@BHouston,

What kind of OS you have ?

Well, the voices come from Microsoft, not EZR. One correction to my previous. Cepstral is the voice that I have Cereproc is another voice company, and I confused them and called it Cerproc, which doesn't exist

One of my Windows machines, which was upgraded from Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit instead of Windows 8 home 64 like the other ones has a 3rd voice, Microsoft Mark. I'll test it after work tomorrow (actually, might be Thursday depending on when I get home. Taking my wife to a concert tomorrow night) and see if it supports the rate property, and research if it can be downloaded or activated on Windows 10 Home.

I also have a different voice app that I think has the rate setting. I'll confirm if it also fails on the David voice.

Alan

@ptp, Windows 10

Bob,

I just tried and the David voice supports different rates.

David voice with different rates:
DavidVoices.zip


Zira voice with different rates:
Zira.zip

@ptp That zip file works on my system. How do I install it into ARC or onto my OS?

both zip files contain recorded samples from my computer (windows 10).

Is not a fix.

I tried Emphasis - None, and different Rates.

Do they work in your ARC Speech Settings Control?

yes

I'm thinking that it's a setting in my system somewhere. I have my system set to EN-US. Any suggestions where to look/adjust the settings on my computer?
Is anyone else from Canada having this problem?

Bob,

I just checked some old SAPI code.

open RegEdit on your computer and go to the following Registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices

check if exists a DefaultTTSRate property
if exists, check if is 0 (zero), if not change to 0.

Let me know if it worked.

It was at Zero.

so is not that.

Can you try the following:

change your regional settings (system too) to EN-CA. The speech settings will reset.
Try ARC

If you want to return to EN-US, change it again to EN-US (System too with Reboot)
Try ARC

I changed everything back to EN-CA and regional settings to Canada - no change.
I have Microsoft David Mobile voice selected there and can change the rate but not in ARC.

I was incorrect. Microsoft David Desktop does support the "Rate" property outside of ARC. I am able to control it using Roboblather http://zetacentauri.com/software_roboblather.htm but not ARC, so there is still something wrong in the ARC speech settings control.

The Roboblather page also has a link to a forum where you can download 3 additional Microsoft voices originally from Windows XP, Mike, Sam, and Mary (http://www.eightforums.com/customization/23916-microsoft-anna-windows-8-a-6.html post 56). All support the rate setting in ARC, so it is something unusual with how David is being accessed. (none of these voices sound as smooth and natural a the newer David and Zira, but might meet your needs in the short term until this issue is resolved. Mike doesn't sound too bad.

Alan

Thanks, DJ it now all works as it should - I now can select my Cereproc voices in English-UK.
I would also like to give a special thanks to PTP for all his great input that helped to solve this issue.

Tony

@bhouston,

Sorry to insist did you tried David's voice with Emphasis:Not Set ?

with Rate: Slow or Rate:Extra Slow ?




still not working ?

I did not test with emphasis not set. It was set to Moderate (the default) for all of my rate tests.

I can't try changing to Not Set until I get home from work, and maybe not until very late.

Hopefully Bob can try that today.

Alan

Only to be clear Emphasis, Rate are handled by the voice provider.

You can have a voice supporting both attributes, only one or having trouble mixing them together.

Is not a Windows Speech API bug.

David, Zira, Hazel all come with windows, but are implemented by different providers, it's possible to find differences between them.

To help troubleshoot i always start with one Attribute off: e.g. Emphasis: Not set, than i test the Rate attribute, then i swap, and only after i try to combine both.

@ptp. That worked! I had tried that before and it didn't make a difference but now it does. I can now adjust the rate of both David and Hazel voices in ARC. Thanks for all your help.

Quote:

@ptp. That worked! I had tried that before and it didn't make a difference but now it does. I can now adjust the rate of both David and Hazel voices in ARC. Thanks for all your help.

Yup, that fixed David's rate issue for me too.

Thanks @PTP for helping @DJ fix this longstanding issue.

Alan