Too bad it still sounds like (c)rap. I ran Google Now on my jb iPhone 5 and was ticked off how much better it sounded.
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Atlanta Voice Actress Susan Bennett Comes Forward as Original U.S. Voice of Siri
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You're right. In 2005 Scansoft merged with Nuance, which provided the voice. So Apple doesn't have any ownership over her voice at all. Maybe got exclusive rights to it, but not ownership.
Clearly it wasn't a priority. They didn't pay her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Perhaps they did with the newest voices however.
I snicker to myself if they would have considered R Lee Emery as the male version of Siri
Imagine what he would say if you asked him for directions
I do miss the original Siri though, she doesn't sound as witty as she used to
Imagine what he would say if you asked him for directions
I do miss the original Siri though, she doesn't sound as witty as she used to
Her voice is not particularly great, except for the fact that her pronunciation of words is perfectly crystal clear even when speaking very rapidly. This is what makes her an exceptional voice actress.
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Why?
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Why?
Oh my, could you imagine? It'd be like having your own Hitchhiker's Guide!!
I hope Stephen does record his voice this way before he dies. I imagine it'd quite a gruelling experience (you know, in the relative of things), but think how popular it'd be! He'd bound to be paid a hefty pretty penny for it too..
I never much cared for Siri's American voiceit just seemed a bit harsh and nasally to me. But I was really pleased with the voice they chose for Siri in Australia. I just did a quick Google search and found this. Meet the voice of Australian Siri
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/14672359/
She sounds a bit different when she's just talking normally in an interview, but she does have a nice voice I think.
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/14672359/
She sounds a bit different when she's just talking normally in an interview, but she does have a nice voice I think.
Her contract was likely never with Apple but with Scansoft etc. So those 'keep your mouth shut' clauses don't apply in the same way if at all.
Calling her 'the voice of Siri' is possibly a tad off because she wasn't likely ever hired directly for the project but for a neutral database that this other company was building. Under a contract that let them license her voice samples to others for no additional payment or a preset one etc. She goes in, she reads a constructed script that provides them with all the needed sounds to build any word on the fly and so on.
Unlike say referring to Paul Bettany as the 'Voice of Jarvis' which is totally correct as he was hired by the films to be the voice directly, was given and read the exact lines etc.
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If they did it wouldn't likely be anyone famous. Or it would be for insanely high costs. Well known actors can make as much as a full appearance for just their voices.
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How does it screw them over for her identity to be known. How voices for these kinds of systems are built isn't an Apple secret, she has no access to any apple secrets etc.
The worst she could say is that she gets no royalties for it and Apple would merely come back with a copy of her contract from her original employer where she signed an agreement stating her payment was in full and she was owed nothing in the future from anyone that licenses her voice.
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He might not need to. He's been around for so long and done so many things that all the needed samples have likely been recorded, perhaps in more than one accent.
Nuance text-to-speech voices are all based on a real person. There really is a Tom, Julie, etc.
Yes, they're not as well known as Susan Bennett, but they're all based on real people.
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Siri is a brand, and their voice persona. Apple could easily have additional voices as Nuance's Vocalizer products enables servers to host multiple voices ... but Apple has decided (wisely?) to stick to one voice.
It's like a word document - having too many fonts can be distracting. So they stuck to one.
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Siri/Susan Bennett is not a standard Nuance Vocalizer voice.
She was custom created for Apple.
Nuance actually has a list of over 60+ stock voices:
http://www.nuance.com/for-business/...ation/vocalizer/vocalizer-languages/index.htm
You can try some of the voices here:
http://enterprisecontent.nuance.com/vocalizer5-network-demo/
Vocalizer 5 is the previous release of the engine; Vocalizer 6 demo is not online yet.
I, personally...
could go for Arnold Schwarzenegger for the male Siri voice.
Me: "I need directions to Columbus, Ohio."
Schwarzenegger Siri: "Come with me if you want to live."
Me: "Huh?"
SS: "I'll be back."
could go for Arnold Schwarzenegger for the male Siri voice.
Me: "I need directions to Columbus, Ohio."
Schwarzenegger Siri: "Come with me if you want to live."
Me: "Huh?"
SS: "I'll be back."
But that's just it, she never had a contract with Apple. I personally am surprised that Apple was able to use her voice without her permission.
I'm also curious as to how that works, considering how many different words Siri can speak. But it does explain why there are some things that she can't say.
Confused...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu-tIqnUUX8#t=242
What? I thought she was thw voice of siri. She sounds more like her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu-tIqnUUX8#t=242
What? I thought she was thw voice of siri. She sounds more like her.
I respect that you said "sold" additional voices. Too many people think everything should be free.
I did. That post was nothing but logic.
The assumption that others are smug or arrogant generally indicates low self esteem and/or bitterness in the one making assumptions. It's the measure of the difference in esteem that is mistaken. Most people assumed so aren't arrogant, they are simply confident. Or, at least, acting in a confident manner.
Also, I don't see how a voice can have any of these adjectives applied. Attitude that a person puts into their voice, yes, but not just voice. I presume we are talking about voiceover work or roles in movies as the source for hearing Freeman? None of that is really about the person in question, not if he is a good actor. Which he is. One scene in Batman he was pretty smug, talking to the idiot accountant trying to extort money. But it certainly fit the scene, hardly says anything general about the man or his voice.
His voice is quiet, generally unwavering, deep, expressive at times. Those are logical adjectives for a voice.
Voice talents usually find work through an agency who manages all the contracts with the individual talents. They then hire out the talents to companies like Nuance, AT&T, or whoever for recording sessions at a couple hundred dollars per hour.
Not a bad job for the talent ... flexible hours, good pay, no physical exertion...
If Siri was built as a full text-to-speech voice, it can say anything Apple wants it to say - it just might not be optimized for certain phonemes/constructs/etc (to save costs during development).