Audio reader online. Online speech synthesizers: the best services for voicing text

The program "" is designed for reading text files aloud. Any speech synthesizers installed on a computer can be used to reproduce the sounds of the human voice. Speech playback can be controlled using standard buttons, similar to those found in any multimedia program (play, pause, stop). The application can read aloud the contents of the clipboard, show text contained in documents, change font and color settings, control the reading process from the system tray (notification area) or using global keyboard shortcuts, pronounce text typed on the keyboard, check spelling, divide a text file for several smaller files, look for homographs. "" provides the ability to remove all hyphens at the ends of lines from the text; This will avoid stuttering when reading words. Supported file formats: AZW, AZW3, CHM, DjVu, DOC, DOCX, EML, EPUB, FB2, FB3, HTML, LIT, MOBI, ODP, ODS, ODT, PDB, PDF, PPT, PPTX, PRC, RTF, TCR, WPD, XLS, XLSX.


File size: MB
Version: History of changes
License type: Freeware
Operating system:
Interface languages: Russian, English, Arabic, Armenian, Bulgarian, Hungarian,
Vietnamese, Dutch, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Chinese,
Korean, German, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian,
Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Finnish, Filipino,
French, Croatian, Czech, Japanese
Help files: Russian, English, Spanish, Italian, Korean, German,
Ukrainian, French, Czech

Portable version: Download(MB)
The portable version of "Balabolka" does not require installation and can be launched from a flash drive.
At least one speech synthesizer (voice) must be installed on the computer.

Console Application: Download(KB)
The console application does not have a graphical interface and runs in text mode.
The operating mode can be set using parameters command line or configuration file.

Utility for extracting text from files: Download(MB)
The program allows you to extract text from files of various formats.
The utility does not have a graphical interface and runs in text mode.

It’s still not clear why such a program is needed? Here are useful links on the topic:

The program "" allows you to change it appearance using themes.




The program can use computer voices that support SAPI 4, SAPI 5 or Microsoft Speech Platform. There are free and paid (commercial) speech engines. The most high quality speech synthesis is provided by commercial voices.

Speech synthesizers produced by the company RealSpeak(free votes, were published on the Microsoft server):

  • British English (19.4 MB)
  • Spanish (21.7 MB)
  • Italian (21.5 MB)
  • German (20.7 MB)
  • French (22.5 MB)

Olga Yakovleva developed an open-source multilingual speech synthesizer RHVoice(Russian, English, Georgian, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Ukrainian and Esperanto languages ​​are available):

  • Description of the speech synthesizer
  • Windows version

Yaroslav Kozak from Lviv created a Ukrainian speech synthesizer UkrVox. The voice of Ukrainian radio announcer Igor Murashko was taken as the basis.

  • UkrVox

Among commercial speech synthesizers, the following voices are of interest to Russian users:

  • Alyona
  • Katya, Milena And Yuri
  • Nicholas(Digalo - Acapela Elan Speech Cube)
  • Tatyana And Maxim(IVONA)

You can purchase Russian computer voices from IVONA and Nuance on the Harpo website. The Russian voice from the Acapela Group is included in the Infovox 4 software product: you can buy it on the website Russian company"Elite Group".

Microsoft Speech Platform


Microsoft Speech Platform (version 11.0) is a set of tools that allow developers to build solutions with voice recognition and text-to-speech conversion.

To use the speech synthesizer, you must download and install the following components:

  1. Microsoft Speech Platform - Runtime – the server part of the platform that provides an API for programs (file x86_SpeechPlatformRuntime\SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi).
  2. Microsoft Speech Platform - Runtime Languages ​​– a set of languages ​​for the server side. On this moment Voices available for 26 languages, including Russian voice Elena(files whose names begin with "MSSpeech_TTS_").

The tags (control commands) that are used for SAPI 5 voices can also be used for Microsoft Speech Platform voices. But remember, SAPI 5 voices and Microsoft Speech Platform voices are incompatible with each other, so you cannot switch between them using the Voice or Lang tags.

