Hi Manny,Sorry, I missed this post earlier.Rest assured John Dekker, Doug and the team do pay close attention to what is said. The feedback is appreciated and the issue will, of course, be looked at. As to what can and will be done, it's far too early to say.All the best,John

Hi Bob,I must admit the level of furore surrounding the voices has come as something of a surprise to me. My general impression from v3 was that folks felt they might not be perfect but were at the very least adequate for the task in hand.Our time in development has been spent trying to improve the content of the atc, not it's method of delivery. Simple as that. Those of us on the team have genuinely not really had problems with listening to the voices. What we did do to the voices was to record a lot more files in each set to include the callsigns for a large number of airlines plus the names for 100 or so of the busiest airports.The feedback is much appreciated however. Yes it is a difficult problem and yes we will work on it.You'll appreciate we'd rather be talking about the advances in the atc itself ;-)All the best,John

Thanks for shedding some light on that :) I think it's great that you haven't gone out of your way to make it impossible for people to add new voice sets to the program. I've never used RC myself but I can imagine how useful it is for those who want more from machine ATC than FS9 can provide.Just out of curiosity, do you happen to know how many WAV files each ATC / pilot voiceset has? :)

Hi Janne,I think it's 1764 files in a pilot set and 1905 for a controller at present.All the best,John

Im interested to know if this version will be lighter weight on CPU usage. I bought v3 but never use it because it rendered my PC into a slide show. (my unit is a little old now...admittedly.)Eric

Hi Eric,Probably better to raise that over in the RC support forum. To be honest RC3 shouldn't have had that effect. Generally RC (whichever version) should have little or no impact on framerates. Might be worth re-installing v3 and seeing if we can help you get that working well first. I'm wondering if the sound card settings could have something to do with it but am no expert in such things.All the best,John

Thanks. I may need to get a new sound card anyway. My joystick/throttle combo have been going wonky last couple of days, requiring re calibration etc. I think the Joystick 15 pin port on the card is going bad. Will see. Eric

>Hi Bob,>>I must admit the level of furore surrounding the voices has>come as something of a surprise to me. My general impression>from v3 was that folks felt they might not be perfect but were>at the very least adequate for the task in hand.>>Our time in development has been spent trying to improve the>content of the atc, not it's method of delivery. Simple as>that. Those of us on the team have genuinely not really had>problems with listening to the voices. What we did do to the>voices was to record a lot more files in each set to include>the callsigns for a large number of airlines plus the names>for 100 or so of the busiest airports.>>The feedback is much appreciated however. Yes it is a>difficult problem and yes we will work on it.>>You'll appreciate we'd rather be talking about the advances in>the atc itself ;-)>>All the best,>>JohnWell despite the voice issue, I am probably going to purchase it, as I think it will be a good alternate to Vatsim for me. Certainly, the FS9 ATC, is not anywhere near this level.

Hi Bob,That's good to hear. I assume you've got the link to order at the upgrade price as an owner of v3.If not contact [email protected] and he should sort it out.All the best,John

Hi Eric,The sound card idea is just a (probably uneducated) guess. As I say my expertise in the inner workings of computers is just a little bit in advance my artistic ability - which is why I really appreciate the quality you repainters manage to produce.They look excellent!All the best,John

Despite the fact I also share the frustration by the choppy voice script, I am hoping Santa brings me RC4 for Christmas. That being said, is your company aware of a guy (sorry, I don't know his real name) that goes by "meatwater". He has be famous for making soundsets for aircraft sims for several years going back to EAW I believe. He also has a set of sounds for the Flight One C172. Now, I don't know if he does voice sets, but from my experience, he is a top rate sound engineer. Just a thought. Maybe someone can chime in and see if he is still around.Brian

Just loaded my copy last night. Received the key within 4 hours.I've flown the first two tutorials for approx. 2-3 hours and so faram extremly pleased with the product. I think the voices sound prettydarn good. The product works as advertised....period.I had the previous version and haven't used it for a couple of yearsand this is much improved.Craig

