
Talking Clock			Copyright (C) Moose O'Malley, 
-------------			January 1997.

Talking Clock for Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, NT.

Developed using 16-bit Delphi.

In the early 1980's, I played around with a fantastic 
Talking Clock program for the Commodore 64 !

This program recreates the functionality of this old program, but
with additional functionality and a more user friendly interface.

The idea behind Talking Clock is that once spoken digits and 
AM / PM are recorded into seperate sound files, Talking Clock 
will read the time out to you !  For example, it will speak
eight fifty two PM at 8:52 PM if you want it to.

Once you have these files, put them in the same directory as
the Talking Clock EXE file, and then simply select 
(within Talking Clock) when you want the time spoken.  
The options are :
- Say Time Every Hour           (All vers)
- Never Say the Time            (Registered Vers only)
- Say Time Every Minute         (Registered Vers only)
- Say Time Every Quarter Hour   (Registered Vers only)
- Say Time Every Half Hour      (Registered Vers only)

and Talking Clock will read the time out when required.

Various playback methods are available to help improve
the playback quality of the spoken time and to help
reduce pauses between numbers when saying the time.
These playback methods are :
- Sequential                    (All vers)
- Fast                          (Registered Vers only)
- Optimised                     (Registered Vers only)

The Fast Playback method (Registered Vers only)
loads all required WAV files and then plays them
all in quick succession.

The Optimised Playback method (Registered Vers only)
loads all required WAV files for the spoken digits and 
then plays them all in quick succession - other
sounds (Prefix / suffix) are loaded and played 
sequentially.

The Sequential Playback method (available in the Shareware 
and Registered Vers) loads and then plays each WAV file in 
turn, so there can be significant pauses between spoken 
digits while the WAVs for the next digit are loaded.

The Fast and Optimised methods are far superior to the 
Sequential method.

The options available for Prefix and suffix sound 
selection are :
- Prefix.WAV / Suffix.WAV only
- Random Prefix / Suffix Sound
- Random Prefix / Suffix Sound with Blank option

The sounds in prefix.wav is played before the time is spoken, 
and the sounds in suffix.wav are played after the sound is 
spoken.  So, for example, prefix.wav could contain the  speech 
"The time is now" and the suffix.wav file could contain "Mike".

IF the "Prefix.WAV / Suffix.WAV only" is checked, then
only prefix.wav and suffix.wav are used.

IF "Random Prefix / Suffix Sound" is checked (Registered version 
only), then a random prefix is chosen out of all files matching
"prefix*.wav" in the current directory.  Similarly for the 
suffix sounds.

If the "Random Prefix / Suffix Sound with Blank option" is checked
(Registered version only) then "No sound" is also one of the random
prefixes and suffixes that could also be played.

You can download recordings of my voice for the Talking Clock
now from my WEB Page and its mirrors (see below or Email me 
for details), with voice impersonations of the 3 Stooges, 
Mae West, Duke Nuke'em (hillarious !!) and others hopefully 
coming soon !!

Alternatively, you can create your own sounds. 


Creating your own Sound Files :
-------------------------------

To do this, you will need to record the following sound 
files :

	0.wav		10.wav		20.wav
	1.wav		11.wav		30.wav
	2.wav		12.wav		40.wav
	3.wav		13.wav		50.wav
	4.wav		14.wav
	5.wav		15.wav		am.wav
	6.wav		16.wav		pm.wav
	7.wav		17.wav
	8.wav		18.wav		prefix.wav  (Optional)
	9.wav		19.wav		suffix.wav  (Optional)

So, for example, you would say the number "0" and save this as
"0.wav", then start a new sound file, and say the number "1"
and save this as "1.wav", etc.

I know this is a bit of mucking around, and to get the sounds
consistent volume and pitch and the same length - so
that the time speech sounds good - is even more work.
You will also get the best results if you remove "dead space"
at the start and end of each recording.  i.e. places where
there are no sound.  But, you will only have to do this once.

