DECtalk provides a realistic simulation of human voice John Madden

I wasn't sure until I heard the singing, but this is definitely the TTS in moonbase alpha

I love that we can see your face in the reflection. Feels like I'm watching a Strong Bad Email.

As an accessibility professional, this history of screen readers and AAC was fascinating! You can still use that voice on the latest version of JAWS today. Thank you so much for making this!

any moonbase alpha player would feel right at home using this thing, or the other way around

My mum used to have one of these on her computer in the 90's because she is vision impaired. This is a real flash back.

That rendition of Spooky Scary Skeletons scared the living crap out of me.

Make it say "Mattel Electronics presents: B17 Bomber" BEEEEEEE SEAVUNTEEEN BAAAAUUUUWWWWMEERRRRR

>singing DECtalk See Hatsune Miku, this is your grandpa

Hi guys welcome to my DECtalk *J O H N M A D D E N* Thank you

I love those speech synthesizers, they sound sooo terribly retro futuristic! Also, John Madden!

Boy; the amount of time that must've been spent aligning the camera with the background and table. Well done.

*Types "I love you". Presses play repeatedly while crying.

I enjoyed this. I never had the PC card but the DecTalk express synthesizer. I'm a blind user and relied on that for my computing needs - funny how I've gone entirely iOS these days and braille in text rather than typing but there it is. Thanks for the video.

4:35 Seen that thing before in a group home for disabled children in the mid-late 2000's, it was called a "Springboard" and the non-verbal children would use it to communicate, before iPads became available enough for group homes to adopt those. I remember one of the children at the group home had a compulsion to say he wanted whatever he decided he was going to eat off his plate before eating, so it'd go like this: [has special juice with vitamins and stuff because he was a very picky eater] [taps button] I [taps another button] WANT [taps another button] DRINK [drinks juice] I imitated the voice a few times and once jokingly hit "Apple" over and over again. APPLE. APPLE. APPLE. APPLE. The non-verbal user of the Springboard was amused by me screwing with the device and started repeatedly hitting APPLE to show his amusement.

I love how old computers sound like someone talking while they are breathing in, if you don't know what I'm talking about... talk while you are breathing in... it's hysterical. Be careful it can make you a little light headed.

you mentioned dynavox once in the video, my mother used the tobii dynavox with eye motion since she lost the ability to speak clearly and was unable to control a computer like she used too. paired with alexa, we could here it telling alexa what to do. dynavox: alexa change channel to 164 alexa: changing to channel 164 on fios *tv channel was changed*

8:47 - let's get the speaker on to a tray....nice.

Thank you for making it say farts, I knew I could count on you.

Fitter, happier More productive Comfortable Not drinking too much...........

I'm a web developer and quite often work with JAWS to make sure sites are accessible, I had no idea it went so far back!!

Whoaaa DecTalk Betty, Bam-a-lam!

I love the DECtalk. It's perfectly understandable yet still has the "charm" of vintage computing. It's like a monochrome amber display in audio form.

The whole speech synthesis is really cool, and the DECtalk singing reminds me of the really early VOCALOID software created by Yamaha from the early 2000's or a lot of the UTAUloid voices (freeware VOCALOID) (yes we all expected that some weeb would mention Vocaloids)

The history of accessibility hardware and software is so fascinating. Imagine what a huge difference this technology made in so many people's lives. In the '90s I had a co-worker who was 100% visually impaired and with the help of technology like this (not sure if it was exactly this) she was the hardest-working, most essential person in our entire office.

"Push me. And then just touch me. Till I can get my, satisfaction"

