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Thread ID: 117105 2011-04-02 10:47:00 Text to Speech software - recommendations appreciated braindead (1685) Press F1
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1191495 2011-04-02 10:47:00 I need to find something with reasonably good-sounding natural male and female voices for a handicapped person. Any suggestions most welcome. A lot of the robotic voices just don't sound easy on the ear.

Many thanks!
braindead (1685)
1191496 2011-04-02 10:50:00 What about this? (www.cross-plus-a.com). Its free. I've never used it tho Speedy Gonzales (78)
1191497 2011-04-02 12:38:00 www.oddcast.com

i find the animation a bit creepy
bot (15449)
1191498 2011-04-03 22:59:00 Although I tend to be a freeware person I bought Ivona text-to-speech about a year ago because the freeware offerings weren't very good. (Haven't tried Balabolka mentioned by Speedy though)

I bought Brian, a British male voice, but you can have female or other nationalities. Here's Eric, a US male:

www.youtube.com
BBCmicro (15761)
1191499 2011-04-03 23:49:00 The IBM stuff probably is the most realistic I know of, but I don't know of any applications that use it. I found it a while back when I was doing some investigating:
www.research.ibm.com

AT&T Labs have a few good ones that aren't too bad:
www2.research.att.com

But to be honest I ended up going for the ones from Cepstral back in the day:
www.cepstral.com
At only USD$30, what have you got to loose? :D
Chilling_Silence (9)
1191500 2011-04-05 18:15:00 I need to find something with reasonably good-sounding natural male and female voices for a handicapped person. Any suggestions most welcome. A lot of the robotic voices just don't sound easy on the ear.

Many thanks!

Have you contacted the NZ Blind Foundation? I am sure their members would be at the cutting edge of this sort of technology.
sam m (517)
1191501 2011-04-05 22:22:00 There are some voices which install and work with the inbuilt Windows TTS too.. Agent_24 (57)
1191502 2011-04-05 22:27:00 If the person is blind, you could get a program called Jaws. Its not free tho.

A probation officer I know uses it. It will also speak / or say the words (within windows, or if / when you scan text)
Speedy Gonzales (78)
1191503 2011-04-06 00:12:00 Wow! Thanks so much for your responses and suggestions. I'll check them out. Jaws sounds intriguing but it's $US900 a pop - yikes...
Best to you all
braindead (1685)
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