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https://github.com/s-macke/sam

Software Automatic Mouth - Tiny Speech Synthesizer
https://github.com/s-macke/sam

c64 phonemes reciter speech-synthesis

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Software Automatic Mouth - Tiny Speech Synthesizer

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README 

        
SAM

===



Software Automatic Mouth - Tiny Speech Synthesizer 



What is SAM?

============



Sam is a very small Text-To-Speech (TTS) program written in C, that runs on most popular platforms.

It is an adaption to C of the speech software SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) for the Commodore C64 published 

in the year 1982 by Don't Ask Software (now SoftVoice, Inc.). It includes a Text-To-Phoneme converter called reciter and a Phoneme-To-Speech routine for the 

final output. It is so small that it will work also on embedded computers. On my computer it takes

less than 39KB (much smaller on embedded devices as the executable-overhead is not necessary) of disk space and is a fully stand alone program. 

For immediate output it uses the SDL-library, otherwise it can save .wav files. 



An online version and executables for Windows can be found on the web site: http://simulationcorner.net/index.php?page=sam



Compile

=======



Simply type "make" in your command prompt.

In order to compile without SDL remove the SDL statements from the CFLAGS and LFLAGS variables in the file "Makefile".



It should compile on every UNIX-like operating system. For Windows you need Cygwin or MinGW( + libsdl).



Fork

====



Take a look at https://github.com/vidarh/SAM for a more refactored and cleaner version of the code.



Usage

=====



type



	./sam I am Sam



for the first output.



If you have disabled SDL try



	./sam -wav i_am_sam.wav I am Sam



to get a wav file. This file can be played by many media players available for the PC.



you can try other options like

	-pitch number

	-speed number

	-throat number

	-mouth number



Some typical values written in the original manual are:



	DESCRIPTION          SPEED     PITCH     THROAT    MOUTH

	Elf                   72        64        110       160

	Little Robot          92        60        190       190

	Stuffy Guy            82        72        110       105

	Little Old Lady       82        32        145       145

	Extra-Terrestrial    100        64        150       200

	SAM                   72        64        128       128



It can even sing

look at the file "sing"

for a small example.



For the phoneme input table look in the Wiki.



A description of additional features can be found in the original manual at

	http://www.retrobits.net/atari/sam.shtml

or in the manual of the equivalent Apple II program

	http://www.apple-iigs.info/newdoc/sam.pdf



Adaption To C

=============



This program (disassembly at http://hitmen.c02.at/html/tools_sam.html) was converted semi-automatic into C by converting each assembler opcode.

e. g. 



	lda 56		=>	A = mem[56];

	jmp 38018  	=>	goto pos38018;

	inc 38		=>	mem[38]++;

	.			.

	.			.



Then it was manually rewritten to remove most of the 

jumps and register variables in the code and rename the variables to proper names. 

Most of the description below is a result of this rewriting process.



Unfortunately it is still unreadable. But you should see from where I started :)



Short description

=================



First of all I will limit myself here to a very coarse description. 

There are very many exceptions defined in the source code that I will not explain. 

Also a lot of code is unknown for me e. g. Code47503. 

For a complete understanding of the code I need more time and especially more eyes have a look on the code. 



Reciter

-------



It changes the english text to phonemes by a ruleset shown in the wiki.



The rule

	" ANT(I)",	"AY",

means that if he find an "I" with previous letters " ANT", exchange the I by the phoneme "AY".



There are some special signs in this rules like

	#

	&

	@

	^

	+

	:

	%

which can mean e. g. that there must be a vocal or a consonant or something else. 



With the -debug option you will get the corresponding rules and the resulting phonemes.



Output

------



Here is the full tree of subroutine calls:



SAMMain()

	Parser1()

	Parser2()

		Insert()

	CopyStress()

	SetPhonemeLength()

	Code48619()

	Code41240()

		Insert()

	Code48431()

		Insert()

		

	Code48547

		Code47574

			Special1

			Code47503

			Code48227



SAMMain() is the entry routine and calls all further routines. 

Parser1 transforms the phoneme input and transforms it to three tables

	phonemeindex[]

	stress[]

	phonemelength[] (zero at this moment)

	

This tables are now changed: 



Parser2 exchanges some phonemes by others and inserts new. 

CopyStress adds 1 to the stress under some circumstances

SetPhonemeLength sets phoneme lengths. 

Code48619 changes the phoneme lengths

Code41240 adds some additional phonemes

Code48431 has some extra rules



The wiki shows all possible phonemes and some flag fields.  

The final content of these tables can be seen with the -debug command.



In the function PrepareOutput() these tables are partly copied into the small tables:

	phonemeindexOutput[]

	stressOutput[]

	phonemelengthOutput[]

for output.



Final Output

------------



Except of some special phonemes the output is build by a linear combination:

	

	A =   A1 * sin ( f1 * t ) +

	      A2 * sin ( f2 * t ) +

	      A3 * rect( f3 * t )



where rect is a rectangular function with the same periodicity like sin. 

It seems really strange, but this is really enough for most types of phonemes. 



Therefore the above phonemes are converted with some tables to 

	pitches[]

	frequency1[]  =  f1

	frequency2[]  =  f2

	frequency3[]  =  f3

	amplitude1[]  =  A1

	amplitude2[]  =  A2

	amplitude3[]  =  A3

	

Above formula is calculated in one very good omptimized routine.

It only consist of 26 commands:



    48087: 	LDX 43		; get phase	

    CLC		

	LDA 42240,x	; load sine value (high 4 bits)

	ORA TabAmpl1,y	; get amplitude (in low 4 bits)

	TAX		

	LDA 42752,x	; multiplication table

	STA 56		; store 



	LDX 42		; get phase

	LDA 42240,x	; load sine value (high 4 bits)

	ORA TabAmpl2,y	; get amplitude (in low 4 bits)

	TAX		

	LDA 42752,x	; multiplication table

	ADC Var56	; add with previous values

	STA 56		; and store



	LDX 41		; get phase

	LDA 42496,x	; load rect value (high 4 bits)

	ORA TabAmpl3,y	; get amplitude (in low 4 bits)

	TAX		

	LDA 42752,x	; multiplication table

	ADC 56		; add with previous values



	ADC #136		

	LSR A		; get highest 4 bits

	LSR A		

	LSR A		

	LSR A		

	STA 54296	;SID   main output command



The rest is handled in a special way. At the moment I cannot figure out in which way. 

But it seems that it uses some noise (e. g. for "s") using a table with random values. 



License

=======



The software is a reverse-engineered version of a software 

published more than 34 years ago by "Don't ask Software".



The company no longer exists. Any attempt to contact the original

authors failed. Hence S.A.M. can be best described as Abandonware

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware)



As long this is the case I cannot put my code under any specific open

source software license. However the software might be used under the

"Fair Use" act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAIR_USE_Act) in the USA.



Contact

=======



If you have questions don' t hesitate to ask me.

If you discovered some new knowledge about the code please mail me.



Sebastian Macke

Email: [email protected]