OMG, this is definitely one of my favorite videos of yours! I use JAWS and its Apple counterpart, VoiceOver, daily. I've been using JAWS since the late 90s, so I never knew how JAWS worked in the early days with hardware voice synthesizers. They still use these voices you covered in things like the talking version of the TI83 graphing calculator. My ears are thankful that synthesized speech has improved dramatically since then, though those old voices are still so much fun. It's amazing now I can just go download so many voices for JAWS off their website, yet people 25+ years ago had to get a whole expensive sound card for JAWS. BTW, JAWS itself is still crazy expensive, costing around $1000 with roughly $240 paid every couple years to keep the software maintinance agreement active. If I hadn't been using JAWS for 20 years I'd probably use a free and very good alternative called NVDA. WHEN I was a kid, I didn't own a full version of JAWS, so had to download the 40 minute demo mode version of JAWS, I think I did this starting with version 4 and ending with version 9.0 when I got the state to pay for it for college,. I downloaded the demos off their website using good ol' America Online!!! No comment, we had AOL until 2008 and no broadband until like 2016. Anyway, man, that thing took all night to download, sometimes never finishing, whereas now I can download a JAWS update in less than a minute... That 40 minute mode was crazy horrible, I'd have to restart my PC literally every 40 minutes. They still use that model for newer JAWS demos today if you're curious how old JAWS 2.3 compares to new JAWS 2018, I think they're calling it. They stopped the numbered releases with JAWS 18 back in like 2017 because they were bought by or merged with another company who chaned the nameing system for JAWS releases. Sorry for my rant, but I loved this video. It's one of my favorites from you, aside from the Sims pack reviews you do which strongly influance my purchases. I've so rarely seen classic speech synthesis covered, even rarer for it to be linked to early JAWS, rarer still for this all to come from a sighted guy. If I'd not been subscribed to you for years already I'd subscribe to you in an instant! You put out some quality videos!

My father in law worked for digital in the 80s and 90s. Can't wait to show him this.

Putting a speaker on top of a box floppies ... that was brave.

My New Year’s Resolution is to use “Baby got the diarrhea” in everyday conversation

"sometimes I think about the future of humans and crap" classic LGR

"Drying mode on. Jacket drying. Your jacket is now dry."

I would love someone to code Doom with this so every-time you shoot it says Pew! Pew! Pew! Sure it would be easier to just play a wav, but not nearly as fun.

THAT SHORT CIRCUIT FACT BLEW MY MIND AND MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!!!

I'm 70 yrs. old so we had to make our own speech and music synthesizers when we were kids. Its good to see younger people interested in older hardware, not because I'm nostalgic but because you are understanding how things actually work.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Clint"

This voice sounds so exceptionally familiar... *Oh my god, no. You take your memes and you think about what you've done!*

I can imagine Betty saying, "I'll see you again, in twenty-five years. Meanwhile." And then incomprehensible screaming.

"A swede with a speech impediment". Did you mean a Dane?

"Welcome home, Marty... Lord of the Manor... King of the Castle" Love your videos, keep up the great work!

PLEASE make DECtalk say "Practice Mode" in that deep voice. I beg you.

YOUR JACKET IS NOW *D R Y*

Dude, your laugh is amazing. It’s so wholesome 😊 please continue making amazing content like this!

Lurrrrvvvv this guys voice, kinda calming. Videos are great too, so thanks and greetings from the Isle of Wight, England .

This thing reminds me a lot of Tomodachi Life for the 3DS, especially the singing.

the cognitive dissonance of hearing that woodgrain make the clang of a hollow sheet of metal is satisfying

Voice turned out to be easy... speech recognition turned out to the hard nut to crack. But in the beginning researchers had it backwards... they thought speech would be difficult to solve.

19:02 🎶Daisy, daisy, give me your answer, do...🎶

I worked for Digital in Maynard, Mass and this was great watching this. Thank you for your video!! Ken would be proud!

"We're whalers on the moon. We're whalers on the moon."

I do remember hearing about preserving Steven Hawking's speech synthesizer, then needed an emulation of a certain obscure CPU. And they needed help a SNES-turned-multi-console emulator called higan. The author that glad his effort to more accurately emulate whichever game it was that used whatever "enhancement chip" which had that CPU embedded inside, could turn into something more significant.

DECTalk is pretty awesome... it was used as the TTS engine in Moonbase Alpha,, and became the root of many great memes... "I'm gonna eat a pizza* *dials number* *Hello, can i order a pizza?* *no* *Why?* *'Cause you are John Madden*

While this particular variant of the DEC Talk is obsolete there are some PBX's out there still using the stand alone units to this day.

" You have selected Sam as your default computer voice. "

LOL, Short Circuit. I love you man that's the first movie my mind went to.

I love early speech synthesis. More fun to make a DECtalk say "BUTTSBUTTSBUTTS" than it is to make a modern synthesizer say it.

Rip Professor Hawking.

That Bonzai Buddy popup got me, great, if not odd, episode. Well done Clint.