Pronunciation correction


The user can use a special list of replacements to improve the quality of speech reproduction. This is useful in cases where there is a need to change the pronunciation of words or individual syllables; To do this, some expression in the text is replaced with the necessary readable expression. Regular expression syntax is used to write such replacement rules; lists of replacements are stored in files with the *.rex extension.

At the request of Russian users, support for dictionaries for correcting pronunciation with the *.dic extension has been added. This dictionary format was used in the Govorilka program. Simple rules replacements are applied to text faster than regular expressions.

The *.bxd format combines the advantages of the other two formats. The dictionary can contain both regular expressions and rules for simple text replacement. In a special editor, you can create separate dictionaries both for the selected computer voice and for a specific language.

Dictionary files are located in the folder " Documents\Balabolka" ("My documents\Balabolka" in Windows XP).

Spellchecking


The program "" supports Hunspell(hunspell.github.io). Hunspell is a spell checker designed for languages ​​with complex word formation and extensive morphology. Hunspell is used in the OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice office suites, as well as in the Mozilla Firefox browser.

Dictionaries for Windows can be downloaded from here:

Online speech synthesizers are a useful find that previously could only be dreamed of. They allow you to voice any text you specify, adjusting the voice, timbre, tempo, etc. Initially, the utility was designed for people with poor eyesight who do not have the ability to read text from the monitor. Nowadays, it is often used as an auxiliary tool in learning foreign languages, allowing you to perceive speech by ear and get used to the correct placement of stress and intonation. Also, for convenience, you can use the synthesizer to listen to books while doing household chores.

On the Internet you can easily find a lot of such applications available for downloading on your PC. However, in order not to fill up your computer’s memory again and not to jeopardize the security of its operation, it is better to use online services. We will tell you about the three most convenient and multifunctional.

Acapela – the most famous online speech synthesizer

The Acapela website provides a huge selection of languages ​​and voices for voicing text. This is especially true for English - it can be heard in twenty different options: in a female voice, male, childish, senile, joyful, etc.

It’s convenient that all parameters can be configured immediately on the main page

Unfortunately, things are worse with Russian texts - they are voiced only in one voice - a certain Alena. But nevertheless, the result is quite worthy.

The settings here are very simple - just select the language and voice, enter the desired text, then agree to the terms of use of the resource and click the “Listen!” button.


The interface is designed in English, but even without translation it is quite clear what and how to click

The limit for audio playback is 300 characters. This is the main disadvantage of most online speech synthesizers, so if you need voice acting for a large file, this option is clearly not suitable. To use voiceover without restrictions, they offer to buy full version programs. It is available to everyone operating systems on PC and phone.

Google Translator: fast, easy, accessible

Speaking of playing text files, we cannot fail to mention the famous Google Translate. As the name suggests, this service is designed for translating texts. In addition, here you can also listen to files - this is done literally in one click.


Everything is designed in Russian, so it’s very easy to understand the interface

To listen to the file, you need to paste your text into the appropriate window and click on the megaphone icon in the lower left corner. It’s convenient that you can do this with both the original and the translation. Note that the limit here is much larger than in Acapela - 5000 characters. There are no extensions or paid versions provided.

Since this program was created for other purposes, the functionality here leaves much to be desired. Timbre, reading speed and other important parameters are not adjustable in any way. The voice acting is unnatural, with distinct “metallic” notes. Intonation, pauses, semantic stresses - all this is done unprofessionally, so in every sentence you feel like the words are unevenly “glued” together.

This application is convenient to use, for example, if you want to understand how the text you write is perceived by ear. For this, intonation and timbre are not particularly important, because the wording itself, the presence of tautologies and dissonant statements are interesting.


Among the advantages, one can note only a huge selection of languages, which, in fact, is quite logical for an online translator

ServiceFromtexttospeech for voice playback of your text

The last application we want to talk about is Fromtexttospeech. Let's start with the fact that the restrictions on the number of characters here are the most flexible - up to 50,000. This is a serious competitive advantage, but let's figure out whether Fromtexttospeech has any other obvious advantages.

The algorithm of the program is approximately the same as that of Acapela:

  • configure online speech synthesizer parameters: language, timbre and speed;
  • click “Create Audio File”;
  • download or simply listen to the finished file.

So, let's try. Copy a few sentences of your article and paste it onto fromtexttospeech.com. Just below the working panel the number of characters that we can still add is displayed.


It’s very convenient that you can choose the reading speed: slow, medium, fast and very fast

There’s nothing else to configure here, so let’s move on to the actual conversion to audio procedure. This process takes several minutes (depending on the file size), after which you can evaluate the result of the work in a separate window.


The ability to save the resulting audio file to your computer is a very convenient feature that distinguishes this service from many others.

To summarize, it is worth saying that all the services we reviewed are very individual and have their own characteristics. If you are interested in professional voice acting, then Acapela is perfect for these purposes. On the official website of the program you can test its operation, evaluate its sound and functionality in order to decide whether to purchase a full-fledged version. If the issue of quality is not too important for you, choose the good old Google Translator or Fromtexttospeech, which allow you to convert large text files into audio for free.

You can listen to how fragments of the same text sound when performed by different voice engines in our video.

Some users may need to voice text in a male voice online. This could be any advertising text, fiction, or other text genres and styles that need to be transformed according to the “text into voice” principle, without resorting to downloading various programs to the PC. In this material I will tell you what online talkers with a male voice exist in Russian, I will give a description of the corresponding network resources, and I will also explain how to work with them.

If you are interested in an online talker, then I will immediately note that in most cases the ability to reproduce text for free is limited to a few hundred characters in size, but for full functionality you will have to pay extra. This is due to the advertising nature of such resources, designed rather to demonstrate the capabilities of the voice engine, rather than to fully voice huge volumes of user text in a male voice.

So, let's move on to directly listing and describing the capabilities of the network announcer resources we need.

Linguatec resource for reading text by voice

The first online talker with a male and female voice that I want to talk about is the German resource Linguatec. The maximum amount of text that can be voiced is limited to 250 characters, which, however, is quite enough to demonstrate the capabilities of the specified voice engine. For full functionality without restrictions, you will have to pay real money.

To take advantage of the resources of the resource, go to it, in the “Voice Reader” sign, select the Russian language (Russisch), and just below, from the presented voices, select the male voice (Yuri). Below, enter the text you need (up to 250 characters) and click the arrow button (Play).

Oddcast - online speech synthesizer

The Oddcast resource can also act as an online talker, and the size of the spoken text is limited to 170 characters.

  1. To work with this resource, go to it, in the language selection window (Language) select Russian, and in the window for selecting a male or female voice, select male (Dmitri).
  2. In the “Enter text” window, enter your text, and then click on the “Say It” button.
  3. The “Effect” option included in the engine’s functionality will give you the opportunity to experiment with various sound effects (whispers, robotic voice, accelerated voice, and so on).

iSpeech - service reproduces text to speech

Another resource called iSpeech, which has a Russian voice engine of fairly good quality. At the same time, the volume of reproduced text is also limited to about 200 characters, allowing you to voice the Russian text in a male voice online.

To work with the resource, go to it, find “Russian Male” in the list of languages ​​on the left, enter your text in the window on the right and click on the “Play” button (you will have to wait a few seconds while the system processes the text).

If the iSpeech service is not suitable for you, go to the article about or read further.

The IVONA resource reads any text out loud

Another online talker with a male voice in Russian is IVONA. This resource has one of the highest quality voice engines, but the ability to speak a certain amount of free text, which was available until recently, is not currently available (maybe it will be available later)

However, the opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of the existing voice engine remains. To do this, you need to go to this resource Ivona, find “Russia” in the list of available languages, click on the button on the right, and, selecting the male voice (Maxim), click on the button with the arrow (Play).

