"Boltar" wrote in message
...
On Nov 26, 11:21 pm, "Rev. CMOT TMPV"
wrote:
London PA Voice Fired for Slamming Tube
November 26, 2007 12:39 PM EST

LONDON - The woman behind the gentle, even voice which warns London's
subway
commuters to "Mind the gap" was fired after telling a newspaper she
thought
the transit network was dreadful.

Not many people could get away with publically slagging off the
company they do contract work for, even if in jest, and not get the
boot. She was rather naive IMO.

What I don't understand is why companies bother using recordings when
speech synthesizers cost buttons, are about the size of one and can
say anything you want - you don't have to pay some actor to record new
phrases if things change , you just type it in. Even in the 70s Texas
Instruments could do a 1 chip version and they sound a lot better
these days.

because better is still crap

tim

On 27 Nov, 20:46, "tim \(not at home\)"
wrote:
"Boltar" wrote in message

...



On Nov 26, 11:21 pm, "Rev. CMOT TMPV"
wrote:
London PA Voice Fired for Slamming Tube
November 26, 2007 12:39 PM EST

LONDON - The woman behind the gentle, even voice which warns London's
subway
commuters to "Mind the gap" was fired after telling a newspaper she
thought
the transit network was dreadful.

Not many people could get away with publically slagging off the
company they do contract work for, even if in jest, and not get the
boot. She was rather naive IMO.

What I don't understand is why companies bother using recordings when
speech synthesizers cost buttons, are about the size of one and can
say anything you want - you don't have to pay some actor to record new
phrases if things change , you just type it in. Even in the 70s Texas
Instruments could do a 1 chip version and they sound a lot better
these days.

because better is still crap

tim

Blunt, to the point and spot on.

Mizter T wrote:
On 27 Nov, 20:46, "tim \(not at home\)"
wrote:
"Boltar" wrote in message

...



On Nov 26, 11:21 pm, "Rev. CMOT TMPV"
wrote:
London PA Voice Fired for Slamming Tube
November 26, 2007 12:39 PM EST

LONDON - The woman behind the gentle, even voice which warns
London's subway
commuters to "Mind the gap" was fired after telling a newspaper she
thought
the transit network was dreadful.

Not many people could get away with publically slagging off the
company they do contract work for, even if in jest, and not get the
boot. She was rather naive IMO.

What I don't understand is why companies bother using recordings
when speech synthesizers cost buttons, are about the size of one
and can say anything you want - you don't have to pay some actor to
record new phrases if things change , you just type it in. Even in
the 70s Texas Instruments could do a 1 chip version and they sound
a lot better these days.

because better is still crap

Blunt, to the point and spot on.

Crap at passing the Turing Test, but not crap at being understood, which is
its purpose. Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class, I would think a synthesised voice would be superior, so
long as it's programmed with the correct phonemes (and isn't allowed to say
Green-witch or War-wick).

John Rowland wrote:
Mizter T wrote:
On 27 Nov, 20:46, "tim \(not at home\)"
wrote:
"Boltar" wrote in message

What I don't understand is why companies bother using recordings
when speech synthesizers cost buttons, are about the size of one
and can say anything you want - you don't have to pay some actor to
record new phrases if things change , you just type it in. Even in
the 70s Texas Instruments could do a 1 chip version and they sound
a lot better these days.

because better is still crap

Blunt, to the point and spot on.

Crap at passing the Turing Test, but not crap at being understood,
which is its purpose. Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and
obviously belongs to a certain class, I would think a synthesised
voice would be superior, so long as it's programmed with the correct
phonemes (and isn't allowed to say Green-witch or War-wick).

What does "obviously belongs to a certain class" mean? Emma is a Mancunian
which you can tell from her natural voice, but as a good actress will adopt
whatever accent and pronunciation her client wants. On her website she used
to tell of the various ways of pronouncing Marylebone that she had to do,
with LU making the final choice.

Is it in fact Emma on the Northern Line? Her website says she's on "pretty
much everything except the Jubilee Line, the Northern Line and Docklands
Light Railway" (though the PA on the Piccadilly doesn't sound like her).
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:17:16 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

On her website she used
to tell of the various ways of pronouncing Marylebone that she had to do,
with LU making the final choice.

Ah, so it was LU who chose the wrong pronunciation. I did wonder.

At least she gets Plaistow right.

Hi All,

Is it in fact Emma on the Northern Line? Her website says she's on
"pretty
much everything except the Jubilee Line, the Northern Line and Docklands
Light Railway" (though the PA on the Piccadilly doesn't sound like her).

The Jubilee Line has the distinction of having two different voices in its
announcements.

"The Next Station" and "This Station Is" is a new voice, with the "This
Train Terminates At" announcement being a different woman together - one who
used to do all the announcements on the 96 stock.

Of course, that was back in the days when the dot matrix displays on the 96
didn't scroll, but had annoying static messages that couldn't say very much
at all.

Best Wishes,
LEWIS

John Rowland wrote:

Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class,

Snobbery is never attractive.

--

Stephen

I haven’t been this excited since Madonna just dropped by
Total Request Live.

Stephen Farrow wrote:
John Rowland wrote:

Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class,

Snobbery is never attractive.

I wasn't suggesting that there is anything wrong with speaking like that, or
that her accent wouldn't be suitable for a private company's recordings,
merely that a more class-neutral accent would have been more suitable for
publicly funded transport.

John Rowland wrote:
Stephen Farrow wrote:
John Rowland wrote:

Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class,

Snobbery is never attractive.

I wasn't suggesting that there is anything wrong with speaking like
that, or that her accent wouldn't be suitable for a private company's
recordings, merely that a more class-neutral accent would have been
more suitable for publicly funded transport.

ITYF that the Northern Line voice is "Celia", said to be Celia Drummond, NOT
Emma Clarke, unless they've changed the announcements on the 1995 stock
recently.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

On Nov 28, 10:15 pm, "Richard J." wrote:
John Rowland wrote:
Stephen Farrow wrote:
John Rowland wrote:

Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class,

Snobbery is never attractive.

I wasn't suggesting that there is anything wrong with speaking like
that, or that her accent wouldn't be suitable for a private company's
recordings, merely that a more class-neutral accent would have been
more suitable for publicly funded transport.

ITYF that the Northern Line voice is "Celia", said to be Celia Drummond, NOT
Emma Clarke, unless they've changed the announcements on the 1995 stock
recently.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

Is she the one who says "the next station is Spank" and "this is
Spank", which used to be the same on the Central but seem to have been
rerecorded?