Microsoft Voices - Sam/Mike/Anna

[Giles]

What I want to do it put the microsoft voices over a YouTube video but I've got no idea how to capture the voices. I know that narrator has Microsoft Sam but I don't have any way to put this over a video.

So what I'm looking for is a program that lets me type in what I want it to say and then can create an audio file that I can put over a video. Halp pl0x?

[Magus]

Any audio editing software can do this.

Take Audacity, for instance. If you want to record anything that's in your PC, you first must change the recording medium, by default it is "Microphone" so change it to "Stereo Mix". Anything you hear through your Headphones can be recorded.

I don't recommend Audacity, since the quality will be very inconsistent, but it doesn't hurt to try. Try something else, but do the same thing.

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Oops, I misread the first posts.

I don't know of any other software of the like, but I will look into it. The one you are looking for are with easy steps, mine is a bit too much and vexing.

[darkwoon]

What I want to do it put the microsoft voices over a YouTube video but I've got no idea how to capture the voices. I know that narrator has Microsoft Sam but I don't have any way to put this over a video.

So what I'm looking for is a program that lets me type in what I want it to say and then can create an audio file that I can put over a video. Halp pl0x?

If I understand correctly, what you are searching is a text-to-speech software. You can try MARY (http://mary.dfki.de) that is free and speaks English and Tibetan :). Other well-known are ReadPlease (http://www.readplease.com/) and TextAloud (http://www.nextup.com/).

Windows since Xp contains a TTS engine. See the knowledge base article (http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B306902&x=11&y=13) on how to enable it.

Now, to record the voices from the Windows TTS, you indeed need to use a sound recording software. A good combination is to install The K-Lite Codec pack (http://www.codecguide.com/), then use a sound editor like Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). Use the Stereo Mix as your input recording source. If it doesn't work, you can also use the plain old analog pass-through way: connect your headphone output to your soundcard line input entry, and select Line-In as the recording input.



I don't recommend Audacity, since the quality will be very inconsistent, but it doesn't hurt to try. Try something else, but do the same thing.

The recording quality is not dependent on Audacity itself - the main bottlenecks are the codecs and the audio drivers. What the recording software impacts is mainly the transformation effects (echo, fades, noise filtering, etc).

Hope this helps!

[Giles]

Thanks both of you. That's great.
I've got the Free version of ReadPlease 2003. Now all I need to work out is how to record it with Audacity.
I've had it for a while I just don't know how to change the input recording source?

[darkwoon]

Thanks both of you. That's great.
I've got the Free version of ReadPlease 2003. Now all I need to work out is how to record it with Audacity.
I've had it for a while I just don't know how to change the input recording source?
Preferences->Audio I/O. See The online help (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/prefs.htm)

[Giles]

Cheers. That wasn't the problem. I needed to enable the different source through control panel first, which I didn't even know how to do. So I've got that and it's worked. I've used it on a video too :) Thanks XD

[Magus]

The recording quality is not dependent on Audacity itself - the main bottlenecks are the codecs and the audio drivers. What the recording software impacts is mainly the transformation effects (echo, fades, noise filtering, etc).

So, it is my SPU that makes the quality that bad(it is not even updated)? Hmm, then I will have to go and fetch me some quality SPUs(or, perhaps attempt to update it)

But I do have the K-lite codec pack. Works wonder with windows classic Media Player.

[darkwoon]

So, it is my SPU that makes the quality that bad(it is not even updated)? Hmm, then I will have to go and fetch me some quality SPUs(or, perhaps attempt to update it)
Depends. You'd want to check if an mp3 ripped from any audio cd is properly played. If yes, then the issue is with the audio encoding. If not, then it is an SPU/driver issue.

For audio encoding, ensure that as long as you are not finished working on your audio file, you save it in a non-destructively compressed format. Usually, that's stereo Wave/RIFF with a minimum sampling rate of 44.1Khz (the so-called "CD quality") - 48Khz is actually more common these days.

To store the final result, either use the MP3 or the OGG/Vorbis formats. Ensure that the encoding rate is at least 128Kbps stereo. For MP3, LAME is probably the best codec (it is included in K-Lite). There is also a stand-alone version here (http://lame.sourceforge.net/).

If it is the recording itself that is of poor quality, it can be caused by parasite noises created by nearby devices. As a rule of thumb, try to shut down any other input source than the one you're recording from (yes, even if there is nothing connected on the plugs). If it is an independent sound card, try to move it as far away as possible from wires, hard disks or the CPU. Unfortunately, most SPUs nowadays are soldered on the motherboard, and often not very well placed - mine is recording parasite noise from the hard disk on Line-In, and there is nothing I can do about it. On a desktop computer, if you have front and back plugs, use the back ones - they are soldered much closer to the SPU, so it reduces chances of external interference.

If you are recording from a microphone, try to plug it on an external amplifier and connect that to the Line-In input of the SPU. The Mic-In is amplified by the SPU itself, but that internal amplifier is often of rather low quality. If you are recording from another audio source, use a standard male-male audio jack to connect Line-In with the playing device.

You can also try to improve the situation by disabling any "special effect" stuff - a lot of audio drivers are shipped with small utilities to fine-tune the equalizer, add echo/3D, etc. They can really be a nuisance when you need to record stuff.

But I do have the K-lite codec pack. Works wonder with windows classic Media Player.
Yeah, my favorite as well on Windows :).

Hope this helps!