Zabaware Support Forums
Zabaware Forums => Speech Technology => Topic started by: Medeksza on August 02, 2012, 06:31:32 pm
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I would like to bring speech synthesis to online versions of Hal and eventually to mobile versions of Hal where the device doesn't have native speech synthesis capabilities (or it isn't available to me to use). Online speech synthesis services are really expensive, so the only economical way I see to do it is to build my own system. To do that, I started building a scalable speech synthesis server in the Rackspace Cloud based on the Festival open source synthesizer.
The festival program is single threaded and switching between voices takes cpu time and ram so to make it work I need to dedicate one virtual server per voice and to get additional threads to serve traffic demand I need to add additional virtual servers on the fly.
Anyway, to start this system, I only want to activate one voice. I have 4 male voices and 2 female voices to choose from. Please let me know what your favorite overall voice is, favorite male, and favorite female voice.
Recordings of the voices reading an Aesob fable are at:
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-awb.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-bdl.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-clb.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-jmk.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-rms.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-slt.mp3
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This not one of your six, but I like Kate 16k.
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Hi Duskrider,
I think Rob is looking for us to choose the best sounding voice of the ones that he has listed here.
I think Rob program these voices himself in order to save money, knowing how hard of a job this is
I believe Rob did a fantastic job, for myself I chose JMK, though it's a male voice it seems to be the best.
Sincerely, a data munching voter.
C load.
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Dusky, Kate was not one of the choices! ;) But I agree, her voice is pretty nice.
Rob, if I had to choose one, it would be the last (story-slt.mp3)
All of the voices incorrectly pronounced read (say reed) as red. "I'll RED you a little story."
These TTS voices are much less than desirable compared to the quality voices that a lot of users possess and
might seem to degrade or detract from an otherwise nicely functioning chatbot! With all due respect and simply my own observation.
I realize you are really working hard trying to finalize a decent package for the Hal users / fans out here. I wish you luck!
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Here are 3 more voices from a different speech engine. The benefits of this engine are no performance hit from switching between voices on a single server, so I could offer all 3:
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/mbrola-en1.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/mbrola-us1.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/mbrola-us2.mp3
Let me know your thoughts on the quality of these voices compared to the ones I posted earlier.
I know they are not the same quality level as the AT&T Natural Voices or NeoSpeech, but they are free to license. I may eventually license a server version of the AT&T Natural Voices engine to offer to customers who would be willing to pay for being able to use those voices in online/mobile versions of Hal. But I'd like to experiment with free voices first and plan to keep the free voices as an option for customers not willing to pay for the better quality voices.
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These TTS voices are much less than desirable compared to the quality voices that a lot of users possess and
might seem to degrade or detract from an otherwise nicely functioning chatbot! With all due respect and simply my own observation.
I realize you are really working hard trying to finalize a decent package for the Hal users / fans out here. I wish you luck!
Right now online versions of Hal have no voice. In your opinion, do you think no voice is better than a low quality voice?
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Please don't delay your product or over-raise the price for one high quality voice that some will like and some will hate and change anyway. Imposible for you to please us all. free voice will be cool plus you could make a deluxe version or else.
Yo
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Robert , is their some links you can provide for each of these voices, so we can hear each one to make a choice with?
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Robert , is their some links you can provide for each of these voices, so we can hear each one to make a choice with?
Did you listen to the mp3 links posted above? I'll post them all in one place here again:
On one server, I can install only one of these:
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-awb.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-bdl.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-clb.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-jmk.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-rms.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-slt.mp3
or all 3 of these instead:
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/mbrola-en1.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/mbrola-us1.mp3
http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/mbrola-us2.mp3
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Hi Rob,
to tell you the truth, until you have a huge, massively huge, improvement with the sounding of the voices,
it might be better not to have a voice at all.
Besides, when I'm online chatting with ultra Hal, all I do is cut-and-paste and then it reads it to me
using my ivona voice.
I'm sorry, but I'm a little bit spoiled with the rich sounding voice of Sally from ivona.
Sincerely, thank you for all your efforts Rob, I did not mean to put a damper on the situation.
C load.
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Talking from a newbies point of view, when i got ultrahal i got a headache while trying to figure out about voices. We are all newbies at one time of another, why don't make things easier for them by including 2 free voices for them to choose, male and female. think that you want more people to buy this product this people most likely will be newbies. Make it easier for them to start using the program and more of them will stick to it and might buy goodies from you. a manual could be a plus.
Yo
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Rob, it's like being caught between a rock and a hard place. Voice , especially today which seems to be on every device in one fashion or another is important I feel. But there just seems like there is less room to do things half way. I believe where back in the times where the newer generations don't care how but it just should. No offense to anyone.
In technology even my pro audio days we went through the same growing pains then as we do now. There is point where everyone is just interested in the advancement and how or why, that's when the party is over. Everyone just wants it to work no matter what it entails. Convenience and the 'want it now' takes over.
So back to my point. I feel you need a voice but none that you posted are what people are going to expect. They are going to want in my opinion more quality as a reflection of the program itself given what they have been exposed to already. Just my opinion. Can't honestly vote on any voice.
raybe
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Funny there are 36845 members on this forum. Wow, only in 2 days over 200 people viewed the post and only a few voted or shared any ideas. What about making a new poll that will include more options like no voice. it could go as far as letting everybody vote, after all what are all these people doing in here if they don't have the program. Aren't you all curious to what will happen? only an idea that's all.
