Warning: Voice Buddy

[Ed 0]

Hi,Thanks for bringing this up again. I installed the Flightassistant and can't believe how easy it is to set up and use. Thanks again,Ed

[JimmiG 244]

Don't want a headset since I already use good heaphones (Technics RP-DJ1200). Might look into getting another mic though $13 seems a bit cheap for a mic and I doubit would be any better than the one I have.Sure there is a faint whine or hum from the PC fans in the background but that noise is constant and doesn't change. If the software is so good it should be able to filter that out, shouldn't it? Obviously I don't clatter away on the keyboard while speaking :-roll background noise truly is at a minimum with just the Shuttle's system fan and the X800XT GPU fan being the only sources of background noise in the room.

[oqvist 11]

Whine or not doesn

[JimmiG 244]

How can a "good" mic cost $10 though? And if it does, then the one built into a $50 webcam should also be "good"...normally when it comes to audio you need to pay a lot of you want something "good".The headphones don't leak any sound at all unless the volume is really high (louder than my ears can tolerate). I'm not getting rid of the Technics headphones for some crappy "force feedback" headset...the 8 - 30000 Hz response gives me all the feedback I need.It's really confusing. For a few minutes it was working quite well, getting it right about 60-70% of the time then it suddenly wouldn't recognize anything.

[oqvist 11]

They will be better because they are noise cancelling ;). Almost sounds like you don

[Guest baron58tc]

JimmyG:Don't mean to get presumptuous here, but you are fighting this thread.Those of us that have had sucess with VR, all recommend a decent headset/mike setup. (I and others recommend Plantronics--mine was about $24US--maybe about 17 Euros,thanks to the declining dollar.)I mentioned above that before every FS session I fire up "Shoot", and then set the microphone volume using . (This is within the MS voice engine) After setting mike volume, I minimze "Shoot", and fire up FS. Takes about 30 seconds.Setting the mike volume correctly seems to vastly improve recognition and minimize "grunts". (Unrecognized sounds)Don't know what Voice Buddy recommends in their instructions, but would bet they are along these lines.My sim is running very pleasurable now. It took six months after the release of FS2004 to get it there. My thanks to the AVSIM forum and all the contributors. I use:Chris Willis cloudsCH Manager--for realistic control inputAbacus Extreme LandscapesBunch of other minor tweaks (i.e disable autogen)Took out many services and startup items. (Use Ken Salters excellent program for this if you are queasy about disabling services. I just found that I could disable a bunch of stuff permanently, as it was of no use, so did that.)I have not installed the fs9 patch, don't want to start all over again. Will wait for FS2006--assume mid 2005.Mostly fly default airplanes--Baron (Modified to a Baron 58P, turbocharged), and the LearJet. Several 3rd party airplanes-Aerocommander and such.)I'd like to try:Active skyIn the mean time I get along with my 3 year old:Falcon Northwest Athalon 2000+, 1G Mem., NVidia GE Force 4600+-128Mem., (Both slightly over clocked by Falcon.)Probably will have to upgrade hardware for FS2006, but this box has been rock solid through FS 2002 and 2004.From my experience, the first six months with a new release are agony. (My wife hates it when a new release comes out--she says I will be grouchy and morose for weeks) Once you get the thing where you want it, including many little things (many are compromises) to achieve what you are looking for in the sim experience--leave it alone and fly!I am currently about 2/3 completed with a "around the perimeter" of the US trip in the Baron. No flight longer than 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. Some 30 mins or less. Mostly use flight planner and file IFR. Always real weather. Currently finished leg#39, at First Flight airport in NC. (KFFA) If you have not visited this airport--do it! MS did a faithful graphic of the Wright Memorial and great detail of the area. I have covered 6,421NM, in 39.66Hrs. Still have the East Coast/NorthEast and back to Detroit to go. Sorry for the long diatribe. Have patience and hang in there! Just hoping you will see a light at the end of the tunnel and begin to enjoy your sim experience. (And hopefully, your VR experience.)Baron 58P

[oqvist 11]

LOL I maybe should start bashing it too. My Plantronics A90 mic seem to have just died on me so they aren

[JimmiG 244]

Well then, I'll give the program a second chance after getting another mic. It's just a *little* frustrating to buy a program to solve a problem and have it create new problems instead.

[Guest baron58tc]

Not bashing, at least I hope not. One tends to support products with which they have had success. This is tenuous at best, as others may not have had the same experience. I will refrain from recommendations in the future.Well taken, but please--not bashing.Baron58tc

[oqvist 11]

Well the Plantronics A90 should hold together better than like some months so I think I will bash those lol. There where actually people warning me about dead mics on these before I got them. Seem to be a regular problem with these. If anyone know how to fix them because I don

[Sonar5 3]

Maybe if they had a demo, your frustration could have been avoided. If this had been a demo, would you have still bought it after your experience?Sorry you had to find out some things the expensive way. me,... ....

[JimmiG 244]

Don't think they do. I just placed the order in a moment of sheer frustration after I kept pressing F10 instead of F8 (pausing the sim for several seconds and bringing up the Kneeboard all over the screen on final when I intended to give full flaps). This happened becaue I have to move the keyboard to behind the joystick, next to the monitor and this makes it hard to reach.I tried Shoot briefly but it didn't work at all. Since Voice Buddy promised virtually training-free use I naturally ordered it right away. It's a funny statement to make considering the product uses the exact same speech engine as shoot including the exact same training sessions. Then there's the bloody annoying Microsoft voice used for speech (Sam, Mike and gang)...wish there was a way to turn those off and just have it play a click sound or something when/if it recognizes a phrase...ugh. That speech synthesis doesn't sound much better than the old "Say" program on my Amiga 500 :-lolCan't say I like the UI either. It just lists all the voice commands in one *huge* listbox so you have to scroll to the correct one. Wish it would've grouped them under various categories much like the FS keyboard command assignment box already does (Aircraft Systems, Control Surfaces, Sim commands etc.). If you edit a phrase it seems to jump to some random location in the list and you have to find the phrase again. Also you can't select multiple phrases for deletion (thugh you can train them in sequence).So no, even if the actual voice recognition would've worked with my setup I'd have found it hard to justify the price - The whole program and especially the user interface seems rushed. It's like they just added a quick and dirty UI frontend to the Microsoft speech engine.

[Shift_E 0]

After I feed the interface peanuts my flight warning system began working. :)http://mysite.verizon.net/res19wz2/Picture/fws.jpgRon

[Guest sri777]

A huge Thank you all for making me interested enough to download and give Flight assistant a try.First, i had to choose between either Shoot or FlightAssistant. Not knowing either program, i decided to go with FA, since it seem to speak back and confirm/respond to the issued command. From the documentation, Shoot did not seem to have this feature (I could be wrong). But anyway, that is the main reason, i decided to try Flight Assistant first. I am so glad that I did. It worked beautifully very first time, with almost more than 95% hit rate. After install, I just trained it once, spending just about 10 mins.I am a non-native english speaker with accent and shocked to see how well it worked very first time. This evening, i just spent more time testing and again i have close to 100% hit rate. And to my surprise, it worked perfectly with my external speakers turned on!!!! Also, FA allowed me to assign the 'talk on/off' push button to one of the joystick buttons. With that, i was able to fly almost without touching the keyboard. Btw, I have Plantronics A90 headset. This single download changed my entire flying experience. Thank you. -sri

[JSkorna 138]

No problem! And thanks to Joe for the link I did not include!!Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg