Friendly greetings to all! My name is Daniel, and I have a question for you all. What is your favorite speech synthesis voice? Personally, I love the Toshiba TTS voice. I am a big fan of rare text-to-speech voices, and that's basically my thing. So, what are your favorite TTS voices? Any TTS voices, doesn't matter what language it's in.
Okay, let's see. I know a lot of TTS voices, but I could say that my favorite one is ETI Eloquence. You know that this was the first voice that I actually heard from the machine. Like, from the very first time I started using the machine with a screen reader, the first speech synthesizer that I got in touch with was ETI Eloquence. Because, as you could see, this is the one that comes with JAWS, and JAWS was my first screen reader. I remember that when I was 19, I got my first JAWS training, and it came with ETI Eloquence, and... Well, actually, it was a very old version of ETI Eloquence, but it was my first voice. Then, I started looking at other kind of software, like NVDA, and I started getting in touch with iSpeak, eSpeak, yeah, eSpeak, and I got to know the Loquendo voices, and the Ivona, I think I tried Ivona, and I got to know the Loquendo voices, and the Ivona, I think I tried Ivona, also, but... Many people say that these voices sound kind of human, but for me, it's definitely not like that. I don't know. I grew up... I don't know if it's just because I grew up with Eloquence that I just remain liking it.
oh neato okay this is just too nice i start recording this post and i get the nice cuckoo clock spiffy oh speech synthesizers it's a bit interesting in that category as much as i'd love to hear a lot of yesterday's speech toys potentially done either as a standalone synth or a synthesizer for maybe a pack-in of a program not that i don't think uh speak and spell and speak and math will ever take the cut from texas instruments for me it would have to be a responsiveness factor if i'm looking to get things done fairly quickly you know and at a fairly speedy pace i mean i'm not going to listen to eloquence or east because it's absolute absolute fastest rate but at least fast enough to where i can comprehend it and even that scares many of the sighted folks in my neighborhood as i surf the web btw as i am writing this i should be getting a new laptop battery soon so i might be able to retire this one it's from a it's from a web site called bat depot b-a-t-t depot for those of you looking for i'm assuming batteries for laptops uh cell phones other kinds of electronic devices i thought i'd plug that in but but yeah as for speech synths i'll go eloquence e-speak in the speech player i thought was actually pretty cool for what it was but it would have been really cool to see you be able to add your own voices to that after the fact which would have been real interesting to say the least but as per eloquence i can at least uh edit the voice names maybe alter their parameters a bit to make the voice pattern sound a bit different from the defaults i could almost give rocco that evil gruffy sound like a bit of a darth vader maybe even add a bit of breath to him and e-speak i can actually do that especially in the speech player in e-speak via writing variants of my own i literally just take a template of a variant i've already liked or perhaps loved maybe monkey around a few of its adjustments and oh off i go i think one time even in an older edition of nvdc i pulled off a uh z-bond densher variant where the e-e-e-e were gone oh you couldn't understand what it was saying so yeah the consonants were basically totally stripped out and then i've done one or two whisper variants but uh other than that yeah e-speak in eloquence is where i stand
Hi, this is Railway Guy. I must say I am somewhat in the same situation as Slamovani. When I was introduced to the machine as he calls it, or the computer, I was also introduced to the eloquent voice that comes along with JAWS. And actually JAWS was the screen reader that I was first trained with. There was not much other options then in that time. I'm talking about the year 1999 I believe it was. And JAWS was also in its early stages. I think, I haven't known any other screen reader than that. So until then I got my own machine of course. And I think that's it. And I think that's it. And I think that's it. And I think that's it. I started hunting for other screen readers and I came upon NVDA. I also found Window Eyes, who was then existing until last year. And I must say I'm sticking now with NVDA. And NVDA has the eSpeak voice, what some are calling somewhat the kind of robotic sounding voice. And it's true, the sound is not too pleasant to hear, but anyway. But then with Windows 10 came along the improvement of the screen reader of Windows 10 called, screen reader of Microsoft actually, called Narrator. And they also introduced a couple of new voices. and the one that I like the most now which I have with Windows 10 is called mark one of the narrator voices and I must say it's a really nice voice crystal-clear and I think it was since last year that you also were able to use it with NVDA so that's the one that I'm use all that I'm using all the time the Microsoft voice called mark using it with narrator as well as with NVDA and also with Elton because of the fact that I'm using the screen reader with Elton and VDA in this case and yet I must say that that's the voice I like the most so that's the one I'm using now and so that's the one I'm using now so that's all I have to say about that
Yeah, the very first speech synthesizer that I ever heard was actually Microsoft Mic, SAPI4. I believe it was on a Windows NT, no, 2000 or Millennium system. And then I heard JAWS, and then I started really liking voices. And I actually remember hearing the Texas speech, the LNH 2000.
oh yeah the old times with microsoft mike and sam and marion however i personally use i have to say this i personally i mostly i mostly use like since i have a mac i mostly use alex or if i'm on my pc i use new speech voices uh yeah like i was also trying to use adt natural voices but i mean they are cool but sadly the company is down as far as i know but yeah the old times with mike and mary and stuff like that but we're like i'm not sure if someone still remembers uh deck talk and stuff like that oh nice i will never forget the singing speech synthesizers yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah oh uh yeah i'm oh shit
Okay, uh, didn't expect it to do that. Anyway, so, um, let's see, I'm one of those people who was born at a later generation of speech synthesis back when natural things were already a thing, um, but not really that much. I mean, um, I think the first thing I ever heard must have been Microsoft Sam. Either Microsoft Sam or Eloquence. I do remember those two. I especially remember trying to use Narrator on Windows XP. That was fun. Not. But no, seriously, um, writing documents with Notepad, with Narrator, with Microsoft, uh, Sam as a voice was quite hard to do. Especially because, um, I never got to experience English versions of Windows until much later. So I was stuck with Hungarian, which is the native language of mine. Speaking of which, I have, of course, heard many, not many, but the main thing that, um, people were using back then as far as, uh, speech synthesizers in Hungary was this speech synth called ProfiVox, which was, and still is, um, the synth that comes with JAWS in the Hungarian version of JAWS. Of course, it does come with Eloquence as well, but who wants to use that? Especially for those who, um, who can't understand English or just didn't learn it yet. But, um, yeah, ProfiVox was one of those speech synths that I've heard time and time again from anywhere you could imagine, mostly from people using JAWS, but also from Android devices. Because it has been ported over. And there's not been, there's, there's not been many, um, good Hungarian speech synths for Android. Um, besides eSpeak, which is what I'm going to get into in just a minute, well, I'm just going to get into it right now. So eSpeak was the next thing that I've heard most of the time, because NVDA came out right about the time when, uh, I mean, the version with eSpeak came right at the time when I started learning to write and type. Documents and audio games and a bunch of other things. It was back in 2009, I think? And, um, eSpeak, I got used to it pretty quickly. Didn't really think about it much. A lot of people do consider it robotic. I think it's okay. I use it, I use eSpeak for Hungarian text all the time. Because it's just reliable, it works. And I do agree most of the time. With the people who think that natural voices are just too weird. They have this inflection thing where, I mean, there's a lot of improvements. Like, if you listen to, for example, um, the Amazon lady, who I'm not going to say, because I don't want to, anyone to, their devices to get disturbed. But, uh, that lady has a really natural sounding voice now. Google Assistant does. Um, a lot of the new voices do. But for stuff like 8K. AT&T, or Vocalizer, and stuff like that. Um, I use it, of course, because I do have an iPhone, and I do have a Mac. And I have to stick with Mariska as a Hungarian voice. And she is quite weird, to say the least. There's a bunch of pronunciation errors, including one that I just have to mention right now, because it's driving me up the wall. If you have the number 22000 in a document, it's going to skip by it. Like, immediately. So, if you have a number that says 22600, it's just going to say 600. That is stupid. But, anyway. Um, so by this point, I got introduced to many, many different speech synthesizers. And I don't really have many favorites. I use Eloquence and eSpeak almost all the time. There's a bunch of other things that I, um, that I got to know. Of course, with all the natural sounding stuff, I have to resort to using... Oh, God. That, that scared me. Oh, God. Sorry about that. Um. And, uh, and the creator of this topic is on a call with me right now. So, uh, excuse me for the noises. But, yes. Um, so then there's the, the voices that come with iPhones, which is mostly vocalizer expressive and some of the Macintalk voices. And Macintalk is one of those things that I use all the time, of course. I use Victoria. It has my phone voice. And, uh, that reminds me of, of course, uh, the, the sighted community always talking about how quickly you can navigate around the screen at this high speech rate. And, of course, they're all really amazed at that. And you get too used to it, uh, as time goes on, of course. I say that way too much. Um, so that's about it for speech synths in my case. And I'm still quite interested in old speech synths, like all the random stuff that, um, that people have shown me over the years about Braille and Speak and, uh, of course, Deck Talk and a bunch of other things. Those are really interesting, including the evolution of Microsoft's voices. I have to say, Microsoft's Subwatch, who is the Hungarian voice, sounds really good. The battery has discharged to 10%. And with that, I think the battery discharging to 10%. 10% means I'm going to stop this. So, uh, uh, yeah. Let's hope I can actually press this button.
