Third Time Is The Charm:
Voice Buddy 3 From eDimensional

By Cap Mason, Flight Simulation Editor (28 May 2005)

Sit back, relax, grab a cup of tea or a cold one. If you want to get the scoop on the most exciting thing to hit the gaming and sim world, you might be here awhile. Voice Buddy 3 is jam-packed with so many goodies I just couldn't leave anything out.

If you read my previous reviews of Voice Buddy 1 and 2, you know how impressed I was with the world's first voice control for flightsimming that actually worked. Each version in the Voice Buddy series was significantly bigger and better than the previous release. Now, the wizards at eDimensional have outdone themselves with the new Voice Buddy 3 (VB3). This latest version of the world's best-selling voice control utility for games and sims has added lots of new features making it the best gaming value on the market today. In addition to total support for all your favorite flight sims, eDimensional packed VB3 with literally thousands of new voice commands and interactive training for a huge collection of over 60 game editions and even offers free game edition updates for the life of the product. But what I am really impressed by, is the new user interface that enables you to create voice command sets for virtually any game you want completely from scratch. But that's just the beginning. I'll go over all of these new features in detail later in this review. For now, I have an important news flash for current Voice Buddy users.

Voice Buddy 3 is a FREE Upgrade for Registered Users

The good news is that VB3 is a FREE upgrade for existing registered Voice Buddy users. I personally find this absolutely astounding. I'm a big time gamer and play lots of other PC games and sims in addition to flightsims. There has been an annoying trend over the last few years among both entertainment and business application software vendors to nickel-and-dime us to death with paid upgrades. Actually, in the case of some business applications, the upgrade costs are substantial although sometimes the incremental value in the software is inconsequential. I have long ago dropped the practice of buying every upgrade that comes along and now find I only nee to upgrade every third or fourth revision. So, when a company like eDimensional comes along and adds tremendous value to their software, then does not charge us for the upgrade, I am just blown away by their generosity. And very grateful. 

If you already have Voice Buddy, you can get the free upgrade here.

The URL is: www.edimensional.com/support_updates.php. Or you can simply click here.

If you want to buy Voice Buddy 3, just use the link below or ads on our site and at the Pilot Shop. Be sure to send me your proof of purchase and FlightSim.Com user name so I can give you a free First Class Upgrade when you buy VB3.

Upgrade Protects Your Customizations

The VB3 Upgrade will automatically convert all customizations you may have made to VB 2 and install them in the new version. It even hunts down the previous installation folder if you put it somewhere other than the default location. How's that for convenient! The first time installation as well as the upgrade migration are both mouse-click simple. Just load it and go.

Here's What's New in VB3

Voice Command Edition Updates For Life.

As I mentioned above, Voice Buddy registered users get free downloads of new game edition voice command sets that are published by eDimensional. This is like having a free subscription to a command update service for as long as you own Voice Buddy. I really appreciate this because I'm always trying the hot new games in the genres I play which include flight sims, battlefield action, as real-time strategy and even first-person shooters such as Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. There you have it. Cap Mason does get his jollies by fragging bad guys and blowing stuff up with ridiculous weapons, from time-to-time. , it was very handy to have the voice command sets for SWAT 4, Brothers In Arms, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and Doom3 Resurrection of Evil in VB3.

Voice Command Manager & Complete Set of Do-It-Yourself Tools.

In addition to the hot new releases, I also have my legacy game favorites. These are space flight sims or strategy games with aviation components to them such as Freelancer, Starlancer, Freespace 2, Rise of Nations and other games for which eDimensional may not have published a voice command set. After all, these are oldies, but goodies. I still play them but I would never expect eDimensional to go quite that far back in time. They tend to stay on top of the hottest new releases. For my favorite vintage games, this next new feature is a very cool enhancement.

Voice Buddy 3 gives you an easy-to-use set of do-it-yourself tools. With a few mouse-clicks, I was able to instantly set up files for a new game. I then used the voice command editor to quickly create a full set of commands for the new game.  They thought of everything. Even the special keys have their own set of pull down menus that make creative voice commands as simple as point-select-click-done. Without this feature, creative voice command sets would be a tedious chore the same way it is with freeware voice control software.

No chore here. It's actually a lot of fun because you can hear the voice responses you enter right -the-spot. I also used the new tools to make very short work of customizing the editions for other games. The part I liked the best is that I could easily customize many of my FS2004 and CFS3 commands.

Import & Merge Voice Command Sets

This feature turned out to be a real time-save when I was creating voice command sets from scratch. VB3 allows you to create a new game command set and then import all the commands from another game into it. This comes in very handy when you have games that are in the same family. For example. FS2004 and FS2002 or CFS2 and CFS3, IL-2 Forgotten Battles and Pacific Fighters or any other game pair you choose. Once you import the command set, you're ready to go if the commands are identical. Or, you can easily make a few edits and go from there. Since games and sims can have from 100 to over 500 commands, this is a huge time-saver.

Dynamic Command Set Recognition

Voice Buddy is one very smart sidekick. It knows when you change games and automatically selects the correct voice command set. So, you can just load and go and never need to touch the Voice Buddy Command Manager as you change from one game or sim to another. If you play lots of different games and are easily bored, like me, this is a very cool convenience.

Share Voice Command Sets With Your Friends.

Now you can share your original or customized voice command sets with your teammates and squadron buddies around the corner or across the globe. Perfect for multiplayer squad-based action, combat fighter groups, virtual airlines, etc. I can see a VA creating customized checklists for their aircraft and then circulating it to all their pilots.

Ready-to-Run With Over 60 Built-in Game Editions

What impressed me the most about VB3 is the fact that it comes already loaded with thousands of voice commands for 5 dozen games. This is a radical departure from where Voice Buddy started when you had to buy the core engine and then separately purchase each individual game edition. Now that they are all included free, I'm figuring that Voice Buddy is about a $600 value. Not bad for the $49.95 that you pay for the software only version.

