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Others - Text-to-Speech (4)

Balabolka v2.15.0.860 Updated

Ennovy on 25 Dec 2023
  • 15MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 23 Dec 2023
  • Suggested by I am Baas

Balabolka is a feature-rich program to read text aloud from a variety of file types including DOC, RTF, PDF, ODT, FB2 and HTML. The program uses built-in Windows speech tools, but lets you fine tune voices, including rate and pitch, and a substitution list can also be applied to improve the quality of the voice's articulation. The program supports customized font and background color, skins, control reading from the system tray or by the global hotkeys.

The program can save to a variety of audio formats and quality levels, and can include synchronized text to external LRC files or in MP3 tags inside the audio files. When the audio file is played with players on a computer or on modern digital audio players, the text will be displayed synchronously (in the same way as lyrics for songs).

The program includes batch conversion tools from of a wide variety of document formats to audio or plain text and a file compare tool, file splitter and screen magnification window. Command-line functions also supported.

Category:
Runs on:WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8 / Win10 / Win11
Writes settings to: Application folder
Dependencies: Microsoft Speech API (SAPI). This is included by default in Win2K and above.
Stealth: ? Yes
Unicode support: Yes
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download the "Portable Version" ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch balabolka.exe.

Optionally, delete unnecessary language and help files.
Similar/alternative apps: DSpeech
What's new? See: http://balabolka.site/changelog.txt
Latest comments
FireRabbit on 2020-03-29 22:26

After years of using to use Balabolka I officaly gave up and bought textaloud a couple days ago.

Balabolka has for years had a strange bug where the longer it runs in the background the longer the delay it takes when you hit the "read selected text" hotkey.

TextAloud doesn't have this issue and not having to restart Balabolka every hour feels like a massive weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

FireRabbit on 2021-10-07 15:38

Since it had been over a year since my last comment and the last time I used Balabolka, and since then I've seen several update notices for it, bought a brand new computer, and moved on to windows 10 I figured I'd give it another try since I really don't like being tied to preparatory software beyond my OS.

Overall it's much worse than I remember. I use text to speech a lot. After using textaloud for over a year daily I've gotten very use to how it sounds and Balabolka is... the best way I can think of to describe it would be jagged and deformed. The pacing of the voices is all wonky, there's too many bizarre out of context pauses, and the ever growing lag is still a major issue. [I use Ivona voices, which is perhaps the issue as Balabolka may be overly focused on just working with Microsofts built in voices?]

Midas on 2021-10-08 07:38

@FireRabbit: As Balabolka is somewhat of a niche application, your input is highly appreciated. Thank you.

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DSpeech v1.74

Andrew Lee on 2 May 2022
  • 5MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 29 Apr 2022
  • Suggested by AlephX

DSpeech is a text-to-speech program with the option of saving the output to a variety of formats, great for reviewing text or creating audio books. The program uses Microsoft's included speech engine SAPI5 but also supports dynamically changing the features of the voices using tags e.g. insert pauses, emphasize specific words, spell them out etc.

The program can do simple audio/voice recordings to save to WAV, and include some basic dictation / voice control tools ("ASR" for Automatic Speech Recognition). Text can be imported from a variety of formats TXT, DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML, XML and PDF and outputs to MP3, OGG, AAC, WMA, OPUS and AMR.

Category:
Runs on:WinNT / Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8 / Win10
Writes settings to: Application folder
Dependencies: Microsoft speech engine SAPI5
Unicode support: Yes
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch DSpeech.exe.

WinNT/2K users: need to install the speech engine separately. You will find links to plugins, speech engines and voice sets on the program website.

Optionally, delete unnecessary language and manual files.
Similar/alternative apps: Balabolka
What's new? See: https://www.softpedia.com/progChangelog/DSpeech-Changelog-36935.html
Latest comments
Happy.Camper2 on 2017-06-10 17:28

DSpeech is now version 1.63.3 Released 2017 Mar 27 at Authors site.
http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/index.html

Download Link=>
http://dimio.altervista.org/stats/download.php?id=5

DSpeech is now available in .paf format over at portableapps.com - version 1.63.3 Released 2017 Jun 09
https://portableapps.com/apps/accessibility/dspeech-portable

Download Link=>
http://download3.portableapps.com/portableapps/dspeechportable/DSpeechPortable_1.63.3.paf.exe

Enjoy!

webfork on 2021-11-15 00:12

I've got to say that DSpeech has come a long way over the past few years. The last time I tested it the program felt like it was just a simple throwaway text reader with Microsoft voices front-end program. What I tested today had loads of features, usability, and a great interface. This contrasts a lot of other voice-to-text tools that I've been playing with, including LibreOffice and Firefox add-ons, which are fairly basic.

Very nice to see.

GorfianRobot on 2022-11-14 21:54

I'm really impressed with this program. It handles changing voices midstream (so you can create conversations) better than Balabolka (and a lot of programs can't chance voices at all.

I am having one problem: I can't get the special tags to work. The silence tag works fine, but the others appear to have no effect at all.

Can anyone suggest what I might be doing wrong?

Thank you.

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Lingoes v2.9.2

Checker on 18 Aug 2014
  • 23MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on
  • Suggested by infimum

Lingoes is an easy and intuitive dictionary and text translation software. It offers lookup dictionaries, full text translation, capture word on screen, translate selected text and pronunciation of words in over 80 languages including Chinese, Spanish, English, Arabic, Portuguese, and more.

The application includes the Concise English Dictionary and additional dictionaries are available for download.

Category:
Runs on:Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8
Writes settings to: Application folder
Dependencies: IE6 or later
Stealth: ? Yes
Unicode support: Yes
License: Free for personal use
How to extract: Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch Lingoes.exe.
Similar/alternative apps: QTranslate
Latest comments
smaragdus on 2014-08-17 21:27

The latest version of Lingoes is 2.9.2- http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/download.htm
However I would like to ask- is there a way to block the annoying ads? I would rather stop using Lingoes than tolerating the obtrusive ads Lingoes spews out at every search.

Checker on 2014-08-18 16:34

@ smaragdus: Thanks ... and updated ;)

kanu on 2024-02-14 14:04

Is there any way to download dictionaries currently? All of them give 403-404 errors.

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TTSReader v1.30

billon on 28 Jul 2019
  • 783KB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 31 Mar 2009
  • Suggested by I am Baas

TTSReader is a software program that allows the user to read any on-screen text aloud, using a variety of voices. Other features include outputting to WAV or MP3 audio files, pronunciation corrections, monitoring the clipboard, etc. TTSReader supports all SAPI4 and SAPI5 voices. Non-English language voices will work with TTSReader, however these are not officially supported.

NOTE: Homepage is gone, linking to Archive.org.

Category:
Runs on:Win98 / WinME / WinNT / Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8 / Win10
Writes settings to: Application folder
Dependencies: Microsoft Speech API (SAPI). This is included by default in Win2K and above.
Stealth: ? Yes
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download the "standalone" ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch TTSReader.exe.
Latest comments
Mixture on 2019-07-27 12:43

Download link is no longer working. Use Wayback Machine link instead.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170818023354/http://www.sphenet.com/TTSReader/Download.html

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