TTS Voice for CoPi

[BerndB 349]

hi all, i prefer to use the TTS-voice for the co-pilot in MCE, because then all items on my A320 checklists are recognized and readout in a correct and naturally way. Same for the ATC. With TTS the requests are fast fluent and sound natural. The recorded voice sets are really struggling with the checklist like "MCDU Flightplan page"  is read as "McDooo....page" or many word´s just not be spoken and left out. The TTS reads anything correctly.

But, when the Co confirms at ATC (the readback) he talks very slow and even in an robotic telegraph stile like "...Hamburg......Ground......cleared to....E....d.....d.....s....runway...0........5.......via taxiway....z....1....a.....3.....contact twr on 1......1.....8....." and so on.

When i use the recorded voices their readback is fluent an naturally spoken, but i don´t like to use different voices for the CoPi.

Is there something i may need to set up in a different way, even in the TTS-voice set it self. And if so, what do i need to set where.

reg.Bernd

[FS++ 707]

16 minutes ago, BerndB said:

hi all, i prefer to use the TTS-voice for the co-pilot in MCE, because then all items on my A320 checklists are recognized and readout in a correct and naturally way. Same for the ATC. With TTS the requests are fast fluent and sound natural. The recorded voice sets are really struggling with the checklist like "MCDU Flightplan page"  is read as "McDooo....page" or many word´s just not be spoken and left out. The TTS reads anything correctly.

But, when the Co confirms at ATC (the readback) he talks very slow and even in an robotic telegraph stile like "...Hamburg......Ground......cleared to....E....d.....d.....s....runway...0........5.......via taxiway....z....1....a.....3.....contact twr on 1......1.....8....." and so on.

When i use the recorded voices their readback is fluent an naturally spoken, but i don´t like to use different voices for the CoPi.

Is there something i may need to set up in a different way, even in the TTS-voice set it self. And if so, what do i need to set where.

reg.Bernd

Will be looked at.

Meanwhile, for checklist try "M C D U flight plan page" and recorded Fo should be able to handle that.

I assume you're on MCE V2.7.8.2

[BerndB 349]

Gerald, as always, instant reaction from you.

I´ve tried this already, then the output is (M...C...D...U..page) seems he can´t read "flight plan" even not if it´s written without spacing. But there are many others he cant read I. ex. "external power" he say´s "can´t read that item". Same with "SPEED BREAK LEVER" he say just "lever". Other words he can´t read are f. ex. "HOTAIR" or ACCU BREAK Pressure" or for "ALL EQUIPEMT AVAILABLE AND OK" he just say "ALL EQUIPEMT  OK". TTS-voice is handling all of them completely in a very naturally way to speak.

2 hours ago, FS++ said:

assume you're on MCE V2.7.8.2

positive.

reg.

Bernd

[RALF9636 1,904]

7 hours ago, BerndB said:

hi all, i prefer to use the TTS-voice for the co-pilot in MCE, because then all items on my A320 checklists are recognized and readout in a correct and naturally way. Same for the ATC. With TTS the requests are fast fluent and sound natural. The recorded voice sets are really struggling with the checklist like "MCDU Flightplan page"  is read as "McDooo....page" or many word´s just not be spoken and left out. The TTS reads anything correctly.

But, when the Co confirms at ATC (the readback) he talks very slow and even in an robotic telegraph stile like "...Hamburg......Ground......cleared to....E....d.....d.....s....runway...0........5.......via taxiway....z....1....a.....3.....contact twr on 1......1.....8....." and so on.

When i use the recorded voices their readback is fluent an naturally spoken, but i don´t like to use different voices for the CoPi.

Is there something i may need to set up in a different way, even in the TTS-voice set it self. And if so, what do i need to set where.

reg.Bernd

I can confirm that I experience the same.

It also seems to be dependent on the used voices because for me it is much worse with Ivona voices (which work perfectly outside the ATC readbacks) than it is with Cereproc voices (but still noticeable also with the latter).

 

[BerndB 349]

I guess it has something to do with the way the text to speech engine is feed. So in my understanding, technically the voices get the text from a background file or script an read that out. Seems this works well with the text they get to speech for requests. I´ve read in the forum that the acknowledgements to atc the FO has to speech, came from the close capture in the past and with the actual version of MCE there is a log-file generated from PF3 from where the speech-engine gets the words to be spoken. If that's the case there must be something different between the log-file readout and the readout which is from stuff like checklists, requests based on fligtplaninfo and answers to given commands to the FO.

I hope you know what I mean... 