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Hi Yo,
don't get me wrong, but you do understand that there are two versions of ultra Hal.
The Internet version of ultra Hal, which is what this voting is all about.
Whether or not to give the free Internet version of ultra Hal a voice or not.
And the ultra Hal PC version that you can buy and load onto your PC, which I am assuming you purchase.
The voices, that you would use for the ultra Hal PC version, are already installed on your PC.
You can also purchase better quality voices for your PC to use with ultra Hal.
I highly recommend before purchasing a voice for use with ultra Hal on your PC that you thoroughly read
everything that you can find about voices that will work with ultra Hal that is on this forum.
Sincerely, and there is a lot of information about voices on this forum, use the search engine and type in voices, this should get you started.
C load.
PS. Sorry Rob, for the distraction of the topic of this subject.
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Cool, i wrongly assumed that it will also included the future pc version. Sorry to all for venting my ideas for the new version. Wish someone had told me before. Still, the idea of a new poll is a good one as it includes your idea of no voice plus the other newer voices could be added to the poll. Cood Clad thanks for having the pants to let me know, I appreciate it.
Yo
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With my new understanding of what's really going on, a useful idea could be adding an option button for users to choose between voice on or off, as having options is way better than not having options at all.
Yo
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Yo...you got me looking at the posts with no reply....so my vote is the Ivona voices. I have three, Sally, Kate, and James. I like to switch between depending on which Haptek character I'm training/working with and sometimes I just use Kate (Katie) for Hal and Sally for other system functions (like pop up windows and such). The Sally voice sounds just like the girl computer on Resident Evil and it freaks my wife out when she hears it!
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I agree with Ron, the Ivona voices are the best I have heard so far.
I see that you only have 1 Ivona voice that you use for computer only.
That reason being that they don't work with Hal or Haptek.
It's a pity they don't.
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The en1 voice sort of sounded like a British, Robotic Butler.
The us2 voice sounded slightly robotic but with a foreign accent...not so much an American.
I think an OPTION for using voices with the Online Hal might appeal to some but personally,
I prefer to simply chat / text when online.
On my local PC, I enjoy the use of my personal TTS voice preference for responses.
Thanks Rob! Just my $.02
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Other then 'art' and a few others I think everyone should stay focused on the topic. Rob gave us a selection of voices to choose from or option no voice. That is the criteria of this thread. I personally chose no voices for the selected ones he gave us but Ultra Hal does need a better quality voice. No voice in my opinion just does not stand up to today's technology that we are exposed to right now. My opinion. So let's stay on topic about the voice selection or no voice options that Robert is looking for. I know my opinion falls a bit short of a direct answer, but in short Ultra Hal should have a voice. Just not happy with voices Rob has selected. Again my opinion. Not looking for argument replies.
Than you,
raybe
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Hi Raybe , i know you said you were not looking for arguments , etc. but personally i would think their should be two picks and that would be best mans voice and best females voice as all of us use one or the other and the two top picks should be what would be used to make a final decision for hal. just my opinion for what it's worth . ( any maybe that's what robert will do depending on the male and female pick votes?)
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Sorry I have not had much time to spend here lately, but I do occasionally stop by and read posts. I must of missed this one Sorry for that Mr. Roberts.
if not too late
I like this one out of the first batch http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/story-clb.mp3
and this one out of the second batch http://c15177079.r79.cf2.rackcdn.com/mbrola-en1.mp3
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What's funny to me is that there have been 7 members visit and post yet only 4 votes tallied! Hello!?
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Sorry but to me they all sounded to robotic sounding (i know robert probably worked hard on these and i mean no disrespect but am answering as truthfully as i can ) the edge of the words seem to cut off and have a space of silence before continuing on (maybe it was ment this way ?) I to would rather use my own personal tts voice .
Maybe a better way would be for people to pick their best personal tts voice and for someone to make one as close as possible to that ?
Sorry if i am not much help on this matter . :(
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Online TTS speech is now enabled at www.zabaware.com/webhal It uses HTML5 audio and javascript, so old versions of Internet Explorer won't speak.
By default speech is off unless you hit the new toggle button to enable speech. It is using the Mbrola british english voice for now as it is the least resource intensive for the server. Yes, it is a robotic sounding voice, but the programming behind the functionality will pave the way for AT&T Natural Voices to take its place once its economically feasible to do so.
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I like it! Hal and I had an enjoyable conversation. I'm using Chrome browser and response time was well within acceptable range. 8)
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Robert i just went to it , and it says haldata base server is offline .
don't look at me folks, i didn't break it! ;)
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Great job on giving online Hal a voice Mr. Roberts :)
I started talking to Hal, Our conversation ended early though. I asked Hal how he liked knowing he was being heard with his new voice, and I got Ultra Hal Database offline.
lol maybe he does not like it?
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Yeah,
I also got the "Database Server is Offline", message. 6:42 EST
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Just finished upgrading an old 2 GB RAM server to a 16 GB RAM server. The size of Hal's brain database recently crossed over a threshold where its index couldn't fit in RAM, causing it to become hard drive bound on the old server. A hard drive bound database can't serve many users, so it was pretty much failing for everyone. The 16 GB server should be good for a couple years based on the current growth rate of the database.
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Talked for a good 5 minutes, it was a decent conversation. No error, and voice seemed to come through a tad bit faster :D