IDM Mailing Archive

Hi all, Just listening to the last track on Plaid's "Not For Threes" and I hear a Apple Mac synthesised voice burbling away deep in the background (like the one on the Ventolin "shout outs" bit). Can anyone make out what it says? My vinyl copy is a bit crusty... There's a challenge for you! Graham. -- [B]r[e]a[k]b[e]a[t] [E]r[a] -> http://www2.prestel.co.uk/lwtcdi/era/ -> Info, discogs, sounds and interviews with the Reprazent crew. -> Dillinja, Doc Scott discographies & more. -> Plus: eight of my own tracks now available in Real Audio format.

Hey there,

quoted 6 lines Just listening to the last track on Plaid's "Not For Threes" and I hear

>Just listening to the last track on Plaid's "Not For Threes" and I hear >a Apple Mac synthesised voice burbling away deep in the background (like >the one on the Ventolin "shout outs" bit). Can anyone make out what it >says? My vinyl copy is a bit crusty... > >There's a challenge for you!

I thought it sounded like Stephen Hawking from the movie/book "A Brief History of Time", I could be completely wrong but that's what it sounded like to me...am i right? cya------>mIkE

quoted 12 lines Hey there,

> Hey there, > > >Just listening to the last track on Plaid's "Not For Threes" and I hear > >a Apple Mac synthesised voice burbling away deep in the background (like > >the one on the Ventolin "shout outs" bit). Can anyone make out what it > >says? My vinyl copy is a bit crusty... > > > >There's a challenge for you! > > I thought it sounded like Stephen Hawking from the movie/book "A Brief > History of Time", I could be completely wrong but that's what it sounded > like to me...am i right?

it's definitely the mac's speech manager using the "whisper" voice setting (same one as the ventolin credits and at the end of that warp blech cd)...as for what it's saying, it's pretty long and involved...maybe someone with a lot of free time could transcribe it...?

quoted 11 lines it's definitely the mac's speech manager using the "whisper" voice

> >it's definitely the mac's speech manager using the "whisper" voice > >setting (same one as the ventolin credits and at the end of that warp > >blech cd)...as for what it's saying, it's pretty long and > >involved...maybe someone with a lot of free time could transcribe it...? > > I dunno, Stephen Hawking has Lougherigs (?) disease and he can't talk so he > talks through a computer, picking words and phrase with his hand and the > computer onboard his wheelchair plays it, hence a very computer-like > voice...you should rent the movie, you'd see what I'm talking about...again, > I never checked out what was said so it might not be...but it did sound like > someone talking about the same material that he covers in his book...

i've seen hawking on tv before, and the computer voice sounded different from the mac whisper voice (which is definitely what is on the plaid track)...it's possible that recently hawking has been using a mac with speech manager, but i think that's unlikely as the computer he used to speak on tv seemed pretty integrated with the wheelchair, so it's probably a proprietary system... ..

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but in addition to the 'whisper' voice on the Mac there is also one that sounds like Hawking's vocoder thing; in fact I believe it's even called 'Hawking'...but Warp artists do seem to have a thing for the 'whisper' voice- it's on the warp-net site! peace Nate On Mon, 30 Nov 1998, ..... wrote:

quoted 23 lines it's definitely the mac's speech manager using the "whisper" voice

> > > >it's definitely the mac's speech manager using the "whisper" voice > > >setting (same one as the ventolin credits and at the end of that warp > > >blech cd)...as for what it's saying, it's pretty long and > > >involved...maybe someone with a lot of free time could transcribe it...? > > > > I dunno, Stephen Hawking has Lougherigs (?) disease and he can't talk so he > > talks through a computer, picking words and phrase with his hand and the > > computer onboard his wheelchair plays it, hence a very computer-like > > voice...you should rent the movie, you'd see what I'm talking about...again, > > I never checked out what was said so it might not be....but it did sound like > > someone talking about the same material that he covers in his book... > > > i've seen hawking on tv before, and the computer voice sounded different > from the mac whisper voice (which is definitely what is on the plaid > track)...it's possible that recently hawking has been using a mac with > speech manager, but i think that's unlikely as the computer he used to > speak on tv seemed pretty integrated with the wheelchair, so it's > probably a proprietary system... > > .. >

quoted 9 lines Someone correct me if I'm wrong but in addition to the 'whisper' voice on

>>Someone correct me if I'm wrong but in addition to the 'whisper' voice on >>the Mac there is also one that sounds like Hawking's vocoder thing; in >>fact I believe it's even called 'Hawking'...but Warp artists do seem to >>have a thing for the 'whisper' voice- it's on the warp-net site! > >There are some that sound close, but Ive never seen a 'hawking' voice in >my 12 years of Mac use. There may be one, but Ive never seen it in any >standard Speech Manager installs. >FWIW "Ralph" or "Fred" can sound close if you tweak them enough.

the stephen hawking ' voice ' is generated by a program called ' DecTalk ' - i downloaded a demo copy of it the other week from http://www.ultranet.com/~rongemma/index.htm - there ' s loads of fun to be had with it ! hope this is of some use mark b .

I've seen something on tv about hawking's speech system and we saw the screen, it definitely looked like a DOS program. Hawking controls it with a single button (!), deciding what to say when a rotating cursor passes over his choice. It's probably kinda long when you ask him something and he has to "program" a sentence... BTW, isnt Hawking's voice what Pink Floyd used on Keep Talking? -----Message d'origine----- De : ..... <thatcat@ix.netcom.com> À : idm@hyperreal.org <idm@hyperreal.org> Date : 30 novembre, 1998 17:17 Objet : Re: (idm) Apple Mac voice in Plaid's "Milh" - What does it say?

quoted 7 lines it's definitely the mac's speech manager using the "whisper" voice

> >> >it's definitely the mac's speech manager using the "whisper" voice >> >setting (same one as the ventolin credits and at the end of that warp >> >blech cd)...as for what it's saying, it's pretty long and >> >involved...maybe someone with a lot of free time could transcribe it...? >> >> I dunno, Stephen Hawking has Lougherigs (?) disease and he can't talk so

he

quoted 3 lines talks through a computer, picking words and phrase with his hand and the

>> talks through a computer, picking words and phrase with his hand and the >> computer onboard his wheelchair plays it, hence a very computer-like >> voice...you should rent the movie, you'd see what I'm talking

about...again,

quoted 1 line I never checked out what was said so it might not be...but it did sound

>> I never checked out what was said so it might not be...but it did sound

like

quoted 12 lines someone talking about the same material that he covers in his book...

>> someone talking about the same material that he covers in his book... > > >i've seen hawking on tv before, and the computer voice sounded different >from the mac whisper voice (which is definitely what is on the plaid >track)...it's possible that recently hawking has been using a mac with >speech manager, but i think that's unlikely as the computer he used to >speak on tv seemed pretty integrated with the wheelchair, so it's >probably a proprietary system... > >.. >

I went to see Stephen Hawking speak when he gave a guest lecture on his Theory of Everything this past year at my school, and they projected the interface he uses on the screen behind him for the audience to look at. It was an old-looking system, and yes, it IS very slow; Dr. Hawking only took 4 questions from the audience and it took him him over five minutes to compose answers of only a few sentences. But apparently he's very comfortable with the system AND the voice is now recognized as "his" so he doesn't want to change it, despite current improvements in voice synthesis technology. I guess this was a little off-topic. sorry. (n) Frédéric Fournier wrote:

quoted 9 lines I've seen something on tv about hawking's speech system and we saw the

> > I've seen something on tv about hawking's speech system and we saw the > screen, it definitely looked like a DOS program. Hawking controls it with a > single button (!), deciding what to say when a rotating cursor passes over > his choice. It's probably kinda long when you ask him something and he has > to "program" a sentence... > > BTW, isnt Hawking's voice what Pink Floyd used on Keep Talking? >

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