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Giveaway of the day — Text to Speech Converter 1.26
Text to Speech Converter 1.26 was available as a giveaway on May 31, 2015!
Convert document, text or Web page into an audio book with Pistonsoft Text to Speech Converter. It speaks any text aloud, implementing the Smart Pause feature. You can control the sound, voice and speed of your audio book. The program supports all SAPI 5 voices installed on your computer, and other additional voices.
Key features:
- Create Your Own Audio Books;
- Listen to Long Documents;
- Bring Your Favorite Reading Along;
- Study While On the Go;
- Produce Audio Books That Are Easy On the Ear.
System Requirements:
Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8; CPU: at least 1GHz; RAM: 1GB; HDD: 10MB disk space
Publisher:
Piston SoftwareHomepage:
http://www.pistonsoft.com/text-to-speech-converter.htmlFile Size:
15.4 MB
Price:
$19.95
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Comments on Text to Speech Converter 1.26
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Install without problem on Vista business x32 OS.
NO error message. Read out clear on short sentence.
I haven't try on a long sentence yet.
So far, it is a keeper for me.
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I have used Natural Reader for 10 years and love the voices and everything except the size limit for converting to mp3 versus wav. How does Balabolka stack up vs. Natural Reader?
Thanks,
Mike
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I have found that the free program Balabolka (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Balabolka.shtml) has all the features I need.
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Tried installed and failed, much the same as other Win 8.1 users.
This is a shame, because as far as software marketing goes, the TTS market is not exactly well populated with masses of choice, unlike audio/file conversion programs, so-called 'tweaking/cleaning' programs and the like.
I had hoped for it to work as I quite like not having to look at small print on some sites and dislike the zoom function on a small screen - and really dislike Window's narrator.
Never mind. Back to the drawing board!
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Based on the comments here, I installed SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 voices to go along with the program, but find SAPI 4 are just terrible, how do I remove them? I went to control panel remove programs and windows components, could not find a clue on how. Thanks.
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It won't be easy to remove SAPI, once installed they are part of the operating system and numerous registry entries have been modified and created and entered for lots of software to point to these locations. If you have restore point created, that is your best bet, otherwise, it will be easier to re-install windows than monkey around the registry. Unless you are skilled user, please do not modify the registry.
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Tried SitePal http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal
a few times to add voices to flight simulator video.
Good range of voices both male and female with range of accents to choose from.
Found it necessary to sometimes alter spelling of words to fit how you wish
the voice to sound. So do try deliberate mispellings to emphasise points where
you find the announcer's speach too monotonous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzzopPsWFgg
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Uses Microsoft built in voice drivers for win7/8, terrible sound. Uninstalled.
If you need basic sound for text reading, just enable Microsoft voice and it will be the same.
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Thanks to info in the comments about Microsoft text-to-speech voices I just could upgrade my German voice.I own two commercial voices in other languages size 300Mb and priced $50 each, where license is restricted for private use only.The commercial ones are better but not superior to the free MS voices who, as mentioned above, also works on XP.Very nice for learners to have installed.
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Two thumbs up for this. This is great, on my part as IT and i really read a lot and it really a great help for me cause bringing books all along or a document to review is really a hassle one.
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I have been using Textaloud for many years. It works great, even with foreign languages.
www.nextup.com/TextAloud/
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Not good, it uses Microsoft built in voice drivers. I just enabled Microsoft voice in the control panel and ran both programs. There is no difference, same old slur when 2 consonants are next to each other and the same monotonic pronunciation that puts you to sleep.
Uninstalled.
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I installed on Win7pro-64bit, installed ok.
I support JAWs at work, and this made me laugh.
I will concede that JAWs is not a ebook creator, but I've been using it for 10+ years, it does everything.
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Jaws is a screen reader. A screen reader has a totally different approach than a TTS converter.
Balabolka is the perfect solution for all 'Text to Speech' applications (ebooks, webpages, clipboard).
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I have an android samsung phone I would love to have this program to work on my phone,is there any place for me to download it.
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This giveawayoftheday site offers Windows and Mac software, which cannot be installed on Android. If you're looking for apps for Android, I suggest you regularly check http://android.giveawayoftheday.com/
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This program works and does as it is advertised. This is a very basic program and is just good enough to use as a toy. I use a screen reader every day and this like all free TTS programs Is lacking quality. The voices are the same and sound like e-voices. There are programs that you would most likely never know they were E-voices. They are not free either. No not a program I can use.
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Try free Balabolka together with the free voices of Microsoft's Speech Platform. I never leave the house without an audio book made by Balabolka. Listen to Zira (english) and Hedda (german) - it's a tiny MP3 of just 0.22 MB:
http://www.file-upload.net/download-10655357/Alvin5english-Panem1german.mp3.html
I'm very surprised that so many people are not aware of these great free voices offered by Microsoft.