Holly crap. That singing bit would be killer in some new "retro" synthwave stuff. LOL

9:01 - All I can think of “omg I hope that speaker is magnetically shielded!” As he places it on the disk holder

The PC needed a $1200 extension, the Amiga did it out of the box. AmigaOS 2.0 actually had the same voice.

As a swede I must protest

You're telling me that the DEC Talk is responsible for John MADDEN?

I'm glad you gave a shout-out to short-circuit that is my favorite movie of all time

Nice to be reminded of the need and usefulness of this piece of hardware. A lot of people were very grateful for this.

"Balls and farts and things!" That's gonna be my go-to for testing speech synthesis from now on.

Weather band radio stations used DECtalk for many years.

"Swede with a speech impediment." Isn't that a Dane? ;-) (Love you guys.)

CLINT! You`re so soothing to watch and listen to. Of course the topics are close to the heart also, as growing up with C64, Amiga 500 and old PC-games. :D Really appreciate the effort, please keep on going, sir!

I'm addicted to lgr videos! I watched so many of them in the last few weeks! I f****** love this guy

[:nh]I'm gonna eat a pizza. [:dial67589340] Hi, can i order a pizza? [:nv]no! [:nh]why? [:nv] cuz you are john madden![:np]

"A cross between a Swede, and an Indian" ... "A drunken Swede." "A Swede with a speech impediment" ...all the Descriptions of the Voice are just Describing a Dane....

Wel-come home, Mar-ty. Lord of the Ma-nor... King of the Cast-le...

I work at a University and we use the Jaws Program for our visually impaired students when they're taking exams. I set up their exams in Word Documents before they take their exams because the Jaws Program will read out everything--and I mean everything!--on the screen which can be loud and confusing. It's so important for pur students and it's made a huge difference in their college experiences!

Your computer voice made me chuckle heartily.

R.I.P Stephen Hawking

Reminds me of the Say program on the Amiga 500.

Really nobody is gonna talk about this mans supersonic type-speed?

Enjoy this video a lot. Learn something new every time. While having a laugh as well.

been watching you since when you were in the 100s of subs, just want to let you know you're doing great. As a tech guy, even in career, i want to let you know I love every video you have put out and has made my life a little easier knowing there's guys like us interested in old tech like myself

Now you can spam wwwwwwwwwwwwww at relatives irl. Gg

I'd make a Half-Life 1 joke, but god only knows what those soldiers are saying

Jobel is a speech syntesizer CONFIRMED D:

Was waiting on the different voices. Wasn't disappointed.

I lilke your woodgrain PC with the green elements and buttons. It's sooo relaxing to look at it. And also projects reliability.

Dennis Klatt sounds like that voice from the Emergency Alert System.

Fitter Happier More productive Regular exercise at the gym Three days a week

Greetings and welcome to an LGR, PC Speech Synthesizer thing.

2:40 Dude!!! I no longer regret staying up all night because I found your video and learned this... that’s so cool

Actually Prof Hawking continued using his speech synth because it was based on the voice of the man who made it for him which ended up becoming one of his best friends. The man passed away and Hawking refused upgrades not because it became iconic with him, but because he wanted to honor his friend's memory.

19:12 This reminded me of the "I Feel Fantastic" music video.

I'm pretty sure Radiohead used this device on the OK Computer album

so am i the only one who upon hearing the voice think Moonbase alpha *looks through comments* ah ok so im not the only one. great vid LGR

Your posture and the LGR logo in the top right at the beginning just makes you look like a geeky news anchor

So glad you referenced Short Curcuit and Back to the Future! Full marks 😁

Is dectalk kid actually a demon trapped in a machine?

Your oil level is critical, damage may occur. Your lights are on. Your windshield washer, is low. Your coolant temperature, is Normal

A drunken Swede is just a normal Dane. It's a DaneTalk!

Modern versions of this exist, though the software on the chip is not 4.2.C. Look at the DECTALK USB from Access Solutions. I've got one and it's pretty cool. Have been a big DEC fan for a long time and it was extra cool to get something I could use with a modern system. Also, had no idea the Archive had an emulator of this. Great vid.

My wife was blind, and had a DECtalk. Hers was an external device that connected to a DB-9 serial port. In 2000, she got one that connected via USB. She also had JAWS for Windows. She used it at home and work. At work, she used earbuds so it wouldn't distract others. It worked great.