Generating/Recording a computerized voice

Tsunami Jones · Post by **Tsunami Jones** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 6:22 pm

I was curious if anyone knew of any (free) programs that would be able to do this. I was wanting a style of voice similar to what's in the Daicon 4 vid, with an easy way to record what's said. Any suggestions?

doughboy · Post by **doughboy** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 6:38 pm

Microsoft Sam (computerized voice) + Audacity (record from any source)

Tsunami Jones · Post by **Tsunami Jones** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:09 pm

doughboy wrote:Microsoft Sam (computerized voice) + Audacity (record from any source)

I have Audacity, but I haven't used it too much, and couldn't find too much about that in its help file, so how would I go about that?

Microsoft Sam is goofy, and doesn't have the right style to it that I need for the voice.

doughboy · Post by **doughboy** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:51 pm

You can select various sources to record from in the upper right screen. To record most sounds you could put it on "What you hear" or more specifically "Wave." Then it's a matter of setting your record volume, hitting record, then starting your source.

It's usually a good idea to use Effects > Normalize, hit ok and then it'll smooth the waveform out.

To save, you got to File > Export As Wav, I don't know much about saving it as a project (sounds devilish).

As for SAM, I was half joking (but it sure is free).

Another option that I just discovered is Talking Buddy. It'll try to install some search thingy, but if you hit the "X" it'll thankfully keep installing waht you want. Make sure to close the program after it starts, he'll try to take you on a tour and won't respond to much else.

Reopen the a-hole and click on the "Read" tab to type in text. There are several voices to choose from in the General tab > Buddy and Speech Options (button). You can even adjust the pitch to each of them.

It's an annoying bugger though, a bit of fair warning.

Tsunami Jones · Post by **Tsunami Jones** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 10:06 pm

Thanks! And yes, he is very annoying, but after applying some filters to him, I've pretty much gotten something different than what I wanted originally, but I like it better

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:28 am

Scott Melzer once showed me that the word processor that came with his Macintosh had a built-in speech synth feature...

milkmandan · Post by **milkmandan** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 3:55 am

i know of 2 ways, without any fancy software...

like scintilla said, all macs, well most macs, have a built in computerized voice and what not. you type a phrase or watever into the word pad and you can highlight and tell the computer to say it

windows has the same thing...its that one speech tool, look for it in Start Menu > Accessories > one of the folders.

anyways that windows speech prog is much like the mac one, all you gotta do to get it to say what you want is open notepad and then type the phrase or sentence you want the prog. to say...

the program will say some crap like "notepad untitled 1" then the prog will recite the text you entered...

hmmm now to record this part..just open a wave editor, NOT VOICE recorder, anything BUT that....set your recording channel to stereo mix or Aux, cycle through them to find the one on your computer.. and just record with the wave editor, it should catch it all..if you dont understand this process.. read the topic in this sub forum about ripping audio...some inquired about ripping from a shoutcast...i posted details how to do this there...

but is this isn't the voice you are looking for. then i guess i can't help

maciko · Post by **maciko** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 7:47 am

The effect you seek is called a VOCODER or VOCODA, it was desigend in the early 70's an it is still used in some way in common music prodution.
It used to be a stand alone box, but now it is available as a plug in for most audio platforms. I suggest you google it, perhaps you may find some trail ware.

Tsunami Jones · Post by **Tsunami Jones** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:48 am

I don't have a mac, but like doughboy mentioned, windows has microsoft sam, who IMO sucks

I think I'm good though, with the talking buddy+filters.

badmartialarts · Post by **badmartialarts** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 4:16 pm

http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html is what I use. One day, it will no longer be a demo....