Hello. I have a question for those who use new Apple-made Siri voices with VoiceOver on Mac or iOS device. Do you find these voices far more hard, illegible for listening on a high speed (seventy percents and higher)? I'm a Russian speaker and I definitely do.
For Siri itself these new voices are absolutely gorgeous, but not for using it to read web pages or books — here I've used beautiful Milena voice from Vocalizer since the very beginning of my blind life, and she speaks to me very clearly and pleasantly, even on a speed of one hundred percent on the Mac, and seventy five percents on an iPhone.
What do you think about it? Which language do you speak, and, if that language has the Apple-made Siri voice, how would you rate its quality for using it on a high speed?
Apple has got Siri voices for these languages (mind that every Siri-supported language has male and female voices):
Six English voices: American/Canadian, British, Irish, Australian/New Zealandic, Indian, and South African;
Two Spanish voices: Spanish (Castilian) and Mexican;
Two French voices: French and Canadian;
Other languages: German, Dutch (Netherlands), Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Dannish, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese for the continental China, Mandarin Chinese for Taiwan, Cantonese Chinese for Hong Kong and the continental China.
Thank you.
Comments
Natural versus speed rule
Yes, the Siri voice is do not work well at high speeds. They are far too natural and human for this to work. I have always found that a voice must be somewhat robotic and unnatural at normal human speaking speed in order to be highly intelligible at high-speed's. I find most vocalizer voices to be disgusting at 55% but that is what works well for Siri voices. I will be really surprised if a voice that violates this rule is ever created. my favorite fiction book reading voices are never the same as my information transfer voices.
Same here
Basically what was stated above. Samantha default does pretty good at high speed on my iPhone.
I have a high tolerance for robotic sounding speech if it's clear and not fuzzy. Probably because I started using it back in the Eighties when that's all there was for computers.
Voices
Sarah is correct in her assessment. The more natural the voice, less intelligible at higher speed.
Also going to be individual based. We all have different relationships with tones and voices. Even more so within the blind community. My Siri at 55% will not be your 55%. Just how our brain interprets.