This can be done by using Windows Sound Recorder or any 
other sound recording program.  You will also need a 
microphone plugged into your sound card as well.

The sound files "prefix.wav" and "suffix.wav" are optional, but
can be fun to use as well.


The Future :
-------------

This is an early release of the program, and several interesting
things could be done with it in the future.

For example, imagine having :
- Billy Connelly,
- Burt Lancaster, 
- Charles Bronson, 
- Clint Eastwood, 
- Data, 
- David Bowie (like in the Major Tom song when he counts down),  
- Davros / Daleks, 
- Elvis, 
- Groucho Marx, 
- James T. Kirk (William Shatner), 
- Judy Garland, 
- Liza Minelli, 
- Michael Jackson to annoy your friends,
- Mrs Doubt Fire,
- Orson Welles, 
- Peter Ustinov, 
- Sean Connery, 
- Spike Milligan, 
- Spock (Leonard Nimoy), 
- the Queen, 
- Tom "Dr Who" Baker, 
- Yoda (out of Star Wars), 
- Zsa Zsa Gabor, 
- or some other interesting voice reading out the time !!!

Or if anyone has a nice / different voice, please let me know 
as well.  A nice Irish accent, a lovely French accent, a
gruff Scottish accent, or other interesting accents would 
also be great to hear in Talking Clock !!

For Star Trek, you could also have the Beaming down and 
Communicator sounds as Prefix and Suffix sounds.

All it takes is good samples of the required sounds, and 
this will work.

I am now actively pursuing the recording of some of
the above via the use of voice impersonators.

To avoid copyright problems, all sound sets I distribute 
will need voices done by impersonators and all SFX
will need to be synthesised from scratch.

These sound sets will be available to Registered Users.

If anyone gets any good samples like these, please let me know.

If anyone sends me any good samples, that I don't have already,
I will Email you a registered version of this program for free !!

If I had time and a decent recording set-up, I would do this
myself.

Also, I might (if enough people like the idea) have a play 
around with speech generation, so that the program will not
need sound files at all - it will simply generate the speech
itself.

If anyone knows any good algorithms for this, or books on this, 
or places on the Internet where I can find out about this,
please EMail me.


Shareware Reviews / Awards / CDs :
----------------------------------

Version 1.1 of this program received a 4 Star rating
(out of 5) in the 1997 Ziff Davis shareware awards.
Thanks Ted !!

Version 1.5 and later of this program were included on
Microforum Inc.'s (in Toronto Canada) shareware CDs.


Sharware Information :
----------------------

This is NOT free software.

This product is shareware.  

This means that you can try out the software for evaluation 
purposes without charge for a period of 21 days to enable you
to decide whether to purchase / register it.

If you use this software after the 21 day evaluation period
a registration fee is required.  See the Registration Form
in the file register.txt.

Unregistered use of this software after the 21-day evaluation 
period is in violation of U.S. and international copyright laws.

If you do not purchase / register the software after the 21 day
trial period, then you must delete it from your system.

In order to encourage me to develop this software and keep 
developing other software, I encourage you to do the right 
thing and register the software.

I could have easily have made the programs nag you to Register, 
or expire after 21 days of use, but I do not like this approach.

From April 97 on, however, some of the new functionality being 
added to my programs will be available for Registered users only.
I tried to avoid doing this, but now I have been forced to do 
this to try and encourage some Registrations.

I live in the hope that if people use the programs, then they 
will register them.

Registered users will receive FREE upgrades of the program for
the life of the program.  i.e. as long as I keep improving the
program, registered users will get this new / additional 
functionality for FREE.

To Register, please complete the Registration Form in
the file register.txt.


Special Thanks to :
-------------------
- the clever person who wrote the talking clock program on the
  Commodore 64 in the early 1980's.
- Ted Tatman for his helpful suggestions and advice, and his kind 
  review of Talking Clock in the 1997 Ziff Davis Shareware Awards.
- Darlene Tatman for her excellent sexy american voice and WAVS !
- John Carsey for his brilliant and hillarious Duke Nukem 3D 
  impersonations.
- Anybody who has registered this program and supported my efforts
  and the efforts of the above people.


