Zabaware Forums > Speech Technology

Installing Voices

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NIGE:
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:
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:
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!!

BookCat:
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:
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.

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