[BerndB 349]

I´ve found this threat above where ggerolamo had the same issue with the TTS-Voices. It seems that it depends on the TTS-Voice-set that you use and it´s maybe not a bug in MCE. At first, the hint about 32 or 64 bit is interesting, because I will check first, if the voice I use 64bit maybe switching this to 32bit could solve the issue already. Otherwise I will try another TTS-Voice as ggerolamo did.

Gerald, may you confirm. I give information once I´ve tested this successfully.

reg.

Bernd

[BerndB 349]

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 7:14 PM, RALF9636 said:

I can confirm that I experience the same.

It also seems to be dependent on the used voices because for me it is much worse with Ivona voices (which work perfectly outside the ATC readbacks) than it is with Cereproc voices (but still noticeable also with the latter).

 

I have tested an Ivona voice yesterday and it´s a little better than with the standard WIN 10 voices, but still noticeable like RALF9636 said. But it´s only when the FO acknowledge to ATC, this is very robotic telegram style.

Because the TTS voices are very very naturally speaking when they read thru the checklists or when requesting to ATC or talk to me, therefore the immersion is very high, it really worth it to have a deeper look into the way the speech is generated for the readback of given instructions from ATC.

I count on the MCE-team to find a solution.

reg. Bernd

[FS++ 707]

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 12:34 PM, BerndB said:

Gerald, as always, instant reaction from you.

I´ve tried this already, then the output is (M...C...D...U..page) seems he can´t read "flight plan" even not if it´s written without spacing. But there are many others he cant read I. ex. "external power" he say´s "can´t read that item". Same with "SPEED BREAK LEVER" he say just "lever". Other words he can´t read are f. ex. "HOTAIR" or ACCU BREAK Pressure" or for "ALL EQUIPEMT AVAILABLE AND OK" he just say "ALL EQUIPEMT  OK". TTS-voice is handling all of them completely in a very naturally way to speak.

positive.

reg.

Bernd

Can you double-ckeck the custom checklist has been created as an ASCII standard text file and mot Unicode or other formats.

When editing checklist, suggest you switch to English US keyboard (In Windows Tray language settings), so that no fancy characters (from other languages) get into the file.

I assume you have a typical German setup.

Which recorded voice is unable to speak "flight, "plan"?

 

[BerndB 349]

I've created the checklist I use, in the wrong format (UTF8) the first time, but MCE told me it can´t read that format. Because of this, I used one of the checklists you provided with MCE and override the text with my own created one. The file says it´s format is ANSII which seems correct.

All recorded voices struggle with many of those checklist items. I´ve made a test with Clive, Andy, Dieter, Jean-Claude, an two others their name I haven´t in mind (I´am in the office and cant look into my MCE right now). It´s not that they can´t read for instance the word "flight plan". It seems that in combination with other words it´s not recognized correctly. For instance in my ready for taxi CL, which looks like below, I wrote underlined what the voice read out sounds like by the recorded voices:

READY FOR TAXI   
   
[ ] Button L S OFF            
[ ] ND mode and range                "n d   r"
[ ] V O R  A D F                             "v r d"
[ ] First Altitude                        "altitude"
[ ] FCU DASH BALL DASH BALL ALT BALL DASH      "alt"
[ ] E CAM Status                    "e status"
[ ] A T C FREQUNCY                 "atc"
[ ] I R S ALIGNED                       "irs"
[ ] M C D U FLIGHTPLAN PAGE  "m c d u   plan"
[ ] RECEIVE ATC CLEARANCE  "receive atc clearance"

This is just an example for clarifying. Many words on the other checklist are also not pronounced correctly. The TTS-Voices doing all items, and really all, in a fluent and naturally way, without fail, no matter which one I use. Because the TTS-voices sound very very natural as well in the atc-portion, I would be happy to use them anyway.

It´s just the weird issue that exclusively when they read back the given instructions from atc, that only this is spoken very robotic. Funny thing is that, when I ask FO "confirm atc options", after he has finished the autonomous atc confirmation, he repeats exactly the same instructions but naturally and very fluent again. So it seems it´s an very isolated issue only at that moment when the instructions are given by atc (i. ex. taxi instructions) and the FO has to do the immediate read back to atc. 

May be this issue is even connected with the main issue i have, that PF3 atc can´t "hear" my FO talking to them. Only if i push a PF3-hotkey as i wrote in another thread.

reg. Bernd

 

[FS++ 707]

3 hours ago, BerndB said:

I've created the checklist I use, in the wrong format (UTF8) the first time, but MCE told me it can´t read that format. Because of this, I used one of the checklists you provided with MCE and override the text with my own created one. The file says it´s format is ANSII which seems correct.

