NVDA and natural voices
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Şenolcan HANCI
Hello friends. As you know with Windows 11 22h2 new natural voices are available, although for english USA for now. İ have a question. To see these voices in NVDA, does Microsoft or NVDA developers should take a step and can we do something for this
Windows için Posta ile gönderildi
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David Goldfield
When Jeff Bishop from Microsoft was a panelist at the 2022 ACB convention I did ask if the new natural voices might become available for third party screen readers. He said that they were only available for Narrator and I knew that attempting to try to get more information out of him by asking follow-up questions would probably be fruitless. This doesn’t mean we’ll never see them for other screen readers but it’s pretty clear to me that Microsoft has no immediate plans for this.
David Goldfield, Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
Subscribe to the Tech-VI announcement list to receive news, events and information regarding the blindness assistive technology field. Email: tech-vi+subscribe@groups.io
From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of
Senolcan HANCI
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2022 9:30 PM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Integration <nvda@nvda.groups.io> Subject: [nvda] NVDA and natural voices
Hello friends. As you know with Windows 11 22h2 new natural voices are available, although for english USA for now. İ have a question. To see these voices in NVDA, does Microsoft or NVDA developers should take a step and can we do something for this
Windows için Posta ile gönderildi
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Gene
This youtube video let's you hear at least a little of the voices, I
didn't listen to all of it so I don't know if more samples are
provided later. But the really important thing is that it tells you
how to hear them on any system using Edge.
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You can have material more than just a short sample spoken. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdQitJEuyug Gene Gene On 9/22/2022 8:30 PM, Şenolcan HANCI
wrote:
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Gene
The person doing the video keeps repeating how natural the voices
sound, as though a natural sounding voice in and of itself is an
extraordinary achievement. We've had natural sounding voices for a
long time. Having natural sounding voices is common these days.
Its other characteristics of a lot of these voices that cause me to
dislike them.
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If the behavior of the voices using Edge is what you get when using them in Windows 11, they currently have characteristics that would lead me to not use the voices. By far the most important one is the ridiculously long pauses at the ends of sentences. If this occurs in Narrator and not just in Edge, those long, long pauses are maddening to the point where I wouldn't consider using the voices as long as the pauses can't be adjusted by the user and greatly shortened. Also, inflection is too high and there is a slight sing-songy quality to the inflection. The voices may be quite good if these defects are eliminated. Do these problems exist when using the voices with Narrator? Those interested in using these voices, if these problems exist when using Narrator, and if you object to them, may wish to contact Microsoft about them. Gene On 9/22/2022 10:12 PM, Gene via
groups.io wrote:
This youtube video let's you hear at least a little of the voices, I didn't listen to all of it so I don't know if more samples are provided later. But the really important thing is that it tells you how to hear them on any system using Edge. |
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David Goldfield
Gene, When using these voices in Narrator you definitely don’t have unnatural pauses at the end of each sentence. I understand your point of view in that we’ve had many human sounding voices for quite some time but, to me, human sounding doesn’t always mean that they sound natural. Some of the Nuance voices, while they sound human, have a quality about them that sounds unnatural and electronic and that odd nonhuman aspect isn’t as noticeable with these new voices. Then again, that’s just my perception and as I’m sure you’d agree a voice that may sound fabulous to my ear might sound jarring or problematic to yours.
David Goldfield, Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
Subscribe to the Tech-VI announcement list to receive news, events and information regarding the blindness assistive technology field. Email: tech-vi+subscribe@groups.io
From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of
Gene
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2022 11:39 PM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA and natural voices
The person doing the video keeps repeating how natural the voices sound, as though a natural sounding voice in and of itself is an extraordinary achievement. We've had natural sounding voices for a long time. Having natural sounding voices
is common these days. Its other characteristics of a lot of these voices that cause me to dislike them.
On 9/22/2022 10:12 PM, Gene via groups.io wrote:
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Şenolcan HANCI
As far as İ see long pouse isn’t exist in narrator so İ don’t have that problem in narrator
Windows için Posta ile gönderildi
Kimden: Gene
The person doing the video keeps repeating how natural the voices sound, as though a natural sounding voice in and of itself is an extraordinary achievement. We've had natural sounding voices for a long time. Having natural sounding voices is common these days. Its other characteristics of a lot of these voices that cause me to dislike them. On 9/22/2022 10:12 PM, Gene via groups.io wrote:
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Şenolcan HANCI
But long pouse in Microsoft edge is normal because these voices are working as online
Windows için Posta ile gönderildi
Kimden: Gene
The person doing the video keeps repeating how natural the voices sound, as though a natural sounding voice in and of itself is an extraordinary achievement. We've had natural sounding voices for a long time. Having natural sounding voices is common these days. Its other characteristics of a lot of these voices that cause me to dislike them. On 9/22/2022 10:12 PM, Gene via groups.io wrote:
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Gene
By human sounding, I mean the actual voice itself. Different people
may have different definitions. I consider things like inflection
and pause length to be characteristics of speech, not of the sound
of the voice.
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If the very long pauses don't occur in Narrator, then my main objection is removed if the pauses aren't too long. Regardless, I think that inflection and pause length should be adjustable by the user. Different people prefer different voices but I think that such characteristics should be adjustable in part because people have such differences. I'm pleased that the long pauses don't exist in Narrator. Narrator in Windows 10 doesn't let you adjust inflection. I hope it does in Windows 11. I would want less inflection in the natural voices. Perhaps others may comment about whether, ignoring the long pauses in Edge read aloud, you get a good idea of the sound and inflection of the voices when listening in Edge. Gene Gene On 9/22/2022 10:47 PM, David Goldfield
wrote:
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Gene
There is no reason long pauses are necessary if the voices are
online. People use voice assistants routinely and they don't have
long pauses at the ends of sentences.
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Gene On 9/22/2022 11:01 PM, Şenolcan HANCI
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Brian's Mail list account
I think these voices are only meant to read documents. You can to some extent speed them up and slow them down, but I would imagine the reason they are only available to Microsoft is that they have actually not written the API yet needed for external use.
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Brian -- bglists@... Sent via blueyonder.(Virgin media) Please address personal E-mail to:- briang1@..., putting 'Brian Gaff' in the display name field. ----- Original Message -----
From: "Gene" <gsasner@...> To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2022 4:39 AM Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA and natural voices The person doing the video keeps repeating how natural the voices sound, |
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Louise Pfau
On Thu, Sep 22, 2022 at 07:36 PM, David Goldfield wrote:
What synthesizer does NVDA use by default in Windows 11? It uses the Windows OneCore voices in Windows 10. Thanks, Louise |
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