It is scary, but it seems there is a standard for everything, including text to
speech conversion
http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/
So, yes, the recording can be tweaked to suit our contesting needs.
Rudy N2WQ
________________________________
From: Pete Smith N4ZR <n4zr@contesting.com>
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Sent: Friday, March 8, 2013 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Improving voice recordings for phone contests
I think one problem with this is that we tend to end an utterance on a downward
intonation. I wonder if the voicing might be improved to include initial,
mid-phrase and end intonations. Short of that the only thing I can suggest is
to trim your letters and numbers really closely. Audacity lets you zoom in and
get the last millisecond of dead air.
73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at
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On 3/8/2013 8:41 AM, Joe wrote:
> Sounds pretty good.
>
> The clarity and speed sound good.
>
> I wonder what is still missing tho to sound better ummm like flow wise, where
> it has a better "Flow" and less choppy sounding? I wonder what would need to
> be done to get it to be more natural? each letter sounds good, now to get it
> to sound better flow wise ya know?
>
> I wonder like the CW equivalent of shaping? Where the very beginning and end
> of the file has a fade in and out? very steep yes, but it is on CW too right?
> I wonder if that would help?
>
> Joe WB9SBD
> Sig
> The Original Rolling Ball Clock
> Idle Tyme
> Idle-Tyme.com
> http://www.idle-tyme.com
> On 3/8/2013 4:05 AM, Björn SM0MDG wrote:
>> On 7 mar 2013, at 13:30, Pete Smith N4ZR <n4zr@contesting.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Before last weekend's contest, I had a chance to experiment a bit with my
>>> voice recordings. One of the problems I have always had is that when I try
>>> to enunciate clearly I always slow down, and the resulting recording lacks
>>> the urgency you expect in a contest situation. I also always notice
>>> stations whose recorded and live audio don't sound anything alike, and
>>> wanted to minimize that as much as possible.
>>>
>>> I use Audacity, excellent freeware recording software, but this time around
>>> I "discovered" its "Change Tempo" function, which speeds up speech without
>>> changing the pitch or timbre. The results are wonderful - you can speed up
>>> any recording 10 or 20 percent at a time, and it sounds completely natural,
>>> just faster.
>>>
>>> *listen and adjust the tempo (on the same Enhance menu) for the effect I
>>> want. Repeat these 4 steps for each recorded message.
>> I used the same methodology for the recordings I made for CQ160 SSB where I
>> had to go "silent". I voiced in normal speed (or slightly below normal),
>> articulating clearly and used about 20-30% tempo increase. I would be
>> interested to hear others "best practice" on the amount of speed increase.
>>
>> A sample exchange of mine is posted on the SE0X blog, go to www.se0x.info in
>> the CQ160 SSB update and listen to the audio file.
>>
>> Another benefit of voicing all prompts is that exchanges are kept to the
>> essentials keeping the rate high. Of course this can only happen if voice
>> prompts are clear and easy to receive by the other station. The benefit is
>> probably higher in a contest with a predictable exchange leaving only the
>> call to constructed on the fly by N1MM.
>>
>> 73 de Björn,
>> SM0MDG
>> VP2MSW
>> V21BM
>> SE0X
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
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