I was looking into getting Radar Contact for FSX. I wanted to hear first how it actually sounded and I found a video on YOUTUBE. What I heard was very dissapointing. The proceedures may be more accurate to real life but the voice sets seem to take alot away from it. I have used editvoicepack to speed up the voice sets to wake up the ATC some but dont see any reason to drop 44.00. Am I wrong or did I just find a bad example of Radar Contact. Is there anywhere else I can go to to hear samples of it?

The voice sets were recorded my many different people...some of them volunteers. Some of the voice sets sound "robotic", but that is just because of the way the person recorded all the individual "words" (wave files) that get put together to form phrases/sentences in RC4. Many of the voice sets are very realistic in nature and sound natural. You can select which voice sets you want to use in RC4 and disable the ones you don't want to use quite easily by checking or unchecking a voice set after listeneing to examples of it. There are enough voice sets to keep you quite happy. You won't be disappointed. I've only found about 10% of the included voice sets sound "robotic", and I just don't use them. The rest are fine, and there are enough of them to provide variety and non-repetetive voice sets being used over and over.I think the YouTube vid you watched was using one of the "robotic" sets.Rick

Rick, Thanks for the reply. Is there a way you could record a sample for me to here and post it?

Well, yeah, I'm sure there is a way, but I've never been into "wave file combining" and such. And short of combining numerous different voice set samples for you to listen to, you might not like the one I did anyhow.There are plenty of voice sets in RC4. AND you can adjust the speed of them in RC4 without having to use EditVoicePack. It's a simple slider adjustment. You can use it globally for all the sets at the same time, or adjust them individually (I think). In any case, no voice set for FSX is ever going to sound totally "real" because each word or short phrase has to be made separately, then the program combines them depending on the circumstances for the ATC response. You will always get some "strange" stuff regardless of how well the person recording the voice set did it. There are thousands of individual wave files for each set, and voice inflection, volume, etc could never be "guaranteed" for each file so ALL of them would work together ALL the time without some "hiccups" happening.If you want some of the best ATC available for FSX, get RC4. If you want perfection...I think you need to persue a real pilot's license with "real" ATC.Rick

I had the same problem when I first considered RC - about a month ago. I probably viewed the same YT vids you did, and came up with the same conclusion - that the quality of the speech engine would "put me off" from the experience.I voiced this concern on my VA forum and was advised to go ahead and purchase RC and I wouldn't be disappointed.They were correct.I think those YT vids do a great dis-service to the RC product because the actual voice sets are very natural sounding. Maybe not just quite as natural as the default FS sets - but pretty darn close. I have no regrets now about the product.I will warn you though. The bulk of the default voice sets have distinctly British accents. I have no problem with that, however, the realism takes a bit of a plunge flying from KATL to KSLC with those accents (although they do sound terrific!) I'm sure doing some picking and choosing amoung the voice sets will solve this issue.RC is a great product, which enhances FS realism tremendously. Don't worry; buy it!Mac

Good thing I read this thread!I bought RC a couple weeks ago, used it once, and was rather disappointed with the "staccato" sounding voices. Needless to say, I have not used it again.I will now go back and experiment with the various voices, and hopefully I will also be able to post a "positive" update!Thanks!!

Try different settings of the speed slider under each voice. Most users prefer the slider all the way to the left.