Text to speech software -- what do you recommend?

July 1, 2015 4:50 PM

There seem to have been lots of developments in text to speech since the subject was last raised, and I was wondering if anyone could point me to a solution fitting some specific criteria for an arty project. Details inside:

Here's what I'm looking for, not all absolutely essential but the more the better:

- can convert to audio files, not just read text (required);
- can convert 250+ word texts (required);
- software that resides on my hard drive, not Web-based;
- multiple voices, without copyright restrictions on public-performance use (this might be the tough one; see http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/43290/are-the-apple-text-to-speech-voices-copyrighted)
- as free as possible;
- able to incorporate other purchased voices as time goes by, if I can find a supplier without public copyright restrictions on said voices.

posted by Shepherd to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

Balabolka uses Windows voices, so it's almost all free, and can use any voices you buy that uses Microsoft SAPI

http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm
posted by kschang at 9:30 PM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]