[EE] Robot voice changer

[Neil]

Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.

Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.

Cheers,
-Neil.

[Justin Richards]

Hi Neil,

It appears this needs to process the audio in real time.

If not some online text to voice sites may be of use.

I recently got a bunch of phrases generated then processed in audacity. The
varios audio files are then triggered as needed.

I am curious if audacity can process in real time, then run thru a pi.

Justin




On 15 Jun 2018 04:08, "Neil" <***@narwani.org> wrote:

Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.

Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.

Cheers,
-Neil.

[James Burkart]

You might want to consider building a vocoder. Once upon a time it was a
fairly complex analog circuit, but now you can get the function in a single
chip.

http://www.cmlmicro.com/products/ralcwi-vocoder-ics/


--
Sincerely,

James Burkart
*Filmmaker & Documentarian*

*Burkart Studios*
925.667.7175 | Personal
415.738.2071 | Office

*Web:* burkartstudios.com
*Facebook:* facebook.com/burkartstudios

Post by Justin Richards
Hi Neil,
It appears this needs to process the audio in real time.
If not some online text to voice sites may be of use.
I recently got a bunch of phrases generated then processed in audacity. The
varios audio files are then triggered as needed.
I am curious if audacity can process in real time, then run thru a pi.
Justin
Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.
Cheers,
-Neil.
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[Michael Johnston]

Hi there was an IC a few years back made by Holtek that you could use for
this purpose. I think you could buy it from digikey at the time and I didnt
get one! Michael Johnston

Post by James Burkart
You might want to consider building a vocoder. Once upon a time it was a
fairly complex analog circuit, but now you can get the function in a single
chip.
http://www.cmlmicro.com/products/ralcwi-vocoder-ics/
--
Sincerely,
James Burkart
*Filmmaker & Documentarian*
*Burkart Studios*
925.667.7175 | Personal
415.738.2071 | Office
*Web:* burkartstudios.com
*Facebook:* facebook.com/burkartstudios
On Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 2:04 AM, Justin Richards <

Post by Justin Richards
Hi Neil,
It appears this needs to process the audio in real time.
If not some online text to voice sites may be of use.
I recently got a bunch of phrases generated then processed in audacity.

The

Post by Justin Richards
varios audio files are then triggered as needed.
I am curious if audacity can process in real time, then run thru a pi.
Justin
Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.
Cheers,
-Neil.
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[Neil]

Found i (HT8950). And apparently the Velleman kit uses it. The demos
I've found on youtube seem to be meh to decent, so perhaps I can make
some mods to clean it up. It's just $10 so I'll get one anyway.

Cheers,
-Neil.

Post by Michael Johnston
Hi there was an IC a few years back made by Holtek that you could use for
this purpose. I think you could buy it from digikey at the time and I didnt
get one! Michael Johnston

Post by James Burkart
You might want to consider building a vocoder. Once upon a time it was a
fairly complex analog circuit, but now you can get the function in a single
chip.
http://www.cmlmicro.com/products/ralcwi-vocoder-ics/
--
Sincerely,
James Burkart
*Filmmaker & Documentarian*
*Burkart Studios*
925.667.7175 | Personal
415.738.2071 | Office
*Web:* burkartstudios.com
*Facebook:* facebook.com/burkartstudios
On Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 2:04 AM, Justin Richards <

Post by Justin Richards
Hi Neil,
It appears this needs to process the audio in real time.
If not some online text to voice sites may be of use.
I recently got a bunch of phrases generated then processed in audacity.

The

Post by Justin Richards
varios audio files are then triggered as needed.
I am curious if audacity can process in real time, then run thru a pi.
Justin
Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.
Cheers,
-Neil.
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[Neil]

I'm down for this, as long as I know that it would have decent voice
quality. Only 2 weeks left to do this.
If I could find a product that uses this, that would be great.

Cheers,
-Neil.