The Voice Buddy Basics

For those of you who have never heard of Voice Buddy and missed my previous reviews, I'll cover the basics. Or, save yourself some ready and just go buy it now. I personally find this utility is a must-have. In fact, if there is no Voice Buddy support for a game, I just don't bother to play it at all.

My New Best Friend on the Flight Deck, In Battle and Everywhere I play: Voice Buddy 3.

When I first reviewed Voice Buddy, I was impressed with a voice control add-on that works flawlessly with both FS2004 and FS2002 to give you true, interactive voice control over the hundreds of keyboard commands we use for flightsimming. I've been flying with it ever since I first saw it. Unlike many other products, Voice Buddy is not shelfware. It's "must-have ware". I only wish I could use it with all my games and business applications, too. Frankly, I miss Microsoft Mary's voice in other games. She's become my simming sidekick.

Just What is Voice Buddy?

Voice Buddy adds voice control and voice synthesis to your PC for flightsimming and also many other games. Voice Buddy consists of two modules that work in concert with each other.  The core engine provides voice recognition and synthesis and the game edition which provides the specific commands and other features for each game. Together, these two components give you complete voice control over all the keyboard commands in your flightsim or other game applications. So, whether you're into flightsimming, racing, first-person shooters, role-playing games, strategy or sports -- you can easily get the competitive edge in the game by simply adding a Voice Buddy game edition for your favorite titles.

Its simplicity belies the powerful software and hardware technology at work with Voice Buddy. You simply speak voice commands. Voice Buddy gives you a verbal response that acknowledges the command and Flight Simulator or any supported game performs the action. I came to think of Voice Buddy as my co-pilot sitting in the right-hand seat. Voice Buddy gives you a choice of many different male and female computer voices. My personal favorite was "Mary". These are not just recorded messages that are played back but the computer is actually talking to you and responding to your orders.

Getting the Voice Control Advantage

After flying with voice control and using it in other games, I'm feeling pretty cocky with my voice control advantage. It works with both single and multiplayer modes of play. Voice Buddy lets you concentrate on controlling the sim or other games by keeping your hands on the flight or game controller and forgetting about the keyboard. In busy airspace, this is a big advantage when you need to concentrate on ATC and controlling the airplane and don't want to be distracted by the keyboard. In a fast paced action setting such as combat flightsimming, or a first-person shooter, voice control can make the difference between winning and losing. Voice Buddy reacts instantly to your commands with no lag at all. You can issue commands simultaneously while listening to voice responses. You can issue strings of commands that execute sequentially at computer speed, not fumbling-with-the-keyboard human speed. And, you can instantly cancel commands at any time. What's more, there's an exciting new feature that actually coaches you through tight spots.

What this all means is that I instantly was more confident about controlling FS2004 and every other game I tried it with. I found it a lot easier to remember voice commands than to fiddle with the keyboard. And, eDimensional uses command language that is common across similar games. "Flaps up" is the same in all of the Flightsim Seven games, even though each one uses a different keyboard command. Now, complex simming and gaming is a whole lot more fun for this veteran flightsimmer.

How to Use Voice Buddy

Voice Buddy is the world's first truly interactive voice recognition flight simulation companion. Voice Buddy offers much more than speech recognition. Through extensive programming and proprietary speech technology, Voice Buddy is trained to recognize proper commands and execute them with precision, all while providing you with confirmation that the command has been executed. With Voice Buddy, you no longer need to type keyboard commands since every single keyboard command in every game edition can be controlled by a voice command.

Using Voice Buddy is simple. Just speak the voice commands. See the game edition Help for a complete listing of voice commands for each game.

How to Start Voice Buddy and Your Game

To get started, first start your game application. Then start the Voice Buddy edition for that game. You will need a Voice Buddy edition for each game where you want to issue voice commands. When you start the Voice Buddy Launcher, you can choose any game edition that you have installed on your system. If this is the first time you are using an edition after installing it, you may be asked to enter that edition's registration key. Registration keys are case sensitive.

How To Issue Voice Commands

Voice Buddy provides all the voice commands you will need for every single keyboard command for all the games it supports.

Highly Accurate Voice Recognition and Speech Synthesis Engine With Asynchronous Command, Control and Response

Voice Buddy has been re-written to eliminate the need for a separate SpeechX module. Now, Voice Buddy comes in two parts:

1. The core engine: Provides the basic technology to run Voice Buddy for speech recognition and computer voice synthesis. The computer actually talks to you, this is not a collection of pre-recorded sound clips.
2. The game edition: Provides the specific grammars, voice commands, keyboard controls, voice responses, and other special voice features designed specifically for each individual game.

Voice Buddy continues to learn to better recognize your voice as you use it. The more you use it, the better it gets.

Asynchronous Command, Control, Response Lets You Easily Multitask

This is one of VB3's coolest new features. Now, Voice Buddy 3 can listen, act and respond, all at the same time. You do not need to wait for Voice Buddy to complete its voice response to your initial command before you issue another command. This is called asynchronous response and is a very useful feature when the game action gets fast and furious. You can issue a string of commands and Voice Buddy will act faster than it talks. It will also give you verbal feedback on each command but the command may be executed prior to hearing the feedback. This feature is extremely useful when you invoke the Voice Buddy Interactive Trainer (VBIT) feature. See Voice Buddy Interactive Trainer below for details.

"Voice Buddy, Shut Up!"

