Sound engineer here! Just judging by how mobile voice sounds like. It sounds like it is using resynthesis! If it is, it is recreating your voice with a synthesizer. And then using formant filters to create the sound of different vowels. Not sure how the consonants are created. Maybe using filtered white noise. It is likely similar to the technique that was used for stephen hawkings speech generation.
Thank you for your response. Yeah, that was my assessment as well. That's certainly what it sounds like. Hopefully, there's a way to achieve this effect without having to resort to using this computer.
It's definitely a vocoder-based audio codec. It reminds me of DVSI's Adaptive Multi Band Encoding (AMBE), most popularly used in APCO P25 public safety radio networks and the Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) standard in amateur radio. It's used because for the last 25 years, it's been the best way to shove voice into 4.8kbps or less, in such a way that something with the processing power of a potato can decode it.
I wonder if "mobile voice" is actually the LPC10 codec under the hood, as the bitrate matches up. Sounds a lot like it too, especially when trying to record anything that isn't voice, and people who used it a lot (it was used in many early encrypted telephones used by governments/military, hence the need for low bitrate) report that it masks their actual voice though the words are clear enough to be understood.
Digital radios use a similar technique to compress voice audio, using algorithms like AMBE, AMBE2 or Codec2 to transmit audio via a digital, low bandwidth radio connection.
i love when i see a video that interests me by someone i don't recognize at first, only to see that i have seen their stuff before and am already subscribed. congratulations, you got me twice. :)
The mobile voice compressor feels like it has the most potential out of them all. I listen to a fair amount of hyperpop and webcore music where this effect would fit perfectly within the soundfont of those genres, love it. I assume you can transfer the recordings off the computer? Great video! I'm glad you held onto it and shared :)
This thing was on top of my wishlist in the when it first came out. Obviously, it was way too expensive for a gadget that I didn't really have any use for.
Whoa, that's cool that you knew about it when it came out. I had no idea something like this existed until randomly finding one. I was surprisingly unaware of a lot of tech growing up in Silicon Valley in the 80s and 90s for some reason.
As others have mentioned the recording is using low bandwidth linear predictive coding or lpc. This is why it sounds so similar to the Voice of a speak and spell. I quite like the crunch and tone this codec creates. Great video!
Yeah, I'd try cloning the disk and then running it in a Virtual machine, or at least extracting the interesting programs then running them in some Dos emulator.
Believe it or not, the same thing is going on behind the scenes, when you boil it down. Non-voice audio is going into a vocoder, which encodes it as best as it can (as data needed to synthesize a voice), and then decodes it by synthesizing said voice. For Mobile Voice it's probably Linear Predictive Coding (LPC), and for Adobe Enhance Speech it's a neural vocoder, probably related to WaveNet or a variational autoencoder.
Reading the patent you provided, it looks like the right thing. If I'm reading it correctly, it's taking the recorded audio and extracting from that parameters for a "enhanced version" of a popular text to speech algorithm- that would explain why it's quantized and monophonic, as it's more of a smaller re-interpretation of a recorded sound than a direct compression of that sound- it's similar in practice to giving someone an orchestral recording and having them recreate the gist of it on a piezo buzzer
Old hand writing recognition is bad in an incredible way. Even if it something doesn't look like a word it still produces some kind of result, sometimes it even writes words on its own
It really is fun to play with. I should investigate and see if there's an option to always convert into real words. That could yield some really funny results if the option exists.
You should use the writing software to create some lyrics (maybe send it through a few times, so it gets sufficiently garbled) then record your vocals with that Mobile Voice format.
@@japhyriddle The only one that sold recently went for $175, and someone is asking $399 for another, so while it's true that there is one delusional person asking $1200 for one, I don't think saying "they go for $1,000" is in any way accurate. Even $175 is quite a bit for a windows CE machine though, to be fair
If enough people see this video and get interested, the community can likely figure out how to achieve this effect without the computer. That's my hope.
