4.0234 Voice Cards (2/38)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 28 Jun 90 17:43:57 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0234. Thursday, 28 Jun 1990.
(1) Date: Thu, 28 Jun 90 08:43:11 +0200 (17 lines)
From: Espen Ore <espeno%navf-edb-h.uib.uninett@nac.no>
Subject: 4.0218 Qs: ... Voice Cards
(2) Date: Thu, 28 Jun 90 14:10:51 BST (21 lines)
From: J J Higgins <Higgins@np1a.bristol.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: 4.0218 Qs: ... Voice Cards
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 90 08:43:11 +0200
From: Espen Ore <espeno%navf-edb-h.uib.uninett@nac.no>
Subject: 4.0218 Qs: ... Voice Cards
A simple but effective system for digitized sound/speech on a computer
is a Macintosh with MacRecorder (a sound sampler) from Farallon
Computing. MacRecorder is an eight-bit sampler, and its best quality is
about the same as old fashioned hi-fi. With two MacRecorders (or some
tricky use of one) you can record stereo sound. The software that comes
with MacRecorder allows for editing of the sounds, and it is possible to
use the sounds (mono) as standard sound resources in HyperCard. I think
the price for the MacRecorder is about $ 200, and you can use it on any
Mac from the Plus and up.
Espen Ore
Bergen, Norway
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------30----
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 90 14:10:51 BST
From: J J Higgins <Higgins@np1a.bristol.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: 4.0218 Qs: ... Voice Cards
Thomas Zielke, who asked about voice cards, may like to know that one of
the best informed people in this area is Bernd Rueschoff of the
University of Wuppertal. I am afraid I have not got an exact address.
Both the cards I have worked with incorporate a headset with microphone,
and will also take input from a tape recorder and digitise it, and feed
output to an external amplifier or loudspeaker. Quality varies, but I
do not think that second language learners need high quality. A great
deal of real-life listening takes place in acoustically unfavourable
conditions; a diet of studio-recordings of careful speech in language
labs may not be the best preparation for coping with listening in the
real world. Some of Bernd Rueschoff's work made a virtue of necessity,
since he based listening exercises on a simulation of playing back the
tape on a telephone answering machine, justifying the less-than-perfect
sound quality and the one-sidedness of the conversation at a single
ingenious stroke.