VBIT, the Voice Buddy Interactive Trainer

The Voice Buddy Interactive Trainer (VBIT) is your virtual in-game instructor, instant mod installer, level teleporter, strategy and tactics guide that is built right into the game. Each Voice Buddy game edition contains VBIT conversations that are specific to each game. It's important to note here that VBIT are not multiplayer cheats and VB3 is fully compatible with anti-cheat programs such as PunkBuster.

When you issue the appropriate VBIT voice commands, Voice Buddy talks you through the desired game action. Some VBIT voice commands will instantly modify your single-player abilities such as "Give me max ammo" or, "Activate all weapons." Other VBIT commands will instantly unlock game levels and teleport you there. This is very handy in games such as Far Cry, Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor and Doom 3. Other VBIT will help you out of a tight spot such as the complete interactive Doom 3 walkthrough.  And other VBIT begin with "Teach me..." Such as "Teach me an Immelmann." You then hear Voice Buddy interactively walk you through flying an Immelmann.

I love this feature. When flying FS2004 aerobatics in an Extra 300, I commanded Voice Buddy to, "Teach me a Lomcevak." And it walked me thought this very difficult advanced aerobatic maneuver saying"

"The Lomcevak end-over-end tumble is the ultimate hot dog maneuver. It is best performed from a climbing snap. Start from level flight at top speed. Dive to get a little extra speed if required. Pull up to a 45 degree climb. Smoothly roll left to a 90 degree knife edge bank. Yaw 70 degrees off of the normal flight path. Push the yoke or stick fully forward. Your airplane should tumble end over end. Release the controls to recover to the inverted 45 degree nose low position."

And before I knew it, ol' Cap was the master of the Lomcevak.

I was so stoked! So, I loaded up LOMAC (Lock-on Modern Air Combat). I have always admired this modern jet flightsim but found the myriad keyboard commands used to control the jet, in lieu of working panels, a huge pain in the six. But I just love flying the fast-movers. "Mo' fasta, mo' betta'" is my motto. Within seven minutes, I was easily booming-and-zooming in an F-15 Eagle under voice control. Engaging the AI MiG-29, I quickly found myself defensive and needed to live to fight another day. "Teach me a Defensive Spiral," I commanded VB3 for Lock-on. It was just like having a veteran combat flight instructor in the back seat when Voice Buddy came back with:

"The Defensive Spiral is a desperation move of last resort. It is a way to save your sorry six when you are defensive and about the be shot down. It requires perfect execution exquisite timing and a luck. Victory is not a kill but returning to a position and energy state equal to those of your target. The Defensive Spiral is a Rolling Scissors that travels vertically instead of horizontally. Get your attacker to overshoot you. You need some altitude and a good sense of when to pull out. Look across the turn circle at the attacker. Gradually roll your airplane inverted and quickly pull back on the stick. Point your nose down. Caution. Do not linger. Make this a quick move because you will be vulnerable to a snapshot if you linger. Both your airplane and the target's will accelerate as you dive. You must slow your rate of acceleration in comparison to the target's. Throttle back. Drop flaps. Lower your landing gear if necessary. Keep your speed below corner speed. Maintain your rolling motion and make your downward spiral as flat as possible. Your attacker should overshoot you within two or three turns."

I bugged out of that tight spot thanks to my new best friend in the LOMAC cockpit.

Cabin Announcements and Callouts.

In addition to the voice commands that replace keyboard commands, Voice Buddy also includes prompts for various FS2004 cabin announcements and other SOP that don't necessarily involve Flight Simulator command actions. These add tremendous realism and situational awareness to your flight simming. For example, if you blow the approach at Vancouver International and have to go around, you can call for, "Go around power." Voice Buddy will then tell you to, "Set throttles to maintain two hundred feet per minute climb rate."

Your next SOP would be to, "Advise air traffic control we are going around." Voice Buddy will respond accordingly.

You may also make a wide variety of cabin calls which ad realism to your commercial jet flight such as “welcome aboard” or “ready for pushback”, “glideslope alive,” “ahead of schedule” and many more. Voice Buddy 3 comes with a long list of other announcements from the flight deck. It does not simulate any announcements that the cabin crew would make, which makes perfect sense. After all, "This is your Captain speaking..." All of these features are full compatible with add-ons such as Flight Deck Companion and Flight Environment.

As I go through Voice Buddy's enhanced cabin calls and issue the orders from the flight deck, I hear "Mary" talking back to me with the correct responses.

Checklists for Every Stock Aircraft in FS2004 and FS2002

Frankly, flightsimmers, I was quite impressed with all the work that went into creating the SOP (standard operating procedures) checklists that come with Voice Buddy. I am simply blown away by the huge expansion pack of new checklists for my favorite payware and freeware airplanes in Voice Buddy 3.  I say the magic words and then I see the switches toggle, levers move, flight control surfaces trim out and display panels come and go as if by magic. Wait, it's my virtual co-pilot "Mary" in the right-hand seat, not magic. Flightsimming with voice control lets me concentrate on flying the plane and not fiddling with mouse and keyboard. What a welcome relief it was to just forget about all those annoying keyboard commands. I just said it, and Voice Buddy did it. Now, this was really exciting.

eDimensional created checklists for full flight operations from pre-start through shutdown for every stock aircraft in both FS2004 and FS2002 plus dozens of additional payware airplanes from Flight 1, DreamFleet, FSD International, Captain Sim, Eaglesoft plus a long list of outstanding freeware favorites. This is an amazing bit of work. The checklists include the accurate challenge-response dialog between pilot and co-pilot plus both voice and keyboard commands. These checklists have been significantly expanded from what Microsoft put into Flight Simulator and they are accurate to the limitations of the sim. After all, no one has yet to activate every single cockpit control. 

The new do-it-yourself interface now makes it a breeze to modify or create your own checklists from scratch. I'll publish a tutorial on that in the coming weeks. It's very simple and does not require any programming skills.

