Text to speech: indian accent

Sridhar_Rao · 19-10-2008, 07:23 AM

Well.. there are many text-to-speech softwares out there which can convert text to speech and save it in wav or mp3 format.

1) Which among the FREEWARES is the best?
2) Since all the voice are American, is there any Indian accent that can be used to generate Indian voice?

amitava82 · 19-10-2008, 08:56 AM

As long as it use Microsoft speech engine, all are same. AT&T Labs Speech engine is the best (almost natural) and it has indian accent too. But its not free. You can try online demo to convert text to wav: http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

ashu888ashu888 · 19-10-2008, 09:10 AM

^^ any other brand of s/w available ?? i knw abt dragon, but they all hv US,UK accents...

or else, how can i make the PC learn step-by-step.. I guess that will take ages.. considering thefact that i'll hv to speel each and every work in my accent..

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edit: hey i was impressed by the demo (in US accent)..

amitava82 · 19-10-2008, 09:52 AM

Dragon and others are Speech-to-text. And this is Text-to-Speech. Microsoft speech engine is used in most T2S softwares. So, quality is same. AT&T is the best natural sounding AFAIK. For Speech-to-text, Dragon is the best. Not very productive IMO.

dheeraj_kumar · 19-10-2008, 12:31 PM

I have a question - why would anyone want to hear an indian accent? I mean, US and UK accents are far more natural than indian.

comp@ddict · 19-10-2008, 01:15 PM

^^ Y not Indian accent, hum bhi kisi se kum nahi!

dheeraj_kumar · 19-10-2008, 01:50 PM

^^ Translate, please...

Sridhar_Rao · 19-10-2008, 02:09 PM

Opinions differ. Not every Indian is comfortable with the western accent. When the target audience is Indian, why present them with a western accent? What do we prove by doing that?

Please leave this discussion aside...and let me know if you are aware of any such Indian speech engines.

comp@ddict · 19-10-2008, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dheeraj_kumar

^^ Translate, please...

aau? U english eh?

ashu888ashu888 · 19-10-2008, 10:05 PM

Quote:

^^ Translate, please...

lol.. good one

btw, yup after hearing the AT&T's Hindi accent, sum words (like, Anjali, the speech AI herself cannot pronounce the name properly) also, the US accent was really simple adn smooth..

yup, i do understand ppl hv different tastes, but was really impressed by the clarity..

dheeraj_kumar · 19-10-2008, 10:50 PM

Quote:

aau? U english eh?

No, I'm Telugu/Tamil/English

Actually, I can also speak a meaningless linguistically-challenged Japanese, but my friends call it grumbling.

ashu888ashu888 · 20-10-2008, 12:27 AM

^^

Well zulu for me here.. (but yes, none of my family or friends or jus anyone can understand it)..lol.. joking

dheeraj_kumar · 20-10-2008, 12:48 AM

@OP

Try this: Nuance Realspeak

http://www.nuance.com/realspeak/

You need to register for free to see the demo, use BugMeNot.

NucleusKore · 20-10-2008, 07:25 AM

I tried the AT&T engine mentioned above with Anjali (IN English). It's funny

ashu888ashu888 · 20-10-2008, 06:06 PM

^^ yeah i knw, infact the US version is really clear...and understandable... Anjali messes up with the pronounciation of certain words..

NucleusKore · 20-10-2008, 06:19 PM

I tried a few abuses :-P

mkmkmk · 20-10-2008, 11:15 PM

try this.......

Sangeeta Indian Accent English 22khz Voice Sample

http://nextup.com/TextAloud/SpeechEn...es.html#Nuance

ashu888ashu888 · 21-10-2008, 12:29 AM

Quote:

I tried a few abuses

lol.. wtf...btw, did they sound right ???

dheeraj_kumar · 21-10-2008, 12:36 AM

@Sridhar, if you are planning to have lots of desi names/words, these engines pronounce it funny. My name for example

You'll have to bend your jaws in unnatural angles to speak like that lol

Saharika · 21-10-2008, 06:43 PM

if for opposite speech to text then

the best
dragon naturally speaking ....any one above 9.0

in that they have "indian accent" itself...for normal user it is 90% accurate..if you are somebody who work in call center and all...you will forget trying....

i am not sales person of that ...but just a recommendation...was very nice that some software do care about indian consumers as well....

dheeraj_kumar · 21-10-2008, 08:33 PM

@Sridhar, If you are looking for some professional work, I can lend my voice for some remuneration. I've got a pretty good voice, and can do the indian accent, plus a semi-american accent.

Ramakrishnan · 21-10-2008, 10:44 PM

all text to speech engines sound the same. They don't sound natural. they sound as if from robots. Even AT& T also don't sound good. Just as a fancy one can listen, that is all.