All recorded voices struggle with many of those checklist items. I´ve made a test with Clive, Andy, Dieter, Jean-Claude, an two others their name I haven´t in mind (I´am in the office and cant look into my MCE right now). It´s not that they can´t read for instance the word "flight plan". It seems that in combination with other words it´s not recognized correctly. For instance in my ready for taxi CL, which looks like below, I wrote underlined what the voice read out sounds like by the recorded voices:

READY FOR TAXI   
   
[ ] Button L S OFF            
[ ] ND mode and range                "n d   r"
[ ] V O R  A D F                             "v r d"
[ ] First Altitude                        "altitude"
[ ] FCU DASH BALL DASH BALL ALT BALL DASH      "alt"
[ ] E CAM Status                    "e status"
[ ] A T C FREQUNCY                 "atc"
[ ] I R S ALIGNED                       "irs"
[ ] M C D U FLIGHTPLAN PAGE  "m c d u   plan"
[ ] RECEIVE ATC CLEARANCE  "receive atc clearance"

This is just an example for clarifying. Many words on the other checklist are also not pronounced correctly. The TTS-Voices doing all items, and really all, in a fluent and naturally way, without fail, no matter which one I use. Because the TTS-voices sound very very natural as well in the atc-portion, I would be happy to use them anyway.

It´s just the weird issue that exclusively when they read back the given instructions from atc, that only this is spoken very robotic. Funny thing is that, when I ask FO "confirm atc options", after he has finished the autonomous atc confirmation, he repeats exactly the same instructions but naturally and very fluent again. So it seems it´s an very isolated issue only at that moment when the instructions are given by atc (i. ex. taxi instructions) and the FO has to do the immediate read back to atc. 

May be this issue is even connected with the main issue i have, that PF3 atc can´t "hear" my FO talking to them. Only if i push a PF3-hotkey as i wrote in another thread.

reg. Bernd

 

The TTS voice read back will be looked at.

I do believe there is some sort of issue with Checklist format.

For instance, there should always be a double character like "--" to divide the line between the challenge and the expected reply.

I don't know whether Avsim forum caused the formatting error, but this is certainly wrong "[ ] E CAM Status                    "e status""

This typical checklist line would look like   

[ ] ECAM Status    --  E status

or

[ ] ECAM Status    --  Checked

or

[ ] ECAM Status    --  no blue

Could you send the file to support?

Thanks

[BerndB 349]

On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 3:12 PM, FS++ said:

The TTS voice read back will be looked at.

I do believe there is some sort of issue with Checklist format.

For instance, there should always be a double character like "--" to divide the line between the challenge and the expected reply.

I don't know whether Avsim forum caused the formatting error, but this is certainly wrong "[ ] E CAM Status                    "e status""

This typical checklist line would look like   

[ ] ECAM Status    --  E status

or

[ ] ECAM Status    --  Checked

or

[ ] ECAM Status    --  no blue

Could you send the file to support?

Thanks

Gerald, of course my checklist looks like you discribed above. The underlined text shows what´s the readout by the FO Clive i. ex. sounds like. 😉

Anyway, i´ve sent my checklist to your support mail, so you could have a deeper look into it.

reg. 

Bernd

[BerndB 349]

anything new about the checklist?

[FS++ 707]

On ‎1‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 5:17 PM, BerndB said:

anything new about the checklist?

Should have received the edited checklist from support. Check your Spam folder.

 

[BerndB 349]

11 hours ago, FS++ said:

Should have received the edited checklist from support. Check your Spam folder.

 

Yes, I got it already and I will test it over the weekend. I´ll let you know how it works.

[BerndB 349]

On ‎1‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 9:43 PM, FS++ said:

Should have received the edited checklist from support. Check your Spam folder.

 

so I've tested the corrected checklist and you´re right, now FO Clive for instance can handle it far better than before. Thank you much so far. But because personally I like the TTS voices much more, because of their much better natural speech. And Clive doen´t  know the Airline Eurowings I. ex. The only exception is the issue with the ATC readback, but anything else they handle very very superb.

Because the handling by MCE FO for the ATC instructions by reading the logfile from PF3 is relatively new feature, this makes me sure that you will find a way for even this little issue left to be solved at least. This is just for motivation to you to not stop the development of your great tool at this stage. So keep working hard for us   

I think I said already that you did a great job with MCE anyway and I really appreciate the effort you´ve put into it.

Edited January 14, 2019 by BerndB