@japhyriddle Or possibly someone knows of something similar out there. It push comes to shove theres also emulators, which if there's a emulation of that windows version it should have access to mobile voice encoding
Sound engineer here! Just judging by how mobile voice sounds like. It sounds like it is using resynthesis! If it is, it is recreating your voice with a synthesizer. And then using formant filters to create the sound of different vowels. Not sure how the consonants are created. Maybe using filtered white noise. It is likely similar to the technique that was used for stephen hawkings speech generation.
Thank you for your response. Yeah, that was my assessment as well. That's certainly what it sounds like. Hopefully, there's a way to achieve this effect without having to resort to using this computer.
It's definitely a vocoder-based audio codec. It reminds me of DVSI's Adaptive Multi Band Encoding (AMBE), most popularly used in APCO P25 public safety radio networks and the Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) standard in amateur radio. It's used because for the last 25 years, it's been the best way to shove voice into 4.8kbps or less, in such a way that something with the processing power of a potato can decode it.
It sounds like Xbox Live voice chat back in the Xbox 360 days. Turned everyone into a speak 'n spell.
This kinda feels like the perfect device for a CRD episode.
Ha. I actually considered contacting him. He'd go much deeper than I did. He probably has three of them already.
@@japhyriddle Three of them? Unlikely. In his case I'd bet on two of them.
Two of them, plus one he already tore apart, while the second one was some not working obscure version@@KETHERCORTEX
Man, this channel rocks.
It's such a gem
Truer words have never been said
Aw. Thank you : )
your videos are like nice, little treats in a world of video essays
I wonder if "mobile voice" is actually the LPC10 codec under the hood, as the bitrate matches up. Sounds a lot like it too, especially when trying to record anything that isn't voice, and people who used it a lot (it was used in many early encrypted telephones used by governments/military, hence the need for low bitrate) report that it masks their actual voice though the words are clear enough to be understood.
Mobile Voice is so low quality it genuinely sounds like that one Pac-Man pinball machine with a voice synthesizer, honestly kinda kick ass.
Digital radios use a similar technique to compress voice audio, using algorithms like AMBE, AMBE2 or Codec2 to transmit audio via a digital, low bandwidth radio connection.
Ooh, interesting. Maybe it's an early attempt at something like that.
"It still sounds like me. Or at least a Speak&Spell doing an impression of me."
Mobile Voice sounds so incredible. so much musical potential
If I ever spend the time getting file transferring to work, I'd like to use Mobile Voice for something.
@@japhyriddle I really like the character of it recorded via the mic'd speaker!
You should be able to run it in a virtual machine
there's a similar open-source codec called codec2, though you have to compile it yourself (or at least i had to)
@@japhyriddle Honestly, treat the curve of that speaker as part of the instrument. It sounds pretty awesome.
i love when i see a video that interests me by someone i don't recognize at first, only to see that i have seen their stuff before and am already subscribed.
congratulations, you got me twice. :)
Ha ha. Thanks. I'm glad I'm able to hold your interest.
Thats a 8bit music! That awesome!
Im looking for one now!
please dont get rid of this computer
If I do get rid of it, it will go to someone who will get more use out of it than I would.
The mobile voice compressor feels like it has the most potential out of them all. I listen to a fair amount of hyperpop and webcore music where this effect would fit perfectly within the soundfont of those genres, love it. I assume you can transfer the recordings off the computer?
Great video! I'm glad you held onto it and shared :)
i love this channel. im so lucky to be one of the relatively few to see this video. please never stop making videos.
Aw. Thank you. I have no plans of stopping.
3:06 sounds like those crusty xbox 360 live recordings to me
i need one of these computers now
IT HAS A GOD DAMN LPC VOICE SYNTHESIS BUILT INTO IT??? I WILL TAKE 500 OF THESE, THANK YOU
This thing was on top of my wishlist in the when it first came out. Obviously, it was way too expensive for a gadget that I didn't really have any use for.
Whoa, that's cool that you knew about it when it came out. I had no idea something like this existed until randomly finding one. I was surprisingly unaware of a lot of tech growing up in Silicon Valley in the 80s and 90s for some reason.
As others have mentioned the recording is using low bandwidth linear predictive coding or lpc. This is why it sounds so similar to the Voice of a speak and spell. I quite like the crunch and tone this codec creates. Great video!
