One of the major advantages that the Computer Concepts' Speech package had over many others on the market was that it used the TMS5220 speech chip, giving much clearer speech. It was not one of the easiest of systems to use, however, as text had to be typed in using phonemes (see review in Beebug Vol. 4 No. 6). Although this was adequate for most purposes, it made it difficult to encode phrases. Now Computer Concepts have added the Text To Speech (TTS) ROM to the original speech package to provide the 'speech system'.

The new package contains both the Speech ROM and the new TTS ROM, but as before, it is essential that the TMS5520 speech chip is fitted as well. If you already have the original Computer Concepts Speech ROM, an upgrade service is available (from Computer Concepts) for £11.75, but this then brings the total cost of the system to over £55.

The main feature of TTS is a *SAY command which will pronounce any text string that follows. This is much easier to use than building up a set of words by using phonemes. For example, '*SAY Hello there' is far easier than the '*UTTER <1> H +e L O DH *ea' command needed previously. You can also set the TTS into one of three different modes, to pronounce words, spell them out, or pronounce lower case words and spell out upper case words. The TTS ROM itself takes 1K of memory as workspace.

Other commands included are *PHONS, which acts the same as *SAY, but lists the phonemes needed to construct the speech. *SAYIP allows the TTS to pronounce any text entering the current input stream, such as the keyboard or RS423 interface, both of which offer some interesting possibilities.

*SAYPRT diverts the text from a printer and pronounces it. In this mode, TTS can be switched on and off using VDU 2 and VDU 3. There are also commands to pronounce the text on screen (similar to a text printer dump) and to pronounce a section of memory or file.

A nice feature of the TTS is that various standard abbreviations are pronounced fully, 'Mr. Williams' sounding as 'Mister Williams' for example.

Superior Software's Speech! adopts a completely different approach to speech generation and in this respect is a much more innovatory piece of software. In fact, it does not use the Beeb's speech system at all. The whole thing is handled in software and a stream of data is pushed out through the Beeb's sound generator. As a consequence, this package is considerably cheaper, costing only £9.95 as opposed to nearly £50.

In spite of the very cunning and unorthodox route to speech generation taken by Superior, the results are really quite good, though the clarity does not quite match up to Computer Concepts' chip-based speech. Speech! also uses a *SAY command for ease of use, but does not offer as many star commands as Computer Concepts.

If you are looking for a speech system simply for home entertainment then with its dramatically lower price Speech! must be the better bet. If you seek a serious speech system, where speech quality is paramount, then the Computer Concepts product is the one to go for.