A program for reading documents aloud. The best speech synthesizers online. Examples of modern engines

Many people love to read books, and they do it at home, at work, on vacation, and even on the road. Everyone likes various literary genres and trends; some people cannot even imagine life without their favorite books. Sometimes it happens that we need not only visual reading, but also voice reading of the text (this can be implemented on various sites with accessible content).

Here we will come to the aid of various Internet sites and resources that have voice engines and allow the user to reproduce texts in different voices. What is online voice dubbing? What sites and services are designed for this type of work and how to quickly use them?

Useful video on the topic (1 minute):

Online text reading

Most often, voice-over of text online is quite simple and is, rather, a means aimed at increasing the capabilities of the engine chosen by the user, rather than at voice-over of large and long text files. Free voiceover of text files on many sites it will be limited in volume to 250–300 characters, and for full use of the site to reproduce larger volumes of texts you will have to pay your own money.

The scheme of working with such sites is similar everywhere: first you go to the selected site, place the one you need in the window text file and click on the play icon. The site plays your file, and you listen and try to understand whether you liked the site and whether it’s worth working with it further.

Programs for voicing text

The network has many services that can read text files, but we will present you only the most popular:

  • Acapela service.

One of the very first resources designed for voice reproduction of text. The engine has a fairly high quality of voice acting, also presented here choice of male or female voice at your request (Russian language is represented by only one female voice, Alyona). The number of characters provided for the free version of playback reaches up to 300; for larger texts you will have to pay a fee.

To use the site's capabilities, first go to it. In the left window, select the language you need, change English to Russian, enter the text in the “tupe your text her” window and tick the phrase “I agree with text and condition”. Next, to listen to the text, click on the Listen icon.

  • Google Translate service.

This translator from Google can also be used as voiceover for some texts. The advantages of the site are the absence of strict restrictions on several hundred characters and absolutely free use of the site. The main disadvantage of the site is its voice acting, since it can be several times inferior to sites with paid content.

To listen to the text, just go to the website, insert your text and click on the speaker icon. Playback will start automatically.

  • Linguatec service.

Another resource that also has a character limit. Here volume in playback up to 250 characters (full use of the site also requires payment), and the quality of voice acting on this site cannot be called the best.

To listen to your text, you need to go to the website and select Russian in the language settings; you will also have a choice of voices, male or female. Afterwards, you need to paste your text into the empty window and click on the play button at the bottom of the screen.

  • Text - to – Speech service.

One of many talkers, its work is similar to the previous ones. Here number of free symbols much higher - about 1000, voice acting and playback are at a decent level. Use is possible after visiting the site. Here you change the language from English to Russian and enter the text you need in the window. Then you should click on the Say it icon.

  • IVONA service.

Another popular online service for reading text files. This resource has the most high-quality and convenient engine from the above sites. But the disadvantage of the site is that it is exclusively paid work. If previously it was possible to listen to several offers on the site and test the quality, now this is no longer possible.

Several more programs for reading text by voice

On the Internet there are talkers not only with online work, but also those that can be easily downloaded to your personal computer. The most famous of them are Govorilka and Sacrament Talker.

  • Talker program.

A small program for reading any text file via voice playback. There is a possibility convert read text into files formats such as wav and mp3 audio. The size of the file that is played in the program should not exceed 2 gigabytes; there is also a convenient adjustment of reading speed, voice volume and highlighting of what you read at your request. To work with the program, you need to download it from an Internet resource, install it on your PC and run it. Next, enter the text file into the empty window and click on the file playback icon.

  • Sacrament Talker program.

Another source for dubbing your file is the Sacrament Talker program. This resource has its own universal engine Sakrament TTS Engine 3.0 and six different voices in Russian. The program is capable of working with voluminous and large text files, while the program has excellent sound, not inferior to other online sites and PC programs.

Working with text here is carried out in the same way as in the previous program.

Application for reproducing text by voice on a mobile device

There are many mobile applications for reading books that have built-in voice reading of text materials. This function can be used any user application data. Among these readers are: Cool Reader, Normad Reader, FBReader, EBookDroid and many others. All of these programs have an automatic document reading function; to use them, the user must review the program settings.

conclusions

To reproduce text online by voice, you can use many different programs, both free and paid, at your discretion. Wherein in free programs The number of characters is unlimited, but in paid ones it is limited to a few hundred; for a larger amount of text in this case you will have to pay. Which site you should choose and which one to use is up to you to decide.

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. We can use the online service 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.

