3100 SB Audio Card (250-1632) The Talking Parrot Faxback Doc. # 2963 GETTING STARTED This mischievous parrot likes to mimic speech. It talks back, sometimes with outrageous remarks and it even giggles when tickled. The purpose of this software is to provide you with a demonstration of the power of your CT1350 card and to give you some hands-on experience in using its voice capabilities combined with graphics. You can say anything you want, in any language. You can press any key or simply leave it alone and see what happens. IMPORTANT: This program requires an AT (286) computer to run properly. A microphone plugged into the CT1350 card is also required. If the microphone has a switch, make sure it is turned ON. To start the program: 1. Change to the \SB directory. 2. Type PARROT and press ENTER. 3. When the screen displays a graph indicating the noise level, press ENTER and type a number that is ten counts above the noise level displayed (140 to 230). Press ENTER again. EXAMPLE: If the graph displays 130, type 140 and press ENTER. 4. When the parrot finishes its opening remarks, speak into the microphone. IMPORTANT: Speak directly into the microphone with sufficient volume so that the parrot can hear you. 5. Press ESCAPE to leave the program. VIDEO DISPLAY SELECTION Normally, the TALKING PARROT software automatically detects which type of video display you have and selects the correct mode. On the CGA screen, you will notice that parrot is enlarged. This is because TEXT mode is used here to draw the parrot. If you would like to have this big "text" parrot on the EGA or VGA display, you may use a parameter to force the TALKING PARROT to use this TEXT mode. EXAMPLE: >PARROT/T CUSTOMIZING YOUR PARROT For those who want more fun out of the Talking Parrot, you can customize it by creating your own pictures and voices. There are four PCX format pictures used to make up the parrot. You can use any paint or draw program that saves pictures in the .PCX format pictures used to make up the parrot. You can use any paint or draw program that saves pictures in the .PCX format to create your own version of the Talking Parrot. Give your drawings the same file names as those listed in the table and copy them to the /SB/PARROT sub-directory. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ PARROT.PCX PICTURE FILES │ ├─────────┬─────────┬────────────────────────────────────┤ │EGA/VGA │CGA │ DESCRIPTION │ ├─────────┼─────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤ │PARROT.EO│PARROT.CO│Parrot with mouth closed. │ ├─────────┼─────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤ │PARROT.E1│PARROT.C1│Parrot with mouth opened. │ ├─────────┼─────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤ │PARROT.E2│PARROT.C2│Parrot with mouth wide open. │ ├─────────┼─────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤ │PARROT.E3│PARROT.C3│Parrot with eyes and mouth closed. │ └─────────┴─────────┴────────────────────────────────────┘ MAKING PARROT VOICES The pre-recorded voices for the Talking Parrot are stored in the PARROTV.VCB file. This file contains all 21 voices. To create your own voices, use VOXKIT to record the 21 voice and give them the same names shown in the Talking Parrot Voice Files table. Store these files in the SB/PARROT sub-directory. To create the .VCB file: -From the /SB/PARROT sub-directory, type MAKEPV and press ENTER. IMPORTANT: Make sure that: -All files are recorded at 10,000Hz sampling rate. -The voice data is NOT packed. -Each voice data in each file does not exceed 64K. -The sum of the size of the 21 voices must NOT exceed the free memory after the Talking Parrot is loaded. To be on the safe side, keep the file size less than 250K. NOTE: The program MAKEPV, used to create the PARROTV.VCB file, checks for the existence of the original PARROTV.VCB file and asks for your permission to overwrite it. TALKING PARROT VOICE FILES The following tables contain the 21 voice files that make up the PARROTV.VCB. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ RANDOM GREETING MESSAGE FILES │ ├──────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ FILE NAME│DESCRIPTION │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-A.VOC│Hello there. │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-B.VOC│Hi! How are you? │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-C.VOC│Good day. │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-D.VOC│Welcome to the show. │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-E.VOC│I'm a talking parrot. │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-F.VOC│Please talk to me. │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-G.VOC│Nice to see you. │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-H.VOC│Please say something. │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-I.VOC│Have a nice day. │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-J.VOC│Goodbye. │ ├──────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │The parrot will say files PVOC-A, PVOC-E and PVOC-D at │ │start up. When you quit the parrot says PVOC-J and │ │PVOC-I. │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ RANDOM REPLY MESSAGE FILES │ ├──────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │FILE NAME │DESCRIPTION │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-K.VOC│Oh! You sound terrible. │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-l.VOC│Yak! You have bad breath. │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-M.VOC│What are you saying? │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-N.VOC│What are you saying? (angrily) │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-O.VOC│Don't talk nonsense. │ ├──────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │The parrot will randomly refuse to play back the recorded│ │voice and will send out one of these messages instead. │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ REACTION MESSAGE TO KEYBOARD FILES │ ├──────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │FILE NAME │DESCRIPTION │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-P.VOC│Ouch! │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-Q.VOC│Ooo..h. │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-R.VOC│Don't touch me. │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-S.VOC│Go away. │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-T.VOC│Hee..hee..hee. │ ├──────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │PVOC-U.VOC│Herr..herr..herr. │ ├──────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │When the keyboard is pressed, the Parrot will randomly │ │send out one of these messages. │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ (SMC-05/03/94)