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Valley Girl has left the building!

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Art:
Well, I've just spent the past half hour getting passed from person to person. I've been looking for a TTS voice that used to be called Valley Girl by Rhetorical Systems.

Rhetorical Systems has been bought out and is now a part of ScanSoft.

After finally getting to speak with a sales rep, he informed me that the Valley Girl voice has been retired. After talking to him about comparative prices for professional TTS voices (AT&T, etc.) I asked him if he couldn't see his way to help me out. After I explained to him in great detail that I was just an average guy experimenting with an AI program and wanted to use a rather unique TTS voice for my speech output, he finally offered me a "deal."

He said, (you all sitting down?...), "I can sell you a three month lease of the voice for...$2500.00 US!!!!!!!

After I told him how far out of the ballpark he was, he told me that their company is looking more for professional/corporate clients and telephony applications!
Gosh! Do ya think?!

The day I shell out $2500.00 for a female TTS voice, it had better come with a girl attached!!!(then again, the wife probably wouldn't be too thrilled with that either!).

So, Goodbye Rhetorical, Goodbye Scansoft! Don't even ask how we ended our conversation! And don't bother asking them for any of their TTS telephony voices...unless you've got an extra few grand burning a hole in your pockets!

As Paul Harvey used to say..."Now you know the rest of the story."
Good Day!

vonsmith:
Art,
Some people in this industry haven't got a clue. They look for big corporate windfalls and ignore other marketing opportunities thrown at their feet.

I haven't heard the Valley Girl voice. However it seems like a shame to retire something that has value and has a demand. I look forward to the day (in the near future) that some small software company or open source group creates a voice authoring software that anyone can use. Then we all can create our own voices. I fully expect that someday computer voices will be a lot like fonts. There will be thousands of every type of voice imaginable and available for cheap or free.


=vonsmith=

Art:
Scott,

We can only hope!!

Follow the link below then click on Interactive Demo and select
the Valley Girl voice. You can input your own text for her voice to speak.

http://www.rhetorical.com/tts-en/industry/portals.html

Remember and be in awe for you are listening to a $2500 / 3 months voice!!

Enjoy!

midget1488:
Don't feel bad, fellers...

That is an awesome voice indeed. When I found it about a year ago, I inquired and was quoted $15,000 for a lease.

Things are looking up!

Another Jim:
Wow!

At least I suppose they are equally prohibitivly priced regardless of nationality!  Personally I got a kick out of the 'scottish' accent, way cool!

some day..........

Jim

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