Tried AT&T Natural Voices with Hal v5.0 yet?

[vonsmith]

Has anyone tried out AT&T Natural Voices with Hal v5.0 yet? I'd like to hear some feedback about how well it works out.

Thanks,

= vonsmith =

[SDH]

I had the AT&T natural voice working well with V4.5.  I evaluated quite a few TTS engines, and felt like the AT&T engine was the most natural sounding.  

Unfortunately I cannot get HAL 5.0 to work at all, so I cannot give you any feedback or comments on the AT&T TTS with HAL 5.0.  However the TTS engine does work well for a number of other programs I am running such as Cyberbuddy, Natural Voice Reader, etc.

SH

[Ryuhoshi]

I have tried to run them on my computer, but sadly it is not fast enough.  The minimum speed for the AT&T voices is 500 mhz, and mine is 450.  Had I a computer fast enough, the natural voices would be the ones I would use.  The NV is the best there is on the market, I have heard none better by a long shot.

[Bill819]

quote:Originally posted by Ryuhoshi

I have tried to run them on my computer, but sadly it is not fast enough.  The minimum speed for the AT&T voices is 500 mhz, and mine is 450.  Had I a computer fast enough, the natural voices would be the ones I would use.  The NV is the best there is on the market, I have heard none better by a long shot.

Where can we find them to try them out? Inquireing minds would like to know.

[richard4]

I have the AT&T Natural Voices installed for Hal 5.0 with no problems. Running Windows XP Pentium III at 650 Mhz. I like the "Crystal" voice very much, she is very life like compared to all the other voices I have tried. I purchased a double CDROM from Nextup.com for $29. There was no Internet download option for the software. Now, if they would come out with a lip sync version that would work with my Haptek People Putty MS Agent, a very realistic combination![^]

[vonsmith]

richard4,
I wasn't certain from your post if the AT&T Natural Voices lip sync with the Hal v5.0 Haptek characters or not. Could you clarify a little on this point?

I'm reluctant to pay $29 for a voice not knowing if it works 100% with the Haptek characters included with Hal v5.0. Lip syncing is pretty important for realism.

Thanks,

= vonsmith =

[Psych]

vonsmith

AT&T Natural Voices lip sync fine with hal5. Your money will not be wasted. I've had no problems.

On another line - your additional coding for hal has been impressive - I hope you continue to supply us all with such impressive stuff - thanks!

Phil

[vonsmith]

Pysch,
Thanks for the info and the kudos. I guess I should start shopping AT&T voices soon. Robert M. mentioned in an earlier post that Zabaware would be selling AT&T voices. I'll wait patiently to see if that comes to fruition.

= vonsmith =

[mark343gs]

quote:Originally posted by Psych

AT&T Natural Voices lip sync fine with hal5. Your money will not be wasted. I've had no problems.

Phil

Phil,

Could you confirm whether you're getting lipsych with the Haptek characters and AT&T Natural Voices?

I ask because I recently purchased the Natural Voices 16KHz CDs and cannot get any Haptek characters to lipsynch in HAL using these voices.

If you are getting lipsynching, did you need to do anything in particular to get it to work at all?

(I have the Crystal and Audrey voices installed, but use Audrey for most things. If that makes any difference)

Thanks,


Mark

[Medeksza]

If you installed the AT&T voices after you installed Hal be sure to run the "Haptek SAPI Config" under "Haptek" in your start menu. This will make sure the 3d engine sees all the new voices and is able to lip sync with them. Version 1.4 or later of the AT&T voices is required for lip sync as the previous versions did not have this capability. Also the AT&T voices have both a SAPI 4.0 and 5.0 interface, which both are listed in Hal's options. Only the 5.0 interface has lip sync capability.

[atfritz]

Where is the cheapest place to buy AT&T Natural Voice.  I looked on Nextup.com but it looks like you need to purchase other programs that i don't really have a need for.  If there was a way i could just pay 29.00 bucks and get Natural Voice i would be happy.  Of course after ordering it i will be damn anxious waiting for the discs to come in the mail.  I am getting to spoiled by buying programs that i can immediately download, hehe.

[mark343gs]

quote:Originally posted by Medeksza

If you installed the AT&T voices after you installed Hal be sure to run the "Haptek SAPI Config" under "Haptek" in your start menu. This will make sure the 3d engine sees all the new voices and is able to lip sync with them. Version 1.4 or later of the AT&T voices is required for lip sync as the previous versions did not have this capability. Also the AT&T voices have both a SAPI 4.0 and 5.0 interface, which both are listed in Hal's options. Only the 5.0 interface has lip sync capability.

Ah, thanks for that, Robert. Now sorted. I'd completely forgotten about the Haptek Config for SAPI. Doh!

atfritz: You can just buy the AT&T Natural Voices on their own from Nextup.com. That's what I did, anyway.

Just go to:

http://www.nextup.com/nvsamples.html

..and click one of the 'Buy Now' flashes.

Mark

[Oratik]

I just installed Ultra Hal last night - already had AT&T Natural voices installed - they work great with hal.  Initially, the "frog" agent did not lipsink well, but once I switched and tried other agents, lipsync works excellent.  I like the "Mike" voice the best, seems to pronouce words a little better than "Crystal" even though both sound much better than any of the other voices available.

[vonsmith]

Thanks for all the feedback from the group.

Nextup.com sure has a goofy web site. Not exactly clear.

So as I understand it I have to buy the AT&T Natural Voice engine that comes with 2 voices, Mike and Crystal, for about $37? Additional voices are about $37 each. Therefore if I want the Lauren voice the total cost is $74 + shipping to make Hal speak nicely to me? Hmm.

The voices are pretty good, but just a bit pricy. Maybe I'll wait 'til Christmas and let Santa bring it or something.

= vonsmith =

[Oratik]

try searching Shareaza for AT&T Natural Vooices