Hi Bryan, Thanks for going more into detail. It was a pleasure to read and I've learned something from your post. Thanks. :) -Peter Op 23-jun-2010, om 20:06 heeft Bryan Smart het volgende geschreven: > Samantha was one of the first generation of voices created for RealSpeak. > Just like why Microsoft SAM is the default synth for SAPI versions 5 and > earlier, she is the default synth because she had the least amount of > pronunciation mistakes. For SAPI, for example Mike and Mary both sounded more > human-like, and less depressed than Sam, but, due to limitations with their > recorded audio, they mispronounced more words. RealSpeak Tom, the only other > RealSpeak and Vocalizer US English voice, also has this problem on occasion. > > Another reason for her continued use is that, by fortunate coincidence, she > still sounds alright when extremely compressed. To make Vocalizer voices, the > RealSpeak audio recordings for the voices are highly compressed. Compression > produces audio artifacts. If you listen to Tom on the Stream, for example, he > sounds horrible when compared to the RealSpeak version for the desktop. For > tech reasons that would take a while to explain, higher pitched voices > compress better. So, this has further pushed out Tom, and secured Samantha as > the voice that you hear when Vocalizer is used in mobile applications. I > think that this is why Apple doesn't bother to include Tom on iOS. > > The horrible thing about Samantha is her intonation model. Intonation is the > way the pitch of a person's speech rises and falls while speaking, in order > to convey emotion and provide the listener with information regarding the > approach of clause and sentence breaks. Samantha has little to no work in > this area. That's why she sounds like, as a I recently heard someone say, "an > angry robot". The RealSpeak voices since Samantha have had a lot more work > put in to intonation. Even with Tom's pronunciation mistakes, his intonation > is very smooth when compared to Samantha. For an extreme example, listen to > Daniel. His pattern models an announcer for radio voiceovers. > > Intonation is hard to get right, cause the computer doesn't know anything > about the meaning of what it is reading. TTS programmers must create a model > that is general purpose, without sounding lifeless. > > Nuance really needs to make another US English voice. As one of the first > products of RealSpeak, she has served well for a long time, but she's out of > date. I don't know of any plans to do anything about that situation, though. > Vocalizer is available for most every imbedded architecture, and supports > most all major languages. They don't have any real competition at the moment. > Where they did have competition, they've purchased the companies that made > it, and killed the products. For example, they also own both Eloquence and > DECtalk. Eloquence is being discontinued for anyone except those that hold > long-term licensing agreements (like Freedom Scientific and GW Micro), though > updates to the synth won't continue, and even those people will have to move > to something else in a few years (most likely RealSpeak). DECtalk is being > similarly canceled, due, in part, to the source code being lost as it was > repeatedly bought and sold in the early 2000s. Accapella is about their only > real competition now. If you saw a list of all of the companies that Nuance > has bought over the last 15 years, you wouldn't believe it. Acquiring > companies is what they do. I worry that, some day soon, I'll see a press > release saying that they've purchased the Accapella Group, and soon after, > will discontinue their synth. At that point, the only TTS system left that > supports a comprehensive set of multiple architectures and languages will be > ESpeak. Yuck! > > Bryan > > -----Original Message----- > From: macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Cheryl Homiak > Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 1:12 PM > To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [macvoiceover] iPhone voices > > I'm wondering why our U.S. English voice has to sound so awful (imho) when > some of the voices sound not bad at all. I think Australian sounds nice but > maybe that's just because of the accent; maybe Australians think this voice > is as bad as Samantha. Spanish has a male voice which I also think doesn't > sound bad at all. I always thought we had to put up with Samantha due to the > size of the program or resources used but now i'm wondering. Anyway, it's > nice to have a choice. My apologies to those who like Samantha; I know voice > preferences are a deeply personal matter but I strongly dislike her on the > Stream and only find her slightly more tolerable on the iPhone and iPad. > Again, it is great to easily be able to change it now. > > > -- > > Cheryl > "Let the words of my mouth, > and the meditation of my heart, > be acceptable in thy sight, > O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." > (Psalm 19:14 Bible KJV) > > > > > >> >> Click on the link below to go to our homepage. >> http://www.icanworkthisthing.com >> >> Manage your subscription by using the web interface on the link below. >> //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover >> >> Users can subscribe to this list by sending email to >> macvoiceover-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >> with 'subscribe' in the Subject field OR by logging into the Web >> interface at //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover >> >> >> Click on the link below to go to our homepage. >> http://www.icanworkthisthing.com >> >> Manage your subscription by using the web interface on the link below. >> //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover >> >> Users can subscribe to this list by sending email to >> macvoiceover-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >> with 'subscribe' in the Subject field OR by logging into the Web >> interface at //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover >> > > Click on the link below to go to our homepage. > http://www.icanworkthisthing.com > > Manage your subscription by using the web interface on the link below. > //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover > > Users can subscribe to this list by sending email to > macvoiceover-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > with 'subscribe' in the Subject field OR by logging into the Web > interface at //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover >