Your personal synthetic voice will probably capture your natural voice quality very well, but the speech will still not sound exactly like you because it is synthetic. The timing and intonation of sentences spoken by ModelTalker will probably sound more
Can I hear examples of my synthetic voice as I’m recording? What are those numbers that show up next to the Listen button of the web recorder?
As you add new recordings to the web recorder, the system occasionally builds examples of your synthetic voice for you to listen to. When a new one is built, a new number will briefly flash next to the Voices button
Some commercial synthetic voices sound almost perfectly human. Why won’t my ModelTalker voice sound that good?
The technology in ModelTalker is similar to that used for some of the very best commercially available voices, but there are also many important differences. The highest quality commercial voices are constructed from many hours of recordings made under studio
Can you guarantee that my voice will be usable?
Unfortunately not. Everyone’s voice as well as their recording equipment and environment is different, and so we cannot promise a successful outcome. We do know that we have produced some very good voices that are being used routinely by their
I am starting to have trouble speaking; can I still make a personal voice?
The quality of the voice we create is very dependent on your natural speech quality. If you have a progressive condition, you should record before your voice is affected. Nonetheless, if your voice is just a little breathy or hoarse,
Can I create custom sentences, for instance, with names of family and friends? Can I do “message banking”?
Yes: One way to make sure that the names of people and places that are important to you are correctly pronounced is to record them in custom sentences. We have added a Custom Inventory to our web recorder that will
I cannot speak well enough to record full sentences. Is there anything I can do to get a personal voice? Can someone else record their voice for me? Can you use past recordings I made?
Yes! There a few options. First, we do have a limited number of donor voices available. These are voices recorded by people who generously agreed to allow any of our clients to use them. Currently, there is no charge for
Where should I do my recordings?
You should choose a room in which you can minimize all sources of background noise. If there are other people in the building while you record, make sure you can’t hear them talking in another room. Close the windows and
Do you monitor my progress/recordings after I’ve recorded the test inventory?
After you are advanced from the test sentences we do not track your progress or monitor your recordings — so it is important to record carefully, and re-record any bad recordings. However, you are able to monitor the approximate quality
Do you offer any customer support/help, or am I completely on my own?
We do offer help in a few ways. First, we always try to answer email questions directed to staff@modeltalker.org from anyone who is interested in or who is using our products. We also offer limited phone support (+1-302-651-6545) between the