You gotta tweak your stuff so don’t think that your GPS can’t be tweaked to your liking. One thing you can start with on your Garmin GPS is a changing of the voice.
UPDATE: Garmin has also put out their own software tool to create your own custom voices for Garmin GPS devices. Find out more about it on our Change Voices on Your Garmin With Garmin Voice Studio post.
Just in case you’re looking to modify a TomTom voice file you can read about how to do that here: How to Change or Create TomTom GPS Voices
It’s not that hard to do but we’re going to assume that you have your Garmin GPS fully hooked up to your computer and you’re able to access it like a regular drive. If you can’t get to this point with your GPS just stop reading right here because this tweak is just not for you.
Assuming you have your Garmin GPS hooked up to your computer you should be able to access the voice file by navigating to the directory [drive letter]nuvi\Garmin\Voice.
The voice on your system will show up as a .vpm file and you’re going to need a copy of it on your computer to work with. I usually make a working directory for something like this with a folder in it called \archive and I store the original copies of the file in the \archive directory in the case that something goes wrong.
Now that you have your voice file in the working directory of your choice you’re going to need a little utility so imaginatively called a “Voice File Utility”. I’d upload a copy of the Garmin Voice File Utility but it’s easy enough to find by searching for “Garmin Voice File Utility” on Google. A big thanks goes out to Ash10, whoever you are, for this sweet little utility.
Ok! Ok! I take no responsibility for this –> Download The Garmin Voice File Utility Here
Start the Voice File Utility and point it over to the voice file that you downloaded off of your Garmin GPS, when this little mule has finished working, you’ll end up with about 116 .wav files for you to customize, replace or change however you want to.
Once you’ve finished modifying your voice files into the most sexy, soothing and caressing womanly voice you can pack into a .wav file you’ll need to start up the Voice File Utility and pack it all back up.
When you’re done put this file into the original directory that it was in and you’re pretty much listo!
8 Responses
Thanks for this. great tool. but anyidea where i can get 116 .wav files already modified into yoda/sexy woman/darth vader to pack into a garmin voice pack?
Hello
Not sure if you are aware yet but we have come up with our own Garmin GPS voice installer and voices. Gtones is the name of the software and it acts like I tunes in storeing alternative GPS voices on your desk top. There are lots of voices to choose from at http://www.pigtones.com like Stewie from the family guy Arnold ,Elvis,Yoda,and a bunch of other that will transform your GPS to a Politacally Incorrect GPS.(P.I.G Tones).Let me know if your would like more info or samples.
Hi there. I have a mac. Is there a site available mac downloads for Garmin voices? I have already checked out the voices on the Garmin website.
Thank you!
~Bobby.
i would like to change voice on my new garmin nuvi 680
buy it of free thank jc
There’s not a lot of free voices available on the internet. But with some “thoughtful searching” in the right places (maybe by file extension) you should be able to come up with a few.
Bobby – The voices aren’t specific for your computer type. They’re specific for your GPS type. If you can attach your GPS to your computer and it shows as an external storage device you can change anything you want.
Garmin has a whole suite of software available for OS X that you can find at http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/
IF you claim that you can add anything as long you have a external HDD, Can I shove a 32gb drive and add a movie player (not file) ex: WMP or QT to my Garmin 760.
Is there any site that have tutorial on modding garmins?
Porcupine – I never claimed that.
Hacking your Garmin GPS would be 100% dependent on what Operating System Garmin decided to put on the particular GPS that you want to hack. A good start would be to Google “OS hack garmin“.