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 with different voice options (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

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 are unable 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 versions: 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 dubbing without restrictions, they offer to buy the full version of the program. It is available for all 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.

Many of us love to read. We read at home and at work, on the road and on vacation, we like various literary styles and trends, and some simply cannot imagine their life without books. Moreover, in addition to the visual display of texts, the user may need to provide voice acting for the latter (for example, when implementing voice content on various sites). Then various online voice engines come to our aid, allowing us to reproduce the text the user needs in different voices. In this material I will tell you what online voice acting is, what online services exist for this, and how to use them.

In most cases, online voice acting is quite standardized, and is aimed more at demonstrating the capabilities of the selected voice engine, rather than at reproducing huge sizes of user texts. The free functionality of most online services is limited to text of 250-300 characters, and for the full capabilities of the voice engine and the reproduction of large volumes of material you will have to pay real money.

The standard template for working with such sites is as follows: you go to the resource, select the desired language in a special window, select a female or male voice, enter the text you need in the window and click on the play button. The service reads your text, you form an impression of the quality of the voice engine, and decide whether to work with it further or not.


Online voice acting services

So, there are several popular services on the Internet that can voice text online. Let's move on to listing them with a corresponding description of their functionality.

Acapela service

The first of the resources aimed at reproducing text by voice online is Acapela. Its engine has a fairly high-quality sound level, there is a choice of female and male voices (Russian is represented only by the female voice of Alyona), while the volume of freely reproduced text is limited to 300 characters, and for more opportunities you will have to pay extra.

To take advantage of the capabilities of this service, go to it, in the window on the left, switch the language (Select a language) to Russian (Russian), enter your text under the phrase “type your text here”, check the box to the left of “I agree with terms and condition”. To start listening, click on the “Listen” button below.

Google Translator service

The specified translator from Google can also be used to read text online. I would consider its advantages to be the absence of the classic limit of several hundred characters and the free nature of the resource. On the downside, voice playback of text may be inferior to paid competitors.


To reproduce the text using this translator, go to https://translate.google.com, enter the required text in the window, and then click on the button with the image of a speaker at the very bottom.

Linguatec Service

Another online talker, but it has the limitations of its “shareware” counterparts. The volume of reproduced text in it is limited to 250 characters (you need to pay extra for full functionality), and the quality of reproduction here is quite average.

To reproduce the text in voice online, go to this resource, in the language settings, instead of Deutsch, select Russisch, select a female (Milena) or male (Yuri) voice, enter your text and click on the play button below.


Text-to-Speech service

Another online talker is the Text-to-Speech service. The maximum size of reproduced text is higher here - about a thousand characters, and the playback quality is also at an acceptable level.

To listen to the text we need using this voice engine, follow the link, select Russian (Language – Russian), enter the text you want to listen to, and then click on “Say it”.

IVONA service

And the last online service that I want to mention when considering voice-over of typed text online is Ivona. This resource probably has the highest quality voice engine among all of the above, although its capabilities are available only on a paid basis, and the previously existing ability to listen to several sentences of text using this voice engine has now, unfortunately, been removed.

Voice reading programs

Govorilka program

A small software product that can read your text by voice, and it is possible to record the read text into wav and mp3 audio files. The size of the read file is limited to 2 gigabytes, there is adjustment of the voice speed, its volume, highlighting of the read text, and so on.

Download the program (for example, from here), install and run. Enter the text in the window and click on the corresponding play button at the top.


This is what the working window of the Govorilka program looks like:

Sacrament Talker Program

Voiceover of text is also possible using the Sacrament Talker program. The program has its own engine, Sakrament TTS Engine 3.0 and six(!) possible Russian voices, works great with large files, and the quality of voice text reproduction is also excellent.

The specifics of working with the program are similar to the previous analogue.


Mobile applications for reading text

Many mobile readers have built-in functionality for voice reading of text, which can be used by the average user. Among such readers, I would note Cool Reader, Nomad Reader, FBReader, EBookDroid and others. Almost all of them have an option for voice text playback, which the user can look for in the settings of these programs.

If for any reason the services presented above do not suit you, please also read the list.

Conclusion

If you are interested in narrating text with your voice online, then it can be implemented using the online services I listed above. Moreover, in most cases, their free functionality is limited to a few hundred characters, and only the functionality of Google Translator is designed for large amounts of text. However, you can take advantage of the capabilities of ordinary programs (in particular, the above-mentioned “Govorilka” and “Sacrament Talker”), which will help you reproduce the text you need without any problems.

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