Can anybody recommend a good ‘Text to Speech’ software package, with natural sounding voices for use with Captivate? It can’t be cloud based (like ‘Speechelo’) due to cyber security restrictions that my company has in place, unless multi-factor authentication has been implemented by the vendor. Many thanks!
Is there a reason that you are looking for “text to speech” rather than vice overs/voice actors/voice talent?
I hate to assume, but rather let me take a guess, cost of the voice talent? Or maybe you have multiple courses and want the same voice for all courses and are afraid that a voice talent will not be able to do all of the work?
I ask because I do voice work for my company interactive training and voice overs for videos because they could a solution that worked with the security parameters set froth by the end customer. I got volunteered because they liked my voice when teaching blended learning, so now I am the voice of all of the training products and videos for the entire program office…unfortunately, I don’t get paid any extra for it, but at least I am developing a talent that is marketable.
There is a large community of voice talent out there that can produce audio for training, the price ranges obviously, but they usually go by per finished hour (PFH) and charge by that hour. Just a thought or two.
I would reach out to the folks at WellSaid Labs. In my opinion, they have the best text-to-speech solution powered by ai. It is an application that works in the cloud, but perhaps they would be willing to work with you on multi-factor authentication for the web-based app. Here is a video I did on their product: https://youtu.be/zLGzhghUilc
If you decide to signup with them, please use this affiliate link to let them know I recommended them: https://www.wellsaidlabs.com/?via=paul
There is another free sampler from Amazon’s AWS service. Their text-to-speech is called POLLY. However, it requires you to open a free AWS account (Free Tier) and sign-in to access and use the demo.
I was able to use the same strategy that I use for Google’s service however, POLLY has a limit on how many times you can use it for free. They have a couple of voices in their line-up that are superb.
Currently (as of 08/04/2022), they are offering 5 million characters free per month for 12 months with the AWS Free Tier.
NOTE: Be wary of a lot of other online text-to-speech services out there. Many of them are middlemen to Amazon’s POLLY. Best to go directly to the source (IMO).
There is a free text-to-voice front-end sampler (demo) from Google with no limits where the output can be recorded via a tool like Adobe Audition or OpenSource Audacity. Set to record your speaker line-out (the option is in the input pull-downs of both applications). I was able to use it without subscribing or logging in. No download was necessary. The demo page appears to be open to the public (link below). Great voices.
- https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech
- Don’t click on the button “TRY IT FOR FREE”. It’s not necessary as the demo is down farther on the page.
- Scroll down about half-way to the “DEMO” section.
- Replace the demo text with your own.
- Select the voices (I have tips on that below).
- Click on the CAPTCHA to prove that you’re not a robot.
- Then, click on “PLAY” after you set your audio software to “RECORD”.
TIP: Consider selecting WaveNet as voice type. select speed to 1.07 for best natural flow, use commas in the text to create pauses, and try these voice names. My favorites are:
– en-US-Wavenet-J (man’s voice)
– en-US-Wavenet-I (man’s voice)
– en-US-Wavenet-F (woman’s voice)
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