New Upcoming product: ATC Voice & Agent Names Set

[fsaerodata]

Hello all,
Some news about our upcoming new product. It’s the fsAerodata ATC Voice Database for FSX and Prepar3D. Basically it's a replacement of the outdated Prepar3D default ATC voice and messages displayed on screen, using instead the latest data included in current fsAerodata aeronautical database.

After the update, the new ATC set matches the real-world data available on current charts or add-on products based on Navigraph navdata. The updated messages include among others: airports or any airfield with at least one comm listed, airspace ARTCC agents, airport comms, current and extinct airlines, aircraft types, manufacturers and the default phraseology currently used.

The end result is much better coverage of airports, higher fidelity, and realism as they match the real world, and the benefit that they can be updated following the AIRAC cycles provided by fsAerodata.

Furthermore, the the addition of thousands of small airfield names enhances the experience when flying VFR.

The product includes the voices:
3 voices in English (United States)
2 voices in English (Britain)
2 voices in English (Australia).

Some examples of development data: audio ATC chatter recorded (the text displayed on the ATC window should be the same as what is broadcasted); please download and open the audio files with your default mp3:

EGKA Shoreham Approach:
https://www.fsaerodata.com/public/media ... oach_2.mp3

London Center Upper Airspace
https://www.fsaerodata.com/public/media ... nter_2.mp3

Clearance KBLI Bellingham
https://www.fsaerodata.com/public/media ... ance_2.mp3

Comparative of default FSX/Prepar3D vs fsaerodata ATC Voice database



I'll provide more information in the coming weeks,
Enjoy flying!

Edit: The post title has been modified to reflect the aim of the project with more precision.

[airernie]

Sound great. Would suggest that you look at correcting the 118 'dot' 2 in Billingham to 118 'point' 2.
Ernie

[fsaerodata]

Definitely. In general, the phraseology hasn't been modified from default; the aim of this project has been to align the call signs and agents to the real world ones.
Best Regards,

[Trinidad]

José, this is a very laudable effort that you are making to render flight simming more accurate technically speaking.

There is an awfully acute need for a better ATC on P3D, ALL developers who made an attempt to create - sometimes very smart - ATC programs failed miserably on the quality of voices though, and I, for one, had to make a judgement call as to whether it is better using an inaccurate - or rather incomplete - default ATC instead of having to put up with artificial and lousy - sometime inintelligible - voices for hours!!!

Why would you not go the extra mile making a professional sound job with a professional sound engineer and sound equipment who could replicate - quality wise - what Microsoft originally did ages ago with voices sounding perfectly natural, not using the "cut and paste" easy way that really does not achieve the level of realism we are all seeking. I realise this deviates from your original project, but since you are able to write a correct ATC scenario, then the next step would be to match the quality of your excellent work with the quality of the voices.

Granted, this would be more complex and expansive to develop, but the commercial and financial reward would be incomparable with a product that will be technically accurate but commercially of questionnable quality. You have taken the right approach to limit the number of voices, we dont need to cover all the world accents in English, but we do need to hear natural voices, not those staccato verbal sentence deliveries.

Forgive me for being so blunt, but I have been - like many other simmers - so disappointed by all those ATC programmes done with lots of care and attention to details for the technical part and falling apart with their voices, that I would not like to see your hard work going to waste for the same reason.

I wish I were a professional sound engineer to join force with you, but I am not unfortunately. Worth digging further?

Whatever you decide, best wishes José!

Jean-Claude

[BushePilot]

Trinidad's post is excellent and I am just writing to concur with this entirely. I have to be blunt here, and I hope you take this as constructive feedback; I would not use this product simply due to the text-to-speech voices are unbearable to listen to. They break any semblance of immersion. It is the same reason I do not use other ATC products. I would prefer the limited default ATC even with it's inaccuracies.

The sim world is crying out for a decent ATC upgrade from the default. But that means it needs some professional audio work, to at least match the default voices. Yes it is a far cry from your original proposition, however I think you will find much greater success should you decide to invest in that route.

[unc1rlm]

Cereproc makes some fantastic voices if they could be incorporated instead of the default microsoft crappy voices


Good Luck Jose on your venture!!
People will pay for quality stuff...unfortunately we buy a bunch of crappy stuff and yours is not one of them!!

Bestest,
BobM

[fsaerodata]

Product has been released.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=393