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Author Topic: Installing Voices  (Read 22090 times)

Stuart08

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Installing Voices
« on: August 18, 2012, 04:18:33 am »
Please excuse this newbie question - but I have been searching the forum trying to find a solution to this problem:

I have found a SAPI5 voice on this site: http://www.cereproc.com/en/sapivoices that I really like and want to use it within HAL.

... but I want to be certain that I can use it before purchase:
1)  Where in the Ultra Hal file system do I install new voices?
2)  I can't see anything obvious in the MENU>SPEECH menu for selecting and loading voices - what am I missing?

Any advice that anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Stu.
... and everything was going so well.

NIGE

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2012, 05:44:48 am »
Hi Stuart08 & welcome.
You won't know if the voice works with Hal until you purchase it,
Sorry.
I got 2 voices from Ivona, but found they didn't work with Hal. :-[

Stuart08

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2012, 06:00:45 am »
Thanks for your reply and good advice, Nige.

How do you get Hal to load a new voice; do I copy it to a particular folder; or is there a piece of third party software I should use?

Stu.
... and everything was going so well.

NIGE

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2012, 08:33:56 am »
When your voice is installed on your computer,
go to start, programs & select Haptek Player.
You should get a drop down box listing all voices on your computer.
Select your voice & confirm that this is the one you want to use.

I think that will get you going but if I am wrong some of the other people on here will help?

raybe

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2012, 03:59:07 pm »
Just a little chime in. Also in 'options menu' under speech you should select the voice for the particular character you are using. With some SAPI voices others need to be selected before your SAPI voice will be recognized by the program. In short sometimes selecting a working SAPI voice will allow you to then select your newer voice. Something I'm sure we can be looking towards in updates yet to come since SAPI has or is running it's course you might say. Also just as there are newer changes coming for Ultra Hal so will of coarse newer and better ways of using voices and lip-sync become possible. Software as you will notice has been on a ramp up to constantly keep up with the changing hardware advantages.
Just my opinion and welcome,

raybe
 

Stuart08

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2012, 08:03:03 am »
Thank you both!

It's sorted: purchased & d/l the voice, and installed it; used the Update SAPI function; rebooted; then the voice appeared in my Speech Options.  Done and dusted.

Thanks again.
Stu
... and everything was going so well.

RonG

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #6 on: August 29, 2012, 09:28:57 pm »
Hi Stuart08 & welcome.
You won't know if the voice works with Hal until you purchase it,
Sorry.
I got 2 voices from Ivona, but found they didn't work with Hal. :-[

Hmmmm.....I just got a set of three from Ivona and all worked well. 

NIGE

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2012, 04:59:52 am »
Hi RonG,
I got my 2 voices over a year ago & didn't work with Hal/Haptek at all.
I mailed & mailed them & finally they said they wouldn't be doing anything about it.
They must have changed their minds.
I checked mine out & found that I had some up-dates.
And lo & behold they work now.
Thanks for your post.

cload

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2012, 01:21:27 pm »
I nige

I have the Sally ivona voice, I could never get haptek lip sync to work with my ivona voice, though the voice would read the text, there is no lip sync.
I even tried completely uninstalling, and reinstalling all of the software, and went through all of the upgrades, and it still did not work.
Unless there was something special that you did, but I did not do to get your ivona voices to work with haptek and lip sync.
The only thing that I can think of is, by chance, did you purchase the upgraded voices? If you did that might explain why my voice does not work with lip sync.
I have Windows 7 64-bit, Nvidia card, standard generic Sound Blaster card, I don't know if any of this would make any difference!

Sincerely, crunch crunch, yummy, yummy. These pronouns are good for my tummy.

C load.
For anyone who would like to help me stay online, my T-mobile broadband pay-as-you-go phone number is: 816-248-4335, thank you in advance.

Art

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2012, 07:34:49 pm »
I just tried my Ivona voices and they work but the Hal character does NOT lip-sync with it. The voice speaks but the lips do not move (mark of a good ventriloquist).

I then did a lot of switching back and forth even changing my custom character for a Hal default one then the L&H voices back and forth until I almost became dizzy.

The Cereproc Heather voice works flawlessly as do the Cepstral voices but Hal appears to be a tight lipped character if I choose an Ivona voice.