Also a big THANK YOU to Ilya Morozov, programmer of Balabolka.
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Can't read docx files. Those have been around for quite a while. I'll pass.
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Setup gives me a splendid "unable to launch the program"
New download, tests of various compabilitys, and other classical tests give nothing.
BB little software !
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Same here.
"Failed to launch the program"
2nd time downloaded etc. same same.
Win7 32b up-to-date.
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As I see, Jahid (Comment #7) is a friend of Balabolka like me. But I wouldn't recommend his links:
- You hardly need the (old) speech API's
- The MS Control Panel does not work with the new MS Speech Platform (the installer is as of 1995 and digitally signed March 7, 2000)
- The portable version of Balabolka works fine, but you have to set up dictionaries and files for homographs manually. For a beginner, a regular installation might be the better choice.
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Installed but unsure if registered, not too bothered as the voice offered is atrocious and was unable to download a better voice.
An excellent FREE program is available at the following link::-
http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm
This program and use both SAPI 4 and SAPI 5, the former can use L&H TruVoice (FREE) that can be found at the following link:-
http://www.audiobookmaker.com/speechengines.htm
These cover a good range of languages, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
I believe that it is now possible to use SAPI 4 on Windows 7 if you install Microsoft agent, but please check first.
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The new MS Speech Platform is much better than the old SAPI'S, although some voices are available for SAPI5 (as seen @ Win8).
Here's an example of eBooks converted with Balabolka - 30 sec's Alvin Maker in english and 30 sec's Tribute von Panem in german:
http://www.file-upload.net/download-10655357/Alvin5english-Panem1german.mp3.html
Here are the voices:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224
Click Download-Button
Choose Language(s) - the one's with 'TTS' in the file name, NOT those with 'TELE' inside
Click Next-Button
The Speech Platform Runtime has to be installed. The good news for you, XP-Man: It runs perfect on Windows XP 32bit :-)
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Thanks for the information, much appreciated.
Been using L&H’s for a long time and find Eddie, American voice#3 is one that I can tolerate, your MP3 example sounds quite good and look forward to testing some others.
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I'm a bit mad with this company. On their website they recommend to download Capstral voices for this TTS-Converter. I downloaded 150+ MB, installed, rebooted and had to find out, that the voice runs as a demo and I have to pay for it.
I don't want my time to be wasted.
I use free BALABOLKA for converting eBooks and listening to web text. Balabolka is by far the best TTS solution I've ever tried out. Balabolka can use the great free voices of Microsoft's new Speech Platform (US-american: ZiraPro, german: Hedda, canadian: Heather, australian: Hayley, brit: Hazel ...) On an Windows 8 system one of these voices should already be installed.
http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm
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Yes, it works as advertised.
No doubt about it. It does exactly what is advertised.
But....
Standard Microsoft voices are not the most soothing to listen to. There is no way I could tolerate listening to a large document using this.
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It can read one thing allowed, but when you try to read something else, or the same thing again, it gives an error. Application error: OLE error 80045025.
If you want to play something else, you need to open the program again.
Also, if you want to download more voices, the page doesn't exist.
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This is a welcome change from data recovery tools and video converters.
An important feature on its Home Page is that it “supports multiple languages… learn another language”. For this purpose, it says “download additional multiple languages and different choices of voices from Cepstral web site”.
I could only find foreign voices (not languages as such) at the linked site. These do not appear to be free, as it says there:
“you can visit our downloads area to try our voices for free before purchasing”.
Unless I got this wrong despite my efforts, it seems today's GAoD is not free for non-English speakers or those learning a foreign language, while the product's description that it “supports multiple languages” is conditional.
Any info from the developer/GAoD?
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As some people comment they can't find/access the linked page with additional language voices, here it is:
https://www.cepstral.com/en/personal/download
Select system and language, and a choice of voices appear.
But as I said above, these don't seem free, only free trial.
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lot of thanx for this absolutely interesting departement und greetinx from Kiel, Germanistan ,,,
https://www.cepstral.com/en/personal/download
and there is no need filling the required paper, just one click ... :-))
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"Balabolka Portable"
http://www.cross-plus-a.com/bportable.htm
http://portableapps.com/apps/accessibility/balabolka-portable
Balabolka is an amazing TTS Program which also uses various versions of Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) and Microsoft Speech Platform. It can read the clipboard content , view the texts from chm, djvi , pdf , docx , doc , epum , mobi , odt , html , rtf etc and also offers to save the on-screen text into Wav, Mp3 , Mp4 , ogg or wma file. Balabolka can save the sxnchronized text in external LRC files or in Mp3 tags inside the audio files. It implements the spell checking engine Common Speller API. It can use Hunspell which is default spell checker of Openoffice and Firefox .