Just to add my 2 cents, I think the description of the voices as "robotic" is unfortunate since that suggest Darth Vader or some form of "synthesized speach."Obviously, your voices are utterly human and not robotic. The issue is the stacatto way that they are generated as in "Cessna (pause) 1 (pause)2 (pause) 3."I listened to the demo for quit some time and have the opinion that FS9 ATC voices are no more or less "human" than yours but FS9 ATC voices are quite a bit less "choppy" or "stacatto" that yours.To try to quantify that, I would say that the "flow" of FS9 voices is, maybe, 25% better sounding than yours.From what I can tell, your functionality is VASTLY superior to FS9 so you appear to be WAY on the right track to having a "killer ap."The tradeoff today seems to be VATSIM with its real live human controllers but with too little traffic in many cases vs. Radar Contact that does not have that problem but lacks smoothly delivered voices.If you can somehow reduce the pause time between words, that would be a huge selling point...all IMHO.Regards,Jim

>Just to add my 2 cents, I think the description of the voices>as "robotic" is unfortunate since that suggest Darth Vader or>some form of "synthesized speach.">>Obviously, your voices are utterly human and not robotic. The>issue is the stacatto way that they are generated as in>"Cessna (pause) 1 (pause)2 (pause) 3.">>I listened to the demo for quit some time and have the opinion>that FS9 ATC voices are no more or less "human" than yours but>FS9 ATC voices are quite a bit less "choppy" or "stacatto">that yours.>>To try to quantify that, I would say that the "flow" of FS9>voices is, maybe, 25% better sounding than yours.>>From what I can tell, your functionality is VASTLY superior to>FS9 so you appear to be WAY on the right track to having a>"killer ap.">>The tradeoff today seems to be VATSIM with its real live human>controllers but with too little traffic in many cases vs.>Radar Contact that does not have that problem but lacks>smoothly delivered voices.>>If you can somehow reduce the pause time between words, that>would be a huge selling point...all IMHO.>Regards,>JimOne way you can avoid the light traffic in Vatsim, at least in the US, is to go to the VatUsa part of the Vatsim site and look for the Calendar which lists all the weekly fly ins which are held in each area of the US. You will have ATC all the way, if you fly in that area. Tonight ( Tuesday) it is the Southeast US.........http://www.vatusa.org/html/index.php?module=PostCalendar

I agree with you Craig!I just received mine yesterday and I am extreamly happy with RC4. The level of ATC interaction with reguards to realism is outstanding.Being a real world pilot, I know what goes on out there everyday and RC4 models that very, very, well.Also, I don't understand why so many people are dissapointed with the voices. They are pretty good sounding considering a computer program is having to organize complex communication phrases.Yes, it is not fluid human speech, but you all should hear some of the pilots out there on the radios. As an active Instructor / professional pilot, I cringe sometimes at what I hear on the radios in the real world.We just need to remember that we are using computers to simulate ATC communication and it will never be exactly like full human speech. On the other hand, I have heard many pilots on the radios in real ATC communications who sound like computers soemtimes. (Not to be too harsh).My hats off to the guys at the Radar Contact team! Can there be improvements in this product? Sure. But so far, every version of their product has been a big leap forward and I am thankfull that they are there to develop programs like this one!So, for the money that this program costs, it is realy a good buy in my opinion. I can spend the same or alot more for many of the add-on aircraft out there, but with RC4 I am getting a whole group of personal ATC guys (and gals) to guide me through the virtual skies!Now I know that not everyone can be pleased with a product. But if I would have listened to many of the negative complaints on so many products out there, I would not have bought most of them. And many of those products turned out to be great and very enjoyable to use! This one is no different in my opinion.Happy Simming and ATCing! :-beerchug ScottATP/CFII/DA20 Type Rated - Instructor Pilot - USAFA (KAFF), Colorado Springs, CO & at KCOSAOPA #00956593, since 1987Background in Corporate, Airline, and General AviationB.S. Degree in Computer Information Systems