LambdaSpeak Speech Synthesizer, Sample Player, RTC, MP3, Serial Interface, MIDI

[XeNoMoRPH]

thanks, I will see if I find it in a nearby online store
EDIT: here it is: , I'll update tomorrow 

[LambdaMikel]

Looking good! That should be a good buy, useful for a variety of things, not only LS3 firmware.
Here is a screenshot for settings:

[XeNoMoRPH]

Hi again !! , i can't view model ATmega644AP ... i'm confused 

[Bryce]

You don't need the exact type, A or PA will do.

Bryce.

[XeNoMoRPH]

Should I remove the Check ID box? 

[LambdaMikel]

That should not be necessary, but sometimes it is.
Can you try with the other ATMega 644 you have?
One of them should have matching IDs...

[XeNoMoRPH]

That should not be necessary, but sometimes it is.
Can you try with the other ATMega 644 you have?
One of them should have matching IDs...

firmware updated successfully !!! , thx fo @LambdaMikel , @GUNHED and @Bryce for support !!!
MP3 Player now it works perfect, i'm very happy 

[LambdaMikel]

Congrats!

Now you can offer the firmware update service to other users in spain... 

PS Curious - was the TL866 expensive for you? Prices seem to vary from between 20 $ to 70 $....

[XeNoMoRPH]

Congrats!

Now you can offer the firmware update service to other users in spain... 

PS Curious - was the TL866 expensive for you? Prices seem to vary from between 20 $ to 70 $....

53,99 € with amazon prime 

[GUNHED]

Glad you made it XeNoMoRPH!!!

[LambdaMikel]

LambdaSpeak 3 in the headlines - check it out 
"ComputerShoper December 2019" issue excerpt :

https://github.com/lambdamikel/LambdaSpeak3/blob/master/images/Computer_Shopper_-_December_2019-LS3.pdf

Seems they have an interest in the CPC!
You guys should try pointing them to your projects.
(I didn't do that, as I wasn't aware of this magazine or that they would even be intererested in retro stuff - they somehow picked it up themselves - in case any of you guys did, THANKS FOR THAT! )

[LambdaMikel]

I have decided to make the sources public / GPL 3:


https://github.com/lambdamikel/LambdaSpeak3/tree/master/src/atmega644-20pu
https://github.com/lambdamikel/LambdaSpeak/tree/master/src/atmega644-20pu

LambdaSpeak was developed using GCC toolchain / WinAVR. 

EDIT: I should add that LS3 hardware is quite capable... if you can figure out how it works and are able to patch it for your own projects, you'll have a quite capable hardware platform for all kinds of CPC extension projects.

[chinnyhill10]

Finally posted my review of v3. Had a few issues which we never managed to track down. I could only get the M3 with the ROM and the LS3 to co-exist if I reset the LS3 just as the CPC started up. You'll see in the video.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWjPryWJv30



It's a rather weak review on my part to be honest because I don't have the capability to demo it to its full capability so had to use Michaels videos to show it off (with permission). It's a powerful board and I hope people might consider supporting it in future software.


Also if anyone is wondering why I didn't show off Big Clock and some other features on the ROM. Both the 464 and 6128 hung when I tried. I know others have the board working 100%. We did try another ROM with new firmware but the issue persisted. Hopefully I've shown enough to demonstrate how cool the device is. And of course there's the LS2 video which shows all the basic functionality.

[sigh]

This is a very long (and complex*) thread and I'm interested in this device. I would like to know if it would playback the synthesized speech without interrupting/pausing/stopping the gameplay (like what happens with other games) on a stock CPC 464? Or is just too much for a stock CPC just like when voices are digitized?


If this is possible - are there any examples out there?


*Sorry if this has already been answered; this thread is huge:D

[GUNHED]

This is a very long (and complex*) thread and I'm interested in this device. I would like to know if it would playback the synthesized speech without interrupting/pausing/stopping the gameplay (like what happens with other games) on a stock CPC 464? Or is just too much for a stock CPC just like when voices are digitized?

Digitized playback?
Hi! And thanks for asking.    The LS3 has an 128 KB EEPROM, which can be programmed from the CPC. After you have programmed it once (takes very few seconds only), you can use it to play samples again and again. You can program 512 byte pages. So it's possible to play different samples / sounds or whatever. It's really cool for games! The RSX ROM does support this feature. But from the machine code side (or use even BASIC!) it's very simple too. Example code can be requested by Email or PM.

If this is possible - are there any examples out there?

Yes, IIRC LambdaMikel has some example Discs (see his project page).

EDIT: If you "just" want to let the device speak text, then you send the sentence to the device and it will speak it without interruption of the CPC.

Sorry, I'm not sure if I got it.

[sigh]

Thank you for the reply.


What I meant by playing the speech, is if I wanted to have speech in games games while the animations are playing at the same time - such as playing an animation of RYU doing a fireball and hearing him shout out "Hadooooken!"(while the animation is still playing), would a stock CPC 464 be able to handle that without extra hardware?


For instance, the game below has digitized speech, but the gameplay stops when it is activated.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuMdh_m71mY






Hope that makes sense.

[GUNHED]

Speech / Shout output without extra hardware is limited in quality and very CPU time consuming. While that kind of "speech" the CPU time is nearly used up AND must be timed very precisely.
Yes the CPU can so some smaller things in parallel, but not much.

A speech synthesizer is suggested strongly.

If you need support for your game, then I can write you some small routines for speech output. They basically only need 100 bytes and the space for the speech. Example: The speech "You got win again!" would cost you that 18 bytes only. So every game could add speech support for nearly no extra cost.

[sigh]

A speech synthesizer is suggested strongly.

Aahhh - so you would it would be beneficial to have some extra hardware for the example I was giving. In that case - it would definitely be more feasible to just place the speech on a "Game Over" screen like in games such as  "The Hit Squad" or the start of a screen like in "Fast Food" where nothing is happening.

Thank you for clearing that up

[GUNHED]

Yes, right. Or let's support the LambdaSpeak III 

[sigh]

Yes, right. Or let's support the LambdaSpeak III 

Definitely!
I would be interested to write a soundtrack with vocals playing in the background of one of my games.

[GUNHED]

Definitely!
I would be interested to write a soundtrack with vocals playing in the background of one of my games.

Actually, the DEC mode can even sing.

[GUNHED]

Well, I just postet a little update for LambdaSpeak III:

- LS-TIME.COM does read the RTC time and set the CP/M clock. This works for CP/M Plus and 63 KB Dobbertin CP/M 2.2 (ver 1.4)

- SP.COM does speak a text which you provide as argument. Example: A>SP This is a test

Good news for everybody who wants a LambdaSpeak III, but can't pay it. The new LambdaSpeak FutureSoft (LS FS) is coming up. Basically it has no original SPO256 chip. That way it can be produced cheaper.
However the LS 3 is compatible to the LS FS. I will keep you updated.

[XeNoMoRPH]

Well done, i Will try this new tools on my lambaspeak 3

[GUNHED]

Well done, i Will try this new tools on my lambaspeak 3

On the disc for LSFS there is a program called 'Lisa', still have to see if it works on LS3 too, but it should.

With the LSFS we have a 'Held in customs' problem, but I'll keep you updated.

Thanks to all of you for your support! 

[GUNHED]

Little Update for LS3 - regarding PCM sample playing...


Can't attach 2nd DSK here