Q: I wish to record my own voice with a view to having CereProc build a voice from my recordings in future. How should I go about it?
A: For customers wishing to record an archive of their own voice, CereProc recommends installing Audacity to record speech. It's free, available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, and can be downloaded from here:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
For voice recording, a good quality microphone should be used, and the recordings should take place in a quiet environment, preferably a recording studio. A quiet room in a house should be okay, as long as there is no background noise, e.g. TV, radio, music, traffic noises, etc. Customers should record themselves reading online newspaper articles, one at a time.
Good quality new sources are best. For those in the UK, the BBC and the Guardian are good sources; for those in the US, it's better to use US sources, such as New York Times, Chicago Sun Times, Washington Post etc. The speaker should try to read a variety of topics, e.g. general news, politics, business, international news, a bit of sport, a bit of weather, etc, and some articles on topics of personal interest, e.g. cinema, as this will give better genre coverage. Articles should be recorded one at a time, and each wave file given a sensible name, e.g.
abc_nyt_20100309_001.wav (abc = speaker initals; nyt = New York Times, or change these to indicate where the article came from; 20100309 = today's date; 001 = article no.1)
In addtion, the text of the article should be saved into a text file and given a matching name. E.g. for abc_nyt_20100309_001.wav, the text read by the speaker should be saved into a file called abc_nyt_20100309_001.txt
The more articles recorded the better - customers should aim to get at least 40 mins of recordings to build an HTS voice, or 4 hours+ for a unit selection voice.
Most important of all, customers try to keep the recordings consistent, so that each recording session sounds identical (or as close to identical as possible) to the previous sessions. This means - always using the same room to make the recordings, making sure the speaker's position in the room is the same, always using the same microphone and ensuring the distance between the microphone and the speaker, and the speaker's sitting position are always the same.
The speaker should try to read at a measured pace, without speeding up or slow down. Big changes in pitch and volume should also be avoided. The speaker's tone should be neutral and the speaker should not put too much interpretation on what (s)he is reading - keep it like a newsreader. Disfluencies, such as "erm", "um", etc. should be kept to an absolute minimum. The fundamental point to remember is that when a CereProc voice synthesises a word or phrase, it can select units of speech from any of the recordings used to build the voice, so if there are big differences between each recording, this has a extremely negative impact on the quality of the voice.
Customers should save both the wav files and the txt files into a directory on their computer and build up the quantity of files over a period of time. The files should be periodically backed up. CereProc rarely records a speaker for sessions longer than three hours, including breaks, so CereProc recommends frequent, short recording sessions.
Agreed. Recording messages to loved ones would be awesome. Or like.. something for them to play at your funeral long after they have forgotten your voice. It would be an instant tear inducer.
Welp you've scared the shit out of me. I've had this wart looking thing on my tongue for like a month or two and am getting it removed on friday and the doctor I saw said "its probably not cancer" but fuck now I'm scared as fuck at the possibility at losing my whole tongue.
I smoke a'lot also but I'm only 22 so I hope it's not the case
I'm not sure what to say. If it's not cancer you'll probably keep smoking, right?
Welp. Long story short I probably have tongue cancer. After numerous doctor visits and ruling out other diseases, I'm going to an oral cancer specialist Monday.
If the diagnosis is confirmed and they want to operate I will never be able to speak again. At this point it's still up in the air but its not looking good.
So GAF, my Internet buddies, how would you cope?
My idea is to record every word in the dictionary and get some Stephen Hawkins shit going on. I'm definitely going to have to learn ASL so any gaffers who are fluent and would like to Skype or Facetime let me know.
I know this thread is a downer but honestly, I'm not that depressed. Probably since I know it's my own fault for smoking for so long.
Edit: I'm at work but will be checking tread periodically.
Expanding on this:Why ASL? Isn't that primarily for the deaf? Seems like that would be a ton of work for limited return... limited to those who know ASL.
To communicate with most people, this wouldn't get you very far. You can hear, see, and have all your motor skills... there might be a better communication solution for your situation.
ASL is pretty cool though... not knocking it, just saying.
Sorry to hear that man. Definitely make as many recordings as possible now, and if I were you I'd also start learning an expressive instrument like the guitar, you'll feel good to be able to rip it up and let it out later on I reckon.
I have been learning the ukulele
Damn... So are these symptoms tongue-related? Or are you still going to have some issues with appetite and weight after surgery?Answers:
I have been smoking for about 15-20 yrs. I smoke less than a pack a day.
Symptoms:
I dropped from 225lbs to 170lbs in the span of 3 months without diet or exercise.
I do not want to eat. I have no hunger. I have to force myself to eat. Prolonged time without eating makes my hunger even less. (Which is a key symptom)
Coughing phlegm.
Big white patch covering the back quarter of my tongue. Not painful or bleeding.
Always feel like something is stuck in my throat.
Lose teeth in back.
I don't FEEL sick. I don't have any flu like symptoms. No fatigue or pain. It's like I'm disappearing or being erased.
Yeah, definitely cool that he hasn't let his medical issues faze him too much.Be like Ebert, bro. Dude's a boss.
What do you mean probably?
you need a biopsy to get a diagnosis. if the results confirm SCCA, then you perform other test to plan treatment , which could range from radiation to radical resection with flaps. What you are saying makes no sense.
Answers:
I have been smoking for about 15-20 yrs. I smoke less than a pack a day.
Symptoms:
I dropped from 225lbs to 170lbs in the span of 3 months without diet or exercise.
I do not want to eat. I have no hunger. I have to force myself to eat. Prolonged time without eating makes my hunger even less. (Which is a key symptom)
Coughing phlegm.
Big white patch covering the back quarter of my tongue. Not painful or bleeding.
Always feel like something is stuck in my throat.
Lose teeth in back.
I don't FEEL sick. I don't have any flu like symptoms. No fatigue or pain. It's like I'm disappearing or being erased.
True there might be radiation options. The location of the mass which will need to be removed is the entire back quarter of my tongue. Radiation may not be the best option versus surgical removal. It's still in the planning stages. So if the mass needs to be removed surgically then I PROBABLY won't be able to speak because my tongue will be gone.
Hopefully they can do radiation but I don't know if I would choose that over surgery. If the are able to remove all of it I would rather have that done then months of radiation and chemo.
I know this thread is a downer but honestly, I'm not that depressed. Probably since I know it's my own fault for smoking for so long.
Answers:
I have been smoking for about 15-20 yrs. I smoke less than a pack a day.
Symptoms:
I dropped from 225lbs to 170lbs in the span of 3 months without diet or exercise.
I do not want to eat. I have no hunger. I have to force myself to eat. Prolonged time without eating makes my hunger even less. (Which is a key symptom)
Coughing phlegm.
Big white patch covering the back quarter of my tongue. Not painful or bleeding.
Always feel like something is stuck in my throat.
Lose teeth in back.
I don't FEEL sick. I don't have any flu like symptoms. No fatigue or pain. It's like I'm disappearing or being erased.