Text To Speech Voice Won't Download Mac

  

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  • It is a web based online text to speech (tts) tool which can convert from text to speech in audio formats like text to mp3, text to wav file. It is also called as text to voice converter or type and speak or text reader service. The audio files can also be downloaded into your system in the formats like.mp3,.wav,.ogg,.caf and.aac.
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If you want to add none trivial speech output to your application, no matter if it’s a desktop, web, or mobile app, you need to find a way to convert text into speech (TTS) and eventually provide it in a sound format (like MP3) that can be played back on end-users’ devices. While some operating systems come with TTS capabilities built-in, the quality of the voice sound may vary more than you like, and an user experience spanning multiple OSes and platforms, almost always justifies or even requires the deployment of a TTS Web service.

All this is old news of course and companies like Nuance, iSpeech, or NeoSpeech provide Text-To-Speech services, varying greatly in price, quality, and performance. Other TTS-providers like Acapela or LumenVox lease their TTS-Server software, i.e. you get a performance-constrained binary that can be deployed on a RedHat Linux server in your own server room or for instance on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). The obvious advantage over the completely out-sourced approach is quality of service (response time) as well as security and privacy.

[from Michelle Branch’s – Spark ..]
Getting started with something new, sometimes requires only little more than a spark, which I hope to provide by showing how to use your Mac as a Text-To-Speech server, converting text strings to MP3 voice sound files on the fly. When we are done, you can request an mp3 sound file by either sending an HTTP GET request like:

http://localhost:8080/tts/?text=Hello World

which would stream an MP3 back in return or send an HTTP POST request and receive a path to the mp3 file back, ready to be downloaded once or multiple times.

.. as easy as one, two, three

1. MP3 Encoding

Not only are mp3 files almost universally playable, they are also considerably smaller than wav or aiff files for instance and still provide a decent sound quality. While each and every Mac comes with Text-To-Speech capabilities built-in, the output comes aiff encoded and is only accessible as an command line tool.
Mac2Speech – a Speech Synthesis Server for OS X, on the other hand allows you to use your Mac as a Text-To-Speech server, converting text strings into MP3 voice sound files on the fly.

2. TTS Server

There are no pre-requisites. Mac2Speech is a HTTP server that by default is available on port 8080. HTTP server, MP3 encoder, and everything else is all encapsulated in a single compact binary. A web user-interface allows for rapid testing and experimentation with different languages and voices, accessible in your web browser via http://localhost:8080

Once launched, the server puts an icon into the dock, which when control-clicked, exposes a menu, to further configure the application. Here for instance the HTTP port can be changed:

3. Download and Go

Enough with theory, now it’s time to go and download the dmg file, put it into you Applications folder, and try it out.

The Web user-interface allows access to all installed languages and voices. Click the row, marked with a small arrow, to open a list of all currently installed Languages and Voices. Changing the language will also influence the available voices. More importantly, when changing the language, remember to enter the text to be synthesized in that language.

Unfortunately, neither of the pre-installed voices are great, but Apple provides free access to much higher quality voices, if you care enough to install them. ‘Allison’ for instance is great and less robotic, but there is still room for improvement.

To install some of the better voices from Apple, open ‘System Preferences’ then ‘Dictation & Speech’. Now click on the ‘Text to Speech’ and then on the selected ‘System Voice’ (e.g. Alex) and in the appearing drop-down, select Customize…
Here you can discover (play) and install some amazingly good voices. Please do yourself a favor and install Allison and Tom, two very good American-English voices.

But there is more, Acapela for instance offers natural-sounding text to speech that easily plug-in to the Mac2Speech TTSServer. The Infovox iVox product, developed by the Acapela Group, allows to download and install additional voices into the OS X Voices repository. You can install those HQ voices and try them for a few weeks and then buy them for $20 to $30 each.

Download

HTTP GET Request

Sending an HTTP GET with voice and text parameters, will result in a MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM. I.e. the audio content is streamed directly in the HTTP response.

If the optional save=true parameter-value pair is sent with the request, an additional HTTP header gets include, to encourage downloading instead of directly playing the MP3.

Here is an example:

HTTP POST Request

Sending an HTTP POST with voice and text parameters, will create and temporarily store an MP3 file on the server.
The URL to that MP3 file is returned and can be requested, until the server gets restarted, at which time all temporarily created files are deleted.

Text To Speech Voices Download

© Shutterstock It only takes a few clicks to enable Word's speech-to-text mode. Shutterstock
  • You can use speech-to-text on Microsoft Word through the 'Dictate' feature.
  • With Microsoft Word's 'Dictate' feature, you can write using a microphone and your own voice.
  • When you use Dictate, you can say 'new line' to create a new paragraph and add punctuation simply by saying the punctuation aloud.
  • If you're not satisfied with Word's built-in speech-to-text feature, you can use a third-party program like Dragon Home.

While typing is certainly the most common way to create and edit documents in Microsoft Word, you're not limited to using a keyboard.

Word supports speech-to-text, which lets you dictate your writing using voice recognition.

Speech-to-text in Word is convenient and surprisingly accurate, and can help anyone who has issues typing with a typical keyboard.

You can use speech-to-text in Microsoft Word in the same way on both Mac and PC.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

Acer Chromebook 15 (From $179.99 at Walmart)

How to use speech-to-text on Word using Dictate

Make sure you have a microphone connected to your computer. This can be built-in, like on a laptop, or a separate mic that you plug into the USB or audio jack.

Text

It doesn't matter which type you use, though the best kind of mic to use is a headset, as it won't need to compete with as much background noise as a built-in microphone.


Gallery: 6 ways that Apple's next major iPhone OS update makes it much, much more like Android (Business Insider)

1. In Microsoft Word, make sure you're in the 'Home' tab at the top of the screen, and then click 'Dictate.'

Apple Text To Speech Voices

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider Click 'Dictate' to start Word's speech-to-text feature. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

2. You should hear a beep, and the dictate button will change to include a red recording light. It's now listening for your dictation.

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider You know Word is listening when the Dictate button has a red light. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

3. Speak clearly, and Word should transcribe everything you say in the current document. Speak punctuation aloud as you go. You can also say 'New line,' which has the same effect as pressing the Enter or Return key on the keyboard.

4. When you're done dictating, click 'Dictate' a second time or turn it off using your voice by saying, 'Turn the dictate feature off.'

You can still type with the keyboard while Dictate is on, but if you click outside of Word or switch to another program, Dictate will turn itself off.

Want to change languages? You can click the downward arrow on the Dictate button to choose which of nine or so languages you want to speak. You might also see additional 'Preview Languages,' which are still in beta and may have lower accuracy.

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider Open the Dictate button's drop-down menu to see your language choices. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

Text To Speech Voice Won't Download Mac 7

Speech-to-text alternatives

Mac Speech To Text App

You're not limited to using the Dictate feature built into Word. While not as popular as they once were, there are several commercial speech-to-text apps available which you can use with Word.

The most popular of these, Dragon Home, performs the same kind of voice recognition as Word's Dictate, but it also lets you control Word, format text, and make edits to your text using your voice. It works with nearly any program, not just Word.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

Free Text To Speech Voices

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