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Listen to the Nuance Text-to-Speech Voices Found in Mac OS X Lion
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Oh my. The Finnish one was absolutely horrible. I could hardly figure out half a word...and it's my mother tongue. I liked the British English one the best, and US English and German were plausible. I don't mind if it sounds computer-like, as long as it's understandable. The Finnish voice, named Mikko (my name as well 
), was no better than Fred reading Finnish. I've heard better ones, like the one in Nokias.
), was no better than Fred reading Finnish. I've heard better ones, like the one in Nokias.
Well, yes, that's nearly inevitable, as GPS voices are mostly fully prerecorded sentences, with only figures and words like right/left/ahead placed in between or at the end of sentences. With text-to-speech, you can not prerecord every possible sentence, you're going to have to do it syllable by syllable or some other way.
Techno remix?
I found it entertaining at first to find 'Samantha' speaking alongside a ridiculous techno mix when i turned my speakers on.
Turns out it was just my iTunes playing some basshunter haha.
I found it entertaining at first to find 'Samantha' speaking alongside a ridiculous techno mix when i turned my speakers on.
Turns out it was just my iTunes playing some basshunter haha.
Mac OS X is translated only to Russian and Polish. Look at the list of Mac OS X languages at the bottom of it's specification page:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html
Compared to Windows and, say, Ubuntu this is embarrassingly short list...
Wow, pretty impressive. One would think that as Finnish is pronounced exactly as it is written, as in, one letter only has one type of pronounciation, it wouldn't be hard to make it sound good. But of course there's a lot more to speech, like tone and timing. Seems like they nailed Swedish, it's very understandable even though it's my third language.
Yeah, the Swedish was very nice. I liked the British English, too. But the Finnish... Made me wonder if they even fed Finnish text for the demo because some time ago there was another demo circulating around with all the voices in a single clip and the Finnish voice was OK in that. If they fed real text to the engine... Horrible, horrible.
Argh!
Not to be a stickler for grammar, but you cannot center "around"; you center "on" something. You can "revolve around", but two should not be conflated.
This is a GREAT tool for common errors in English: http://bit.ly/12iFi
Not to be a stickler for grammar, but you cannot center "around"; you center "on" something. You can "revolve around", but two should not be conflated.
This is a GREAT tool for common errors in English: http://bit.ly/12iFi
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IVONA - by far best text-to-speech
IVONA makes the best British text-to-speech voice: http://www.ivona.com - try it out for yourselves. American English is not bad either.
Here's some text to try it on:
IVONA makes the best British text-to-speech voice: http://www.ivona.com - try it out for yourselves. American English is not bad either.
Here's some text to try it on:
Personally, I wouldn't put much between them, at least not for the British voices. It does seem odd that iVox would choose a name for one of its voices (Graham) that it can't even pronounce properly!
I remember when the speech stuff came in System 7.6. You could make your Mac say something rude when an alert window was shown
And other things
. I remember we could never successfully get the right answer to 'What day is it?' - it required -such- an accent ... always gave me the time instead.As for these new ones, I didn't think the British English one sounded bad, as was said earlier, pretty reminiscent of BBC newsreaders really. Either way, I still don't think it's going to be a feature I'll start using.
One time I used 'Services' to make an mp3 of some boardgame instructions to listen to on the way to playing. I concluded that it really isn't healthy to listen to that sort of voice very long!
And other things
As for these new ones, I didn't think the British English one sounded bad, as was said earlier, pretty reminiscent of BBC newsreaders really. Either way, I still don't think it's going to be a feature I'll start using.
One time I used 'Services' to make an mp3 of some boardgame instructions to listen to on the way to playing. I concluded that it really isn't healthy to listen to that sort of voice very long!
I couldnt get the knock knock jokes every work. Whos there never worked when I spoke it.
Question for native Mandarin speakers:
To anyone here who is a native speaker of Mandarin, I have a question for you: What city is Mei Ling's accent from?
Here is the sample of Mei Ling's speech:
http://nextupdownloads.com/scansamples/Mei-Ling.wav
To anyone here who is a native speaker of Mandarin, I have a question for you: What city is Mei Ling's accent from?
Here is the sample of Mei Ling's speech:
http://nextupdownloads.com/scansamples/Mei-Ling.wav
I quite like the idea of my MacBook speaking like she is presenting the Today Program, and seeing as how a Jim Naughtie voice is unlikely to come along any time soon, Serena will do just fine.
That said Serena is a less British name than Samantha.
That said Serena is a less British name than Samantha.
So where is the english CANADIAN ?? Does apple know that 95% of all Canadians are not francophones?
Still haven't nailed it.
Guess these posters would prefer to hear Albert, Alex, Bruce, Fred, Kathy, Vicki or Victoria.