Brontoforumus Archive

Discussion Boards => Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death => Topic started by: Brentai on February 12, 2009, 06:59:36 PM

Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Brentai on February 12, 2009, 06:59:36 PM
(THAD EDIT: Split; quote added for context.)

Nobody's going to choose a text-to-speech program over an audiobook, given the choice.  With the possible exception of A Brief History of Time, As Read By the Author.

Hawking's personal vocoder is pretty distinctive though.  Or maybe it's the way he works it, but it's as unique a voice as Morgan Freeman's at any rate.
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Mongrel on February 12, 2009, 07:39:33 PM
Clearly he pimped his vocoder.
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Thad on February 12, 2009, 09:36:55 PM
Hawking's personal vocoder is pretty distinctive though.  Or maybe it's the way he works it, but it's as unique a voice as Morgan Freeman's at any rate.

...I'm pretty sure it's out-of-the-box 1980's Apple style.

Which is how MC Hawking manages to sound pretty much exactly like him.

(Hawking has commented that he loves it and could never change to any other voice but regrets that it makes him sound American.)
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Dooly on February 12, 2009, 10:19:59 PM
When recording episodes of Futurama in which Hawking appears and is credited, do they fly him in to the studio in California and have him type his lines into his chair's computer with a microphone placed next to his speaker, or do they just feed the script into a text-to-speech program that uses the same "voice?"
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: TA on February 12, 2009, 10:28:10 PM
Might just be over the phone.  That's how they did the Hank Aarons.

I feel like you can't credit Hawking if you type the script into your own text-to-speech.  Besides, he probably has all kinds of phonetic trickery, because he's far more comprehensible than I remember Apple's old text-to-speech being.
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Niku on February 12, 2009, 11:21:43 PM
As far as I remember, Hawking does his own voice whenever he's actually credited for voice over work.  I know he did his own on Simpsons and Futurama, anyway.
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: McDohl on February 16, 2009, 01:47:19 PM
Remember the time that he schooled Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and LCDR Data in that one episode of Star Trek?  :wuv:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O31qRH3O6c
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Büge on February 16, 2009, 02:32:10 PM
Interesting. I was just watched A Brief History of Time the other day. He's got quite a rig. And it only requires one button.
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Thad on February 16, 2009, 03:02:00 PM
I'm pretty sure he doesn't use buttons at all anymore and it's all done by blinking now, because that's the last bit of motion he has control over.
Title: Stephen Hawking
Post by: sei on February 16, 2009, 03:07:48 PM
Might be his cheek.  Footage of him manipulating the device (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/stephen_hawking_asks_big_questions_about_the_universe.html).  (This is a year old, though, and it seems he's cycling through stuff he'd already saved to its memory, though.)

Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Mongrel on April 20, 2009, 09:47:15 AM
Some of you may or may not heard. The old fellow's got a really bad chest infection and is in hospital.

He's not quite at death's door, but he keeps loitering around the porch. Let's hope he doesn't become a candidate for the obit thread.

Also, necro reply!:

I'm pretty sure he doesn't use buttons at all anymore and it's all done by blinking now, because that's the last bit of motion he has control over.

Interestingly enough, the article I read this morning mentioned (in passing) him controlling some things with his fingertips. Though that could always just have been lazy journalism.
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Zaratustra on April 20, 2009, 04:44:12 PM
He used to be able to use his fingertips, but not anymore.
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Mongrel on April 20, 2009, 07:44:59 PM
Update: Condition stabilized, but few details. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090420.whawking0420/BNStory/International/home)
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Kazz on April 21, 2009, 02:46:02 AM
Quote
Shortly after that interview, Prof. Hawking announced his new position in Waterloo, alongside Prof. Turok.

(http://kazz.rooms.cwal.net/turokhawk.png)
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Friday on April 22, 2009, 12:21:31 AM
somehow, Hawking is better at jumping
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Thad on April 24, 2009, 07:44:49 PM
I knew he'd missed the thing at Gammage, because the girl I dated for like a week went to it.

She got her picture taken with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

...Have I mentioned I am disappointed that that didn't work out?
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Fredward on April 24, 2009, 11:04:31 PM
A friend of mine almost went to Waterloo. I think I will tease him mercilessly for it, now.
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Mongrel on May 08, 2009, 09:14:43 AM
Bad news for Waterloo, but good news for physics. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090508.whawking0508/BNStory/National/home)

I.E. he's recovering.
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Büge on May 08, 2009, 06:30:57 PM
He couldn't escape if he wanted to.
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Beat Bandit on May 08, 2009, 06:56:24 PM
Hawking is just one more piece of evidence that we're all born with twenty stat points and choose how to distribute them.
Title: Re: Stephen Hawking
Post by: Brentai on May 08, 2009, 07:14:35 PM
Fucker seriously min-maxed his Flaws.