Text-To-Speech Fans

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by Lima Bean

Text-to-speech technology has come a long way. I use the built-in voice on my Kindle Fire. Some of the pronunciations are off, but mostly it's spot on. I think it's amazing. Then again, back in the day I thought the Atari graphics were super cool.

It has come a long way in just the past few years. In a few more years we may not be able to tell the difference between TTS and a human narrator

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by Conan46

It has come a long way in just the past few years. In a few more years we may not be able to tell the difference between TTS and a human narrator

Oh gosh, I doubt that. It would take understanding of the text to get the correct human inflection. However, it is sometimes a dang site better than a tone-deaf human narrator. I was an often-requested reader for text books at my college - but I in no way compare with an actor. They do marvelous jobs of narration!

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Oh gosh, I doubt that. It would take understanding of the text to get the correct human inflection. However, it is sometimes a dang site better than a tone-deaf human narrator. I was an often-requested reader for text books at my college - but I in no way compare with an actor. They do marvelous jobs of narration!

It would not be the same as voice actor like Jim Dale who reads the Potter books with each character having their own voice. But could be very close to a straightforward narration of the text.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Conan46

It would not be the same as voice actor like Jim Dale who reads the Potter books with each character having their own voice. But could be very close to a straightforward narration of the text.

I find that I can understand Shakespeare if the actors understand it, but miss the point when the actors do, as well. For complicated lines, there's a big difference between saying the words as they are meant to be said, and just reciting them. I don't think a text-to-speech program would do a good job with Shakespeare, at least for me. For simpler works, the difference gets smaller, but I have to assume that it is still there.

[Conan46]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I find that I can understand Shakespeare if the actors understand it, but miss the point when the actors do, as well. For complicated lines, there's a big difference between saying the words as they are meant to be said, and just reciting them. I don't think a text-to-speech program would do a good job with Shakespeare, at least for me. For simpler works, the difference gets smaller, but I have to assume that it is still there.

You know I sometimes find the voice actor emphasizes areas of the text that would not normally stand out to me when reading with my eyes instead of my ears. And that can be good or bad. I sometimes think a straightforward reading without any emphasis like TTS is a better way to read certain books/texts.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I find that I can understand Shakespeare if the actors understand it, but miss the point when the actors do, as well. For complicated lines, there's a big difference between saying the words as they are meant to be said, and just reciting them. I don't think a text-to-speech program would do a good job with Shakespeare, at least for me.

If for no other reason than that most of Shakespeare's plays are written in blank verse, and getting the stress right to fit the metre of the verse is critical. That's something that no TTS program can do.

[Alohamora]

Originally Posted by Dimsok

For windows desktop i use coolreader 2 + Acapella Alyona (russian) and ATT Mike for english. But mostly i use TTS for studing foreign languages. For japanese and chinese - Neospeech Lily and Misaki.
And for me Acapella's voices sound better then Ivona

Acapella is amazing! I've used Ivona on moon+/Android and whatever comes with the Fire tablets and Acapella sounds even better. Voices aren't free, but most are only about $4.54. There are samples you can preview before purchasing.
Willhappy is the male voice I chose, very natural sounding.

[desito]

Originally Posted by Alohamora

Acapella is amazing! I've used Ivona on moon+/Android and whatever comes with the Fire tablets and Acapella sounds even better.

[Sydney's Mom]

I kind of got away from TTS after I read Room as an audiobook. I realize that when I am reading for pleasure, there are parts I want to read slowly, parts I skim through, and parts where I just have to take a break or look a few pages ahead to get the courage to go on.

[Conan46]

Does anyone know of a good Ivona TTS replacement? I understand Amazon will phase it out:

Amazon Polly will replace the IVONA Speech Cloud Beta service.

New sign-ups to the Speech Cloud Beta are now no longer supported and the service will stop processing requests on June 30th, 2017.

https://www.ivona.com/

Amazon is moving to a paid TTS service called Amazon Polly. Google's TTS is horrid. And Ivona is already gone from the Google Play Store. I need to find a free replacement for Ivona if anyone has any suggestions.
Thanks.
Edit: Haven't found a good replacement for Ivona. But I did find that by digging down into the Android TTS menu I could add more voices. The default voice is about the worst possible, any of the other options are better. I ended up going with the 2nd US female voice, though I may check out the UK voices.