How to generate "realistic" human voice?

Community Forums/Developer Stations/How to generate "realistic" human voice?

Happy Sammy(Posted 2006) [#1]
Hi all,

How to generate "realistic" human voice?

Thanks in advance
Sammy
:)


Smokey(Posted 2006) [#2]
you can try text to speech

http://www.elan.fr/

it's for me the most accurate, you could use the demo


Happy Sammy(Posted 2006) [#3]
Is it very expensive?
Does it give a feel of "robot" voice?

Sammy
:)


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2006) [#4]
record a human voice :)


Happy Sammy(Posted 2006) [#5]
However, I may not have friends speaking that language fluently.
:)


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2006) [#6]
maybe some people from the www will help you! For example, if you need something with a cheesy swiss accent, then don't hesitate to ask me - as long as I don't have to read an entire book.

Other than that, Windows XP has a pretty good Speech synthesis included.


Iamhere(Posted 2006) [#7]
With microsoft-agent together works this tool BlaBla Maker

http://www.dacamyo.net/blabla-maker/free-download.html


LineOf7s(Posted 2006) [#8]
if you need something with a cheesy swiss accent

So that would be... Swiss cheese?


Rob Farley(Posted 2006) [#9]
There is no realistic computer generated voice. It doesn't exist. If it did all games would use it.

The bottom line is get people to record their voice.

Unfortunately most people are crap voice actors (I know I am) but hey... it'll sound better than a robot voice.


IKG(Posted 2006) [#10]
http://www.nextup.com/attnv.html


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2006) [#11]
some speech synths are pretty good. Maybe not all the time, but sometimes, some phrases. So you only need to try various phrases until it sounds right.

Those were the times when I had STSPEECH.TTP on my Atari, that was sounding like prof hawkins.


Happy Sammy(Posted 2006) [#12]
Thank you for your recommendation.

Sammy
:)


Physt(Posted 2006) [#13]
AT&T has something that sounds just about as good as it gets.

http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/

I have heard one better but the demo adds background music to your test samples.

For robotics sounding voices see my site.

Ken


Alberto(Posted 2006) [#14]
There is no realistic computer generated voice.

I agree, what about voice editor ?
I mean you record your own voice and then you edit it
I read game programming book sometime ago
The author claimed that he was able to record a male voice and to turn it into an absolutly perfect female voice


Chaduke(Posted 2006) [#15]
Any filter that can drop or raise pitch without changing the speed of the recording can do a convincing job of going male to female or vice versa.
Most soundcards made by Creative in the last 5 years or so have this ability built in. There's a pitch shifter effect in the Creative control panel somewhere. Was quite a treat when we'd have a party at the house and I'd hook up the microphone and have drunk people speak into it.


Happy Sammy(Posted 2006) [#16]
Thank you for your recommendation.

@Alberto: Could you remember the name of the book?

Thanks in advance
Sammy
:)


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2006) [#17]
>> turn it into an absolutly perfect female voice <<

well you have to talk very - ehrm - soft. You know the way Nanny Fine would say "Mr. Shefield!" :)

At the other hand you can get some real cool effects with pitch shifting. BTW. Goldwave can do it too.

Anybody remember to voice of the AI in Deus Ex 1? I was so scared when the AI hacked into my head the very first time. Then I analysed the voice: pitchshifted down so it sounds very dark. Additionally encode it to ogg or mp3 with the worst quality setting available, probably even multiple times to get some real ugly mpeg artefacts. Sounds cool.


xlsior(Posted 2006) [#18]
Any filter that can drop or raise pitch without changing the speed of the recording can do a convincing job of going male to female or vice versa.


You can do this with the freeware Audacity sound editor, among others.


Alberto(Posted 2006) [#19]
Could you remember the name of the book?


It was one of the first Andrč LaMothe's game programming books
The one before the famous "Tricks of..."


Red Ocktober(Posted 2006) [#20]
i'm trying something based on an algorithm that uses a multidimensional array to index various text, the vocalizations of which are prerecorded...

a string is parsed and each vocalization is selected and played, much like a voice answering thing the telephone answering automatons use...

not sure if the concept will work... plus, human speech is a lot more than stringing together vocalizations, example, in the phrases "hello there" and "there it is", the word "there" is vocalized differently in each...

but hey, i'm on a tight budget right now :) so the homebrewed option may be my only choice... if, indeed, i can get it to work at all...


--Mike


Happy Sammy(Posted 2006) [#21]
Thank you for your advice.

:)


taumel(Posted 2006) [#22]
I do use a microphone... ;O)