Post by James Burkart
You might want to consider building a vocoder. Once upon a time it was a
fairly complex analog circuit, but now you can get the function in a single
chip.
http://www.cmlmicro.com/products/ralcwi-vocoder-ics/
--
Sincerely,
James Burkart
*Filmmaker & Documentarian*
*Burkart Studios*
925.667.7175 | Personal
415.738.2071 | Office
*Web:* burkartstudios.com
*Facebook:* facebook.com/burkartstudios

Post by Justin Richards
Hi Neil,
It appears this needs to process the audio in real time.
If not some online text to voice sites may be of use.
I recently got a bunch of phrases generated then processed in audacity. The
varios audio files are then triggered as needed.
I am curious if audacity can process in real time, then run thru a pi.
Justin
Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.
Cheers,
-Neil.
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[Adam Field]

Post by Neil
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.

If you have an old Android, there looks to be voice changer apps on the
play store, some advertise playback over headphones and not just for
calling. I haven't used any but it would only take a few minutes to
experiment. You could then cut the earbuds off a headset and wire an
external amp.

[Neil]

Not a fan of anything with an OS and app due to reliability. A hardware
solution will let me sleep better at night. :)
And coincidentally, in the essence of time, 2-way audio and one-way
video will be done by 2 phones (iOS or Android) with Facetime or
equivalent, but that'll be changed to a more direct FPV-type system soon
after.

Cheers,
-Neil.

Post by Adam Field

Post by Neil
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.

If you have an old Android, there looks to be voice changer apps on the
play store, some advertise playback over headphones and not just for
calling. I haven't used any but it would only take a few minutes to
experiment. You could then cut the earbuds off a headset and wire an
external amp.

[Denny Esterline]

Thought I sent this yesterday. The fact that I just found it in my drafts
folder suggests I was mistaken.
Not sure if it's still useful to you, but...


My son had one very much like this
https://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-Changer-6-5-Inch-
Various-Colors/dp/B000FK3WDC
As you suggest, the full volume output was near-enough horrible. But I
suspected at the time
that it had more to do with the cheapest microphone and speaker available.
In your application,
the speaker and microphone would need to be cut out anyway.

-Denny

Post by Neil
Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.
Cheers,
-Neil.
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[Neil]

Is the voice quality good? I have no problem modding it to help quality.
For $8 I should probably try one anyway, right?

Cheers,
-Neil.

Post by Denny Esterline
Thought I sent this yesterday. The fact that I just found it in my drafts
folder suggests I was mistaken.
Not sure if it's still useful to you, but...
My son had one very much like this
https://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-Changer-6-5-Inch-
Various-Colors/dp/B000FK3WDC
As you suggest, the full volume output was near-enough horrible. But I
suspected at the time
that it had more to do with the cheapest microphone and speaker available.
In your application,
the speaker and microphone would need to be cut out anyway.
-Denny

Post by Neil
Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.
Cheers,
-Neil.
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[Forrest Christian (List Account)]

As I always seem to do, I make odd suggestions not quite exactly what is
being asked, and in this case probably overkill, and maybe over power
budget:

A raspberry pi has analog audio input and output. You may need to pad
headphone down to line level for the input. Output is headphone level.

After that it's all software. If you want to dispense with the voice
changing portion, one could always just use one of the text to speech
libraries/applications.

On the other hand, if you do want the voice changing, a quick google search
for "raspberry pi voice changing" and similar yield various interesting
projects which do this type of stuff. There are lots of filtration
libraries.

Post by Neil
Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.
Cheers,
-Neil.
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Tel: [phone] | Address: 3577 Countryside Road, Helena, MT 59602
***@imach.com | http://www.packetflux.com
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/fwchristian> <http://facebook.com/packetflux>
<http://twitter.com/@packetflux>

[Neil]

Yes, real-time. A remote operator will transmit their voice to a
receiver on the robot, then that needs to be "robotized" and played
through a speaker.
Reliability is important, so I'm a bit nervous about a Pi with audacity,
or anything based on an OS with software. A physical/hardware solution
would make me feel much better.

Cheers
-Neil.

Post by Neil
Anyone know of a good quality robot voice changer that will take a
headphone-level signal, and spit out either a headphone level signal or
an amplified signal? The ones I've found so far get poor reviews for
sound quality and I feel like the basic on-board amps are a significant
part of that, so unamplified is fine and I'll add a separate amp. This
will be used for a robot project, and the voice needs to sound like a
friendly robot that should appeal to kids.
Though I would prefer a pre-built device (as I'm on a very tight
schedule), I'm tagging this as EE in case anyone has a good circuit or
kit) for this.
Cheers,
-Neil.