For me, it's just simple e-speak, and I like the Japanese Kyoko from Vocalizer.
so that's great that this topic is also available in the voice forum well my favorites it depends on the platform that I use my favorite speech synthesizer for PC is eSpeak I use it in NVDA for 10 years that I use NVDA since 2010 I remember I downloaded the snapshot version of it of NVDA and the first synthesizer I heard it was eSpeak and when I heard it I thought that there will be another error message so yeah but then when I knew that it is eSpeak that's talking to me I was really like it was so cool because I read about it on one website and about eSpeak for step 5 so yeah still my favorite TV TTS is ESpeak for PC. For CEPI 5 I use Microsoft Voices. I cannot use other voices for NVDA. I tried to use RH Voice which is, well, which is seems to be the best TTS, free TTS for Russian language but I don't like really it's sounding like, yeah. I don't know why, I just cannot use it on a daily basis. And for German language I use vocalizer Petra because I cannot understand ESpeak's German at all. It's so difficult for me. I'm practically a beginner in German, I have a level like A2 and I cannot understand ESpeak. On iOS I use... Alex or Tom or Ava for American English, Katya, Milena, sometimes Yuri or Siri female voice. For Russian I use Milena Compact and sometimes I use enhanced voices like Katya Enhanced. Well, I often change voices. Like sometimes I... Like... I'm so tired from some TTS and I change them. But I usually I use Ava or Tom or Alex. For German I use Anna Compact or Markus Enhanced. I try to use Yannick and Siri female voice. I don't know... I don't like Yannick's sounding and I cannot understand Siri female German voice. It's a little bit... It's not so clear. It... It... It sounds nicely. But it not... It's not so clear. I cannot use eloquence. Mainly because it doesn't support Russian and I just don't like it. This voice is associated for me as a horror.
Es patīk espeķiem, es jūs espeķiem, un českā simtēzisāra Eliška, for reading books I used some years ago And now I will find some good synthesizers for reading books
hi all about my favorite synthesizer it depends on language in my everyday walk i use ispeak i use nvidia screen reader for about the 80s i think yeah uh sorry um but if i use only english applications if i need read english text only if i play in english games english text games then i use english synthesizer my favorite english is british english and my favorite british english synthesizer it's vocalizer daniel yeah it's my opinion but if i um if i need other languages i prefer ispeak right now thank you and that's it i think
Well, I know a little eloquence but I'm using generally ispeak and if I want to learn some languages I'm using nuance vocalizer like Yelda or Samantha or Milena. That's my favorite speeches.
hi on the windows on windows i use rh voice for russian language but when i want to read some english texts i i turn to e-speak actually i so much want to use vocalizer the newest best synthesizers not old that are really bad and they are they are doing a very bad stress on syllables in older vocalizers in russian i want i want some new vocalizers like in my iphone and i want milena and tom i think i also tried to use macintalk for nvda but i think to use this my mac must be open open really to generate voice of to generate macbook's voice on nvda the macintalk bridge if you want to use mac in this in your school you turn on your mac at home and i think in school you must give your mobile mobile internet to the to your um computer to use this macintalk bridge on iphone i use milena russian and in english language i use tom i used alex but and samantha i used but now i use tom language tom voice and in german i use marcus enhanced really um marcus enhanced and siri female like seva said he thinks that siri female is not really clear but i think that she is good voice i use i use it not in very very fast language fast speech rate when I was started to learn computers my father has installed jaws 12 or just 13 I don't know to very small computer and there was eloquence speech voice and then when my mother installed NVDA on her computer there was I think he speak voice but it was very very long ago and I cannot know if it is a speak or something else then when I used jaws with my braille display I asked someone to install NVDA and after 10 minutes I think I was using NVDA and I was really satisfied with when I installed some voices after a month I said I think I don't really remember what voices I installed but I installed I think really I don't remember what I installed but but sometimes when I was using jaws before NVDA I used but sometimes when I was using jaws before NVDA I used ScanSoft Katya that was really really bad ScanSoft Katya that was really really bad voice when I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I voice when I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I tried five minutes and deleted because it was five minutes and deleted because it was five minutes and deleted because it was really really bad voice when I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Katya again in 2017 I thought I will try Kat I want to install Nikolai by acapella because it is really funny voice for CEPI 5 and I will use it for making audio dialogues in CEPI Balabolka program to make speech synthesizers to audio convert to audio. That's it I think. For how I use synthesizers.
