Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
Searching for the best read-aloud software
Curt:
On the other hand, if money is no problem, I will recommend the pro version of the first one you mentioned, the $40 Natural Reader Professional (Basic)
nosh:
Try Neospeech (Kate), Realspeak (Jennifer) and Loquendo voices. Curt's right, the free voices are all crap.
tinjaw:
Oh yes. I had forgotten about that. I purchased some AT&T voices that were much better than the defaults. It makes a big difference. And there are a few companies releasing new voices about every 9-12 months and they almost alway improve over the previous voices. I suggest you look at purchasing the most recent voice from one of the better known voice vendors. It will be worth the price over the lifetime that you will use them.
BigJim:
I agree with most responders: TextAloud with add-in voices (read $$$) is excellent. I've been using it for years - used to have it read to me daily while driving 18 wheelers (email, news feeds, books etc.). It will also make MP3's of text for you to take away, eg. jogging, in the car and such like.
Now, if I could have only found a voice recognition package which could tolerate the varying background noise in the truck I'd have got even more done going down the road!
muntealb:
I have used the trial version of TextAloud and it is the best from the low-cost text-to-speech readers.
But lately I have used Balabolka ( http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm ), which is free and is as good as TextAloud. My preference is the voice Mike from Microsoft with the speed set to a value between [95-105] and the pitch set to a value between [135-145].
I agree that some commercial voices are much better than the free ones.
Also check Expressivo ( http://www.expressivo.com/ ), it is shareware and has english, polish and romanian voices. I have tested it only for romanian and it is very good.
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