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

Michael Collins msc at freeswitch.org
Thu Mar 28 23:54:26 MSK 2013


By "typical phrases" what do you mean? Stuff that each language would have,
beyond what's in phrase_en.xml?

-MC

On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 11:06 AM, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd] <
cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:

> Here are the quote's I have so far;
>
> French (Male, Native, French accent) - $125
> German (Male, Fluent, German accent) - $500
> Dutch (Male, Native, Dutch accent) - $190
> English (Female, Native, American accent) - $85
> English (Female, Native, British accent) - $120
>
> Each one includes;
>
> * 3500 words
> * Full copyright/ownership/rights over the audio files
> * High quality, raw recordings with a professional mic
> * Translation from English script (where applicable)
> * Small sample provided before hand
>
> Therefore, I think the next steps would be to determine;
>
> * Which languages should be included, so we can determine what the cost
> would be
> * List of phrases/sentences that we want recorded (are we going to use
> phrase fragments to construct a sentence, or full paragraphs?)
>
> I've looked around for a list of typical phrases, but didn't have much
> luck.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Cal
>
> On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 7:36 PM, Michael Collins <msc at freeswitch.org>wrote:
>
>> 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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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _________________________________________________________________________
>>>>> Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
>>>>> consulting at freeswitch.org
>>>>> http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com
>>>>>
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>
>>>>> Official FreeSWITCH Sites
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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:
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>>>> http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com
>>>>
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>>>
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>>>
>>> 
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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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