When used with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004,
Voice Buddy's checklists replace the existing kneeboard checklists.

Instead of inaccurate, inconsistent, downright boring checklists that come with FS2004, after installing Voice Buddy I saw vibrant, full-color, easy-to-read interactive standard operating procedure tables that gave me the ability to play back the Challenge-Response SOP anytime, section-by-section.

I use the checklists two ways. First, I trigger the Challenge-Response callouts by using the voice commands. If I said, "Lear 45 pre-start," I would hear callouts of the pre-start checklist for the Learjet 45. If I'm making my approach in the DC-3 and need prompts as to proper SOP, I just say, "DC-3 approach check." Voice Buddy then goes through the callouts for the approach checklist. There is a 2 second delay between the Challenge and the Response. That was just enough time for me to manually flip switches when I chose to interactively follow along with the checklist. Or, I can now issue voice command simultaneously when I hear the checklist challenge read by Voice Buddy. This is a new feature in VB3.

The pre-start is very handy to shut down your aircraft since Flight Simulator insists on auto-starting everything. I prefer to cold start the aircraft at the gate, push back, then taxi to the assigned runway. Sure, sometimes I like to just kick it and go. But, now that I'm hooked on voice control, starting from scratch isn't the pain in the neck that it used to be. If I forget the SOP, I just ask Voice Buddy. 

eDimensional consulted with pilots from around the world who fly both the commercial heavies, turboprops, general aviation aircraft plus military aviators to get the best blend of real world accuracy that is conveniently modified to what you can actually do in Flight Simulator. The developers even remembered to open the cabin door or canopy when you get in, secure it before engine start, and then open and lock it when you exit after shutdown. Each aircraft's checklist is specific to what that airplane's actual SOP is in the real world. It's those little details that add to the realism.

Even with 300-plus commands, Flight Simulator does not have a keyboard function for every switch on the instrument panels. Since Voice Buddy controls the keyboard, and not the mouse, there are some switches that you'll just have to throw yourself. The checklists clearly identify which functions still require manual control. There aren't many, and you can fly the aircraft completely by voice control if you want to. I disconnected all my flight controllers and performed a flight under total voice control. Crashed a few times until I got the hang of it. Takeoffs are a little tricky. So, I would slew to altitude and then fly the rest using just my voice. Not as satisfying as laying hands on yoke and throttle, feet on the rudders, but impressive, nevertheless.

I walked Voice Buddy through the United Triple-7 cockpit video and was satisfied to see that the Voice Buddy SOP for the Triple-7 paid respect to actual real world SOP. Certainly close enough to have fun with Flight Simulator and not feel as though you were flying an arcade game.

Each SOP breaks the flight operations into fourteen separate checklists which include:

1. Pre Start
2. Engine Start
3. Before Taxi
4. Taxi
5. Before Takeoff
6. Takeoff
7. Climb Out
8. Cruise
9. Descent
10. Approach
11. Before Landing
12. Landing
13. Taxi to Ramp
14. Shutdown

Voice Controlled Interactive Checklists For Freeware and Payware Add-ons

Voice Buddy 3 comes with interactive voice controlled checklists for aircraft standard operating procedures and provides checklists for all the stock FS2004 and FS2002 airplanes. VB3 kicks this feature up a notch. It delivers a total of 83 fully interactive, voice controlled checklists. eDimensional not only updated all the stock aircraft in both FS2004 and FS2002, but they added checklists for best-of-breed payware and freeware add-ons. What's more, you can now easily create your own checklists and distribute them with your freeware or payware aircraft.

The Expansion Pack checklists include:

Grand total with all the FS2004 and FS2002 stock aircraft: 83

The Differences Between FS2004 and FS2002 Installations.

Since the key commands are the same for both FS2004 and FS2002, Voice Buddy works perfectly in both sims. It contains checklists for all the aircraft that are both common and unique to each sim. The differences lie in the advanced features of FS2004. FS2002's kneeboard is not an HTML-enabled browser. So, Voice Buddy's gorgeous checklists do not replace the FS2002 checklists. They install in the same aircraft folders but in FS2002, you won't see the Voice Buddy checklists when you call for the kneeboard. You'll have to print them which is easy since you just open each checklist HTML file with your Internet browser and print the pages from Internet Explorer.

In FS2004, the new checklists replace the old ones. Voice Buddy backs up the old checklists for you. It also replaces the kneeboard key commands reference, backing up that file, too. Without a doubt, if you have not yet upgraded to FS2004, Voice Buddy gives you yet another reason to do that right now.

Instant voice and keyboard control of every single IL-2 command in all game versions

One of the really annoying things about IL-2 for me is the fact that the developer, Oleg Maddox, left more than half the command unassigned to keys. On the other hand, Oleg's omission made me appreciate even more the fact that Voice Buddy for IL-2 instantly assigns all the IL-2 commands to both voice and key board assignments. So, tovarich Oleg, all is forgiven because VB3 has made the whole issue simply disappear.  The minute I installed it, I had every single IL-2 control at my voice command. What's more, VB3 installed a new pilot with a customized profile (Lily "Voice Buddy" Litvak) who had all commands assigned to keys (yes, every single unassigned command, too). The new pilot profile even set up my CH Products flight gear with default settings and clean button assignments. Who needs buttons when I have voice control? Voice control made IL-2 a real blast (pun intended) to fly for the very first time.

IL-2 Bug Fix

Voice Buddy 3 is now compatible with installations where you have IL-2 on a separate drive and install VB3 on your system drive. This also works for all games. I have FS2004, FS2002 and CFs2 on my system drive, and all my other sims and games on my game drive including all versions of IL-2. VB3 worked perfectly and automatically switched between all the different games without a hitch. Frankly, VB3 was more stable than the games themselves.

