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Voice Behind UK Siri Voice "Daniel" Speaks Out

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Apr 12, 2001
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Several years ago, Jon Briggs took a voiceover job for a company called Scansoft. Scansoft later merged with Nuance, which makes the voices that Apple used for Siri.

Briggs tells the UK Telegraph:
"I did a set of recordings with Scansoft five or six years ago, for text-to-speech services," says Briggs. "Five thousand sentences over three weeks, spoken in a very particular way and only reading flat and even. Then they go away and take all the phonics apart, because I have to be able to read anything you want, even if I've never actually recorded all those words."

The result, Briggs says is "as close to human speech as anything that's out there. It gets everything right, more or less, apart from the inflection."
Click to expand...
His voice, which is very familiar to United Kingdom iPhone 4S owners, is also used as the voice of GPS for Garmin, TomTom, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi and Porsche.

For its part, Apple isn't pleased with Briggs' newfound fame. A representative called him after his interview with the Telegraph the iPhone 4S was released and asked him not to talk publicly about Siri, saying the company isn't "about one person." Briggs pointed out that he wasn't an Apple employee and he recorded the voices six years ago for a separate company. He hasn't heard from Apple since.

Article Link: Voice Behind UK Siri Voice "Daniel" Speaks Out
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/10/voice-behind-uk-siri-voice-daniel-speaks-out/
Last edited by a moderator:
"Mr Briggs, please do not speak to strangers so that they do not confuse what you are saying with what their phone tells them."
 
Stupid reply from Apple, some MBA has his head stuck up his ass.

He has been the voice of my MacBook Pro for several years, tells me the time every hour or if I have an urgent message. I so aptly named my MacBook Pro "Daniel", my iMac is called Victoria for the same reason.

Daniel is also the voice on my Garmin, watch, and even some sound equipment I own.
 
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Rip his tongue out! Traitor
 
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So since the voice was recorded 6 years ago, there is no chance words they didn't record back then will be added in?
 
he's the voice of Siri??? that dude sounds like a girl. (joking)
 
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Good for him. Apple should have thought about these things beforehand.
 
I love how arrogant Apple is thinking they could tell him not to do it.

I like how he told them to basically go pound sand.
 
Yeah, exactly, you understood it perfectly!

And if not, you can always ask Siri to explain this: "they go away and take all the phonics apart, because I have to be able to read anything you want, even if I've never actually recorded all those words"



A Macbook Pro said:
So since the voice was recorded 6 years ago, there is no chance words they didn't record back then will be added in?
Click to expand...
 
D4F said:
Why would they want to silence him? Isn't that free promo?
Click to expand...

His comments can be misquoted and mistaken to be that he was hired by Apple to record specifically for Siri when he was not. THAT is probably why Apple (if they did actually call him) don't want him talking about this.

Not to mention simply that his original contract might not give him the right to claim credit for the use of his voice in clients work. It's not uncommon when you do voice bank work such as what he did.
 
"A representative called him after his interview with the Telegraph and asked him not to talk publicly about Siri, saying the company isn't "about one person."

Steve Jobs?...
 
After berating him, the Apple rep should've asked what the weather in London would be like tomorrow or where the closest coffee shop was.. Seems like the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.. just sayin'..
 
How do you change voices for Siri? I noticed the British male voice on one of the videos after the iPhone 4S announcement.

I don't see any way in settings to the change the voice.

Is the voice determined by your region automatically?

I know if you ask Siri certain questions in the US, that Siri identifies itself as a woman. It uses the pronouns "her" or "she" in places to refer to itself.
 
Luman said:
After berating him, the Apple rep should've asked what the weather in London would be like tomorrow or where the closest coffee shop was.. Seems like the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.. just sayin'..
Click to expand...

What, so he could reply "Sorry, I can only look for businesses in the United States and when you're using US English" ?
 
Males in Britain and France

BC2009 said:
Is the voice determined by your region automatically?
Click to expand...

I believe you get a male voice if your setting is British English (as well as French) and female if you are using US and Australian English (and German?).

Is Siri a female name in English? It certainly is in the neck of woods where I use to set up my tent for the night.
 
Luman said:
After berating him, the Apple rep should've asked what the weather in London would be like tomorrow or where the closest coffee shop was.. Seems like the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.. just sayin'..
Click to expand...

Hah! Maybe that's why they got in touch with him, they just needed some new phrases recorded, for free?

- "Hey Jon, what's your opinion on global warming?"
- "Global warming?"
- "Perfect! Thanks, see ya".
 
He's also the male English voice in OS X Lion, of course... Although personally, I prefer the (female) Scottish and Irish voices.
 
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