Speak Unique Voice Donor Service User Guide
- June 27, 2024
- Speak Unique
Table of Contents
Speak Unique Voice Donor Service
Specifications
- Version: 2.1
- Release Date : May 2024
- Manufacturer: SpeakUnique Limited
- Address: 2.04 Murchison House, 10 Max Born Crescent, Edinburgh, EH9 3BF
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.speakunique.co.uk
Product Usage Instructions
Before You Begin
To record your voice with SpeakUnique, follow these steps:
- Ensure you have a laptop or computer as recording is not supported on iPads and tablets.
- Use an external headset microphone by Sennheiser, Plantronics, or Logitech connected to your computer.
- Record in a quiet room with minimal background noise and soft furnishings to reduce echoing.
Your Voice Recording
By signing up as a voice donor, your recording will be blended with others to
create bespoke voices for individuals. Your recording may be used to assist
others in the future as well.
Registering for an Account
Visit www.speakunique.co.uk/donor to
register. Provide personal information and your 8-digit donor code from the
voice recipient.
Recording Tip
Watch the video guide for recording tips. Ensure your external microphone
is correctly positioned and choose a genre and title to read from the
available options.
Before you begin
To record your voice with SpeakUnique, you will need:
- A laptop or computer. Recording is not currently supported on iPads and tablets.
- An external headset microphone that connects to your computer via the USB port or headphone socket. We do not recommend a specific headset, but headsets made by Sennheiser, Plantronics and Logitech are reliable.
- A quiet room with no background noise and ideally soft furnishings to remove any echoing.
Your Voice Recording
By signing up as a voice donor, you agree to allow us to digitally blend your
voice recording with other people’s recordings to help create a bespoke voice
for an individual.
Initially, your recording will be used to help you “voice recipient” who has nominated you to be a voice donor. However, in the future, we would love to also be able to use your recording to help repair and create voices for other people. We will never use just your recording; we will always blend you recording with at least one other individual. You will not be identifiable for your contribution.
If you would prefer that we do not use your recording for people other than your voice receipt, please email [email protected].
Registering for an account
Visit www.speakunique.co.uk/donor to
register for an account. You will be asked to complete some personal
information and you will need to provide your unique 8-digit donor code. This
should have been provided to you by your voice recipient – the person you are
donating your voice to.
Need help? Contact our support team at ‹[email protected]›
Recording Tips
The next screens contain tips on how to complete a good recording. We have prepared a short video explaining the recording process.
Recording tips are also provided in written format.
Make sure your external microphone is connected to your computer and is positioned in line with your jaw. You do not want the microphone too close to your mouth as this can lead to a poor-quality recording.
We offer a selection of different scripts for you to choose from. First select what genre of book you would like to read from; each genre contains a range of titles to pick from.
Once you have selected a genre, you will see the available titles. Each title has been rated for ease of reading. Use the circle button on the right to select which title you would like to read.
You are now ready to start recording. Please make sure you are comfortable.
Microphone Permissions
Before you begin recording, you need to ensure the correct microphone is
selected. A list of available microphones on your device will be shown on the
screen, please choose your microphone and click Continue.
- We need to access your microphone to continue. If there is box above asking for permission to use your microphone, please click “Allow”.
- If you have done that and you are still seeing this message, please reload this page.
- If there is no box and you are having trouble, look for a small microphone icon in the URL bar at the top of the window and try clicking it to reset your permissions for this page.
The Recording Screen
- This is the sentence you need to read aloud.
- Press Record to start recording each sentence.
- The Play button allows you to listen to the sentence you have just recorded – please listen back to sentences frequently to check the quality.
- The volume bar indicates the volume of the recording. An error message will appear if the recording is too loud, too quiet or if your microphone is too close to your mouth.
- The arrows allow you to move between sentences. You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to do this.
- The progress bar shows the sentence number you are reading and what percentage of the recording you have completed.
- Here you can change the external microphone you want to use. Please note the name of the microphone might differ from what you expect.
- Use the Save and Log Out feature if you would like to save your recording.
The Screen During Recording
- Press record and start speaking. If you make a mistake, you are interrupted, you notice background noise or if you cough during the recording please rerecord the sentence.
- Press Stop to stop recording the sentence.
- A red box will appear around the screen to indicate that recording is in progress.
- Your synthetic voice can be built on a minimum of 125 sentences and a maximum of 150 sentences.
The Save and Submit button will appear once you have reached sentence 126 and can be used when you are ready to submit your recordings to create your synthetic voice. If you wish to record all 150 sentences, please continue recording until you reach the end of the process.
Once you have submitted your recordings, we will notify your voice recipient and you do not need to do anything else.
Thanks for being a voice donor at SpeakUnique!
We’d love to keep in touch, please follow us on social media @SpeakUniqueVB
MORE INFORMATION
FAQ
- Can I use any type of microphone for recording?
- We recommend using an external headset microphone by Sennheiser, Plantronics, or Logitech for best results.
- What if I don’t want my recording to be used for other purposes?
- If you wish to restrict the use of your recording, contact [email protected].
References
- SpeakUnique - In Your Own Words
- SpeakUnique - In Your Own Words
- SpeakUnique - In Your Own Words
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