New advanced VBSK technology automatically recognizes all your pilot profiles

The IL-2 Edition is special. I took one look at the voice command code using the built-in Command Manager in VB3 and saw a completely different code syntax from all other Editions. When I asked eDimensional's CEO about it, Michael Epstein told me, "We've introduced a new and highly sophisticated technology in the IL-2 Edition that we call  Voice Buddy SmartKeys (VBSK). VBSK instantly learns all your customized pilot profiles. No matter how you have custom configured your key assignments, the IL-2 edition learns them all the second you select any pilot profile. If the command key assignment worked in your profile, it will work the same way under voice control. What's unique about VBSK is that you only need to learn one voice command for each function, regardless of what key you assign that function to."

I was glad to hear that because I certainly did not want to do any work reconfiguring my existing pilot profiles to voice commands. When I tested VBSK, I discovered that Michael was not kidding. No matter what key I assigned the flaps down function to for example, when I said, "Flaps down." The flaps extended. This is a huge timesaver. Since I now only need to get used to issuing voice commands and can forget about all those arcane keyboard combos.

Not all games are VBSK friendly

I discovered that VBSK is contingent upon what the individual sim or game does to handle key assignments. For example, in IL-2, the transition is seamless. That's why the IL-2 code syntax is different. In CFS3, the VB3 Edition uses standard Voice Buddy code syntax and CFS3's customized profiles also are instantly learned by Voice Buddy. "Kudos to the developers at Ubisoft and Microsoft for creating very smart technology for handling keyboard assignment," Michael said. "Those titles work very well with VBSK. I only wish all sims were as well designed.," he elaborated.

Other sims such as LOMAC and FS2004, use a more pedestrian technology for handling key assignments. If you customized your profiles in those flightsims, you have two choices:

    1.    Set up a new profile and restore all the default controls. Voice Buddy is based on default controls and will work perfectly.

    2.    Customize Voice Buddy to match your custom key configurations. This is fast and easy with the built-in Command Manager.

Same voice commands across different games

I also noticed that eDimensional has maintained similar syntax across different sims which makes learning the lingo of voice commands a lot faster and easier. When I want to turn on the autopilot in all the flightsims, I simply say, "Autopilot masterswitch on." This works in all sims despite the fact that each one has a different keyboard assignment to turn the autopilot on and off. If you fly different sims or play lots of different game types, this common language for voice control is a real benefit. Now, I can switch from sim-to-sim, game-to-game, and take control of the action very quickly, without having to learn a new command set or reprogram hundreds of key combos. Hey, with VBSK, PC gaming could actually become fun again.

Ready-to-go.

Simply install it and go. Everything you need is already programmed into it. If you are upgrading, you don't even need to retrain it or set up the microphone again. Although, as a best practice, I always do that whenever I install a Voice Buddy edition or change headsets.

Easy-to-use Interface

Current VB users will notice only slight differences with the VB3 user interface that are there to accommodate the new features. The user interface is easy to use and everything is annotated with wizards to guide you through each process.

Voice Buddy 3 is Fully Compatible With All VOIP Clients

Also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), clients such as Roger Wilco and Advanced Voice Client (used by VATSIM for online flightsimming with live ATC)  enable you to talk to other people while playing multiplayer games over the Internet. If you flightsim in multiplayer with VATSIM , your virtual airline, aerobatic or combat squadrons; you probably use one of the VOIP applications to talk to other pilots. Roger Wilco is the post popular VOIP application. Now, Voice Buddy 3 is fully compatible with Roger Wilco and most other VOIP clients such as Advanced Voice Client, Microsoft Game Voice and Team Speak. You can use Voice Buddy and the VOIP client either simultaneously with both applications running under voice control; or by controlling either one, or both, using Push-To-Talk and Push-To-Mute buttons. You can also control Voice Buddy with just voice commands while the VOIP client is in voice activated mode. Simply tell Voice Buddy to "Go to sleep." when you want it to stop listening while you speak over your VOIP client. Tell Voice Buddy, "Voice Buddy wake up." When you want to control your game by voice control.

VOIP Compatibility is a Major Technological Achievement

Others have tried to do this, and failed to do it well, or at all. Applications such as Voice Pilot, Game Commander, Shoot, and Speech Buddy (absolutely no relation to Voice Buddy, only a naming coincidence) have all claimed to work with VOIP clients. I've tried them all. I can tell you that they either do not work as promised, or work very poorly due to the complex way these other programs attempt to interface with the VOIP client. Some use FSUIPC as an intermediary and that complicates the technology even more. What impressed me the most about eDimensional's solution to this complex technical challenge is that it works flawlessly, is very simple to use, and can run under complete voice control without requiring you to push any buttons.

Getting Two Warring Factions to Talk to Each Other

Enabling users to talk to their computers while simultaneously talking to other people using VOIP was a significant challenge. It required the software engineers to make peace between to factions who are at war over possession of the microphone. Roger Wilco, Advanced Voice Client, Team Speak and any other VOIP application usually collides with voice recognition applications. Both programs want the microphone. While the VOIP applications usually have the ability to set a key to toggle Push-To-Talk (PTT) and Push-To-Mute (PTM), these programs do not relinquish control of the microphone that is necessary for voice recognition to use even when the VOIP client is in PTT-PTM mode. . VOIP software does not comply with Microsoft speech API specifications that are used by voice recognition applications such as Voice Buddy, Via Voice or Dragon. What's more, voice recognition applications are always listening to your every word. If you speak phrases to your mates on the Internet using VOIP that the voice recognition program recognizes, it will take action. It will most likely be the wrong actions since the voice recognition application is trying to make sense of the VOIP conversation expecting your words to be voice commands. The results are not acceptable in this case.

