate: 180.
OpenBST 1998 — Keynote GOLD
1995 lineage; 1998 sampled build. OpenBST recreates Berkeley Speech Technologies' BeSTspeech synthesizer, also known from HumanWare's Keynote GOLD. The preserved family includes a 1995 English generation and the 1998 English build sampled here. Retroreader rate: 100.
Monologue — First Byte ProVoice
1980s lineage; 1997 engine. Monologue uses First Byte's concatenative ProVoice technology and the compact XEN11K8 English voice. Sample settings: Retroreader rate 130, pitch 50, voice volume 85% and a 100 millisecond sentence pause.
Sample transcript
“This is the [name] speech synthesizer, speaking at rate [value]. Select me during installation to have your electronic books and documents spoken by me whilst you are out-and-about carrying the Retroreader.”