Alex, you said something potentially helpful. Referring to my perceived mispronunciation of the end of "regards," you wrote: "my brain hears what it expects at the end of 'regards'. " It may well be that I am not sufficiently tuned into Alex's accent to allow my brain to make the proper closure. Eloquence and the iOS voices I mention have similar inflections and word spacings; in other words, despite differences in voice quality, their rhythms sound to me quite similar. Alex, on the other hand, often glides from word to word. I'll give myself more time with Alex and see how I manage.
I do know about the free downloadable Nuance voices for the Mac. I have downloaded Tom and Samantha and find them easier to comprehend than Alex. However, it seems to me that Alex's bandwidth is broader, allowing for a more open, realistic sound as compared to the more restricted, or pinched, tone of Samantha and Tom. Tom speaks at a slightly lower volume as well. I hope I don't seem too compulsively picky; I'm just making observations. Craig On 12/11/15, Alex Hall <mehg...@icloud.com> wrote: > Using Alex on 10.11.2 at 70%, I noticed no problems in your examples. > However, my rate is fast enough that picking out a D sound versus a hard G > sound at the end of a word is impossible; my brain hears what it expects at > the end of 'regards'. In the first example, though, I heard 'department' > quite clearly. > > Remember that Samantha, Daniel, and the rest of the gang are available on OS > X if you'd rather use them. Just open the VO utility, go th the speech > category and then the voices tab, choose 'customize' from the popup menu of > voices, and choose the ones you want in the resulting table. Once they > finish downloading, you'll have access to them. >> On Dec 11, 2015, at 10:00, Craig Werner <coffeeb...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Thanks very much to all who have responded to my request for help. >> >> Shaun and Alex, I typically run my Mac OS voices at around 50 percent. >> Sometimes, the faults I perceive are accentuated if I run them at a >> rate under 50%. >> >> Nicolai, here are a couple of examples which demonstrate the kind of >> behavior to which I am referring. >> >> In the first example, note the pronunciation of the word "department." >> It sounds to me as if the "e" is almost absent, and so is the final >> "T." >> >> Example 1: I hope to see you at future department gatherings. >> >> In the second example, note the pronunciation of the word "regards." >> It sounds to me as if the last two letters are "g s," not "d s." I >> have typed it twice on two lines to allow the example to be listened >> to line by line. >> >> Example 2: >> Regards, >> Regards, >> >> A couple of things you should know about my listening habits: First, I >> am a Windows refugee and have spent over twenty years listening to and >> appreciating the Eloquence voice for its clear pronunciation but >> admittedly not for its grace or beauty. I have been listening to Alex >> for about five months. Second, I feel much more comfortable with >> Samantha, Karen, and Daniel, all voices available on my iPhone 5, >> which I have owned for about three years. >> >> Also, please remember that I am using OS X 10.10.5 and am wondering if >> Alex sounds better with OS X 11.2. I had a brief flirtation with El >> Capitan before deciding, as a very new user, to roll back to Yosemite, >> so I don't have enough recall of what Alex sounded like with the new >> version to make a comparison. >> >> It appears that my concerns represent a minority viewpoint, but I'm >> hoping something useful will come out of this thread anyway. Again, >> all comments welcome. >> >> Thank you. >> >> Craig >> >> n 12/10/15, Alex Hall <mehg...@icloud.com> wrote: >>> I use Alex at 70% on iOS and OS X, and have rarely noticed a problem. >>> Put >>> another way, Alex has no more pronunciation oddities, to my ear, than do >>> other popular voices. Often, he's easier to understand, and he seems to >>> try >>> less auto-expansion tricks than do Nuance voices, which is nice. He also >>> does that cool thing with words surrounded by single quotes… Anyway, I'm >>> just saying I haven't seen any problems with his speech, at least not >>> that >>> I've noticed. >>>> On Dec 10, 2015, at 18:35, Nicolai Svendsen <chojiro1...@gmail.com> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi! >>>> >>>> I'd also be very curious for a more specific example (a sentence where >>>> this occurs.) >>>> >>>> I do notice that sometimes, Alex does swallow words and almost mashes >>>> them >>>> together with others, making it hard to hear parts of the word, but >>>> Apple >>>> is usually good about addressing this. This happens so rarely and I >>>> have >>>> not seen this since OS X 10.11.2, even at speech rate at 100%. >>>> >>>> Nicolai >>>>> On Dec 10, 2015, at 6:13 PM, Shawn Krasniuk <bbssh...@icloud.com> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Hi. I don't notice any pronunciation issues with Alex. Just out of >>>>> curiosity, what's the rate of your speech? I keep all my voices at a >>>>> 35% >>>>> speech rate because they sound the most natural with that rate. Any >>>>> higher is unnatural. >>>>> >>>>> Shawn >>>>> Sent From My White MacBook >>>>> Facebook Username: Shawn Krasniuk >>>>> Twitter Handle: shawnk_aka_bbs >>>>> Skype username: bbstheblindrapper >>>>> Facetime: bbssh...