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VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!
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Lee Gordon
A Zillion
Joined: 25 Jul 2008
Posts: 6865
Location: West Hartford, CT
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 Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Mike Harrison wrote: |
should TTS become attractive only from the money-saving perspective (and we know how important a factor that is), it will mean less available work for those in our field. |
I wouldn't worry about it. I can remember, back in the 60s and 70s, there were all sorts of predictions about the amazing technological things the future had in store. Tang™ would replace orange juice. In fact, we'd be able to replace the nutritional value of entire meals, just by swallowing a pill. Double-knit polyester was going to replace the cotton and wool in our clothes and Corfam™ was going to supplant the leather in our shoes.
But guess what! Although all of that stuff is technologically feasible, none of it has happened because people generally prefer real things to artificial crap. The same is true for artificial voices. They have their place in some applications. For example, I was looking at a device for my mother, who is nearly blind. You put a sheet of paper in front of it, and it reads it aloud. It would be totally handy for reading newsletters, menus, even advertising flyers, but I'm sure my mother would never consider using such a device to read a book if a proper audiobook version were available. Same thing with GPS devices. I am amazed at how natural the computer generated voice in my TomTom is, but I'd still like to replace it with the voice of Stephen Hawking's 1980s era speech generator. 
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice
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Bish
3.5 kHz
Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Posts: 3738
Location: Lost in the cultural wasteland of Long Island
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 8:55 am Post subject: |
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Following my YouTube comment (yes, I know... generally YouTube comments are a law unto themselves and not for the faint of heart), I received a reply from the video poster (and, I assume, owner/supporter/worker with Speech-Over).
Training and e-learning developers that use Speech-Over report the opposite of what you predict: understanding and retention of the material is the same as a real human voice (they ran comparative testing). People quickly get used to the voice as they would to a narrator with a regional accent. Some customers tell the students up front that the voice is TTS.
Of course, this is someone defending their product... but the claims seem a little off. "Getting used" to something is damning with faint praise (in my opinion)... you can get used to toothache. He's quoting "comparative testing"... which I simply take to mean that his supporters support him. I don't want to engage on YouTube (that way lies madness), but I am interested in his claim... which I personally think is total bollocks. I liked the way he says that sometimes they actually tell the students that it's TTS... as if they wouldn't notice 
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls. |
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Mike Harrison
M&M
Joined: 03 Nov 2007
Posts: 2029
Location: Equidistant from New York City and Philadelphia, along the NJ Shore
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:24 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the update, Peter. I agree with your view. Air fresheners inject perfume into the air and pain medications mask the pain for a few hours. Those are not true solutions.
On the second page of the Forum for Articulate (the eLearning authoring software), where this is being discussed, one producer suggests a more viable use for TTS is to have it read script drafts so that errors can be addressed and clarifications can be made. That is a good idea. But I'll stand by my feeling that if the goal is to engage people to the point they'll remember what they hear and are later able to apply that knowledge, TTS is far from compelling speech and should be avoided in eLearning.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.
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paulstefano
Backstage Pass
Joined: 22 Sep 2015
Posts: 411
Location: Baltimore, MD
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:27 am Post subject: |
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I am encouraged by things I've been seeing on Craigslist and some of the freelance sites.
People looking to hire voice actors put in Big BOLD letters, NEED A REAL HUMAN VOICE, NOT TEXT TO SPEECH.
It seems there are people out there bidding on jobs using text to speech programs, and generally making people angry.
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