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Ok, first Beth tells me that I have to wear a "man-zire" to tuck the end of my peg tube into and now you, Rose, are telling me I have to get a "man-bag" to carry my voice in! Yikes, I'm starting to worry. Time to watch some hockey fights or go break something in the garage.

I am going to e-mail my Dynavox rep to ask her if I can put any other voices on this thing. I downloaded and purchased Cepstral David which works with e-triloquist and my trial of NextUp talker but doesn't seem to work with the Palmtop Impact software.
 
I knew it would happen

All those years of making fun of my wife's shoes and purses has come back to haunt me. Now to think a "man bag" is in my future, shudder ..... electricity up and down my spine.

Now I'm wondering what other things I have made fun of over 42 years of marriage
will come into my life again? :roll: :shock: :oops: :rolleyes:

I know I should never have made fun of old people, Now I are one.
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Capt. Al, I'm with you. I always thought old people look and sound the way they do because they don't know any better. Like, they didn't get the memo ...

So, how could this creaky old age possibly happen to me ?!? I did Pilates and yoga. I ate fish and veggies and blueberries. I went to the gym. I watched my weight. (Well, I watched it go up and down, but I definitely watched it.) And I ended up an old coot-ette anyway.

Must have gotten the wrong memo.
 
Beth,

I guess I could add something happy-faced:grin:

like,

At least you got a memo!
 
Beth, you might be an old coot-ette but you are the coolest one for sure!
 
I agree with Barry. Beth, you are definitely the coolest!
 
We do have an entertaining group here, don't we! I think the humor shown from the forum members is as helpful many times as the information they share :)

I have an update about using the Model Talker software.

It took a while for me to get the correct type of microphone to use with it. Their website said it was important to use a microphone which did not have AGC (automatic gain control) ~ whatever that is. My son actually did the research and found one with good customer reviews, and I ordered it online, as it did not seem to be readily avialable locally. I got the SENNHEISER PC166 USB 3.5mm/ USB Circumaural Headset

Using it was easy, it has a USB port adapter connector, and I just plugged it into my computer, and turned it on. No software or anything needed for the mike.

Next, came the ambient noise issue here, as the room the computer is in has associated street noise (only 5 floors up in a city neighborhood), plus I keep lady gouldian finches, which sing pretty constantly all morning. They are in a huge flight cage (i.e. too large to move) in the next room. Ideally I'd try to record in the middle of the night when its quieter, but by afternoon even, my voice is gone. Therefore, it has to be morning, or not at all.

So, we worked on getting some soundproofing for the windows of the room, got everything ready to go, and then the cat had a crisis. He could not handle being closed outside of the room, or inside of the room. Sat there and howled on either side of the door. So.... after squirting him with a water bottle did little to make him go somewhere else, I had to wait till he sacked out for his mid morning nap under the bed. :rolleyes:

The model talker program was easy to understand how to use, and takes sample recordings to set up how the audio feed sounds, then has a person make about 30 sample phrase and single word recordings. After I was successful in making these, I uploaded my recording to their site, and they are to get back with me in a day or two, to proceed with the rest of the voice banking. This is going to be time consuming, as I can say so little at a time. So, (as if its not been emphasized enough!) If you even think you're starting to have voice or speech impairment, do this earlier, rather than later. I know its easy to stay in denial, but, addressing it before its not such a challenge is way preferable.
 
Hi Rose,

This is a great thread and thank you for doing and reporting on your research. It sounds like Model Talker is the way I'll go.
 
Rose, it sounds like you need a "cone of silence" like in the Get Smart tv show/movie! HaHa. I know about non-cooperative cats. I think that they're all like yours, they're your best friends when THEY want to be, it doesn't much matter what you want.

Good luck with your voice banking, I'm jealous!

Barry
 
John,

I will keep updating this thread as I work on banking my voice. I really wish that someone had emphasized to me that a loss of voice/speech was inevitable, and offered me a plan for voice banking. Although I have no complaints whatsoever with the Johns Hopkins ALS clinic, even they did not bring up the banking with me, they were more geared to just talk about the various communication devices. (forms of Dynavox) The whole concept of voice banking, sometimes called "harvesting", is still fairly new, so its understandable that it will take a while to publicize its availability; however, I think more emphasis should have been addressed earlier on ~ initially they could have broached the subject, rather than leaving it up to me to ask for more information.

