Here’s a mish-mash (is that spelled rite?) of what I have been doing in between the sessions spent оп my TRS80 preparing this newsletter. 1. The Votrax speech synthesizer circuit for the ZX/TS was completed and software development is underway. It uses the phoneme approach, having 61 and 3 pauses. Additional features include an adjustable frequency which alters both the speed in which the words are said and the overall pitch. It has provisions for 4 programmable levels of inflection which greatly enhance the intelligibility. The chip lists for $50 from most places but I have seen it for under $40 from one source. A few more dollars worth of parts are all it takes. Schematic and info next month. 2. The National Digitalker speech synthesizer is also working. It takes a few chips plus the chip set (on sale from Jameco for $34.95). The normal price is $85. It has a vocabulary of 143 words and they come out sounding as natural as can be. The student is already learning how to take portions of the words and build new words. Schematic and info next month. 3. The LM XXXXX project was really a NSM 39168 Dot/Bar Display Driver with LEDs. I put it, the ZX transformer, a 47ØØuF cap, a power switch & LED, and a motor on/off switch for my recorder into one of Radio Shack’s cheap project boxes. A record/play switch was also included to isolate the unused line during each operation. I have found the display pretty helpful in setting up volume levels. Following is the schematic I came up with, more details later. I unfortunately have spent a lot of time getting the recorder head alignment figured out. I thought it primarily adjusted the high-freq playback, but I am finding that I have to adjust it for different tapes from different sources. I would sure welcome some tape loading ‘Bits & Bytes’ from those who have figured out this mess. What’s the difference in LOAD “” and LOAD “name” as far as ease of loading goes? 4. Just received for review (see ad) is Z-XLR8 software. I have tried it briefly and think it is the answer to my long coffee breaks! 16K programs that used to take over 5 minutes to load are ready to go in 45 – 60 seconds. I love it already. Details next month.