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

Michael Collins msc at freeswitch.org
Tue Mar 26 22:36:55 MSK 2013


Awesome!

On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd] <
cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:

> It looks like there was some previous discussion/bounty on this as well;
>
> http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Bounty#Record_Sound_Prompts_In_Other_Languages
>
> The original estimate was $1200 for a single language, but I think we can
> get MUCH lower than that, maybe 100$ per language for the voice talent.
>
> I'll generate a list of the prompts, get some quotes from fiverr, and see
> what the cost would be.
>
> If there is enough interest in this, and we can get some donations towards
> the cost of the voice talent, then I would be happy to donate some of my
> own time to assist with editing, slicing, organizing etc.
>
> Cal
>
> On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 5:42 PM, Michael Collins <msc at freeswitch.org>wrote:
>
>> 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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>>> 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
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________________
>> Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
>> consulting at freeswitch.org
>> http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com
>>
>> 
>> 
>>
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>>
>
> _________________________________________________________________________
> Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
> 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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