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P3D v3 Electronic Voice (creating audio, App?)

lionheart

lionheart

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10,158
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us-arizona
Hey all,

I need to create voice files that say things like 'flaps are up', 'gear is up and locked', 'rear canopy is open', 'check landing gear', etc.

Does anyone know of an easy way to create these? I want a cool voice, AI voice, electronic, similar to British Siri, etc. I thought this could be done with Google. Any idea's? Anyone done something like this?

Sometimes people do tutorials on YouTube and the voice system will be digital, reading the script.


Many thanks for any idea's.

Bill
LHC
 
Hello Bill,

I have used the Amazon Web Services "Amazon Polly" application to create voice files from text, in several
'voices'...US English, British and Aussie both male & female. There is a 12-month 'free' tier available and after
that one could transition to a 'pay per use' account.

Here is a link for the AWS free tier info

Here is a link to the Amazon Polly info

I used this service to create cockpit voices for a 'virtual flight engineer' Lua app that I created
for the A2A Constellation. I was quite happy with the results.

I also used the free Audacity app to 'tweak' the voice files for pitch/volume/etc in some cases.

After 12 months the pricing is quite inexpensive:

Polly Pricing
Pay-as-you-go $4.00 per 1 million characters for speech requests (when outside the free tier).
Pay-as-you-go $4.00 per 1 million characters for Speech Marks requests (when outside the free tier).

Have a look. I think it will meet your needs.

Download the Developer Guide PDF user file HERE

Paul
 
Last edited:
From the readme for one of my mod packages:

8 Generating first officer sound samples
All the sound samples used for the first officer were generated with Ivona’s “Russell” voice. Since the creation of the first officer sound set, Ivona canceled its free service, so you’ll have look for an alternative, e.g. Oddcast. Generate a suitable voice set with cockpit crew related phrase(s), e.g. “Gear up, no lights.”.

Record the sound with Audacity, using WASAPI as the audio host and the speakers (in loopback mode) as the recording device. Recording must be activated in Audacity before going back to the browser window and playing back the entered text command(s).

Once recorded, edit the sound bit. For Ivona’s Russell, I’ve increased the tempo of the voice track by +8% and pitch by +2%. Next, I’ve added a high pass filter with 750 Hz and a roll off of 12 db to provide a bit of spatial distance to the voice. To compensate for the volume loss, the track needed some amplification by +8 db with clipping enabled. For the background static, I’ve added a new stereo track, in which, for the length of the voice track, pink noise with an amplitude of 0.1 was generated. Finally, the audio was exported as a 16bit wave (.wav) file for direct use in FSX.
Click to expand...
 
Let us know how generating the voices with text to speech went and if you found any other tools or services, since I've only generated some prior to Ivona's cessation of their free service.
 
I got the AWS subscription, free for a year at Amazon. I went through Polly's voices and decided to go with Matthew from the US at least for now. I wanted a British woman's UK accent, and possibly one that sounded like Iron Mans AI voice (also UK, male voice), but didnt like the way their voice structure was. Same for the ladies. I liked one (cant remember her name), and the Welsh guy had a cool voice. Matthew talked very well though. He got the part.

I downloaded the file fine. Its in MP3 format. Changed/exported to WAV via Audacity. (I love Audacity.... )
 
You know, I do so wish that L-M and Dovetail would use these voices to completely revamp the ATC in the sim. These voices are much higher quality than the pieced-together and s l o w voices currently used.
 
n4gix said:
You know, I do so wish that L-M and Dovetail would use these voices to completely revamp the ATC in the sim. These voices are much higher quality than the pieced-together and s l o w voices currently used.
Click to expand...

The slowness can be fixed with EditVoicePack (an absolutely essential and brilliant tool).

If you take a closer look at it, the default ATC, for all its bugs and shortcomings, is very capable and efficient. Native interaction with AI and I can stitch together new airline callsigns or airport names in a matter of minutes, something I can't say of any of the third party tools out there. If present in the airport AFCAD, ATC even allows me to fly STARs, a capability often overlooked.
 
Heretic said:
The slowness can be fixed with EditVoicePack (an absolutely essential and brilliant tool).
Click to expand...
Well of course! I did that shortly after EVP was first released.

What is interesting is that the same FSX EVP conversion I created has continued to work all the way through P3Dv4.1, proving that the entire system hasn't changed one iota... :D
 
For me default ATC is a no no. It is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo inaccurate.
As a substitute I use PF3 which despite some shortcomings related to not having certain phrases available is
the best and easiest ATC add-on. It is extremely flexible in the way it can be used and the voices are mostly good in the way they have been put together.
 
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