Ammendment History :
--------------------

Vers    Date        Description
1.0     27-Jan-97   First Public Release.
1.1     27-Jan-97   Add in Registration functionality.
                    (1,677 lines of code.)
1.2     04-Apr-97   Display the current time in red on a black 
                    background to make it look a bit like an LED 
                    clock.  Add in a "Say the Time NOW" button.
                    Add in a "Say Time Every Quarter Hour" option.
                    (Thanks to Ted Tatman for these suggestions !!)
1.3     08-Apr-97   Add in various sound playback methods (Fast, Optimised, 
                    and Sequential).  Move the Time Say Frequency up to the 
                    menu area to unclutter the main screen.  Add in skeleton 
                    code for other functions - which are under construction.
                    Limit some functionality to Registered users only - to 
                    try and encourage some Registrations.
                    Turn Off the Maximise icon - it wasn't needed.
1.4     28-Apr-97   Cater for the situation where the same sound
                    exists multiple times in the current time - 
                    use the already loaded sound (instead of loading 
                    it again) to avoid the "MMSYSTEM265 This alias is 
                    already in use by this program.  Use a unique 
                    alias rather than the device name" errors.
1.5     02-May-97   Add in support for multiple prefix and suffix
                    files - which are now chosen at Random.
                    Disable timed saying of the Time while the 
                    time is being played (such as when the user 
                    pressed the "Say Time Now" button).
                    Fix another cause of the "alias is already 
                    in use" error.
1.5a	06-May-97   Make sure one of the playback Sequential / 
                    Optimised / Fastest options is checked.
1.6     17-Jun-97   Save settings automatically on Windows 95 shutdown 
                    (Registered Users only).
                    Start Minimised if set in Shortcut / settings
                    (Registered Users only).  
                    Improve application startup - size and position 
                    form before user sees it.
                    Add in Menu items for viewing my Shareware Catalog, 
                    the Readme file, and the Registration Form.
                    Disable all items under the "Choose Voice Speech Set"
                    menu - this menu is for future use only.
1.7     20-Dec-97   Make Talking Clock Icon in Win 95 Task Bar display 
                    time when Talking Clock is minimised.
                    Enable Talking Clock to say the time every 5 and 
                    10 minutes as well.  (Register Users only).
                    Make sure at least the basic settings are checked
                    so that Talking Clock will say the time - This has 
                    only been a problem if users upgrade from old version 
                    of Talking Clock.
1.8     01-Jan-97   Improve application startup - size and position 
                    form before user sees it.
                    Add in 24 hour clock support (Registered Users only !).
                    (3,486 lines of code.)
2.0     11-Jan-98   Fix a long standing but very elusive problem
                    to do with "DateEncode" errors which occured
                    on some machines under some conditions.
                    Once I could replicate the error, it was
                    reasonably straight forward to get a workaround
                    for what was another bug in Delphi.
                    (3,658 lines of code.)
2.1     14-Jan-98   Fix a little bug which occured when there
                    were no suffix WAV files - basically the file
                    search record needed some further validation.
                    (3,663 lines of code.)
2.2     08-Mar-98   If the "Random Prefix / Suffix Sound" option is 
                    checked and there is a Prefix sound and no 
                    Suffix sound or vica versa, then stop Talking 
                    Clock using the existing Prefix (or Suffix) sound
                    to use as the missing Suffix (or Prefix) sound.
                    Fix problem with the "Prefix / Suffix WAV Only"
                    option being uncheckable - a problem seems to have 
                    occured during the compile, as a recompilation (of
                    the identical code) fixed this problem.  Strange !
                    (3,674 lines of code.)


If this program was not downloaded from my Home Page, then
it is most likely an old version.  The latest version of this 
program is available from my Home page and its mirrors.

Moose
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 EMail         : Moose@rocknet.net.au
 Home Page     : http://www.rocknet.net.au/~moose/
 Mirrors       : See above Home Page.
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