[Freeswitch-users] Fwd: FreeSWITCH TTS Voice Prompt Generator

[Michael Collins]

3000EUR? Meh.

I think you're right that something like fiverr is good for getting a basic
set of sound prompts recorded or for custom work. That would be especially
useful if you find a talent who can continually do updated prompts.

-Michael

On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 7:12 AM, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd] <
cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> I've just spoken with Ivona who have confirmed their pricing and licensing
> conditions.
>
> A single developer would have to purchase a single license at 3000EUR
> (valid for 1 year) to generate the voice prompt files. This license gives
> us all the rights to any voice prompts that the Desktop TTS software
> generates, so once an audio file is created, we then hold all the rights on
> that file.
>
> Now, 3000EUR is a lot of money, and it would be cheaper to get a bunch of
> people on fiverr.com to do real high quality voice prompts.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Cal
>
> On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 4:17 PM, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd] <
> cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Yeah I asked them in the email to clarify what the license cost would be
>> for unlimited re-distribution of TTS output.
>>
>> Here's an idea, slightly off-topic from TTS, but well worth considering,
>> assuming these files will be static usage only, i.e. you generate them once
>> and leave it.
>>
>> You could probably hire two German voices from Fiverr.com to do every one
>> of those sentences/words for like 50 bucks... we get the majority of our
>> voice talent from that site, providing they have a decent quality
>> microphone, and you have some simple editing tools, then you could easily
>> have a complete set within a day.
>>
>> You'd basically provide the voice talent with a sheet to read from, and
>> specify what tone, inflection and speed you want them to use.. repeating
>> every word twice with a 1 second gap in between. Before you split, you'd
>> throw the big file into an editing package, such as Ableton, and tinker
>> around with normalization, dehiss, declick, mono, voice enhancement etc,
>> until you hit the sweet spot. You can then automate the slicing using a
>> simple Python script that splits the file on every 500ms of silence.
>> Assuming the voice talent didn't skip a word, you can then take your word
>> sheet, map this to your split files, and automatically rename them
>> accordingly.
>>
>> Using this approach saves you a lot of time/money avoiding unnecessary
>> studio work.. using a static sheet allows you to not only have automation
>> of the workflow, but also means the voice talent can give an accurate cost
>> (because they usually base their costs on a per word basis).. i.e. 5 bucks
>> for 200 words.
>>
>> You could probably have an entire voice set of words/sentences of that
>> size completed within a day, if you use this automation approach.
>>
>> Cal
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 3:43 PM, Julian Pawlowski <julian at pawlowski.me>wrote:
>>
>>>  On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 2:56 PM, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd] <
>>> cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I agree their pricing is confusing for non studio related usage, I've
>>>> just sent them an email asking to clarify.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Getting back to this, after registering for the Ivona development
>>> program I got access to their SaaS terms of use (
>>> https://secure.ivona.com/static/pdf/saas_en.pdf).
>>> It says:
>>>
>>> "III. SCOPE AND TYPES OF “IVONA Speech Cloud” SERVICES
>>> ...
>>> 3. “IVONA Speech Cloud” Service is dedicated solely to entrepreneurs.
>>> Subject to the
>>> provisions of these Regulations, the Service Receiver is entitled to use
>>> of “IVONA
>>> Speech Cloud” Service for the purposes of the business activity run by
>>> Service
>>> Receiver, except for business activity in the areas of Telephony System,
>>> in particular
>>> interactive voice response (IVR) systems, Private Automatic Branch
>>> Exchange (PBX, IP
>>> PABX or other) or any other telecommunication solution.
>>> ...
>>> IV. FREE “IVONA Speech Cloud” SERVICE
>>> ...
>>> 3. The Text converted into the Speech generated under Free “IVONA Speech
>>> Cloud”
>>> Service, will be preceded by advertising material of Ivona and/or other
>>> advertising
>>> material in the form of sound, to what the Service Receiver agrees
>>> ordering Unpaid
>>> “IVONA Speech Cloud” Service.
>>> 4. The Service Receiver shall not modify, in any way, Speech generated
>>> as part of Free
>>> “IVONA Speech Cloud” Service.
>>> 5. The Service Receiver acknowledges that the objective of provision of
>>> Free “IVONA
>>> Speech Cloud” Service by Ivona is primarily to enable the Service
>>> Receiver to
>>> familiarize with the functionality, characteristics, uses and
>>> suitability of “IVONA Speech
>>> Cloud” Service for the Service Receiver. Therefore, the Service Receiver
>>> agrees to use
>>> Speech made available to it under Free “IVONA Speech Cloud” Service for
>>> the above
>>> purposes only. It is prohibited to use Speech generated as part of Free
>>> “IVONA Speech
>>> Cloud” Service for commercial purposes, i.e. to achieve profits or other
>>> material benefit
>>> by the Service Receiver and/ or a third party. In particular, it is
>>> prohibited to make
>>> Speech available to any third parties against payment, in any manner, as
>>> well as
>>> reproduce, distribute, broadcast, publish Speech and on the Internet,
>>> radio, television or
>>> through any other media.
>>> "
>>>
>>> That makes it impossible to use Ivona for our purposes as every
>>> user/company would needs to have a valid subscription and to generate it's
>>> own voice prompt files. Redistribution of pre-compiled voice files is not
>>> possible.
>>>
>>> I fear as number III.3 makes it quite clear that usage for PBX purposes
>>> is critical Ivona is not an option to be used anymore for default voice
>>> prompt packages.
>>>
>>>
>>> Br,
>>> Julian
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _________________________________________________________________________
>>> Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
>>> consulting at freeswitch.org
>>> http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com
>>>
>>> 
>>> 
>>>
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>>
>
> _________________________________________________________________________
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> consulting at freeswitch.org
> http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com
>
> 
> 
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-- 
Michael S Collins
Twitter: @mercutioviz
http://www.FreeSWITCH.org
http://www.ClueCon.com
http://www.OSTAG.org
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