# Who was the original voice artist for the Speak & Spell? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674 "2019-02-16T16:10:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/1 "2019-02-16T16:10:59Z")
The original Speak & Spell toy featured digitized speech, though at such a low bitrate that the result was raspy and robotic-sounding. (This has misled many into thinking that the speech was actually synthesized, like the tech Stephen Hawking used.) I was wondering if anyone knows the identity of the voice artist who recorded all the words and prompts for the original American edition of the toy. Googling turns up plenty of claims (some attributed to Gene Frantz, one of the toy’s original designers) that the voice belongs to a radio DJ from Dallas, but these claims never seem to include the DJ’s name. Can anyone identify the DJ in question? Has he ever given any interviews about his (anonymous) fame? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/2 "2019-02-16T17:05:14Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > (This has misled many into thinking that the speech was actually synthesized, like the tech Stephen Hawking used.) Actually, [they were correctly led](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_LPC_Speech_Chips). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/3 "2019-02-16T17:13:00Z")
I remember [Albert Brooks on Johnny Carson interacting with a S&S](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6uFHC9lfzk). Funny. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/4 "2019-02-16T17:20:42Z")
(I see now that there was some human recording at the beginning of the process, from [a “professional speaker”)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak_%26_Spell_(toy)#Electronics) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/5 "2019-02-16T17:46:23Z")
Oh, man. This is crazy. I just came across the one my kids had. It doesn’t work any more. I’m gonna buy new batteries for it and see if that will fix it. Haven’t thought of this thing for years. I always thought it was a CG speech that was talking. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/6 "2019-02-16T19:33:50Z")
By coincidence, this article was published on the Language Log today. [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=41839#more-41839](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=41839#more-41839) It goes into more detail about how the speech was generated but it doesn’t unfortunately identify the original speaker. I remember when the toy was launched and was featured on a pre-Christmas toy show on Irish TV. The presenter selected the highest difficulty setting and misheard the instruction. The machine had said “Spell ‘rhythm’” but the presenter got it wrong because he heard it as “Spell ‘ribbon’”. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/7 "2019-02-16T21:47:25Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > By coincidence, this article was published on the Language Log today. That’s not a coincidence; that’s what led me to post this question here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/8 "2019-02-16T21:54:26Z")
Obviously it’s Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/9 "2019-02-16T21:59:22Z")
So a voice synthesizer doesn’t necessarily produce a synthetic voice. Sigh… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/10 "2019-02-16T22:49:01Z")
Alas, the batteries didn’t make it work. I used an Emory board and cleaned the little thingy-s in the battery compartment off. Still didn’t work. I really wanted to hear that voice again. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/11 "2019-02-16T22:57:40Z")
I listened to the demo. Ok, I’ve heard enough. Gave me the heebie-geebies, it did. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/12 "2019-02-16T22:58:48Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Alas, the batteries didn’t make it work. I used an Emory board and cleaned the little thingy-s in the battery compartment off. Still didn’t work. I really wanted to hear that voice again. I originally was going to post this to tease **Beck** , but the video actually has some relative info in it. Although it’s probably above most people’s head who are not in the computer biz. [Speak and Spell voice.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIGPBw-AHkQ) ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/13 "2019-02-16T23:37:40Z")
So basically it’s so processed it would barely resemble the original speaker anyhow… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/14 "2019-02-16T23:39:51Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I originally was going to post this to tease **Beck** , but the video actually has some relative info in it. Although it’s probably above most people’s head who are not in the computer biz. > > [Speak and Spell voice.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIGPBw-AHkQ) Acckkk. That was creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/15 "2019-02-17T19:30:27Z")
Am I the only one who originally thought this was about the old Speak-and-Say toy, not Speak-and-spell? You know, the one where you pulled a cord and a little plastic dial would spin and point at a cow and say “The cow goes Moo”. I was very surprised to hear that it used a digital audio chip. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/16 "2019-02-17T20:29:47Z")
I had the speak and math version …… to help with some math I just couldn’t get a grasp on … grandma made me take it on a trip once …… once I played a multiplication game a few dozen times she regretted that decision I know they were coming out with a “female” voiced version of the line because they figured since most teachers were female it would help better …. I don’t think they did tho ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/17 "2019-02-17T20:30:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Am I the only one who originally thought this was about the old Speak-and-Say toy, not Speak-and-spell? You know, the one where you pulled a cord and a little plastic dial would spin and point at a cow and say “The cow goes Moo”. I was very surprised to hear that it used a digital audio chip. Up until this post I _did_ think this was about See-n-Says. According to Wikipedia, they now do indeed have a digital chip but before the 90s were a phonograph (!) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/18 "2019-02-17T20:39:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I was very surprised to hear that it used a digital audio chip. Okay, _this_ time I am right in saying “[nuh-uh](https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/see-say2.htm).” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/19 "2019-02-17T21:32:28Z")
Sometimes a VOIP connection without proper QoS will sound like a Speak and Spell… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674/20 "2019-02-17T21:40:31Z")
Yup, **Darren Garrison** , exactly why I was surprised to hear that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-original-voice-artist-for-the-speak-spell/829674.md?page=2)