Character voice change

Question

Hello,

We have some inquires about the AI voices and if anything has been changed with the voice of Andrew this week.  Please note that not only the voice but also the accent and the speed. The accent is some audios sounds weird, and the reading speed has been increased even though it was set to "0.8". We have samples from both audios (before the change and after) downloaded if you need them to see the differences.  Also, we noticed that the voice sounds different when played in different desktops.

Please notify us about any possible changes, because we use this Character (Andrew) in many audios for education purposes.

Thank you,

Waiting for your reply

Answer 1

Hi @T Tsakalos,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum!

The changes you're observing with the voice of "Andrew" are likely due to the August 2024 update, which introduced enhancements to the multilingual voice models, including "en-US-AndrewMultilingualNeural." This update improved the naturalness and quality of the voices, and "Andrew" now supports additional styles like "empathetic" and "relieved," which could affect the accent and reading speed. The differences you're experiencing in accent and speed might be a result of these updates.

If the changes significantly impact your use case, especially for educational purposes, I encourage you to submit a feedback through the Azure Feedback Forum. Here's the link to the Azure Feedback Forum: Post idea · Community (azure.com). Additionally, review and test the new voice models and styles to see if they align with your needs.

For more info, see: Azure AI Speech Release notes.

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you any further queries.

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Answer 2

Hi @santoshkc ,

thanks for the reply. The answer explains the issue but the problem remains, as we would like to continue using the voice of "Andrew" and not change to another voice. We also submitted a ticket to the Azure Feedback Forum as requested, but the answer was to check your previous answer to this topic. So, we would appreciate knowing if the voice of "Andrew" (not Andrew Multilingual) will be fixed, having the characteristics it had before the August 2024 update. The answer to this question will help us decide if we should move to using another voice or wait for another update to fix this issue.

Thank you,