Barry,

Did the Dynavox rep get back to you about being able to add other voices to your Palmtop?

How funny you mentioned the cone of silence. I'd jokingly said that I needed a cone of silence to the guy who was helping me at the store with soundproofing materials. (he kind of looked at me oddly) I've not seen the movie, but I used to watch Get Smart when I was a kid

... I knew the darned cat was going to do this, just didn't think he'd be so persistent. He's still zonked out, he's moved to the top of the armoire now, up from under the bed, but could he sleep while I was trying to do this? noooooo.
 
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Rose,

Thank you for keeping this information going. I finally talked my Dad into looking at communicative device options and he is also interested in voice banking. I am not sure what the quality of the voice banking will be given he is so hoarse but we will play with our options. I have a call into the speech therapist at the ALS clinic to start reviewing augmentative device options.

I started playing with the ModelTalker and E Triloquist programs but the computer voices can be hard to understand. Will keep playing with options. I am going to check out the ModelTalker program and get a mic to work with it for his computer. I am going to have to figure out how it all works and then show him. If you learn any tricks, I would love to have them.

I spoke with the assistive technology specialist where I work but she was not as helpful as I had hoped. :-(

Dana
 
Dana.

As far as the computer voices being hard to understand, I agree. Some of the difficulties can be fixed by changing the speed and pitch of the voices in the options but the free voices are generally bad. I purchased a better voice for about $30 from Cepstral which works with e-triloquist and my trial version of next-up and it is much better at pronunciation and smoothness. There are also AT&T voices that are good too.

Barry
 
Good to know Barry. We will play with the programs and then figure out what voice he would prefer to use.
Dana
 
Dana,

I too was concerned about the ease of using the Model Talker, much less learning how to use the Palmtop. My philosophy is to just take one step at a time, and as it seems to be a priority to capture my voice, ( I was in la la land so long about keeping it!) then after I take care of that, I will worry about learning how to use the communication devices it is placed on.

I am not particularly technically inclined, but I have kids who are. Even though they all live in different states from me, I know I have them to fall back on, so I'm pretty sure your dad knows he has that option, too, with you. It sounds like he may take more walking through the steps than me, but that's ok.

Anyway, I was apprehensive about downloading and using this software, but I've had no problems yet. I ordered the microphone from an internet site named NewEgg, it is a company that my son has used several times in the past with no complaints. The microphone was easy to use ~ once I realized that because it was plugged into to my computer, when I tapped on the mike, I didn't need to be able to hear it LOL (at first I thought had a defective one!) Its all been within my "skill set" so far. The Model Talker program does not require that I project my voice at all, so that is really good. I turned up the sound on the mike, and was able to speak fairly softly and still have it register.

The only real difficulty I've had so far, was one of the sentences I was required to read kept getting rejected, and the error message said I wasn't speaking clearly enough. I was starting to get frustrated, thinking that if I couldn't do any better than that, how was I ever going to complete the project, when I realized I was not reading it aloud as written. I was combining two words into a conjunction. I don't remember which one now, but once I realized what I was doing, and read the two words separately in the sentence, the recording was accepted.

Every time I would record, there were three meters on the screen that indicated how well I was doing, and if the quality was not good enough, I just had to try again.

If you can get your dad to start saving his voice for posterity, you can work out the details later about which device you will use it on. And, like someone else has mentioned, the E-triloquist will let you record anything, so getting his laughter saved on a program like this is important too (the Model Talker does not record laughter I don't think).

You can tell him, that even though he may sound hoarse compared to how he used to sound, that you still love his voice, its just a little different now, and you don't want to lose the chance to hear it in the future!
 
Thanks for the tips Rose. I need to get a mic to use. I tried to use my daughter's Karaoke mic but it was not compatible with the computer so will get my hands on a mic, hubby thinks he has one somewhere. Once we get it working, we may very well upgrade to something like you have. I did a price check for the one you mentioned and NewEgg was the cheapest.

My Dad as I mentioned is not technically inclined so I hope he works with it and does not get too frustrated. I do have a message saved from him on my cell voice mail that I need to figure out if I can save somehow. Whenever I call him he always answers with "Who is this?" it sounds warped but I love those 3 words and they are nearly one and the same with "I love you." You are so right about saving his voice and his laughter as a priority.
Thanks again.
Dana
 
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