@icloud.com >>>>> >>>>>> On Dec 10, 2015, at 11:26 AM, Craig Werner <coffeeb...@gmail.com> >>>>>> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Hello,everyone. >>>>>> >>>>>> As we all know, preference for one voice over another is a matter of >>>>>> subjective interpretation. However, it strikes me that one criterion >>>>>> is less subjective than the others: the ability of a synthesizer to >>>>>> pronounce a word correctly in the dialect and language the user has >>>>>> chosen. In this respect, it seems to me, Alex doesn't perform well. >>>>>> I have noticed that even common words are too often mispronounced, >>>>>> and, in Yosemite 10.10.5, at least, it is the short ones, such as >>>>>> "to," "the," "into," "that," etc. that are often mispronounced or >>>>>> have >>>>>> portions of them swallowed up. Whether these words are correctly >>>>>> pronounced may depend on their position on a line and their >>>>>> contiguity, or lack of it, with punctuation marks. >>>>>> >>>>>> I'm wondering about two questions. First, is Alex's pronunciation >>>>>> more correct under OS 10.11 than under 10.10? Second, are there >>>>>> other >>>>>> voices that pronounce common words more accurately? >>>>>> >>>>>> Thanks for all help. >>>>>> >>>>>> Craig >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> The following information is important for all members of the Mac >>>>>> Visionaries list. >>>>>> >>>>>> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, >>>>>> or >>>>>> if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the >>>>>> owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >>>>>> >>>>>> Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is >>>>>> Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com >>>>>> >>>>>> The archives for this list can be searched at: >>>>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ >>>>>> --- >>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>> Groups "MacVisionaries" group. >>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>>> send >>>>>> an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> The following information is important for all members of the Mac >>>>> Visionaries list. >>>>> >>>>> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, >>>>> or >>>>> if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the >>>>> owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >>>>> >>>>> Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is >>>>> Cara >>>>> Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com >>>>> >>>>> The archives for this list can be searched at: >>>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ >>>>> --- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups >>>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>>> an >>>>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> The following information is important for all members of the Mac >>>> Visionaries list. >>>> >>>> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, >>>> or >>>> if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the >>>> owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >>>> >>>> Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is >>>> Cara >>>> Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com >>>> >>>> The archives for this list can be searched at: >>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ >>>> --- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an >>>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Have a great day, >>> Alex Hall >>> mehg...@icloud.com >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> The following information is important for all members of the Mac >>> Visionaries list. >>> >>> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or >>> if >>> you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners >>> or >>> moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >>> >>> Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is >>> Cara >>> Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com >>> >>> The archives for this list can be searched at: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an >>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >> -- >> The following information is important for all members of the Mac >> Visionaries list. >> >> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or >> if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the >> owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >> >> Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara >> Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com >> >> The archives for this list can be searched at: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > -- > Have a great day, > Alex Hall > mehg...@icloud.com > > > > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac > Visionaries list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara > Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