A little more about voice engine standards

As for the main voice engine standards available today, the two most common today are SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 (“SAPI” is an abbreviation for “Microsoft Speech API” - translated as “Speech Programming Interface from Microsoft”). SAPI 4 is an outdated standard, created back in 1998, and is now rarely used, SAPI 5 is more modern, has better pronunciation, the latest modification is SAPI 5.4 (at the same time, SAPI has 5 free votes less than the outdated SAPI 4).

As for speech synthesis programs, one of the most popular of them is “Govorilka”, which allows you to voice voluminous texts quite efficiently, and various options voices (both male and female). The installation version of the product usually contains a set of several built-in voices, but if these are not enough for the reader, then on the program’s website you can download additional voices for it (including high-quality paid options).

Conclusion

If you are interested in a speaker with a male voice in Russian, then I recommend paying attention to the list of online resources I listed above. At the same time, their disadvantages include the limited functionality of their free functionality, forcing the user to pay close attention to specialized programs (for example, “Govorilka”). The highest quality pronunciation among the listed resources is provided by the voice engine of the IVONA service, and it is precisely the phrases voiced by it that we quite often encounter in the Russian-language segment of the network.

In contact with

Sometimes we need to voice printed text. Most often, such programs are used by those who learn foreign languages ​​to determine the correct intonation and stress, also for reading books, and just for fun and pranking friends. To use text voiceover, there is no need to download programs to your computer, because there are a sufficient number of them in the online version (unlike). This article will look at the best human speech synthesizers that you can use online.

Translate.google.com - free service for text translation and synthesis

Google translator is one of the most popular and best services, which provides a range of different services. For example, a well-known translator has the function of voicing the entered text in all supported languages. The voice acting quality is low in places, but generally acceptable. If you are translating printed text into speech to learn a language, then Google Translate is ideal for you. The most important thing about this service is that it is simple and accessible to every user on the Internet.


How to synthesize text in Translate.google.com

In order to use the service from Google:

  1. Go to https://translate.google.com;
  2. Select the required language by clicking the “Define language” button;
  3. Then enter the text in the window where you selected the language;
  4. Now click on the gramophone icon at the bottom of the window and you can hear the text played in a female voice.

Its disadvantage is the inability to download the reproduced speech synthesis in a file to your computer. There are also no voice settings or artist selection.

Acapela - free voice-over program

Acapela is the most popular and one of the best speech synthesizers that allow you to work online. The service supports more than 30 languages, as well as a large number of performers to choose from, both male and female. For English, there are as many as 20 tones to choose from - female, male, teenager, child, rough male, soft female, etc. The program is easy to configure and easy to use. A program for offline use is available on the website. You have the opportunity to try a demo version of the speech synthesizer by clicking the corresponding item in the menu bar.


How to use Acapela

To configure online speech synthesis, use the block on the left side on the page http://www.acapela-group.com/voices/demo/.

So how does it work:

  1. In the first line, select the language of the spoken text.
  2. The second line is not needed if you select Russian, because there is only one option - Alyona.
  3. In the third line, enter your text that you want to voice. You can enter up to 300 characters.
  4. Next, agree to the terms of service by checking the box “i agree with terms & conditions”.
  5. And click the "Please accept terms & conditions" button below.

The voice acting through this service is of average quality. The intonation of almost all words is correct. The product is available for all platforms.

Next.2yxa.mobi - online service for voicing text

The online service Next.2yxa.mobi is a simple and affordable synthesizer for reproducing printed text. The site was developed for mobile devices, so by logging into it through a web browser, we will have an easy and fast tool for text synthesis. In this regard, the site has some limitations in operation. For example, if you need to “read” the downloaded text, then the file size should not exceed 100 kb. You can type the text and immediately speak it out.

To do this you need:


Vocalizer - voice synthesizer for online text playback

Another one of the best speech synthesizers for voice-over testing online, created by foreign developers, is Vocalizer. It is available at the link http://www.nuance.com/landing-pages/playground/Vocalizer_Demo2/vocalizer_modal.html. This is a simple and straightforward service. The menu and interface are completely in English, but it will be very easy to understand. Online service we can use it as a Demo version. The system offers you 100 different voice options and 47 languages.