okay sorry for the bad quality of the mic but my favorite synthesizer well that's hard but I I am really partial to human I'd have to say at least right now now my favorite voice is the acapella Peter happy he reads very well especially when I read Harry Potter fanfiction he reads very well I love the inflection that's used I love the a lot of the things that it does whenever you use exclamation points and things like that only thing is is that voice is missing from the NVDA version of acapella voice of which I really wish I had a license I wish I had a license for the acapella because even though the Peter voice is there it's not the happy one but it's still the Peter voice and I love I love the way he sounds right now I'm using vocalizer with NVDA just because I don't have a license for the acapella voices now people were talking about you know the first the first speech synthesis voice that they had heard I'd like to go back I'm there I'm fixing to be 36 when I was in elementary school I had gotten my very first note taker excuse me which back then was the Berlin speak 640 use the oh I don't know how it was called outspoken or not maybe someone else might know but all right man I remember that voice and they used excuse my goodness for the Berlin speak mm and pro-life millennium they used the double talk voice and those are okay you know they were all right they were more human like then the old Berlin speak voices of course my goodness my throat sorry and then of course I was I started using jaws and that was with eloquence and I still use eloquence on my Android actually sometimes for certain things but again I have the Peter happy voice on my Android and I use that as my daily driver voice Android just again just because it it speaks very well it reads very well and a continuous reading mode now B wo wo wo ways wo wo wo wo wo My favorite has got to be Acapella Peter, the heavy version, at least for now.
does anybody know any good speech synthesizer from Ivona because I wants to purchase synthesizer for voice dream reader to use but when I purchased Ivona Marlina it sounded so strange so I wasted wasted so I actually wasted my money because it reads lots of words not correctly so any recommendations about voice dream voices for to try for German language
Well, if you're looking for a very good German Iwona voice, then I would suggest Hans. Now, I've no idea if he is available for the Voice Dream Reader, but I really hope he is, because I can't say, but I know that Hans exists, and as you may gather, it's her male counterpart. So if you ever have to find him for the Voice Dream Reader, which I really hope, because he has got a nice, warm sound, in my opinion. Yeah, Marlene, I don't like Marlene either. She sounds very... I don't know, I just don't like her voice. But Hans, yeah, if you're reading stories with him, it really depends on what you read, but he certainly has got a nice, warm, male sort of sound. I really like that. So if you ever find him for the Voice Dream Reader, because I don't know if he's available in there, yeah, it would be cool. And, yeah, all I can say now is good luck.
I recommend you use Sally if you want to use English. I want a synthesizer.
I mean, I like Windows. Windows 1 Core. I like that for Windows when I'm on boot camp. Sometimes I'll use eSpeak if I really want responsiveness, I guess. But I'm on a Mac mostly, dude. I use Alex. Alex all the way. But anyway, that's just me. I've been on a Mac since 08. And I haven't looked back. So. And I know this is not a Mac topic, but yeah, I mean, mostly on the Mac I use Alex. So yeah. But like I said, for Windows, Windows 1 Core, I like Microsoft, the old Mike, Mary, Sam for Windows. So, yeah.
hello everyone again I have a question about speech synthesizers well actually before I ask the question well I told that I learned German and I stopped doing it really because it's so difficult for me and I decided to try to learn Spanish and I'm really satisfied about it because for me it is easy because I don't have lots of issues with English and I find that acapella voices are the best for learning languages because they are really I won't say emotional but I like them more than nuance in case of inflection and the question about Windows one core voices I know I have several voices installed and I cannot remove German voices there is no button to delete them does anybody know how to fix that like there are buttons in all voices but not in German I cannot delete it what can I do why can't happen really and I removed German keyboard and I cannot find a way to remove the one core voice by the way I acapella gives away three free months of using their media add-on license it's so cool it given gives me an opportunity to test it out before finally buying it purchasing it because I wanted to purchase them a really long time ago but I didn't have a PayPal account now I do and that's awesome that I can purchase it but now I am using the three months trial so yeah it's official trial
has anybody tried using acapella for nvda voices in purpose of making them singing i know or not singing but like making different sounds like coughing laughing i know it's doable but i didn't manage to do that i will try that with the voice valeria it's a spanish slash english child voice and i'm really curious how it how it works because it doesn't work with spanish voices like inez rosa and like it doesn't work with spanish voices english voices like tracy it doesn't work with russian voice alena and with um well yeah i'll try that with uh with children's voices children's voices child voices