The technologies for voice recognition and VOIP are evolving along different paths, for the moment. The eDimensional team met the challenge head-on and solved it. They made peace between two factions battling for one microphone. Without getting into the realm of trade secrets, I can report to you that they succeeded and you can now use Voice Buddy and a VOIP application at the same time.

Here's How VB3 and Your VOIP Client Work Together

VB3 listens for and recognizes only your voice. This means that if the VATSIM controller gives you an ATC vector, you still must respond to it and control your aircraft yourself. After all, you are the pilot in command and have to fly the airplane. The same goes for combat action. As the pilot in command, you need to fly the airplane. You can now do it using voice control while chatting with your wingman to better coordinate your attack. What's more, you can simultaneously chat and voice control your airplane, under full voice activated control for the VOIP application as well as Voice Buddy. No buttons to push. Bottom line here is that you gain a significant gamer's edge when you use VB3 while flying online in multiplayer sessions. I found it very handy to manage the airplane during busy ATC sessions around major airports. I could focus on my flying and listening to ATC and instantly respond by controlling the airplane with my voice. As fast as I could think and say the action, it was done. No more delays while fumbling with the keyboard, or trying to remember which button was programmed to what function on my CH Products flight controllers. What a relief! Now, instead of avoiding busy airports, I said, "Bring it on!" Instead of a chore, VB3 and VOIP made flightsimming more fun than ever before.

I also tried it in combat flightsimming using CFS2, CFS3, and IL-2 Sturmovik. While I normally leave blowing stuff up to the virtual fighter jocks like my colleague, Mad Max Merlin -- I still enjoyed a dogfight or two much better using VB3 and VOIP than I did before I became hooked on voice control for flightsimming. I enjoyed significantly faster responses from my fighter because I was able to rapidly issue voice commands to my airplane at the same time as I worked with my wingman. Let's just say that I finally managed to get my Corsair to turn on a Zero and smoke his sorry six and dive away from his attacking wingman using Pappy Boyington's trim-n-turn-n-burn technique plus VB3 voice control.

Push To Mute & Push To Talk

Think of this feature as the button on a radio microphone that activates it when you wish to talk and mutes it when you release the microphone button. This feature is very important when using Voice Buddy while also running an Internet chat client.

You can assign keys to act as switches to manually activate or mute the microphone. By default, Voice Buddy assigns the Number Pad / (forward slash) key for Push To Mute (PTM) and the Number Pad * (asterisk) key for  Push To Talk (PTT). The default PTT and PTM key in Roger Wilco is F12. In order to achieve maximum compatibility with all games and VOIP clients, Voice Buddy gives you several options when assigning PTM and PTT keys. Using the pull-down menus for each  field you can assign either a single key or a combination of keys that include:

Assign a single key to all PTM-PTT options. For example, you can assign the F12 key, or any other key on the pull-down menu, to PTM-PTT for both Voice Buddy and your VOIP client, such as  Roger Wilco.

Assign different PTT-PTM keys for Voice Buddy and your VOIP client. In this case, you might assign the F10 key for Voice Buddy PTM, the F11 key for Voice Buddy PTT and the F12 key for Roger Wilco PTT.

Assign combinations of two keys for Voice Buddy PTT-PTM. This feature enable you to easily resolve any keyboard control conflicts that may arise with your games.

PTM and PTT can be used interchangeably with voice activated control. This feature does not override the Sleep mode. Once you tell Voice Buddy to "Go to sleep." it remains sleeping until you say, "Voice Buddy wake up." PTT and PTM will switch the microphone on or off, as desired, only when the microphone is either ON or OFF. People on the VOIP channel do not hear Voice Buddy's conversation with you but they will hear your conversation with Voice Buddy unless you mute the VOIP channel.

Recommended PTM-PTT Settings for Using Voice Buddy with Roger Wilco

I found that the easiest way to start using Voice Buddy 3 and Roger Wilco is to simply accept the default settings for both applications as shown in the image on the right.

It's Easy As 1-2-3

1. First, start Voice Buddy.
2. Then, launch Roger Wilco.
3. Finally, launch your game.

When using Voice Buddy with Roger Wilco, I recommend that you use the following default settings that are shown in the photo on the right:

• Leave Voice Buddy at its default settings of ALT for PTM and CTRL for PTT.
• Set Roger Wilco for "Voice Activated" and use F12 (the default setting) for PTM.
• Control Voice Buddy with your voice. When you wish to talk on the Roger Wilco channel, put Voice Buddy to sleep with the command, "Go to sleep."
• When you wish to control your game with Voice Buddy, wake it up with the command, "Voice Buddy wake up." You do not need to mute Roger Wilco. You can talk to both Roger Wilco and Voice Buddy at the same time. Mute Roger Wilco as desired if you don't want the people on the Roger Wilco channel to hear your Voice Buddy conversation.

Do Not Use a USB Headset!

If you have a USB headset, you won't want to use it with Voice Buddy 3. And, since USB headsets cost about 3-4 times more than analog headsets, this is very welcome news.  I discovered that using a USB headset conflicts with VB3-VOIP technology due to the way USB headsets control the microphone. Using a USB headset will prevent Voice Buddy from working with VOIP clients such as Roger Wilco.

Use only analog headsets for full VB3-VOIP compatibility. Analog headsets certified by eDimensional for best results with Voice Buddy include the new eDimensional Audio FX (see details below) and Plantronics Audio 90. In order to enjoy the VB3-VOIP simultaneous communication feature, you will need an analog headset with a good quality microphone that is certified for voice recognition applications. For this review, I used both the Plantronics Audio 90 that came with Voice Buddy 1 and the new Audio FX that comes with Voice Buddy 3. Both worked perfectly. You don't want to use a USB headset because the USB interface is incompatible with simultaneously using Voice Buddy and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) clients such as Roger Wilco. We tested this fact using a top quality USB headset manufactured by Andrea, one of the very best producers of first class voice recognition headsets. There is nothing inherently bad about USB headsets. They just don't work with simultaneous voice recognition and VOIP.

A good quality headset is critically important for accurate voice recognition and USB headsets usually give you much better signal-to-noise ratios than analog (see our test results below). Cheap headsets are very noisy, have poor quality microphones with poor quality noise cancellation properties. A bad microphone will cause Voice Buddy to misinterpret your commands. With a good microphone and proper voice training and setup, I discovered Voice Buddy recognition is extremely high at well over 98% accuracy.

Audio FX Force Feedback Headset

Voice Buddy 3 is available with the optional Audio FX force feedback headset: The Audio FX from eDimensional which our ad guy affectionately called the 'headbanger.' The Audio FX has a force feedback system that synchronizes the vibration effects with the sound and brings new excitement to flightsimming, music, movies, gaming and any other audio experience.

The "Headbanger" Headset

The Audio FX allows you to turn on an amazing force feedback system that synchronizes the vibration effects with the sound. It's awesome when you crank up the rock-and-roll. OK, I'll admit to being a Baby Boomer rocker. When I cranked up George Thoroughgood's "Bad To The Bone" with this headset it gave a whole new meaning to the term "head rush." According to Our Man in Blackpool, it also thrilled IFC conventioneers when they cranked up the sounds for their favorite aircraft. Mike said, "I could tell by the beatific and wide-eyed looks on their faces that the headbanger effect was a big hit."

The eDimensional Audio FX headset has built-in noise cancellation that blocks unwanted ambient noise and prevents it from interfering with your voice commands. It has a high-quality, voice recognition certified microphone and a fully adjustable microphone boom. The boom, by the way, is a perfect place to put the TrackIR3 Pro tracking dot. Much better than on your forehead or cap.

Audio FX creates a unique force feedback envelope that is synchronized to the sound action of your game, music, DVD, or whatever sound comes though the headphones. It also has flashing lights on the headphones that scale to the sound intensity and vibration effects.

The overall feel of the Audio FX is surprisingly comfortable considering that it is larger than the Plantronics Audio 90. The Audio FX looks and feels more like an actual pilot headset. The ergonomic design, combined with the large padded headband and excellent balance make it very comfortable to wear for long flights. The soundproof padding on the headphones effectively blocks out all ambient noise. This immerses you into an audio envelope that is impressive to say the very least. It's hard to describe in so many words. You just have to try it and see for yourself.

Combines the Best of Analog and USB Technologies

If you've ever priced USB headsets, you know how absurdly expensive they are, often costing over US$100. While costing much more, USB headsets sound the same to me as lower cost analog headsets. So, I don't get it. On the other hand, USB enables designers to supply power to USB connected devices. The Audio FX does not use batteries to power the force feedback system. The headset gets it power from your computer's USB port. So, it blends the economy and excellent sound/voice signal qualities of analog connections with the convenience of USB electrical power and still comes in at a very low price point. I think this is excellent engineering for price performance.

As shown in the photo, the Audio FX has three jacks:

• The speaker jack is marked with an orange label and the letters SPK.

• The microphone jack is marked with a pink label and the letters MIC.

• The rectangular black jack is the USB connector which supplies the power for force feedback.

The Audio FX also has three controls on an inline switch console. From left to right:

1. Vibration control that enables you to adjust the energy of the sound produced that synchronizes with the vibration action and the flashing lights on each headphone. This thumbwheel controls the intensity of those combined effects. When using Voice Buddy, I recommend that you set the vibrations effects to a medium or low level.

2. Vibration On/Off switch which enables you to instantly turn the vibration effects on or off.

3. Volume control which adjusts the sound volume. Sound volume will also influence the synchronization of the vibration effects. The louder the sound, the greater the vibration effects. You can combine volume and vibration to achieve just the right balance of audio force feedback.

Audio FX Makes Voice Buddy a Unique Value.

Voice Buddy comes in two versions: software and Audio FX headset or software only. According to eDimensional executive, Michael Epstein, "You must make sure to use a top quality headset that is certified for voice control. Right now, we only certify two headsets: our new Audio FX and the original Plantronics Audio 90 that we shipped with Voice Buddy 1.0."

"Good voice control requires a very good microphone," Epstein explained. "We improved upon our original concept by creating the world's first force feedback headset. So now, you not only get excellent voice recognition qualities and stereo sound, but you also get an exciting new force feedback effect that gives new meaning to the term 'head rush'."

Once again, Epstein was right! The Audio FX vibration effects are quite amazing. At first, I cranked them to the max to get the feel of it all. I soon found that to be a bit too intense and dialed them down a bit to better suit the sound environment I wanted to create. Sound is very important on the flight deck. It tells you when all is good and also alerts you to impending doom.

The Audio FX alone is an excellent value. But, when you consider that it's included with Voice Buddy for the US$79.95 price, it's a real bargain.

Excellent Noise Cancellation

For good voice recognition, you need a top quality mic that is not too hot (sensitive) plus has good noise cancellation. The combination must yield a high signal-to-noise ratio. The greater the difference between the noise level, which should be low, and the signal, which should be high -- the better.

Signal-to-noise is the difference between the background noise generated by your PC, the audio card, hard drives, fan motors and the headset speakers and microphone -- and the signal which is your spoken voice. In order for the computer to accurately hear and recognize your voice, it must be able to discern your signal from all the other noise.

The noise canceling microphone feature blocks out some of the environmental noises and prevents ambient sound from interfering with your voice commands. Voice Buddy is always listening to what comes across the microphone and trying to decipher the sounds it hears into meaningful command phrases. Once it deciphers a voice command, it takes the appropriate action and confirms it with a verbal response. Your computer actually "talks" to you through Voice Buddy. It is not merely a compiled set of pre-recorded audio clips. This entire process depends on accurate recognition of the voice command in the first place.

FlightSim.Com's Lab Test Results for Signal-to-Noise Ratio

We engaged the help of an independent audio engineer to test eDimensional's Audio FX , the Plantronics Audio 90 from Voice Buddy 1.0 and compare them to a very expensive USB headset from Andrea, the Anti-noise USB NC-7100.

Test Procedure

The engineer recorded silence and a cell phone ring tone with each microphone, putting the cell phone about 7 cm away from the microphones. He used a PCM, 8 kHz, 16 bit format. Using this data he calculated mean value, maximum signal and noise values, and SNR (signal to noise ratio) based on the latter values for each microphone. 

Results

eDimensional AudioFX Headset
Ring Tone signal in time domain for the eDimensional headset.

Mean Value: Should equal zero, if not, it means that the microphone and/or the sound card have an offset. In this case Mean Value = 3.1180 e-5.
Maximum Signal Value (S_max): Is the greatest value of the recorded ring tone shown above. In this case S_max = 0.3866.
Maximum Noise Value (N_max): Is the greatest value of the recorded silence. In this case N_max = 0.0773.
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB (SNR) = 20*Log₁₀ (S_max / N_max) = 13.9816 dB 

Plantronics .Audio Headset
Ring Tone signal in time domain for the Plantronics headset.

Mean Value = 1.7172 e-4
S_max = 0.2511
N_max = 0.0176
SNR = 23.0866 dB

Mean Value = -2.5254 e-5
S_max = 0.2368
N_max = 0.0041
SNR = 35.2320 dB

Conclusions

USB microphones such as the Andrea, have lower signal-to-noise ratios because they avoid the sound card. Sound cards, especially the high end cards such as Audigy or Sound Blaster that we often use for flightsimming, generate a lot of noise and add it to the original signal.

While the Andrea headset retails for around $100, which is more than twice the retail price of the Audio FX or Audio 90, and it did have a significantly better SNR -- in a real world qualitative sense, I could not tell the difference between it and the less costly analog headsets. The practical differences between the analog and USB headsets were marginal even if the test results for the USB Andrea were much better. I simply could not detect an audible difference when using them. All three sounded excellent both for the microphones' recording capability and the headphones stereo sound playback quality. With its significantly higher price tag, we expected the Andrea USB headset to perform noticeably better considering the fact that its digital interface tends to be less influenced by sound card and other system electrical noise. The disparity between our quantitative lab results and practical qualitative experience showed otherwise. You may get what you pay for, but in this case paying twice as much for a headset only gets you outstanding lab results but marginally better real world qualitative performance while significantly depleting your bank account.

What’s more, it is important to understand that USB headsets interfere with Voice Buddy’s simultaneous voice recognition and VOIP technology. So, with a USB headset you cannot talk to your PC and your friends on the Internet at the same time.

In our lab tests, all three headsets maintained excellent signal-to-noise ratios. The Andrea NC-7100 was the quietest as you would expect from a USB digital headset. The Plantronics headset was a bit noisier. The Audio FX generated slightly more noise while the vibration effects were turned on. The force feedback vibration effects did not degrade the microphone's voice recognition capability or the quality of sound heard through the headphones. It was a very cool "head rush" however.

We found that both eDimensional's Audio FX and the Plantronics Audio 90 headsets offer nearly perfect voice recognition after a single training session. So, our recommendation is to put the money in your pocket and not spend the extra dollars for USB headsets. We confirmed eDimensional's certification that both their headset and Plantronics' are excellent for voice recognition and all other stereo sound applications and the lower SNR does not interfere with voice recognition. Bottom line? Buying the better value Audio FX or Audio 90 seems like the smart thing to do.

Ultra-High Performance

If Voice Buddy 1.0 was rocket science, VB3 is Star Trek Federation Science. Its speech recognition engine achieves an amazing 98%+ recognition accuracy with a single training session of just about 8 minutes. It learns your speech patterns as you use it for nearly perfect recognition every time. It also runs by using a tiny fraction of the system resources.

Compatible with Windows Vista, XP and 2000 But Not Windows 98

This is the "good news, bad news" part of my review. The bad news is that Voice Buddy will not work with Windows 98. The good news is that VB3 is fully compatible with Windows Vista, XP and Windows 2000. The even better news is that you don't need a monster PC to run it. If FS2004 or your other favorite games run well on your system with Windows Vista, XP or Windows 2000, so will Voice Buddy.

Installation is a Snap.

Updating to VB3 is the same procedure as installing it from scratch. It was very simple and uncomplicated. No system tweaks required. All the audio controls are built into the Voice Buddy console. It installs with the microphone turned on and the recognition window open. You can see your voice commands translated instantly to text in this window. It's useful as a diagnostic tool on the rare occasion that Voice Buddy doesn't recognize what you're saying.

You can start using Voice Buddy right away. But, voice recognition accuracy will be significantly better if you go through a short training session. Each training session lasts about 8 minutes. You simply read a few paragraphs of copy and Voice Buddy learns to recognize your personal speech patterns as you read. This is right out of Star Trek Federation Science, that's how cool it is.

The more training sessions you run, the higher the degree of speech recognition accuracy. Voice Buddy also learns on-the-fly as you use it. The more you use it, the better it gets. As a test, I wanted to see what the minimum amount of training would yield. I set up the mic, then ran a single training session and the voice recognition accuracy was fabulous. After a second training session, it was perfect for me. Since every person has different speech inflections, accent and pronunciation; your results may require more or less training. In any event, we are talking minutes, not hours here. Woohoo!

Cap Mason
CapMason@FlightSim.Com