Zabaware Support Forums

Zabaware Forums => Speech Technology => Topic started by: burf2000 on September 21, 2005, 11:40:25 am

Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: burf2000 on September 21, 2005, 11:40:25 am: Hello all

I been playing with tts sdk's etc and i came across the hal reader. Nice product etc but what i need is a semi good voice to use with sapi5 for a college project?

Is the mary used in this product the microsoft one? and how do i get it to sound as good as the hal reader does? It just sounds extrememly good. All the ones in the Microsoft TTS are naff!

Thanks
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: freddy888 on September 21, 2005, 02:41:22 pm: Most of the old Microsoft TTS voices are getting past their sell by date, try a search for TTS on the forum search - Art did a nice list of voices some time ago, which you might find useful.
Voices generally cost you if you want quality, but you might find a few demos that could prove useful short term.

:)
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: Dr.Benway on September 21, 2005, 03:34:05 pm: Burf2000 (love the name btw.), the installation of Hal reader doesn't include any new voices. With other words, Hal reader only makes use of the TTS voices already present on your computer. The same voices can also be downloaded for free from the Microsoft website.

Perhaps you are refering to an example of Hal speaking somewhere on the web?
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: burf2000 on September 22, 2005, 04:01:49 am: Lol at the name , Yeah i should i used burf.com (my search engine)

Right i no the free voices you get with the MS tts SAPI 5.1 (mary michelle, mike, sam, etc) BUT

How did the Hal reader add the hall effect to the voice

If you play the normal mary voice in a sapi tts demo it sounds rubbish, but the hal reader version with the hall effect sounds very good? Sounds like an echo effect thats been added somehow?

But thanks for the replies, I have not found any extra voices to download except L and H
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: Art on September 22, 2005, 05:24:56 am: Burf2000,

Use the SEARCH feature at the top. This
is the critique I did a while back.

http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2227&SearchTerms=Art,TTS,voices
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: Dr.Benway on September 22, 2005, 06:05:05 am: Free voices from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp#sapi

http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/otherspeech.asp
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: burf2000 on September 22, 2005, 09:36:13 am: Sorry to be a pain but i dont beleive people are reading what i am asking

How do i make the Microsoft Mary Voice sound like the Mary in the hall voice in the Hal reader as i assume they are the same voice?

I have installed all the voices that i search for on the forum yesterday and i gone to many other TTS site. The hal reader with Mary in the hall is what i require but to access that from code

Thanks Simon
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: burf2000 on September 22, 2005, 10:45:57 am: Hold fire

I think i found out that all the voices i want are sapi 4 and i am using sapi 5
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: burf2000 on September 22, 2005, 11:21:15 am: Yes it was that i had to use sapi 4 and not 5
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: freddy888 on September 22, 2005, 11:22:59 am: hehe, the guys are right with their answers - you'll find the things you need in those links somewhere - there is a download which includes the hall effects along with the Sam voices etc.

I used to use Speakonia reader, and I think the full voices were available on their site.

http://www.cfs-technologies.com/home/?id=1.4
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: burf2000 on September 22, 2005, 12:08:29 pm: Yeah but my problem waws i needed to use sapi 4 to acces the voices, i now am thinking of using the british female voice as its free and pretty good
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: Dr.Benway on September 22, 2005, 01:05:38 pm: I am glad you found the solution, burf2000!
Because you started the thread with saying "I been playing with tts sdk's" I assumed you were already aware of the differences between SAPI 4 & 5.
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: Art on September 22, 2005, 05:49:24 pm: Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.

You said:
Nice product etc but what i need is a semi good voice to use with sapi5 for a college project?

Several of us sent you helpful links.

Glad you realized your problem.

You're welcome anyway!
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: burf2000 on September 26, 2005, 05:13:31 am: Yeah sorry about that

So what is the difference between sapi 4 and 5 and why dont they seem backward compatable?
Title: Mary in Hall Voice
Post by: Dr.Benway on September 26, 2005, 06:52:32 am: The only thing I know for sure is that SAPI 5 supports more advanced voices, but these voices are not able anymore to make msagents read the spoken words with their mouth (lip-sync). Why that is? My guess is that Microsoft don't want other companies that make voices to be too popular.