# Special Text-To-Speech Modes

After the startup function is called by an application, the application can then call TextToSpeechSpeak to speak text. This converts text to speech and sends the speech sample to an audio device depending on the setting of the dwFlags field in the startup routine.

The DECtalk Software API also provides alternatives for the speech samples by allowing the user to select one of the special text-to-speech modes. These modes allow the speech samples to be written to a WAVE file; converted to text, phonemes, or syllables and stored in a log file; or saved in memory buffers to be passed back to the calling application. Each mode-switch call has a corresponding call to return the text-to-speech system to the startup state. These calls are listed below.

Special Text-To-Speech Modes

Mode | Open Call | Close Call
wave-file | TextToSpeechOpenWaveOutFile() | TextToSpeechCloseWaveOutFile()
log-file | TextToSpeechOpenLogFile() | TextToSpeechCloseLogFile()
speech-to-memory | TextToSpeechOpenInMemory() | TextToSpeechCloseInMemory()

The text-to-speech system must be in the startup state before calling any of the Open calls listed in the table. The corresponding Close call returns the system to the startup state.