The Samantha voice

By gailisaiah, 19 September, 2016

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

My Samantha seems to have a cold or Laryngitis. I guess the upgrade was just too much for her. Hahaha! Does anyone else have this voice issue? Thanks.

Options

Comments

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

Maybe you should send an email to Nuance Communications Inc?

By Toonhead on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

Remember each voice has 2 versions, and when you first get your iPhone going with Samantha, it's going to be on the compact version. You will need to manually download the enhanced voices by going to settings/general/accessibility/VoiceOver/speech. Now double tap on the button that says voice, it'll be Samantha most likely but you'll want the enhanced version so double tap that button and swipe over and you'll find an element that says Samantha enhanced. double tap that to select it, and then swipe to the right once again and find the download button. When the voice downloads, it'll change to the enhanced version automaticly. I hope that helps. So many people don't realize that there are 2 versions of almost every voice. The only exceptions are Fred, and Victoria.

By Justin on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

Hi Gail,
I'm certain that you're using the samantha compact voice. Plug the device in to power, connect to a wifi network, and click on samantha enhanced quality to either download or use that voice.
HTH.

By That Blind Canuck on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

I to have noticed a difference in the Samantha voice, but different. Before iOS 9 rolled out, I was using Samantha, but once iOS 9 was installed, I found her annoying and ended up changing to the compact Siri Female voice. But now with the roll out of iOS 10, I found that Siri Female has changed for the worse and I have reverted back to Samantha.

I am starting to miss the Siri Female though, although Sammy is much improved since iOS 9, I got used to listening to Siri Female.

By gailisaiah on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

Hi Justin and Toonhead,

Thanks so much for the instructions. Perfect now!

By Lino Morales on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

I was going to suggest the same as Toonhead. Download the inhanced Samantha voice if you don't have her/it already.

By Lorelei on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

I have had a very similr problem with the enhanced version of Samantha for several years now. Every time I download it, the enhanced version sounds like she has a sore throat or something. Very raspy and not at all pleasant to listen to. I've deleted and reinstalled the voice. I've even heard her on other people's phones and know mine is working wrong, and had others verify this. I use the compact voice and am happy enough with it, but I'd still like a fix. Any suggestions?

Lorelei

By Troy on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

One thing that also helps a bit is to turn off pitch change while using Samantha.

By jim on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

Well I am useing the inhanced voice and it sounds like she is a 8 pack a day smoker.
this changed sense ios 10.
i hope they fix her as its really anoying.
Jim

By Lorelei on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

She's pretty much always sounded like that, from back when the enhanced voices were introduced, and this has happened consistently to me across two, maybe three phones. As soon as I link the phone with iTunes or iCloud, she starts sounding bad. When I first got my 6, deleting and reinstalling worked for a few minutes, but now not even that works. is there some way to fix this without completely abandoning my iTunes account and starting over? I would hate to do that because of the time and money I've invested, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

Another suggestion would be to send an email to Nuance Communications Inc. They might be able to fix the Samantha enhanced voice.

By Toonhead on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

How fast are you guys listening to the Samantha voice? Some voices just aren't designed to sound good at high speaking rates. i usually have all my voices at something like 65 to 70% and i'm not noticing this thing some of you are where she sounds like she has a sore throat. Sorry guys i'm just not hearing it. I do think turning off pitch change may be most of the problem because that's what occurred to me when my GF had pitch change turned on as well. I didn't like that so I turned it off. So be sure to see if use pitch change is on and if it is, turn it off and see how she sounds.

By Lorelei on Monday, September 26, 2016 - 03:58

Pitch change was one of the first things I turned off when I got my iPhone, so I know it's not that. As for the change in speaking rate, I tried that, and she still sounded like her vocal cords had been shredded at a metal concert, just less so. For the record, I usually keep my speaking rate at around 89%, and have found that only compact Samantha and Alex do a really good job with that speed as far as American English voices go.