Missing Voices and Pronunciation

[Guest RichardL]

I can't seem to figure this out. I only have the female voice for Pilot and Controller.In the Voice Setup drop down box, used to assign the voices, all I see is Microsoft Anna - English. There is no entry for Mike. I'm using FSX , Vista64 and VoxATC-X v5.34.Also, how do I get the voice to say U S Air? I hear what sounds like "useair". I have tried different letter configurations in the ATC Aircraft Type Name Editor, such as USAir, U S Air, and US Air but none allow for correct pronunciation.Thanks,Richard

[zfehr 1]

Microsoft changed the ground rules a bit with Vista and Microsoft Mike and Mary are no longer usable in Vista, only XP and earlier versions. Your option would be to look for SAPI 5.3 compatible voices and all I could find this morning were payware. Cepstral and ATT make the best voices I have found. The Deluxe DVD version of VoxATC includes two ATT voices, I purchased two additional Cepstral 8k voices which I set as other aircraft and use the two ATT voices for controllers giving a nice voice and clarity variety.

[Guest RichardL]

Hi Zane,I did receive an email from Tegwyn today which stated similar to your comments. Apparently Anna is the only voice included in Vista64.Tewgyn did not think AT&T would release voices for Vista64. He did suggest I look at Cepstral. Are you saying that as long as the voices are SAPI 5.3 they will work in Vista64?How did you assign voices to other aircraft? I do not see that possibility in V5.34 for FSX. Are you meaning assigning the two AT&T voices to "Controller" and the two Cepstral voices to "Pilot"?Also, Tegwyn is looking into the US Air pronunciation issue.Regards,Richard

[zfehr 1]

Hi Richard,I am still using XP myself and it will be some time before I change to Vista (5 computers on my office network and my home computer and laptop with numerous programs that aren't Vista friendly). My understanding reading was that SAPI 5.34 is the Vista version but I cannot tell you if the ATT voices will work in Vista64. The Cepstral voices are easier to try out so that is probably the better choice.Yes, I am meaning the controller and pilot voice selections. Hope you find a solution to the alternate voices in Vista64 and US Air as well. I can recall a much earlier thread talking about modifying the dictionary for SAPI to make VoxATC say certain words correctly. I will search for those and if I find them post a link.

[Guest RichardL]

Zane,If you can find the reference for modifying thr dictionary that would be a great help.I contacted NextUp.com about voices for Vista64. They actually emailed me a 200+ mb file for a NeoSpeech voice called Kate3, which I believe was referred to as a 32bit voice. Naturally with expectation that I purchase. Still a very gracious offer.I installed the voice and it does work with Vista64, FSX, and VoxATC-X. The only problem is the voice is a bit obnoxious sounding. It's very crisp and clear, just a bit grading to the ear. On Monday I'll see if they have a male 32bit voice I can try.Did you select 8bit voices for a reason? Less expensive or less demanding on system resources?One other thought. I noticed with the 32bit voice, if I keep clicking the "Speak" button in the VoxATC-X voice assignment app, the voice changes pitch with each click. Is that a new feature?Regards,Richard

[dbrucem 0]

As far as the AT&T voices running in Windows XP, If you have installed the AT&T Natural Voice speech engine it includes a dictionary where you can add words and correct improper pronunciation. Locate the AT&T folder which by default will be C:Program FilesATTNaturalVoices. Open TTS1.4DesktopDATA. Dbl click . I also create a desktop shortcut to en_us. Once you have opened en_us click on edit, new word. Type in the new word, for example NATL which is pronounced letter by letter. To correct this type "national" in the box. Click the adjacent lips icon to hear the pronunciation. If you are happy click the button to generate the phoneme for this word. You can modify the phoeneme if desired. Cut and paste the phoeneme into the phoneme box below your new word. Save and exit the dictionary. You should now hear NATL pronounced national. As far as using 8kb vs 16kb vs 32kb voices, the lower bit voices will use less system resources and not sound so polished. Several people have commented that the 8kb voices sound more like actual radio transmissions. I wish I could help you with Vista but I'm staying with XP for now and have not researched TTS voices for Vista. Good luck.

[Guest RichardL]

I can confirm that AT&T Natural Voices do work with Vista64 and FSX.I ordered and install the Mike-16, Crystal-16, and Rich-16 voices. Along with the default Anna, I have four voices for use with VoxATC-X. All appears to be working fine. Now I need to figure out the odd US Air pronunciation.Regards,Richard

[Guest RichardL]

Bruce,I was able to find the referenced file within Vista64. I made a "new" word, ensured the phoneme was correct, then saved.Still have the problem. ATC will respond to me with the correct"U S Air", however ATC still responds to AI aircraft as "US" "Air". I changed the aircraft's name in Name Editor to "USAir", which is the same as the new word I made. I did re-index, but still have the word problem.This may be something for Tegwyn to correct.Richard