Never in my life have i thought about "Japhy tech reviews"
Edit: wow, this laptop has a built-in autotuner
A number of my videos are tech reviews, but only for things that are good for making art/music with.
I love this video style!
The kind of channel that makes you happy whenever there is a new video :)
Omitting audio & video recording apps, from all recent versions of Windows, is one of the biggest downgrades Microsoft has ever pushed
Weird but cool, My favourite! Also love the film styles of your videos so much!
This channel is great
Yeah, I'd try cloning the disk and then running it in a Virtual machine, or at least extracting the interesting programs then running them in some Dos emulator.
this one's a banger
Christ this video is well written
Playing a song with "Mobile Voice" sounds so funny lol, it reminds me playing song with Adobe Enhance Speech
Believe it or not, the same thing is going on behind the scenes, when you boil it down. Non-voice audio is going into a vocoder, which encodes it as best as it can (as data needed to synthesize a voice), and then decodes it by synthesizing said voice. For Mobile Voice it's probably Linear Predictive Coding (LPC), and for Adobe Enhance Speech it's a neural vocoder, probably related to WaveNet or a variational autoencoder.
Mobile voice is crazy--i wonder what sort of low-bandwidth, or alternate transmission methods it would be suited for.
This is so cool! Thank you for showing off this silly little computer to us :)
My pleasure.
Reading the patent you provided, it looks like the right thing. If I'm reading it correctly, it's taking the recorded audio and extracting from that parameters for a "enhanced version" of a popular text to speech algorithm- that would explain why it's quantized and monophonic, as it's more of a smaller re-interpretation of a recorded sound than a direct compression of that sound- it's similar in practice to giving someone an orchestral recording and having them recreate the gist of it on a piezo buzzer
I must admit to only skimming through the patent, but yes, it definitely seems like some kind of synthesis of the original audio.
Old hand writing recognition is bad in an incredible way. Even if it something doesn't look like a word it still produces some kind of result, sometimes it even writes words on its own
It really is fun to play with. I should investigate and see if there's an option to always convert into real words. That could yield some really funny results if the option exists.
Maybe you can donate this computer, I'd rather keep it, also the speak and spell part 😭💀
You should use the writing software to create some lyrics (maybe send it through a few times, so it gets sufficiently garbled) then record your vocals with that Mobile Voice format.
I looove refridge.....old computers
:)))) cool guy with a cool lil computer
It sounds like a square wave modulator, like maybe it's 8khz like the UI days but 1 bit sample depth or something strange.
I'm not used to microphones on devices looking like little sinkholes you could fall into.
Ha ha. It was a style in the 90s.
@japhyriddle It reminds me of reptile ears. 🦎
@Pixelarity64 Oh yeah! I didn't think of that, but you're right.
2:53 sounds like you Making a Audio for a Analog horror film
I love you Japhy.
I love pc computers.
Games gamers gamings
do you happen to also like chai tea ?
@progect3548 chai tea là cái dì
open the wav file saved in notepad, there would be a string indicating the codec used.
Definitely weird that mobile voice shows up as "0KB/s"
I laughed when I first saw that. I assume they're rounding down to get that number. So, it's something less than 512 bytes per second I guess.
2.4kbps, so about 300 bytes a second.
Let me get it.
They go for $1000 on Ebay
That's insane. Is that what people will actually pay for one of these? Or is that what people are trying to sell them for?
@@japhyriddle It's rare, vintage and quirky. I guess people will pay for it.
@@japhyriddle The only one that sold recently went for $175, and someone is asking $399 for another, so while it's true that there is one delusional person asking $1200 for one, I don't think saying "they go for $1,000" is in any way accurate. Even $175 is quite a bit for a windows CE machine though, to be fair
Huh me too
hi
Hello
Shame you couldnt find anythign about the mobile voice, id love to use it for making new horrible audios
If enough people see this video and get interested, the community can likely figure out how to achieve this effect without the computer. That's my hope.
@japhyriddle Or possibly someone knows of something similar out there. It push comes to shove theres also emulators, which if there's a emulation of that windows version it should have access to mobile voice encoding
@@willlit2806 That's a great point! There's probably a Windows CE emulator out there. If one exists and has audio routing, that could be a solution.
:D