Don
I have been going through what I imagine are the same traumas you are
suffering in attempts to construct some .WAV files for the DVK facility of
Writelog.
I'm usually just a CW op but I'm off to Tristan da Cunha at the end of the
month for a 20 day DXpedition. I've had so many requests for SSB that I'm
hoping the DVK might allow me to meet the needs of at least a few of the
deserving. If I use a mic I'll be hoarse in half an hour and I don't
suppose that'll go down too well!
So FWIW.......I'm certainly no expert but I've had a couple of cracks at
this now.
For my first attempt I used Windows Sound Recorder to record seperate .WAV
files for each phonetic. Boy did that produce a gruesome result. When the
DVK announced a call from the call field it did it recognisably in my voice
but the vocal inflexion changed from character to character and I surely
sounded demented.
Let that loose on the air? I think not! Folks think I'm crazy enough
already.
I went back to the drawing board!
For my second attempt, I decided on a different approach. I wrote myself a
script of the phonetics I would use for the complete alphabet. I then read
the script and recorded it as one long .WAV file. This gave me the
opportunity to maintain a far more even timbre. The result from this method
I have found to be much better though it still cannot be described as
natural sounding. Of course one .WAV file is no good in itself, you have to
chop it up into single phonetic files using Sound Recorder.
Making .WAV files for the DVK sounds like an easy thing to do until you try!
Even if you can get the timbre right so that you don't sound completely
psychotic, you still have the problem of encapsulating the right degree of
urgency or lack of into the files, depending on your requirements. On top
of that you have choices to make on how much you clip the leading or
trailing edge of each .WAV to optimize delivery speed.
The files I have now still don't sound what I would call "natural" but I
think they are good enough to use for working a pile up from Tristan. If I
don't achieve anything else at least folks will feel they understand why I
am a CW man!
I'm still learning here. If I come up with any more bright ideas I'll let
you know.
Good luck.
73
Bob 5B4AGN/ZC4ZM/G3ZEM
also 5V7ZM/9G5ZM/C21ZM
e-mail bob@cytanet.com.cy
ZD9ZM from 5-25th September 2000
www.dxtechnology.com/zd9zm
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