Program to Customize TTS Voices

Just want to thank turboccc for the tool. I modified Jill's voice volume. Bumped it up from 65 to 85. Jill isn't a shy type no more. I can hear her better. The rest of the (unmodified) voices sounds like a whisper.

Great tool.

I never noticed the volume slider - I will have to give that a try!

What does the "rate" slider do - change the speed that Jill speaks???

I've never tried the "rate" slider but I'm positive it speeds up the speech. Perhaps if the rate is too high, at some point it'll sound like the chipmunks

Does this program work on Nuvi 765?

sure does!!

This is a great program, thanks go to Turbo for his work in it, Got most of my TTS voices where i can really hear them now. and even changes some of the wording on them.

And the program works great on my unit!

great tool!!!!

THANKS

I can hardly wait to drive somewhere!
Using Aussie Karen.
recalculating: considered "uh, WTF?" but went with "We can try that way instead" (since we own a six-year-old.)
Instead of drive to highlighted route: "Ahead warp factor one. Make it so!"
and "Er, seen any satellites lately?", "Here satellites, come on skybirds" for the satellite issues.
"Miraculously arrive at" and "We seem to have made it to"
Whoopee!

I'm not telling the wife....

Be sure to tell us the respone since she doesn't know about it. That's where most of the fun is for me, watching people's reactions to the different sayings! The first time, you can see them kinda puzzled, thinking "did I just hear what I thought I just heard?" That's when it's hard for me to keep a straight face. Then when they hear it again, their response ... PRICELESS!

This is alot of fun, too bad we can't change the voice file name. Just be careful about updating your voice files when there are updates available.

I have used this to change the sayings for a year now, but the new version of Jack's voice that I just downloaded doesn't give me any text to modify. It just opens and says there are 2450 bytes left with NOTHING in the text box!

Be sure you have the latest version of his program. He had to update it recently when the revised voices came out....

The thing recalculates so fast that I never get to hear the "offroute" message and it goes straight to the "recalculating." The power loss message doesn't seem to happen. I haven't had a low battery situation yet so I'm not sure if that message works.

Taking someone else's suggestion, "Recalculating" is now "Fine. We'll try it your way."

I changed "Lost Satellite Reception" to "I can't see any birds here."

The U turn message got changed to "Flip around."

I don't know about any of you, but I love Aussie Karen's voice... mmmmm. All the accent of the british but warmer.

This looks like fun!, Thanks for posting

How about "All Ahead, one quarter impulse power"

Or, "the BORG have been at the satellites again."

"Approaching docking station. Maneuvering thrusters only."

And I assume you have the necessary cloaking device?

Borg, nice touch.
My wife looked a little quizzacal at "Make it so." "In an Australian accent?" she said.
Well, MAJEL wasn't available either.

I'll have to make some changes sometime soon.
By the way, on a technical note, I did change the file name and hexedit the name in the file to Karen JR but the display on the garmin is just that many characters short. so I still have two files on the Garmin that look identical. ah well.

Theoretically changing the name inside the tts editing program should change the "displayed" name right? It doesn't.

Any fixes planned for this, turboccc?

My Tomtom was much more insistant about me making u-turns and recalculating my routes than my Garmin is. It was real annoying especially when the problem was with bad maps from TomTom!

This is a handy program to use and works well!

A friend heard my Garmin with the new sayings and now wants it for their Megellen, does the program work for those?

Finally had a chance to try this. Way to cool.

I have a Ultra Classis and a Zumo 550, you can change the voice volume by using an editor at Zumo froums.com. I can hear my GPS out of all 4 speaker.

I don't have the link, but should beable to find it.

Bob

I just wish there was a way to change them in the StreetPilot series... the voice in my c330 is a bit annoying

So I'm guessing, no Megellen, right???

I had a couple buddies here over the weekend and they LOVED the new phrases in my Garmin! So much that we 'tweaked' their Garmins. We came up with some good stuff, but one of the best I think was when we changed one of the responses for Take Sharp Right Turn to "OK, Hang on to your bloomers and turn the wheel as hard as you can to the right!"

The more I use the SEARCH section at the top for forum topics and discussions, the more it helps me to bypass reading and scanning months of older topics and nodes, there fore pre-empting posting/asking the same/similar questions that may have been posted earlier .
People like Retiredtechnician, Ramcruzer,TurboCC, and all others really make this site unique.
Topics and links like these will always be added to the Favorites section of my browser for future reference.
Especially for the extra tips or explainations on "how to"

Hi guys, hoping you can help with something.

