obsession with voices

Plainly put, someone wants the Mac novelty voices, which I personally wish I could remove, on our devices. It's bad enough we have fred. Yes, i know it's the most robotic sounding. Yes, I know that it's also used in the Mac when reinstalling, updating etc. If there was a way to go through the voices, say using Fred to pick the one you wanted, then all other voices could be deleted. Yes, I realized a flaw just now in my argument. If all voices but the one you chose were deleted, what would happen with no speech. Personally, if I never see the voices topic come up again, that would make life better. we all have our choices so, I just smile and keep walking.

Subject is pretty accurate. I'll fully admit to having an obsession with all things audio these days, lol. But I totally understand where others are coming from and won't be disappointed in the least if those novelty voices are kept off iOS. I've used a lot of them though, and they're quite entertaining. But I think I'll just stick to what I've got. I'm loving all my toys even if the voicemail issue is going to plague me still.

It would be good, especially that I don't use most off them, only the accordion one or how it's called.

Sane here. I just want voices to work well. I was using Evans but got tire of him not been able to pronounce iTune. Did restart work for several days and he started to do it again. Now I am using Nathan. He is OK. Eloquence what can you say that has not said so I will not.

Sorry to say that there are hardly any of the Vocalizer voices that I think are worth anything. Going off of iOS for a moment, when a program like JAWS uses these as their main "premium" voices and yet none of them can even pronounce JAWS correctly, what does that say about how good they really are.

They will never be perfect. I use eloquence in my windows PC and tried several times to use V voices but keep coming back to it. I will keep using Nathan for now. If apple makes eloquence as good as in windows for jaws, I will change.

I think some people are just nostalgic. They grew up hearing the voices from eloquence, and now other voices do not sound appealing to them.
In my case, I also grew up with eloquence, but I don't and won't use it on my device.
It sounds horrible.
I am happy that Apple brought eloquence for those who preferred but, for other people like me, I just wish I could have the option to remove it.

Agree. Similar to the voices that apple provide. You can download them or delete them.

Eloquence takes up very little space because it doesn't use sample based synthesis. I suspect it's around 1 or 2 mb if that.

Voice preference is such a subjective thing.

Since I've been using the beta of 16 and Eloquence I've found myself wondering how I ever lived without it. It's just what I've liked the most and yes, part of that does come from using JAWS for a long time.

Now being able to use Eloquence on my phone has kind of made me marvel at how far we've come. From first getting online and doing almost all my web surfing and email sitting in front of a big desktop tower, to a laptop-sized note taker and then a laptop computer, to now doing everything online in a device that fits in my palm.

If I could I'd use Dectalk to read all my news because that was what NFB Newsline used when I first started using it back in the early 2000s so that's what I became accustomed to reading me that type of content.

I don't get all the talk about Eloquence in iOS16 not sounding good though. To me, it's pretty much perfect, minus the drop in speed at 50% or lower. Doesn't bother me much though since I use it at 70%.

My subject line says it all. Do we really need more voices? How about fixes for preexisting bugs and improvements in performance. Wouldn't these be of more overall benefit?

Yes.

I do agree with the fixing bugs etc, but this is a pretty quick and simple aspect of VoiceOver that seems to bring quite a bit of pleasure to people. Absolutely, priority for me goes bug fixes, new features and then, something like this, nice touches. None should be taken individually.

The novelty of new voices wore off for me over 10 years ago. I don't get the obsession anymore. Most voices are not that great which makes me regret buying apps like Voice Dream Reader. I use Alex because it works well. I use Siri on my iPhone and will occasionally switch to Alex for certain tasks. Less time wasted on trying out new voices and more time getting real work done. That's my preference.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that I have chosen this topic to officially launch a campaign I have previewed on this site previously. I hope you will all climb aboard #Boris4VO - the hashtag says it all. Apple should introduce a Boris Johnson voice for IOS 16 sharpish. It would be superb! In fact, so good would it be that I think it would be only fair to save everyone from doing what they would end up doing anyway and remove all other voices from IOS. Build back better.

And another thing: I find it unbelievable that nobody has mentioned that hit record (or you can add an S to hit if you prefer) by Barry Manelow, One Voice. How can we get to (at time of writing) comment number 15 without that reference having been made?

Apple uses the Vocalizer sinthasizer for all of its platforms. there are no novilty vocalizer voices. don’t know the lagistics or what Apple did to get Eloquence on it’s platforms, but I suspect it took them a long time to code a thirty year old voice for their platforms. now, if the API for voices produces results, maybe, just maybe, someone will develope a Boris Jonson voice. who is he? and what attracks you to his voice?

I agree that the ideal situation would be for Apple to fix and/or squash all bugs and then go for nice touchups.
Now, about voices, such as Voris, Johnson, or Donald Trump, etc., I don't really care.
Yet, I value and respect all opinions.
I don't hide the fact that I love to find new voices, but the ideal thing would be for Apple to fix or take care of every bug in their software.
At the same time, I understand that this is very difficult or almost impossible to do.

Is, until next Tuesday, the british Prime Minister. Were a Boris Johnson voice introduced into IOS that would be a 57-year-old voice. He has a particular, unique manner of speaking and you can check that out if you are interested. For myself, Boris reading out mi' emails and so on would be fantastic. #Boris4VO