New Text to Speech Voices “Alto Classic” and “Squeak Classic”

bman0603returns

Ever since Amazon changed Alto and Squeak’s voices (Which is upsetting), I have thought this idea “What if there were two new Text to Speech voices?”. Here are the ones that I will suggest that you guys (The Scratch Team) add:

Alto Classic:
The old version of Alto from 2019-2024

Squeak Classic:
High-pitched version of Alto Classic,
the old version of Squeak from 2019-2024

If you are seeing this, Scratch Team, is it OK if you make these new Text To Speech voices? If so, well, that’s great!
If not, we’ll, that’s OK…

mingo-gag

The scratch team doesn't own the text-to-speech voice, but Amazon does.

so basically, the scratch team or MIT doesn't control the Text-to-speech Voices

hotcrystal

If the ST finds a way to get these voices back, that would be good.

mrgame2012

The only way this could happen is for the ST to make their own TTS model, and if they could do that and make it as clear as Amazon's, they'd have no reason to even use Amazon for TTS, so they'd likely not be able to bring over the rest of the voices for potentially legal reasons. However, they couldn't either way; the voices aren't that of real people and are artificial in all capacities to what I know, so it would make sense for Amazon to hold the copyright for the TTS voices, including (likely) the old Alto & Squeak. Thus, they could sue Scratch if they tried to do that using their own TTS.

TL;DR: Copyright would likely prevent Scratch from doing so

michaeljackson1365

Amazon owns TTS for Scratch, so something will happen if ST somehow convinces Amazon.

hotcrystal

Another problem is that will Amazon even notice them?

Rosics

Everyone is acting like scratch can't just change the voices they use, like make it so they update synthesis service to use a different voice.

medians

Rosics wrote:
Everyone is acting like scratch can't just change the voices they use, like make it so they update synthesis service to use a different voice.

The Text to Speech uses Amazon though, and I believe they are the only ones that can change the voices. Scratch would have to swap from Amazon to change them back if this was the case.

Last edited by medians (Jan. 13, 2025 20:30:02)

gdfsgdfsgdfg

Most Scratchers think that Scratch changed the TTS cuz
Amazon secretly changed the TTS so no one knew that Amazon did that
not Scratch or they didn’t read the “Amazon” credit in the extensions

but fr Scratch and Amazon should add this
cuz now my character is ruined lolz (shouldn’t have said this)

Last edited by gdfsgdfsgdfg (Jan. 13, 2025 22:01:36)

hotcrystal

set language to (English v)
set voice to (alto classic v)
speak [Bump!]

hotcrystal

Bump! Do you think Amazon will even listen to Scratch?

hotcrystal

Bump!

hotcrystal

Bump. I really hope that the ST can simultaneously include the old and new voices.

Rosics

medians wrote:
Rosics wrote:
Everyone is acting like scratch can't just change the voices they use, like make it so they update synthesis service to use a different voice.
The Text to Speech uses Amazon though, and I believe they are the only ones that can change the voices. Scratch would have to swap from Amazon to change them back if this was the case.

I'm sure Amazon provides more voices, so ST can choose another selection.

medians

Rosics wrote:
medians wrote:
Rosics wrote:
Everyone is acting like scratch can't just change the voices they use, like make it so they update synthesis service to use a different voice.
The Text to Speech uses Amazon though, and I believe they are the only ones that can change the voices. Scratch would have to swap from Amazon to change them back if this was the case.
I'm sure Amazon provides more voices, so ST can choose another selection.

Well yea but I don't think Amazon has the original voices anymore, they likely don't

Last edited by medians (Jan. 26, 2025 16:10:52)

hot655

Presumably there were some type of issue with these voices that resulted in them no longer being supported. However, I did notably find that Streamlabs/Streamelements TTS voices Salli and Ivy (which are offsite) do have a lot in common with the classic Alto and Squeak voices, and if someone wants to use the old Alto and Squeak voices, they could just use those TTS instead and download audio clips, which is relatively close (I do use this particular website for accessing the Ivy and Salli TTS but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share the link. Sorry if this post breaks any Community Guidelines)

Last edited by hot655 (Jan. 26, 2025 22:48:44)

AHypnoman

medians wrote:
-
Well yea but I don't think Amazon has the original voices anymore, they likely don't

If they have any sense they would have the original voice - any sane company would keep previous versions of everything, in case of issues or extreme backlash (and for reference later if necessary).

hotcrystal

Bump!

AvidOsirianGuy

The original voices should still be named Alto and Squeak (with their original voices) with the new voices being called Alto-Alt and Squeak-Alt. They would be alternative voices. i still remember a scratch 3.0 beta version had a puppy voice though

edit: hold up this is my 100th post YIPEE!!!!!

Last edited by AvidOsirianGuy (Feb. 9, 2025 00:33:46)

hotcrystal

I’m annoyed that the ST seems to not really care about this type of thing despite community backlash. Yes, it’s outside their control, but can’t they contact AWS about it?

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