Lee Ridley, aka Lost Voice Guy, is pleased to announce that he has received delivery of his new Geordie voice.
Lee, who is about to set out on a brand new tour said: "It feels amazing to finally sound more like my family and friends. I’ve dreamed about this day since I got my first communication aid when I was 8 years old. I’ve already been enjoying saying all my favourite Geordie phrases such as ‘wey aye man’ and ‘howay’. It’s nice to have a local accent at last! I can’t wait to try it out on my new tour.”
In order to find the perfect voice Lee launched a search last year and was inundated with offers from over 500 potential donors from across the Newcastle area who were each asked to read a short extract from his book, I’m Only In It For The Parking. Lee then listened to each entry in turn in order to select the voice that he felt best suited his regional and family accent.
After much thought he selected Voice Over Artist, Dan Pye as the person to provide the new Geordie accent for his communication device. He felt that Dan’s voice fitted the bill perfectly.
Dan, who grew up in Whickham, Newcastle upon Tyne said: “Being able to help Lee communicate in a tone which is more personal to him is fantastic. Being a Geordie has a very distinctive, nationally recognisable tone which I am very proud of. Sharing that with Lee, I hope will give him a sense of identity that the rest of the North East are famed for.”
To create a highly natural Geordie text-to-speech voice tailored for use on a communication device, CereProc customised the vocabulary during the script consultation process to incorporate phrases that Lee will say often and even regional Geordie slang such as “Whey Aye Man”. The customised vocabulary was then added into a phonetically balanced script for Dan to record in a professional recording studio for around six hours during which he recreated a range of vocal emotional styles. This process gives the synthetic voice emotional capability giving Lee the ability to express his emotions through his voice. CereProc built Lee’s voice using their system CereWave AI that incorporates Artificial Intelligence with deep neural-network modelling speech synthesis.
Paul Welham (CereProc’s Chairman & Chief Executive Officer) commented: “Working with Lee has been a great opportunity for a greater audience, to see how CereProc’s technology can be used to create regional accents, that gives Lee and others the freedom to have their own accent to talk with, rather than a bland BBC accent. To hear Lee speak with a Geordie accent has been an ambition of mine since we first met, as I believe Lee is such a great inspiration to everyone with a disability, as he shows what can be achieved and overcome using technology combined wilt Lee’s great tenacity”
