Sonidero voice: saludos and shout-outs for your cumbia mixes
In cumbia sonidera the DJ, the sonidero, does more than play records: he takes the microphone and reads saludos, dedications from the crowd to family, friends and neighborhoods, often to loved ones on the other side of the border. Those greetings are part of the music, and many mixes and videos open with the name of the sound system shouted over the beat.
SuperClonica has energetic Spanish-speaking voices, free to try online, and a free engine that voices a whole list of saludos at once. This guide shows how to make an intro for your sound system, how to voice saludos for a mix and how to give them that DJ-microphone sound.
Voices for saludos
Energetic Narrator and Game Narrator were recorded in Russian and may keep a slight accent in Spanish; for saludos, the stock voices usually sound more natural.
- The ten stock voices of the model: clear male and female voices that speak Spanish, free and safe for mixes you publish.
- Energetic Narrator: clear emphasis for the name of your sound system.
- Game Narrator: an even, steady voice for long lists of greetings.
- Your own voice, trained in the SuperClonica studio, if you want your saludos in your own voice when you cannot record.
Voice a saludo free online
On the page of any voice, type a saludo of 30 to 100 characters, for example “¡Un saludo para toda la familia Hernández, hasta Los Ángeles, California!”, choose Spanish and press Voice it. In a few seconds you can listen and download the recording, with no account.
Write saludos that sound right
Put a delay with a few repeats and some reverb on the voice in your DJ software or editor: that is the classic microphone sound over a cumbia.
- Name, place and a short wish: “for the Hernández family, all the way to Los Angeles”.
- Write names and places the way they are said; respell them if the voice gets them wrong.
- Use exclamation marks and short phrases: saludos are called out, not read.
- Write numbers in words, such as “la colonia Diez de Mayo”, so they sound like the name.
A whole list of saludos at once
For a whole list of saludos, put them in saludos.csv with the columns id and saludo, install the free engine with python -m pip install superclonica-cpu and voice every row into its own file: import csv; from superclonica import Superclonica; tts = Superclonica(); [tts.save(row['id'] + '.mp3', tts.synthesize(row['saludo'], 'M2', 'es', normalize=True)[0]) for row in csv.DictReader(open('saludos.csv', encoding='utf-8-sig'))]. Every file comes out at the same loudness, so they drop into a mix without riding the fader. Play them as samples between songs or over the intro of a track.
Real names and fair play
Saludos carry real names: voice greetings only for people who asked for them, and never use a voice that imitates a real sonidero or a famous DJ. For a mix or a video you publish, use the ten stock voices, M1 to M5 and F1 to F5, free under the OpenRAIL-M license, or your own voice trained in the SuperClonica studio.