Finding Siri

October 4, 2013 3:05 PM

Susan Bennett has identified herself as the original American voice of Apple's Siri. She came forward after tech blog the Verge did a video feature causing some to misattribute the voice of Siri to another woman.
posted by rcraniac (27 comments total)

Aw, I was kinda hoping her last name would turn out to be Glass.
posted by Spatch at 3:23 PM on October 4, 2013

I already like this woman though I know nothing about her because I'm nuts about Siri.

Speaking as a human, though this seems incredibly weird to me, apparently it isn't.
posted by bearwife at 3:25 PM on October 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Has anyone heard from the "You've got mail!" guy in awhile? I'm worried about him.
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:27 PM on October 4, 2013 [13 favorites]

Must be weird/fun for her friends and family who call her up to have a chat.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:32 PM on October 4, 2013

Btw, a great read on prototype iPhones in the NYT today.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:34 PM on October 4, 2013 [8 favorites]

Has anyone heard from the "You've got mail!" guy in awhile? I'm worried about him.

He's still around, though he's happily retired.
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:38 PM on October 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

She seems like a really nice voice. Very human.
posted by heyho at 4:04 PM on October 4, 2013

She has a wonderful voice, and should also be on camera more often. What a lovely, welcoming face she has!
posted by xingcat at 4:09 PM on October 4, 2013

The voice of Siri in the UK is also one of the voices that was often chosen by people who wanted to use XtraNormal to frame their complaints about whatever industry they were involved in. Consequently, it's easier to frame Siri's many failures as surliness and malevolence rather than simple technical problems. He always sounds sarcastic, at least.
posted by Grangousier at 4:32 PM on October 4, 2013

They should have used Majel Barrett while they had the chance.
posted by Renoroc at 5:03 PM on October 4, 2013 [22 favorites]

I'd have preferred a Brian Blessed option.
posted by sonascope at 5:18 PM on October 4, 2013 [6 favorites]

We like guy-Siri. We call him Clive. Or at least we did. I think the default male voice has an American accent now. I liked my snarky British phone. It was like having my own Jarvis.
posted by Biblio at 6:16 PM on October 4, 2013 [4 favorites]

I love the anecdote of her son calling his bank and his mom responding!
posted by radioamy at 7:06 PM on October 4, 2013

From Blazecock Pileon's link:

"Very rarely did I see [Steve Jobs] become completely unglued — it happened, but mostly he just looked at you and very directly said in a very loud and stern voice, ‘You are [expletive] up my company,’ or, ‘If we fail, it will be because of you.’"

"Grignon, like everyone else at rehearsals, knew that if those glitches showed up during the real presentation, Jobs would not be blaming himself for the problems."

Christ, etc.
posted by oneironaut at 7:53 PM on October 4, 2013

i had someone more 'severe' pictured in my head, but i think that's mostly due to the autotuning. oh robot voice.

i often wonder what the mta subway car voice guy looks like.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 9:06 PM on October 4, 2013

Me: “Hi Susan.”

Siri: “Hello.”

Proof!
posted by oceanjesse at 10:39 PM on October 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

For some reason I was sure the idol of Apple's real name would start with Sharon.

Anyway, we're not quite at the cyberpunk future yet, given that Apple let her live.
posted by happyroach at 10:59 PM on October 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

The London Underground's automated female voice announcement system is known as Sonia, because she gets onya nerves...
posted by Devonian at 3:31 AM on October 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

I already know what Siri looks like.
posted by arzakh at 5:34 AM on October 5, 2013

I downloaded the Jarvis app for fun, but I really would like having Paul Bettany's voice for Siri at the system level.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:30 AM on October 5, 2013

They should sell extra Siri voices on iTunes like they do ringtones. It would be like Brian Blessed as the voice of your TomTom.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:52 AM on October 5, 2013 [3 favorites]

What.....what happens when SUSAN uses her iPhone? *shiver*
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:53 AM on October 5, 2013

Biblio: I heard the male-Siri voice on a British coworker's phone and shouted, "That's Clive!" It's the same voice I'd selected for my old hardware GPS and given that nickname. I've missed him ever since the old device's maps became obsolete.
posted by nev at 7:56 AM on October 5, 2013

I had always assumed that Siri was 100% synthesized, like "Victoria" on older macs, or "Fred" from the very early ones (better known as the voice of Stephen Hawking)

Also, she (Siri) sounds a LOT like one of the characters on Xtranorml. Do they contract voices from the same provider? Is it really easier/better to do it this way, vs. synthesized speech?

I feel skeptical about all this, though she sounds enough like Siri, I suppose.
posted by ShutterBun at 9:24 PM on October 5, 2013

@ ShutterBun: I know more about photography than I do audio. I suspect it's simply easier to manipulate a recorded voice and have it sound human than it is to make a convincing voice 100% synthetically, the same way it's easier to take photos and apply them to a 3D model than it is to create the textures from a blank canvas in Photoshop.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 2:09 AM on October 6, 2013

All I know is whoever voices the TD Canada Trust automated telephone line needs a swift kick in the nuts.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:26 PM on October 7, 2013

You can make yourself Fred with software like festival (and lots and lots of time and a few grad students). Everything's cut up units these days, I think...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:23 PM on October 7, 2013