text to speech sounds

tiltjlp

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I just found a site that offers free text to speech sounds in wav format. There's a variety of male and female voices and different languages to choose from. It's simple to use, and while there is no inflection in the voices, they might be worthwhile for creating custom sound bites.

http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php
 
You can also do this in Control Panel > Speech by substituting the text in the textbox, then recording it yourself, but I only have "Microsoft Sam" to listen to and I'm wondering where "Microsoft Mary" went to. I used to have 4 voices in Win 98SE.

I also sent for the Microsoft Speech Development SDK many years ago to try to unlock the voice synth in Windows, but that SDK focuses on voice recognition for controlling apps and had severe limits. I wonder why Microsoft Speech is on the Windows system but is unavailable for text-to-voice use?...?????
 
I finally tried looking it up AGAIN and I finally found the answer (AFTER MANY YEARS OF SEARCHING).
In XP click Start > All programs > Accessories > Accessibility > Narrator.

If Narrator is there, it is Narrator that is the text to speech program and it will read from the top open window, Notepad, browser, etc.

Now, if you want more voices, you can download Microsoft Mary and others from this page and use these in Narrator as well:

http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/SpeechEngine/voices.html#morefreevoices

This is the page for the current AT&T text to speech engine and here you can demo the voices online, including non-English dialects:

http://www.wizzardsoftware.com/att_NV_desktop_demo.php
 
Thanks Sleepy. I've downloaded those voices, and if I can figure how to use it all, and find my mic, I'll give it a try. Should be fun.
 
Well Blast!
The Start > All Programs > Accessibility > Narrator does not accept the XP voice updates,
so the Microsoft Mary and Mike XP updates are only available from the Control Panel > Speech test.
Still doable, but not as easy as using Narrator and a text file.

Narrator is fun when you open it and type keys using Notepad or when typing a reply to a forum thread. Microsoft Sam will announce each key by letter or function as you type it.
 
I just found a site that offers free text to speech sounds in wav format. There's a variety of male and female voices and different languages to choose from. It's simple to use, and while there is no inflection in the voices, they might be worthwhile for creating custom sound bites.

http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

h, thank you. We would like to find anything old school and I don't know how to make the voice muffled and unclear in 90's. Does it depend on the quality of dynamics? Or better and easier to find the appropriate sound? Any suggestions?
 
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