Has anyone played around with the new (669MB!) Alex voice available in the text-to-speech section of the Speech preference pane? It's eerie how good it is: the first voice that's good enough for regular proofreading, though I think it sounds better a hair faster than the default speed. It's leagues better than the Cepstral David voice I paid $30 for last year. ( https://www.cepstral.com/demos/) BTW, Cepstral's engine is fully compatible with Leopard too, in case you like their voices better -- and they do have a much wider range than Apple does.
My favorite part is that Alex actually breathes audibly just before starting a new sentence! I couldn't figure out why it sounded so natural, then a friend pointed out the quick inhalation just before he reads each new sentence. Unreal!
It's not perfect: he makes more pronunciation mistakes than Cepstral David, but that's to be expected for v.1.0. I hope Apple will add a 'Corrections' feature to the Speech preference pane to allow people to enter corrections, new words, and exceptions.
But it's still a home run for people who use text-to-speech!
My favorite part is that Alex actually breathes audibly just before starting a new sentence! I couldn't figure out why it sounded so natural, then a friend pointed out the quick inhalation just before he reads each new sentence. Unreal!
It's not perfect: he makes more pronunciation mistakes than Cepstral David, but that's to be expected for v.1.0. I hope Apple will add a 'Corrections' feature to the Speech preference pane to allow people to enter corrections, new words, and exceptions.
But it's still a home run for people who use text-to-speech!
Text To Speech Software Mac
Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Speech > Add New Language. Choose English (U.S). Tap the More Info button next to English (U.S.) from the Rotor Languages list.
Google Text To Speech
MacBook Pro, 15', 2.33GHz Intel, Mac OS X (10.5)
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