How to use Vocalizer

It is very easy to synthesize speech online using this program. For this:

  1. In the “Language/Dialect” item, select a language;
  2. In “Gender”, select a male or female voice (male – male, female – female);
  3. Below in the large block, enter the text to be voiced and click the blue button on the side to play.

Sometimes you need to voice a text that is written on a computer. But how to do that? It is necessary to use special software, which is called a speech synthesizer. With this utility you can turn written text into spoken language. There are a lot of desktop speech synthesizers on the World Wide Web. However, it is better to use online services. After all, in this case you won’t have to download software to your PC, thus clogging up the memory. In this article we will look at the best online talkers.

Speech synthesizers have a fairly wide range of applications. First of all, such programs will be useful to people with disabilities. For example, speech synthesizers were originally intended for people who have vision problems and cannot read text from a monitor.

Talking books can be a good assistant in the learning process. For example, they can be used to listen foreign speech and thus train perception. A speech synthesizer is also used to listen to books while doing household chores.

The best online talkers

Today, web talkers are in no way inferior to desktop programs in terms of playback quality. Internet utilities are capable of reading at different speeds, timbres, etc. Let's consider the most popular text-to-speech converters.

But first, it’s worth noting that most online speech synthesizers limit the possibility of free playback. Web utilities allow you to listen to a couple of hundred characters so that the user can evaluate the quality of the service. For full functionality you will have to pay a certain amount.

Acapela

Acapela is one of the most popular speech synthesizers. The web utility supports more than 30 languages. One of the main advantages of this online resource is the huge number of votes. For the same English, about 20 timbres are available (woman, man, child, teenager, joyful, etc.). Unfortunately, Russian language deprived. Only one female voice is available to reproduce text in Russian.

The web program has a minimum number of settings. Thanks to this, anyone can understand the controls. To reproduce the text you just need to:

  1. Click on the first field. A list will appear in which you need to select a playback language.
  2. Click on the next field. In the list you need to select one of the proposed tones.
  3. In the large field, enter the text that you want to turn into an audio track.
  4. Then you need to agree to the terms of service. To do this, check the box next to the appropriate item. A Listen button will appear, by clicking on which you can listen to the previously entered text.

The sound of the web program is quite decent. The maximum number of characters that can be spoken is 300.

Linguatec

It is also worth paying attention to a service called Linguatec. This is a German Internet resource that is extremely popular outside its homeland. And this is not at all surprising. The web service supports more than 40 languages ​​(of course, Russian is one of them). Interestingly, Linguatec is capable of reproducing different dialects. For example, there are several versions of English: British, American, Australian, Irish, etc. Thanks to this feature, Linguatec is an excellent program for those who want to learn correct pronunciation this or that word in a foreign language.

The text can be played in both male and female voices. The free play limit is 250 characters. To get full functionality, you will have to purchase a desktop speech synthesizer. Its cost is 30 euros.

How to use an online speech synthesizer? The following instructions must be followed:

  1. Click on the drop-down list under Voice Reader and select the playback language.
  2. In the drop-down list, which is located a little lower, define the voice. For example, for the German language there are only a few pronunciation options: male voices - Yannick and Markus, female voices - Petra and Anna.
  3. Now enter the text you want to play in the appropriate field. Remember that its size should not exceed 250 characters (including spaces).
  4. To convert symbols to audio, you need to click on the arrow button.

Oddcast

Oddcast is a fairly well-known company that creates interactive companions for various brands. The company also has its own speech synthesizer, which can be used to reproduce text. The web utility supports about 30 languages. Most have several variations of female and male voices. The program can reproduce text up to 170 characters.

A distinctive feature of this service is its animated model. She follows the cursor and moves her lips as the text plays. The model does not contain any useful functionality. Its purpose is to demonstrate the capabilities of Oddcast.

