Route 66 V7 Voices

[chazman88]

Hi,
Does anybody know how i can create a voice set for route 66, as i have all the seperate voice clips, but no idea of how to put them together.
Any help would be deaply apprciated

Regards
Chaz

[chazman88]

anyone

[AndreITA]

Hi Chazman88,

I'm also looking for new voices to set up on my R66 program.

Last week I bought a PNA device with R66 and must say I'm really happy. Just one thing.....the italian lady voice is horrible.

I wonder if I can change my brother's TomTom voices into it and wonder if you have been able.

I looked up in the net but as I'm not expert I just read that TomTom voice files must be converted into other extensions or whatsoever (computer world is chinese for me).

The only helpful thing I found are TomTom italian voices already converted into .wav extensions.......THEN what should I do ?

Hope someone can help me step by step or hope to get an EASY howto.

BYE

[mikealder]

The Route 66 voice files are unique to the software so you cannot try installing a TomTom voice it simply will not work. The only files that can be added to the unit are for speed camera / POI alerts and need to be in the ogg file format - Mike

[AndreITA]

Hello Mike, thank you for your reply.

I found one howto dated 2005 (I think R66 version for a mobile phone) in an italian link which I tried to translate:

Audio R66 files are silly .wav ones.
What you need is: Audio Editor (e.g. Nero Wave Editor, Soundforge etc).
First of all copy your audio files (\Route66\Speech\Italian) onto a computer new folder;
Thanks to audio editor or winamp open the file to understand and read the type of indication that the italian lady gives to you;
Now with audio editor, record a wav file with the following characteristics:
File:"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\R66AN_13.WAV"PCM,8000Hz, 1 channel(s),16 bits per sample
Lenght: 0:06
The procedure must be repeated for all files you want to personalize.
Once finished, transfer everything into the SD card.

Now, I did not do anythig before mixing everythig up but I just tried to open (from the speech folder, the italian file) and hear the italian voice using Media Player: the only voice instruction I heard was "Welcome to R66" (in italian obviously); so I wonder, where are all the other instructions? (turn left, right etc).

So using above howto would be possible to convert TomTom italian VIF files into WAV and then transfer to R66 ??

[mikealder]

But you would need an application to split the voice file into its component parts in order to make a custome voice set for Route 66, then you will need another application to compile the data into a single file for the device to use. I am not aware of such software, it exists for the TomTom platform but I doubt that could be used (vif tool) - Mike

[AndreITA]

Thanks again Mike,

Here is an other suggestion I found. Have a look if you are more expert than me (PC programing is chinese for me) and let me have your opinion:

1. Download VIF tool: http://ghostwheel.de/viftool.zip
With this tool you unzip the .vif file (tomtom voice file). Do as follows:

2.Make a directory in which you unzip the downloaded VIF tool e.g.

'd:\voice'

3. Put all files of the VIF tool in this (d:\voice) directory:

'library.zip'
'python23.dll'
'viftool.exe'
'w9xpopen.exe'
'zlib.pyd'
'_sre.pyd'

4. Make a new directory in which you put the tomtom voice (robot = name of an existing voice for Tomtom). e.g.

'd:\voice\robot'

5. Put all files of the robot voice in this (d:\voice\robot) directory e.g.

'robot.chk'
'robot.vif'

6. Go to commandline (Start-Run:in the Run window u type 'cmd') and typ:

'd:' (enter)

'cd voice' (enter)

'viftool split d:\voice\robot\robot.vif' (enter)

Now all files are unzipped and set in the 'd:\voice\robot' directory

7. All you have to do is converting the files to .wav files. You can do this using following tool: http://www.blazemp.com/

Next you make an .ini file linking the .wav files to FD (Freedrive) or MM (MapMonkey).


As told you all above is chinese for me so if someone can help me, this will be VERY appreciated.

BYE

[mikealder]

BUT vif tool is for taking apart and re-building speech files for the TomTom devices - you need to locate (or write) software to take apart and re-assemble the Route 66 voice file - Mike

[ernstloeffel]

hey all,

a word on r66 voices.

i am from germany and found this site while trying to find a review on r66 usa map quality (i want to do a trip to the usa).

however, the german r66 voice (aka "sarge" ;))is also a major complaint here. in a german forum somebody made a tool in c# for the file format used in r66 and already made a new german voice ("lisa").

there are two formats: on mobile phones there is a .ogg file, on win mobile devices there is a .db. they managed both formats.

forum is in german but i'm sure you may ask questions in english.
check this thread
http://forum.pocketnavigation.de/tid1067353-sid.htm

the speech editor is here (spracheditorfinal.zip)
http://forum.pocketnavigation.de/tid1067353-sid.htm

please join the effort and post your results.

ernst

[AndreITA]

Hallo Ernst, DANKE fuer Deine Hilfe.
Hi Ernst, THANK YOU for your help.

Es tut mir leid aber bin nicht so gut auf Deutsch als Englisch aber werde ich probieren......ein bisschen schwiering alles zu ueberstzten.

Anyway I'll try to post my problem if someone can help me.

I've even found a great howto in an other forum I hope it can help me

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=83618

Bye

[mikealder]

Ernst, many thanks for the links to the software, the voice file is easy to take appart and mess around with using the "Spracheditor" it should be possible to produce custom voices for the R66 software now - Mike

[AndreITA]

Hi Mike,

Thanks........Andre you'd say and above all to Xania in the french link.

Anyway, I've been able to convert TT voices into .ogg but there are some announcements missing.

I must test everything now.

One question Mike: once R66 voices are changed, according to your opinion, does the TT converted voice use the same sentence-announcement R66 said or just the TT one ?.........silly question maybe (R66 is not a voice simulator ).

Take care !

[mikealder]

If you change the R66 voice for any given sound the software will simply call it (when needed) and play it back, for example:

R66 TU-13 says "Go left, then immediately right" if you were to change this to "first left, then turn right" it would be the new sound the software will play whenever it calls that specific voice file to be used.

Trying to build up a set of spoken commands from a TomTom custom voice is going to be rather difficult as the two different software suppliers use very different phrases and words, at best you might be able to make up a set that is about 70% of the total is my guess using this method, if you want a full set, then you need to find someone with a nice sounding voice and a good quality microphone, make the individual recordings on the PC before swapping out the individual sounds (all 75 of them for a full set) - Mike

[AndreITA]

That's what I thought.....

I wonder how the R66 italian male voice sounds: unfortunatly I have not in my files: do you know where I get a link with all R66 voices to download? maybe the male one (if exists) is nicer than the female one.

Anyway T H A N K Y O U for your GREAT help and support.

Really appreciated.

Take care !!!!

[mikealder]

Andre, I have just checked on my R66 CD and there is only the female voice for Italy, unless you can find anything additional on the Route 66 web site, try Here - Mike

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