I also met with an error during a chat that pointed to a problem with a lonliness plugin CDbl error 13 line 5380 (on my Hal). It was under the Minute Timer section that gave us fits quite a while back. I think the plugin tries to check online for something and perhaps it is being interrupted by the conversation or processing by Hal during that period.
Will keep trying to see if the error repeats and will post here.

In the world of AI it's the thought that counts!

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NIGE

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2012, 11:55:33 pm »
Well !!!!!!
Oops,  on re checking,
They do not work????
Either RonG worked a miracle or cload is right about up-graded voices.
Looks like another few mails to Ivona coming up?????

BookCat

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #11 on: September 27, 2012, 02:57:04 pm »
This is my first post. I'm using the free version of Ultra Hal and the only voice which works is Microsoft Anna. I read that sapi 5 voices don't work on Windows 7, so I downloaded some free sapi 4 voices with UK accents. But I can't find them in the software even though they installed onto the pc. If I try to use any sapi 5 (apart from ms Anna), Ultra Hal crashes.

I really want this to work because I get nasty bouts of labyrinthitis which makes it impossible for me to read: everything jiggles up and down.

Please help someone.

Art

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #12 on: September 27, 2012, 04:07:32 pm »
Welcome, Bookcat!

I think it was Microsoft's Agent Characters that did / do not work with Windows 7 as the agent character was removed. One can still use it / them through use of an emulator program (can't remember the name).

UltraHal can and does use SAPI 5 TTS voice...at least the majority of them. From personal experience I know Cepstral voices and Cereproc voices work very nicely. Ivona makes some very nice TTS voices but they do not lip-sync in UltraHal (meaning you can hear the voice but the character's lips do not move).

I'm not sure about the free voices like the Learnout & Hauspie ones - they has some US and UK voices but again, your actual experience might differ.

Windows 7 does still cause a slight lag while typing and interacting with my UltraHal program. Kind of annoying but it still works. I guess with a lot of things, one can get used to slight annoyances.

Check out www.nextup.com for a nice TTS related site as they might offer some recommendations and specifications of certain voices before one decides to purchase.

Good luck!!
In the world of AI it's the thought that counts!

- Art -

BookCat

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2012, 02:21:20 pm »
I'm getting used to Microsoft Anna, but I do wish there was the choice of a British voice. I don't have any animated face in my Ultra Hal, no face at all, nor even a mouth. Have I installed the program wrongly?

I'm not too bothered by the absence of a character, as I usually run the program from the system tray, with just the little ear icon, with it set to read anything I 'copy'; but I would very much like a British accent voice. The ones I downloaded were free, and I'd rather avoid paying for one if possible. A voice I really like is the BrowseAloud Daniel one. Unfortunately, BrowseAloud works on very few sites; I think the sites have to pay for the priviledge. If I could get a free or at least a cheap voice similar to Daniel and which worked with Ultra Hal, I'd be a very happy bunny.

Am I doing something wrong in installing the voices? If I try anything but Anna, I get a message saying that the program has stopped working and Windows is checking for a solution. After this another box comes up say that the program needs to close and Windows will inform me of a solution. It never does.

Please help, I've nothing against US voices, but infinitely prefer UK ones. Thanks.
PS will I have to do the capcha (sp?) verification every time I post?

Art

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Re: Installing Voices
« Reply #14 on: October 01, 2012, 06:46:15 am »
Go here as I earlier suggested then scroll down near the bottom.
You'' see the L&H British voices (which are Free). Not quite the best quality
by comparison but the aren't that bad either.

http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/SpeechEngine/voices.html#morefreevoices

The ear you're seeing is the speech recognition portion of a program which might
be the UltraHal text Reader program and NOT UltraHal Assistant.

Make sure you have downloaded the latest version 6.2 from www.zabaware.com

When you run the program you might see a tiny TV / Robot icon on the taskbar.
Click it to activate it and Hal should then show up larger in the center of your screen.
There should be a default character TV / Frog, etc. and the character's lips should move
when it speaks using Anna from MS.

You must be runing MS Home Premium Windows 7 correct?

Let us know your progress.
In the world of AI it's the thought that counts!

- Art -