Thanks for everyone's responses- keep them coming if you have different experiences. I am currently in phase one of a longitudinal study on voice banking and I'm focusing now on compliance issues with AAC devices and I'm trying to see if there is a link between non compliance and the voice that patients choose to use. Ideally I'd like to see if those patients who have the ability (prior to losing their voice) to voice bank are more compliant with their devices when it's their own voice.

Right now I'm recording my own synthesized voice with Model Talker but it is incredibly time consuming and fatiguing for ME, I can only imagine how fatiguing it would be for those with ALS or MND. I'm excited to see the end result.

It seems to me from most of these responses that those who are doing a form of voice banking are essentially doing "phrase banking".

Jen, please let me know how it goes putting the model talk voices on the Vmax- That is my next step as well.

Thanks everyone!

Erin Singleton M.A., CCC-SLP
Neuroscience Outpatient Rehabilitation Center
2335 East Kashian Lane, Suite 301
Fresno, California 93701
Office: (559) 459-6056
Cell: (559) 250-1949
Fax: (559) 459-2957
Email: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Coggiola, Jennifer L.
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 1:58 PM
To: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Voice Banking

We have patients who record phrases as wav files on their home PCs. We then transfer the files to an SGD and link them to a button on a page-set when needed.  I try to discuss it with our patients who can speak and are at risk of loosing their speech.  Overall, few of them do it.  Would love to start recording phrases myself during clinic while I'm "testing" their speech.  Even having 5 phrases recorded to add to a page-set when the SGDs arrive would be wonderful.  Just haven't organized the process or storage of the recordings.

I have 2 patients who created synthesized voices through Model Talker.  We are just now looking at putting one of the synthesized voices on an V Max + with EyeMax.

Jen Coggiola, MA, CCC/SLP
Speech Pathologist
ALS Center at UCSF
400 Parnassus Ave., 8th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94143
(415) 353-2122 clinic phone
(415) 353-2524 clinic fax
(925) 323-0175 cell phone
xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
________________________________
From: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Erin Singleton [xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 1:18 PM
To: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Voice Banking

Hi everyone,

I am sort of surveying other SLP's that work with AAC to find out who out there is presently doing voice banking, and if so what type of voice banking? I have heard other therapists tell me that they regularly voice bank with their patients but I am curious if they mean phrase banking or do they mean creating a synthesized voice for their patient.  If you do voice bank do you wait until the patient has a device and record it directly to their device or do you record it to your own device and transfer the files later?

I am very curious to find out! I am currently recording my own voice to create a synthesized voice and it's very time consuming and taxing. Has anyone else done this?

Erin Singleton M.A., CCC-SLP
Neuroscience Outpatient Rehabilitation Center
2335 East Kashian Lane, Suite 301
Fresno, California 93701
Office: (559) 459-6056
Cell: (559) 250-1949
Fax: (559) 459-2957
Email: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  ________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------
WARNING/CONFIDENTIAL:
-------------------------------------------------------
This email, including attachments, may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law (including, but not limited to, protected health information). It is not intended for transmission to, or receipt by, any unauthorized persons. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you believe this email was sent to you in error, do not read it. Reply to the sender informing them of the error and then destroy all copies and attachments of the message from your system. Thank you.

-------------------------------------------------------
WARNING/CONFIDENTIAL:
-------------------------------------------------------
This email, including attachments, may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law (including, but not limited to, protected health information).  It is not intended for transmission to, or receipt by, any unauthorized persons.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.  If you believe this email was sent to you in error, do not read it.   Reply to the sender informing them of the error and then destroy all copies and attachments of the message from your system.   Thank you.