Customer Reviews

TextAloud With AT&T Natural Voices (Windows Software)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this program in early September 2006 because I'd come down with a vision problem that made me temporarily partially blind in one eye. I love to read (mostly fan fiction on the internet, but I love to research things too) and was really annoyed that I couldnt read to pass the time while I was waiting for my eye to heal.

I downloaded the free version and liked how it worked. Listened to the samples of the Natural Voices, and decided to get the full version. Totally loved the full version. The Natural Voices sound almost perfect. Sometimes they dont get the pronunciations right, and if the program cant figure out what a word is, it'll spell it, but the full version allows you to edit the pronunciations so that you can teach it how to pronounce the words right.

My eye is starting to heal now, and I can read almost normally, but I'm still using the program because it's fun to have. Plus, I've been using the program to proof read things that I write so that I can catch mistakes in my own work.

From what I've seen this program would be great for the visually impaired, dyslexic, and for people who have other reading problems. It works a lot better than the text-to-speech software that currently comes free with most Windows based computers.

text aloudis very easy use/listen to. I am leagally blind and can now
listen to my email alone. With out having some one reading it to me.
I download books and listen to them now all the time. It takes away
alot of the obstiles I encounter trying to surf the net.

J.W. Mpls MN.

I've been using Textaloud for over a year. I use it to create mp3 files of lengthy web articles and newsletters to listen on my mp3 player during commuting. I also let Textaloud read Japanese web sites (reduce kanji lookup!). It's been a great tool. I use NeoSpeech voices with the TextAloud engine and they sound very natural (English & Japanese).

I just got this program this week and really think it's cool. I needed the voice reading to help with classes when my eyes just can't look at the computer screen one more minute. I found that it even helps with my typos that are still real words that spellcheck can't catch. I got another voice, the one that comes with it is mechanical but the AT&T voices are better. Ray is my man now. So far it's been worth it.

This program is a step up from Microsoft's default robotic text to voice reader but AT&T's Natural Voices is no match for Linguatec's Voice Reader Studio. I found there to be more customizable options in Linguatec's software but I guess that's to be expected since it costs an arm and a leg. For basic text to voice, ATT Natural Voices is alright but for a more natural sound and customization options, I thought everyone should know there's an alternative out there, albeit at a premium price. I think Linguatec is a German company. Those crazy Germans!

I really like this program, nextup.com has a trial version if you want to try it out first. the at&t natural voices are a must if you decide to buy this program.

This is result of my 2 months research!

A good program with good interface, its not perfect but I could not find a better software.

Most of text to speech programs(Including TextAloud) are just templates for dealing with 3rd party voice engines(for example AT&T and Acapela voices.) AT&T voices quality is good(not Excellent).


I like TextAlouds because it lets you Edit the pronunciations. This is very important to me, because I mostly use this program to repeat my work related technical docs and this program lets me to add the "modified" pronunciation to it's internal dictionary.

I disagree with reviewer who gave Textaould 1 star because of it's sound quality, once again note that quality of underlying voice engine does not have anything to do with a reader software.

We can not Blame Textaloud that U.S textto voice engines sound quality is not perfect. To me Linguatec - Voice Reader is far inferior to Text Aloud. Yes, may have a slightly better pronunciation, but it does not let you to modify the pronunciations which makes it effectively worthless for reading technical texts
Try making Linguatec read somthing like "C# is an OOP languages" which should be read as "C-Sharp is an object oriented language".

With textaloud you can easily modify the pronounciation of # to be read as sharp

This product is very good and very easy to use. I love it. It is great for proofreading documents. I had some problems installing it, and their tech support got me fixed up right away. Highly recommended.

This package is nice because it comes with some ATT natural voice addins, which are much better than the default voice (microsoft mary). It's still a computer voice, and it certainly sounds like it sometimes. However, I wasn't expecting a completely human-sounding voice.

The product is very flexible - you can put your text in and have it read it back to you, or you can save it to an MP3 file.

Overall, this is a great product and I'm glad I bought it. I have already found thirty or forty mistakes in my manuscript, and that is after countless re-reads.

A few years back I owned one of the ATT derived Text to Voice programs, but was annoyed when it invaded my WORD program like a virus and mixed itself into the menus and toolbars. I tried to clean up WORD by simply deleting the entire Text to Voice Program, and did not miss it for years and have since then lost the disk. But then need came up again for Text to Voice and so I was looking to buy into the Technology again. I was hoping there had been advances. Several years ago the ATT voices were awkward, clumsy, poorly timed and ill strung together. Checking out the Demos, it was clear nothing had much improved.

