VOXATC- Ditch MS Mike

[michal 44]

> The two voices>along with the speech engine are available at www.nextup.com>for $35It looks like the price is $27 (25 + 2). Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

[Guest harvey crosby]

I think this just illustrates that Nextup's website is utterly baffling. "It can get confusing" says the AT&T FAQ - ducking the fact that it perpetuates the confusion, suggesting you need to buy bundles of things you don't want just to get a different voice (UK English, for example). Why do you need their speech engine just to use a different voice? Why do you need TExtAloud at all...? Have e-mailed them.

[Guest harvey crosby]

There's a useful comparison site here:http://www.tmaa.com/tts/companies.htmFlexvoice tell me their engine costs $25 and you can create your own voices with it by playing around with speed, pitch, etc.

[Guest harvey crosby]

I asked did I need the speech engine if I just wanted different (British English) voices. Nextup have replied to say:"We have a download to work around that requirement, so just get the voices you want from http://www.nextup.com/nvsamples.html"

[Guest havoc69]

What I find humorous is that you buy the software. They give you an anonymous FTP download to get the files. You install the files without any kind of serial number or key. I hate paying money for software that doesn't at least make you enter a serial number to run it. Interesting.

[dbrucem 0]

I agree the Nexup site is confusing but their tech support is excellent and I feel the improvement to VOX ATC is worth speend $35 and some head scratching. I do not intend to come across as patronizing with the following info. To order the initial NV package go to nextup.com. Ignore the Text Aloud section and scroll down to the AT&T Natural Voice area. Click on buy Natural Voice. Scroll down and select the 3rd buy now option. You will see "Add AT&T NV engine with Mike and Crystal" and a options window below it. 1)add 16 khz(pro) ATT NV -$35 (this is MIKE, Crystal and the required NV speech engine.2)8kz Mike and Crystal along with NV engine on CD.3)? 4)I already have the NV engine (use if ordering any of the optional voices at a later date.Next UP (pun intended) is the voice delievery method. The two files are over 1 GB in size (total)so you can select CD which will cost you and additional $7 as the $35 is the DL price.Ignore the next window; a final pitch for text aloud, and checkout.Good luck.

[Guest United]

VoxATC use, near as I can tell, it uses only two is that correct?, Microsoft Mike and Sally or their equivalent for those of use who have ventured into www.nextup.com landRandy Jura, KPDX

[Guest havoc69]

Ok, I have finally had a chance to fly with the AT&T voices and I am sooo happy! It's a night and day experience! I only wish that the VoxATC folks could get some kind of a referal program going with NextUP to get some kind of compensation on the sale. I am sure many people will be purchasing these voice packs soley because of VoxATC. Maybe if we get lucky enough, they can get a referal program going and possibly bring enough referal revenue to slightly lower the price of VoxATC, even though I have no complaints about the money I spent. If they were to lower the price slightly, and still be compensated in the back-end, it could possibly open the doors for more people who are interested in this product and help it grow even more. I've learned in the software development business (my primary job) that if you set your price low enough to survive, you'll have more customers using it and you'll actually sell more.

[Guest United]

I would "settle" for an enhancement to VoxAtc (similar to FSHotSeat) that would allow us to use ANY voice installed in the Windows XP speech engine. I doubt any "deals" could be struck between nextup and voxatc, but you never know do you!Randy Jura, KPDX

[Guest havoc69]

Ya never know! NextUp.com does have an affiliate program. Their payout is something like 30%. If the folks at VoxATC sign up, those who have purchased could email NextUp and notify them we purchased because of VoxATC and hopefully they will get credit. I count at least 5 purchases here already. I'm sure there's probably a handful of silent lurkers that purchased also.http://www.nextup.com/affiliat.html

[JMR 2]

Anyone else having trouble with downloads from Nextup's server? I've experienced two timeouts so far but I'm using the suggested Freshdownload utility to resume downloading.

[Guest United]

I don't know where nextup's servers are, but I took the initial precaution to download after 9PM pacific time hoping to get a better or at least a complete download rather than expected business hours traffic, at least in N.America.Randy Jura, KPDX

[JMR 2]

Welp I just installed and tried out the new voices and the difference between the MS voices and the ATT ones is astounding! Now I can clearly understand what is being said and the voices don't resemble 1950's sci-fi robot speak :} The only nitpick I have (and this is a very very minor one) is that the voices don't sound like you're communicating with someone over a radio. Again, that's only an itty bitty nit pick as I understand ATT probably didn't make these voices with flight simmers in mind :}

[Guest harvey crosby]

Well, very interesting info from VoxATC's tech support guy: in fact the program uses only ONE voice (Microsoft Mike by default). Huh?? Don't we hear others? He writes: "VoxATC only uses the selected voice. Microsoft Mike can have its gender and age changed so that different 'voices' are heard. We are looking into getting our own custom voices produced, until then we can only recommend that users stick with Mike and try different voices at their own risk."He also told me: "Be aware that not all voices are flexible enough to be used with VoxATC and some resort to saying 'blah blah blah'when unsupported modes are selected by the program".Which makes sense if they need to be able to have gender/age altered. So I take it from this that whatever else you install, it uses only the selected default voice and tweaks it.

[zfehr 1]

I see that Harvey already posted an answer gleaned from VoxATC support. I actually didn't know this about how many voices the program could use. I just found out by accident that I wasn't even using Mike as the default voice, I still am running default voices but have to say with Mike as default I think it sounds a little more robotic than Sam. I also noticed that I have two LH voices installed... they are much worse.Zane