NWR voices

[Dan Robinson]

If you listen to NWR frequently, you'll notice that Mr. Roboto still gets some airtime every once in a while, in a seemingly random and unscheduled fashion. What determines when the old voice is used? Is it intentional or a computer glitch?

 

[Michael P. Morris]

I really hate it when I am in Southern Kansas (ICT area) or anyplace elese they use this one female voice. It says "Partly Cl-OWW-dee" and it's really annoying.,

 

[nickgrillo]

DTX almost ALWAYS uses the old Mr. Roboto voice whenever we have a severe weather/tornado event in the late night hours. I love it when they play that voice, as it brings back many old memories.

Paul (old voice) should have been kept. The new voices are extremely hard to understand. Yes, Paul sounded fake - but this is the way a computer is supposed to sound. You can't make a computer sound like a human, which the NWS tried to do and failed.

Yes, and the worst part of it is that the Chicago NWS ALWAYS uses the female voice for TOR's and SVR's. This must confuse the public alot. :lol: I couldn't understand a word she said when I was chasing in Chicago earlier this year.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by nickgrillo

Paul (old voice) should have been kept. The new voices are extremely hard to understand. Yes, Paul sounded fake - but this is the way a computer is supposed to sound. You can't make a computer sound like a human, which the NWS tried to do and failed.

I disagree... I think the new voice sounds considerably better than the older voice. Sounds more clear and understandable to me at least...

And I agree with Mike... I HATE how the 'lady voice' pronounces "cloudy"... 'cl OWWWWWW dee' ... GRRRR! Very annoying indeed!

 

[Joel Wright]

I still miss the human voices, and the random additional information they might have added when necessary. There were a few very good human announcers that gave very detailed information about current conditions. You don't get that with the computer voices.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

LOL I like the computer voices better than the human voices... Additionally, products seem to get on the air in a more timely manner, especially during those busy severe weather days. I'll take consistency and timeliness over personality I suppose...

 

[Chris Geelhart]

Originally posted by Dan Robinson
If you listen to NWR frequently, you'll notice that Mr. Roboto still gets some airtime every once in a while, in a seemingly random and unscheduled fashion. What determines when the old voice is used? Is it intentional or a computer glitch?

The way the NWR computer system works, text messages are sent to the "VIP" computer, which creates the messages using the "new" voices. VIP has a pre-set time (up to 60 seconds) to process the message. If something fails, then it gets shipped back to the old system for processing.

There is a current bug in the system in which the new voices can "go to sleep" if the individual voices haven't processed any messages lately (more likely with longer messages). At our office, this is more likely with the female voice (Donna), since we only use it during severe weather. However, once the first message "times out", the subsequent ones are usually frequent enough to keep it going the rest of the event.

Also, some items such as the time announcement and the station ID are not able to use the new voices. Some sites circumvent the station ID issue by creating separate "canned" messages in VIP to read the ID in the new voice. However, the time announcement, which will be different each time, cannot be done this way.

Chris Geelhart, NWR focal point at ILX

 

[Chris Geelhart]

Originally posted by nickgrillo
Or how about when she says \"Today's High Was...\"

The new male voice talks too fast. The old roboto voice talked slow and understandable... at least to me.

The speech rate of the new voices can be controlled now. Perhaps drop a note to your local NWS office to see if they can change it if necessary.

Chris Geelhart

 

[Jeff Wear]

I agree that the newest voices are much better - it seems like this year was the first year it wasn't immediately obvious to me that the voices were computerized.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Chris, thanks for the info - that makes sense to me now. Now that you mention it, I do notice that most of the longer special weather statements are almost always in the old voice, as well as the station ID.

 

[Saul Trabal]

If you listen to NWR frequently, you'll notice that Mr. Roboto still gets some airtime every once in a while, in a seemingly random and unscheduled fashion. What determines when the old voice is used? Is it intentional or a computer glitch?

Mr. Roboto?? ROFLMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :laughing5: :laughing5: :laughing4:

Thank goodness I wasn't drinking anything, or you'd owe me a keyboard and monitor. ottytrain2:

In my area (New York City), I get Mr. Roboto, and the other male voice, plus the female. The female had some glitches in the early days, but they've been ironed out. No problems here.

I still miss the recordings from real people. :sad3: Sometimes, they'd even announce who they were.

 

[Saul Trabal]

Yes, Paul sounded fake - but this is the way a computer is supposed to sound. You can't make a computer sound like a human, which the NWS tried to do and failed.

I disagree strongly with this line of thinking. That would be like saying you couldn't build a car to go faster than 20 miles an hour. That's self-defeating.

The reason Paul sounds this way is simply due to the fact that the computer technology had not gotten good enough to simulate voices perfectly. We are getting much better though, and the newer male and female voice are pretty darn good, when the computer is tweaked propely.

Give it a few years. With the way computers are advancing, I'm sure we'll have a voice that sounds so good that it will be virtually impossible to tell from an actual human being.

8)

 

[rdale]

"The reason Paul sounds this way is simply due to the fact that the computer technology had not gotten good enough to simulate voices perfectly."

No, it was a choice the NWS made. They thought the method used by Mr Roboto was the best available option, even though my 20-yr old Commodore 64 sounded better. The technology was good enough when Mr R was released, it just was thought to be less useful.

- Rob

 

[Saul Trabal]

Rob,

Then this begs the question of why they keep it when they have the two others? :?

In any event, I still think that there will be some vast improvements as time goes on. Computers are advancing radically every day. Eventually, Mr. Roboto will be relegated to the trash bin, along with recorded human voices.