nathan voice?

By Karok, 23 November, 2018

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

hi all

I have noted in Jaws that a voice called Nathan is available. as it is a nuance voice, is their a reason why Alison, eva, samamtha, tom etc. are available but not the Nathan voice? I like it.

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Comments

By jack on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

While I should think they are using Vocalizer Expressive 2.2, they for whatever reason have not gotten around to the Nathan voice, nor Malcum. And it really irks me because like I said, they're likely using the latest driver so what's stopping them?
Unfortunately, even if you were able to jailbreak, I believe the new Vocalizer voice structure is all encrypted on IOS so you could not add a Nathan voice that you may have purchased elsewhere.

By Devin Prater on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

I think that Apple have started a plan to replace Vocalizer voices with there subjectively better-sounding Siri voices. Notice that they are adding the same dialects of English as Vocalizer has, and maybe they'll add even more languages and dialects, Esperanto please! Now, this would make sense for Apple, since they are all about owning all technology that they ship. Besides that, it'd be one less licensing fee Apple would have to pay.

By Ishkabibble on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

It's probably the same as the first commenter said. Apple doesn't seem intent on adding any external TTS voices, (Ivona please...), and instead, it is focusing on developing TTS voices by itself. As other people said, Apple is probably trying to reduce the amounts of license fees they pay.

By Igna Triay on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

So this means that alex will no longer be on future ios versions? just curious

By techluver on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

Going by that theory, Alex should survive. It's an apple-owned voice

By Igna Triay on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

What voices apart from alex and the siri voices are also owned by apple? I get the feeling we would be left with almost no voices to choose from if apple did that. Not to mention, I think they would get a lot of backlash by doing that but i'm not sure

By techluver on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

I mean, I guess there's fred. The issue is that there going to have to have voices for every language they support. They seem to be trying to do just that though. I already use apple's swedish and English voices and i feel that they are much better.

By Ishkabibble on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

Also, there's Victoria. But it would seem extremely unlikely that Apple would cut Vocalizer entirely; Samantha compact is the default VO voice after all. I wouldn't forsee, however, Apple updating its Vocalizer offerings in the future. It is very diseappointing, tho. Glad I like Alex so much :)

By Ishkabibble on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

Victoria is awful, tho. I’d rather use Eloquence rocko than that, and that’s saying something :d

By BlackCat on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

Hello
In my opinion the Siri English voices sounds much younger and all crystal clear. I prefer them a thousand times above the Vocalizer voices. Although Oliver compact voice stand out for me. Many times I can not make up my mind which of the Siri voices I want to use for the day. That is how brilliant sounding they all are. My default voice is Siri South-African English female voice, but on the language rotor I have Siri Australian female, US female South-African Siri male and Oliver compact. So when I open BBC News to read articles I select different voices from the rotor. For example when I read an article who originate from Australia I use the Siri Australian female voice. Cool. I often wondered if Apple can consider replacing the built in voices with the new Siri ones, but on the other hand those files are quite large.

By jack on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

If they did that, you could say goodbye to 16gb phones. Lol!
All kidding aside, I do remember a few older phone users actually opting for the 16gb and I don't think that's wise as it probably doesn't save you all that much money in the long run, but ok. Yes, the Siri voice files are very large. As for Vocalizer, I don't know if they have a stiffer fine the more voices they license; looking at the license rundown I'm seeing it as one bulk purchase for the whole engine and voice portfolio. And I know that they are on Vocalizer Expressive 2.2, which includes the nathan voice. Oh well. I guess it's also one more voice Apple has to encrypt if we look at it that way. Or about three if they consider adding Nathan, Malcum and Rishi.

By Gerardo on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

Remember the Nathan voice is available within Dolphin’s Easy Reader app. I’d very tempted to buy it for reading within the before-mentioned app, but its price of usd7.99 is kind of like.. and it’s not able to be used within iOS in general so...

By Ishkabibble on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

Alex is great; the best IMO. But, as far as Apple is concerned, Eloquence is dead. It hasn’t recieved new updates in at least 10 years I think, and it sounds too unnatural for Apple to think about adopting it. Also, they have to pay a hefty license fee; on Android, Eloquence costs $19.99. Yes, Eloquence is good, but it’s technically already dead.

alex's voice is awsum! I love the way he speeks. both voices has they're own places in my hart!

By Ishkabibble on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 15:59

I just really don't forsee Apple adding any external TTS engines, judging by the lack of updates to the Vocalizer TTS engine they install on iOS.