VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

bobfromboulder

Well, maybe not. The VO in these videos is actually a step further along than the Speech Synthesizer my old Commodore Amiga 1000 (7Mhz!) in 1986, though I'd have figured in 20 years they would have made more progress....

Still, try listening to these:
http://homepage.mac.com/excinder/screencasts/Hydra-Basics-hq.mov
http://homepage.mac.com/excinder/screencasts/Hydra-Blending-hq.mov

Yeeesh.

Bruce · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:35 am Post subject:

The freakiest thing is the deep breath "he" takes at the beginning of some sentences. Someone bothered to program that in.

I still think (pray) it's going to take some time before they get warm interpretation down, and the blending live people do between words.

B
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I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:11 am Post subject:

how would computers lowball bids on PTP sites ? Devil

snipe-like, i s'pose
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CWToo · Guest

Isn't Google offering a computer to read your script for radio spots?

Hart · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject:

Have you noticed how movies made on film always seem warmer than those recorded digitally? Compare the first three Star Wars films to the prequels and you'll see what I mean. The newer ones just feel flat compared to the warmth of the 70's film.

In all probability, while it may be possible in a few years to better recreate human speech (just think of how much better it is now compared to 5 years ago) I doubt computers will ever be able to capture the warmth, nuance, and range of the natural voice. Will it be good enough for some clients? Maybe, but I suspect those will be the ones who now seek out lowball prices anyway.
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Rob Ellis · M&M Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 2385 Location: Detroit

I hope you're right, Brian....I have pondered this issue in the back of my mind since getting into VO.
But then again, is there ANY line of work not potentially threatened by computer technology?

Brett Mason · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:41 pm Post subject:

todd ellis · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:08 pm Post subject:

???

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Jowillie · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:51 pm Post subject:

For several years, I did the VO for a medical Focus Group organization. (Stop me if you've heard me tell this before.) My job was to read ad copy as a group of physicians responded to the credibility, believability or what ever in the various parts of the print ads in medical journals. I was to read with little or no emotion. During the time I was doing these reads, I was working with some of the top computer program developers in the media field as they designed new ways to make the process smoother.
Then one day they asked me to read the phonetic alphabet before I left that day's session. I was never asked to read for them again--YET--my voice or a synthetic version is still doing those focus group sessions.

I can't request any rights fees because there weren't any standards for that process then. And they more than compensated me at the end by giving me access and rights to some of that exotic new software (enough to start another business).

So.....it's not coming.....it's been here a while.
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bobfromboulder · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:37 am Post subject:

Hart · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 3:39 pm Post subject:

My mom used to work for United Cerebral Palsy and I heard some pretty cool cg speech in some of the demo programs they were always sending her for review. Nothing I'd want in a commercial or audiobook I suppose but you could definitely hear improvements from year to year. That's really my only experience with it.
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