Working with Oddcast is very simple. It is necessary to configure the basic characteristics of the web utility. In total, the program provides 5 parameters:

  • Enter Text. Here we write the text that needs to be converted into speech.
  • Language. Here you need to select the language in which the text will be reproduced.
  • Voice. Select a voice for reading (their number depends on the selected language).
  • Effect. Oddcast allows you to add voice effects to spoken text. The choice is quite large. There is a function for acceleration, echo, pitch, etc.
  • Level. Allows you to customize the selected effect. For example, if you use acceleration, then using this field you can set how fast the text will be played.

By changing the characteristics to suit your needs, you can launch the talker. To do this, click on the Say it button.

iSpeech

Another service that is worth paying attention to is iSpeech. The web utility has a good voice engine that in a positive way affects the audio quality. The service supports about 30 languages. The maximum number of characters that can be spoken is 150.

The service interface is designed in a minimalist style. Everything is done very clearly. To select a language, click on the corresponding flag. If you need to determine the timbre, click on the female or male icon. In addition, the program has three playback modes. You can listen to the text at a slow, normal or accelerated pace. Having set the necessary parameters, you need to click on the Play button. The text to speech conversion will begin.

iSpeech is ideal for learning foreign languages. During playback, the utility highlights the words that were spoken out loud. Thanks to this, you can find out the correct sound of a particular word without being distracted from the topic of the text. Another feature of the service is that the voiced fragment can be downloaded to your PC as an audio track. However, this service is only available to owners of paid accounts, the cost of which is quite high. The cheapest subscription costs $500.

Text-To-Speech

Text-To-Speech is a speech synthesizer that boasts a good voice engine. The Internet utility has a very simple, uncomplicated interface. The program supports about 10 of the most popular languages. Of course, this includes Russian. To work with this web resource it is enough:

  1. Select options for reading text. There are only two of them. To select a language, click on the drop-down list next to Language. Nearby you can see the Speed ​​parameter. It is responsible for reading speed and is installed in a similar way.
  2. Now you need to enter the text in the appropriate field. The web utility is capable of processing fragments whose size does not exceed 1000 characters.
  3. Next, you need to click on the Say it button. The program will produce an audio file with your text. You can listen to it directly on the website.

Google Translate

A web service called Google Translate includes a talker. It's very easy to use. You must enter the text in the appropriate field and click on the speaker icon. Voila - the robot read the specified fragment. Google Translate has a limit on text size. You cannot enter more than 5000 characters.

The main advantage of Google Translate is that it supports a huge number of languages. However, there was a fly in the ointment. Firstly, you cannot change the voice timbre, reading speed and other parameters. Secondly, the playback quality leaves much to be desired.

From-Text-To-Speech

A large amount of text can be processed by a web service called From-Text-To-Speech. The utility is capable of converting up to 50 thousand characters at a time. This is an order of magnitude higher than that of competitors. The web program supports 10 languages, which are the most popular. These include Russian.

To use the web service, you first need to configure the voiceover settings. Luckily there aren't many of them here. First of all, you need to set the language and determine the voice that will read the text. For Russians, only one timbre is available - female. Then you need to adjust the reading speed. There are four options in total: slow, normal, fast and very fast. Having set the appropriate parameters, you need to click on the Create Audio File button.

The conversion process will begin. As a rule, this takes no more than a minute. Upon completion of the transformation there will be a transition to new page. There will be a hyperlink in the form of the inscription Download audio file. You need to right-click on it and select the “Save link as” option from the drop-down list. Choose a location on your PC and download audio. The file is saved in MP3 format.

2 ears

It is impossible not to mention domestic services for converting text into audio. One of the best at this is a website called 2ukha. The main advantage of the service is the ability to work with large volumes of text. If other resources voice small fragments of up to 200-300 characters, then 2ukha is capable of processing 100 KB of text. This is about 100 thousand characters. And, most importantly, everything is completely free.

How to work with the 2ukha website? Everything is very simple. To convert text into spoken language you just need to:

This service definitely deserves attention. The quality of the voiced text is at a quite decent level. And the ability to process huge files is also good news. However, the 2x web service also has disadvantages. For example, the quantity available languages. The service only works with Russian.

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