I read W. Kwok's review here at Amazon.com, and he had mentioned the German Product Linguatec's Reader (Home and Studio). Mr. Kwok had spoke about the Linguatec product being super expensive, and, yes, while the Studio verson is about 500 Euros, the Home or Personal Version is priced down the same with all the competition. The American Amazon.com does not sell Linguatec, but I looked over at Amazon.co.uk and they carry all of the Linguatec Readers... they have many language versions.

I went to the Linguatec Site in Germany where purchasing was only a little bit confusing. In System Requirements they were a bit too specific, listing XP-32. I had to do a bunch of searches to find out what XP-32 was and whether or not I had it (yes, it is the most basic XP, with 64 being the more advanced version which almost nobody has). But once I started to go through the purchase process, the German way of doing things proved to be not so difficult to deal with. Unlike Amazon.uk or Amazon.fr or Amazon.de, they give their prices in Dollars. The Order Menus were about the same as everybody elses. I would have bought from Amazon.uk but I was able to find the Download Purchase option sooner from the company itself in Germany, but now that I think about it, the English Amazon may have had it for a bit less.

Oh, by the way, for people who have not shopped Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr or Amazon.de (England, France, Germany), your Amazon.com Username and Password, Account Info, Addresses, all of that will follow you all around the Amazon World. And each Branch has its own Products. For Americans who like to read books in English, keep in mind that some rather good books are published in London that are out of print in New York. Also, the Music Department in England has a lot of neat stuff that is listed as Out of Stock in America.

Oh, the Linguatec Text to Voice program does have some limitations. There is only one voice and that female. They have this pop up showing the female narrator. If you leave the program in idle too long the girl begins to yawn and drum her fingers impatiently... all quite amusing. They give two names to the one female voice, only the pop up being different. One image is of a freaky looking chick with startling red hair, and the other one is dialed back a bit more toward social respectability, but both are quite cute, and I would have kept the wild redhead version with no complaint except that while playing with the menus I discovered the other girl who seemed even better.

The reading is almost flawless and for such long durations, but every once in while the girl does trip up... what were the words?... "cooperative", "formative". Hmmmmm. Don't use any words ending in -ative. I looked through the menus and HELP screens to see if I could fix the mispronounciations, but apparently that function comes only with the Studio version. But it was probably easier for me just to rephrase using differeint words, dropping "cooperative" and "transformative" for the easier cooperate blah blah, and transform blah blah.

Anyway, while it might seem on the surface that the ATT Products have some product advantages, all the difference is made up in just the natural quality of the Linguatec Voice. The Quality is surprising. It really takes awhile to figure out that the German Company doesn't just have a real live American girl there online with their Demo simply reading the text that you type in -- the voice really having too much quality to be anybody you think they could hire to do such a thing hour after hour, day after day. The voice is that good. The American Products, such as Text Aloud, while being able to present a good Lists of included features, all fall down in the end because the voice quality is so poor. ATT has a dozen clumsy robots speaking in jumpy rises and falls unlike how any language would ever really be spoken. With the price being about the same for the almost perfect Linguatec Reader... where's the choice. Simply go to each product's Demo and type in the Gettysberg Address or something. You'll hear the difference immediately.

Oh, I should say that the American Products can be set at a certain speed where the voices do sound their best, but in such a case, they really should not have a Speed Adjustment, not if changing the speed has such a profoundly terrible impact on Voice Quality. With the Linguatec Reader, speeding up the voice or slowing it down is simply akin to asking the girl to read faster or slower. The rate changes but the quality remains. But if the best speed setting of the American Product suits your ear, then you may not have such a compelling reason to go with Linguatec. But I like my readings to be slow and almost hypnotic, which the German Product does well and the American Product not well enough to be considered at all.

Maybe the American Companies should have kept working... kept devoloping. Letting the product simply get older over the last few years... well, that seems to be exactly the way to intentionally lose market share.

My thanks to Mr. W. Kwok for pointing me in the right direction with his review (see above).

I do a lot of research, and this has become difficult with my developing eye problems. This little program has been a fantastic alternative to eyestrain from hours of reading. I can output articles to mp3, for example, for listening on the road or while laying in bed at night.

The default voices from AT&T were difficult to understand, so I purchased a couple of Acapela voices, which are amazingly realistic. They only have a few problems producing certain consonants consecutively. The program itself has many tweeks and adjustments that you can make to the voices - I haven't even begun to study them yet. Unfortunately, you cannot adjust pitch, though. It seems these more advanced voices (as opposed to Microsoft's text-to-speech voice "Sam," for example)have lost their ability to change pitch. I was told that the Cepstral voices do have adjustable pitch, but to me they sound very primitive.

The company, NextUp.com, is quick to respond to email questions, and very helpful with those questions. So, after much research online, finding few options for acquiring a reasonable text-to-speech solution, I'd say this has turned out to be a very satisfying purchase.