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Canada
Asked — Edited

Speech Settings

I upgraded my system to Windows 10 and now in the Speech Settings control only female voice sounds are available. Is there a way to get male voice sounds or is this something Microsoft did? Tell me I'm not stuck with the Irritating British female voice.


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#40  
The speech voices are based on what version of windows (language) that was installed. The English US version will have different voices available than the English GB version.
Canada
#41  
Hi Dave, my computer is set to English (Canada) and speaks it. Anything thru the EZB though speaks the British female voice.
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Synthiam
#43  
Please use this thread and do not create duplicate threads. This is it a bug - as it's behavior of Microsoft's speech synthesis engine. Terms of use for installing third party voices are not covered by Microsoft. I would recommend contacting the manufacturer of the third party voices and revisiting the installation procedure.

This may not be the preferred answer - however, there is nothing that can be done from ezrobot to change the Microsoft Windows operating system.
Canada
#44  
Thanks DJ, I'm trying to understand why my program has changed and why others get male and female voice options with this control and I don't. I have not changed anything on my computer. The only thing I did was not use the program for my robot for a couple of months.
Also, if I buy a male voice will it come thru the V4 as a male voice?
#45  
Bob,

I suspect that your Windows system probably got the Windows 10 anniversary update and it more than likely messed up any changes you did that got the voices working properly.

Microsoft has seriously messed up SAPI5 (the speech API) over the past few releases, and different editions (home/pro/Enterprise) and different countries of sale each have their own set of issues.

I am on my phone so searching is tricky, but I think Steve G did a good tutorial on getting Cepestral voices working, and despite needing to pay for them, I think that is the best option.

The issue with the various settings in the speech object not working is due to the fact that not every voice effect or feature is available on every voice.

Alan
Canada
#46  
Thanks Alan, so if I buy a male voice it will come thru the v4 as a male voice?
#47  
Yes, a male voice will come out as male. You may need to delete the default voices to get Windows to use it (which is wjat was covered in Steve's tutorial).

Alan
Canada
#48  
I'll look at the tutorial. I have the default male voice in operation on my computer now so I'm still confused as to why it won't come thru the v4.
#49  
Hello.. Noob here to the community. You can try clicking start, scroll down to Windows System, click control panel, then speech recognition. You will see text to speech in lower left. Maybe you will be able to change it through there. I hope this helps

Ed

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Canada
#50  
Thanks Madrocker, the only option there is Microsoft Hazel Desktop-English Great Britain. Is there a way to add voices there from the computer?
#51  
From what I've read you have to

Click Time & Language > Region & Language.

Under Languages, click + Add a language.

Select the language you want to use from the list, and then choose which region's version you want to use. Your download will begin immediately.

I haven't tried this since my EZb software is on a 7 machine running Crystal voice engine.. hope this helps

Ed
Canada
#52  
I set the computer so it thinks it's in the States and I was able to get Zira English US set as the default voice and I deleted English (UK) from the computer, however, when I run Zira on the Speech Settings control it still has a British accent.
Madrocker what site are you getting voices from?
#53  
I had purchased AT&T natural voices Crystal16 a while back along with text aloud in the XP days. I backed up the voice engine on an offline drive. Sorry to hear the U.K accent is still there. I looked at the add language section and it just says English. Odd that its only U.K on your system.
Canada
#54  
Now I have the following voices in the Speech Settings control;
Microsoft Hazel Desktop
Microsoft Zira Desktop
Microsoft David Desktop
Cepstral David

and as I was worried about - they all sound like Hazel English accent!
Canada
#57  
I went thru that sites tutorial, Madrocker, and I now have my computer and EZB speaking with Microsoft David - yah!
Alan, I had been thru that tutorial a while ago - that fixed me up last time.
Thanks for your help everyone.
#58  
Excellent that it worked. Always better working within the system settings if they work. I am sure the reason the problem came back is that a windows update replaced the deleted files. Given some of the new Cortana features in the anniversary update, the directory path may have changed too. I'll do some research on my Win 10 machines and see if that is the case.

Alan
#59  
That's great and I'm glad I could help some. I myself still have a lot to
Learn about EZB and enjoy reading about everyone's projects/advice. Only 8,000 or so more posts to read:) so back to the grind and looking forward to future posts.

Ed
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