On TTS voices (Garmin 255W) there is a big difference in sound volume compared to non TTS voices, and also a fair bit of TTS voice sound levels seem to be a bit soft.

Turning up the volume beyond a 7 or 8 oversaturates the speaker.

I understand Turboccc's program has a slider for sound volume...so i assume it can make the voices louder. Will a downfall be that it will now oversature the speaker at a lower setting (say 5) compared to say a setting of 8? I'm just hoping for a little better volume level similar to what non TTS voices are like.

Any insight would be helpful.....

Increasing the volume level using turbo's program will NOT cause the voice to become distorted at a lower speaker setting.

Try the program and increase the voice level to 85 or 90. I wouldn't go above that or the voice will get distorted.

Thank you Gadgetguy2008.

I'll give it a try this weekend.

Is there a limit to the number of characters that can be used on a Garmin?

I tried several replacements for "recalculating" and finally settled on the very simple " NO! NO! NO!".

It's much better than I thought it would be. Short, simple, and it sounds like someone scolding you for getting something wrong.

These Hal quotes need to be captured!

I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.

I'm completely operational, and all my circuits are functioning perfectly.

Message as follows: "It is dangerous to remain here. You must leave within two days."

I use listen up.Follow me.

I've had a couple of these for decades now. Just Google and you will find most of them.

I sped mine up a bit - perhaps 20% - after noticing that my 760 would not redraw the screen when recalculating until after it said it was recalculating. I didn't go all the way to chipmunk speed, though.

My solution to "Recalculating" is "OK, your way."

Fred

I surprised my wife with this change. She was driving, alone, when she heard "Oh Crap! You've gotten lost again! Wait a sec while I find my map."

She said she made a couple more wrong turns just to hear it again then had to pull over to laugh.

Bobbo

Yes you can use a phrase for a single word. I changed 'recalculating' to 'Whoops. That ain't right'.

So what's the 'normal' speed?

OK, don't understand what's wrong, but I've modified several lines, followed the test files instructions to the letter, and it's not working. I've eliminated all "recalculating" listings, and replaced with something else, but Jill keeps saying "recalculating". Now I'm somewhat computer literate, so I DO have the original backed-up just in case, but I did go into my GPS to look at my modified file, and both the date of it agree with the date I made the modification, and the wording is just like my modified file on the PC (I have an "original folder", and an "OK to modify folder" on the PC). I did look into the GPS because I just can't believe Jill is still saying this, as it doesn't exist in the file anymore on the GPS. Anyone got any ideas? Oh yeah, I have a Nuvi 885T which does use the TTS. Also, what is the Jill.sum file?? Is it a check-sum file that the GPS utilizes?

Take out a battery and replace to force it to re-read the files that have been cached.

..........

OK, I'll give that a try... I WAS so looking forward to hearing Jill say something else...lol

bentbiker,
It worked fine!!! Thanks for the tip...

Next time no need to take the battery out. When you modify a voice, before replacing the modified voice back to the GPS, do not have that voice selected as being in use. Pick some other voice. That way you will pick a different voice to use, (the one you just modified) and the unit will find the new modified voice, and use it.

I love TTS Editor. I have changed a number of the canned phrases, including the annoying "Recalculating" and "Drive to highlighted road".

However, before doing any editing, I would recommend that you connect your GPS to the computer. Open Windows Explorer and find the file with Voices. Likely under Garmin/Voices. Keep a backup copy on your computer, in case you get carried away and really screw it up.

Then have fun.

I have not read this thread for a while. Glad to see you are still having fun with this tool.

I just updated the program to v2.73. Some newer voices were creating issues.

Comments for some of you:

- no, it does not work with Magellan.

- You normally do not have to remove battery or anything else after updating the voice. Just make sure the modified file has the same name as the original file.

- No workaround the file name. It must be the same as the original voice.

- Always use the latest version if you see a problem with a voice. I try to update the program as soon as someone post a message or file on my site.

- The 'normal' voice rate depends on the voice you selected. They differ for each.

- No, it does not work with the StreetPilot C330. Like the C320, I think it is a non-TTS model. It works already on the StreetPilot C550, C580 and 2730. With some work on your side, it can work on the C310, C340 and C510.

- Keep up posting your funny phrases. I have fun reading them.

Regards,

Turbo

Turbo,

I wanted to add my THANKS to you for this great program you have created.

It was obviously a huge amount of work.

Nicely done.

Regards

will there be a update to voice doctor anytime soon, please oh please!!