Microsoft Speech API 4.0 - http://download.microsoft.com/download/speechSDK/Install/4.0a/WIN98/EN-US/spchapi.EXE
Microsoft Speech API 5.1installer - http://www.cross-plus-a.com/util/SAPI_5.1_installer.msi
Microsoft Speech Control Panel - http://www.cross-plus-a.com/voices/spchcpl.exe ( the Speech Control Panel will add an icon to your Control Panel to enable you to list the compatible text-to-speech engines installed on your system and customize their settings for your use. )
The Lernout & Hauspie TruVoice Text-to-Speech (TTS) Engine - http://www.v3mail.com/download/ttsengines.htm
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Installed OK on 64 bit Windows 7. Registration was cut and pasted from the readme file; popped up a box that said registered no problem. Everything seemed good until I tried to add another voice besides the default Windows voice. The program wouldn't add the new voice and when I closed and opened it, the program wanted the registration information again. Too many other free TTS programs to bother with this so I deleted it. NaturalReader, Morz, or Read4Me Clipboard do the same thing for free.
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installed in xp mode : ok
no language alternatives
english language voice very bad and poor
has a few options but why bother when I cannet understand the voice
I cannot see any point at all to keep this software
verdict : no good
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This isn't like other software where including other languages is a process of growth. Adding another language to this particular category of software requires a different dynamic.
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Installed and registered without problems on a Win 8.1.3 Pro 64 bit system. Many, many registry changes...
A company without name and address, few "news", the latest from November 2014.
The software is from mid 2011, the lame encoder from 2009.
Upon start a resizable window opens, you can change few options. The text does not fit into the window.
http://i.imgur.com/WpKhMG9.png
Hmmm, the "download voices" leads to a 404:
http://i.imgur.com/P5GhQ3g.png
You can open a text file or paste it from the keyboard - "Read Aload", change speed and volume or add a smart pause, which did not work for me.
After adding a "smart pause", the program crashed:
http://i.imgur.com/GXmziET.png
Hmmm, difficult to say anything and remain polite. Think what you want.
I have a long experience with text-to-speach software. I payed years ago a high price for the NaturalReader, which is IMHO still the best software around. The voices had around 700 MB per voice, you had to pay every voice separately. Now, due to the many free text-to-speech programs, prices have been dropped dramatically. But even with this software it was and still is difficult, the get a good sounding, "naturally" spoken text. It does take practice and much time, to organize the text for a good speech result.
Uninstalled via reboot. Don't waste your time and have a nice Sunday!
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Thank you Karl,
I just woke up and went looking to see what was offered today. As usual, I look at the ratings and read the reviews. This looked like just what I needed. I have many, many, books on my Kindle, but when I am flying, reading them is difficult for me, as I get motion sickness, and after a few minutes, get a bad headache and queasy stomach. I am going to look for NaturalReader, and see what the pricing is like now. This sounds like someone is trying to generate interest in horribly outdated software, which doesn't help the GOTD project, neither does the sniping and attacking of posters, which some above have done.
We all appreciate what you do here, just like we appreciate what Steven does for the game GOTD page.
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I was hoping there would be a good amount of Voice inbuilt in this program.
Not too impressed by this software, uninstalling too.
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Amen. I think this kind of goes to show we should all be a little less anxious to just hack in to each other over little disagreements. I've been using GOTD for a long time and my first go to has always been Karl. Giovanni is missed greatly and of course we've got XP-man and all the others that take the time to eval the software and give as unbiased of an opinion as they possibly can. Understanding that no human being is infallible can often help in bickering over tiny disagreements. Well I guess I should be totally honest in the statement of no human being infallible. In the words of my father, "I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken...". Have a great week everyone and thank you to the regulars who day in and day out evaluate the software for us.
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I installed it and what happened is Exactly as Karl said, Uninstalled it. Thanks Karl.
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Can it speak French?
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Vanja - your job here is to see if the software can do the functions you want and need. Whether it can speak french or not is for you to find out and comment on.
Siv - R U too lazy to install this software and give everyone an evaluation, like Karl does for us every day? If we all worked as a team and gave reviews, like Karl does, then we might be giving software like then next version of microsoft office or Photoshop a review in the near future.
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can you? ;-)
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Hi, Vanja. Don't take any notice in "alternative" comments. You asked a fair question, and you got a load of "love" in return. Unfortunately, I can't give you the answer, but I can tell you about an online service, which "speaks French". Vous pouvez avoir une bonne journée ;)
http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/
Btw, Thanks a lot for today's offer to Piston Soft. and Team GAOTD, but I allready got Ace Translator - an expensive solution, but it's the best i.m.o.
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Installed fine on Windows 8.1.
Pasted a piece of text which the program read out with the usual Microsoft voice.
Changed the voice, clicked Read Aloud button and program crashed with OLE Error 80045025
Not a good start!
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Same happened to me but, upon restart of app everything OK.
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Waiting for Karl's review.
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