Voice Announcer Feature
How the "Voice Announcer" works
The ability to use the "Voice Announcements" is controlled by your OS. Most Vista and XP versions of Windows come with "Text-To-Speech" already installed. If you can enable the "Voice Announcer", then you are able to use this feature. The voices available are also controlled by your OS, which usually come pre-installed with 1 to 2 free voices. You can often times purchase other voices from 3rd party suppliers such as Cepstral.
Voice Announcer Information
Enable Voice Announcer
If you would like to use the "Voice Announcer" to vocalize your pick selections, check mark the "Use "Voice Announcer" for draft selections" checkbox. This option can be accessed in the "Additional Preferences" area, accessed by clicking on the "More Preferences" button in the Preferences area.
Change the Announcer Voice
To change the announcer voice click on the arrows to the right of the "Announcer Voice" text box. Typically Microsoft XP comes pre-installed with 2 voices (Microsoft Sam and Microsoft Anna). Vista comes pre-installed with just Microsoft Anna. The voices available are also controlled by your operating system. You can often times purchase other voices from 3rd party suppliers such as Cepstral. If no voices are showing up, it is likely due to your operating system having the "Text-To-Speech" capabilities installed/enabled, and this feature will be unavailable to you in FanDraft.
Sample/Test the Announcer Voice
If you would like to hear a sample of what the announcer sounds like, click on the play button.
Voice / Sound Quality
Robotic and Natural Voices
Some voices available can sound quite robotic. The quality of the voice is dependent on the quality of your pre-installed voices.
The "Microsoft Anna" voice that comes with Vista is a fairly high quality voice. Other defaut voices (especially those that come with Microsoft XP) sound very unnatural. A lot of "paid" voices from 3rd party providers will offer you samples before purchase.
Improving the Team Name Pronunciation
Once you enable "Voice Announcer", you can then add/edit the "Phonetic" team names. This will give you complete control over how a team is pronounced by the "Announcer". You will want to use phonetic spelling to assist as much as possible with the pronunciation.
To add/edit a "Phonetic" name:
- Select a team from the drop-down box.
- Under the "Audio/Music" header, click on the "Phonetic" input box and begin typing.
- To hear what it sounds like, click the button.
- To save changes to individual teams, click on the "Submit team changes" button.
Discussion Topics
Some of our users have found links to alternative voices below: