Eloquence is truly the best!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Apple for listening to the users and adding the dictionary that corrects a lot of the pronunciation issues.
Eloquence for me too as well. Apple has definitely listened to us and has finally added the pronunciation dictionary for mispronouncing certain words. They even fixed the speech rate issue as of iOS 17 and MacOS 14 beta. let's hope that apple continues to listen to us for further feedback leading up to future beta builds, as well as the final release this September and October. also, Red is my preferred voice of choice, as it has always been my default voice since I used Jaws on windows.
I mostly use Karen but I sometimes use Alex eloquence or ES speak
I also will use Victoria sometimes, but I also sometimes play with Avah, Zoe, Matilda, Catherine, Samantha, did I say Tom well Tom, Nathan, Malcolm, Aiah Jamie,and eloquence Eddie
I also play with Angy Max
When it comes to Greek voices I go with Melina
Did you know these were just modified high-pitched versions of Zoe? I sometimes use them. I also use a wide veriety of other voices from Jamie/Malcolm (premium-high) to Zarvox, Alex and, well, definitely Eloquence, as well as tens of other voices in other languages and dialects that I speak or understand to some degree. The thing is, Alex is quite realistic compared to the other voices in certain aspects, due partly to the fact that he breathes, unlike the premium voices and even the Siri voices. And one more fact that is probably already known to many: Did you also notice that the compact voices also breathed? Well, why do the premium or enhanced voices not breathe then? And why was this question not asked in the general TTS discussion thread? Uh, whatever.
Boring, I know. I've been using this voice since I had my first iPhone 5 and I'm just so used to it. I briefly tried Eloquence but I didn't like using the same voice on my phone and laptop.
On Watch I use whichever Siri voice I happen to be using at the time. I tend to fluctuate between the 4 English ones.
Now that I switched to Mac I use Eloquence on there as well.
For other languages I also generally like using the default voices, like German Anna.
Hi all. I mostly use Fred on my iPhone since he isn't a system hog, but I've used others as well. I'm still on my trusty iPhone 7 and therefore cannot take advantage of the wonderful Eloquence TTS or perhaps eSpeak, but they are on my Mac and I couldn't be happier. Truth be told, I haven't even tried to download/install eSpeak on my phone but I'll probably do this once I upgrade. Besides Eloquence and eSpeak on the Mac, I switch the voice of choice up all the time. Alex is currently not downloaded but he's excellent. One more thing: the novelty voices are fun and I've been known to use them as well.
Fred and the other synthetic/artificial voices by Apple cannot pronounce sounds like "s", "sh" and "ch" well enough to let you still understand what they're blabbering about at high speech rates. And they also have some other pronunciation issues, like not pronouncing certain vowels long enough, that make it more challenging to get certain words at high speaking rates. And some others like Bruce and Victoria pronounce things in bits and pieces, like old voices where you can hear the chunks of the recordings used to make them, so they're not convenient at high speech rates either.
I know this is what makes him sound way more realistic than most other voices to many, but breathing only sometimes could even be worse than not breathing at all. At least you can imagine someone using some microphone or other software/hardware to somehow filter out all the breaths and only let the speech be heard, but breathing occasionally is not really that realistic, in my opinion. A voice should either breathe much more often, or not breathe at all. And apart from that, I don't see anything that makes Alex particularly more realistic or preferable. Siri voices are smaller in size and often sound more humanlike. And if not because it's more realistic that you use Alex, then it's just a matter of personal preferences but I'd recommend a more responsive, clearer and smaller voice, like Eloquence. And there's one more thing that makes Alex' breathing a lot less realistic: He sometimes just begins speaking without or before finishing inhaling.
I don't know if it's my iPad or my hearing or what, but the Eloquence voices don't seem clear to me; the voices are so muffled and the words mushy enough that I have to turn the volume up really high just to slightly understand what they're saying. The UK Eloquence voices are slightly clearer than the US ones, but still muffled compared to most other voices. Am I missing something or overlooking a setting that could help? I am partial to Zoe Enhanced myself, and am looking forward to hearing the Premium voice if it becomes available.
Let's find out if the high sample rate option actually does what it's supposed to do in a later beta or official release of iOS 17. If it does, then Eloquence may become clearer. And some posts on this forum confirm that Zoe-premium is back with iOS 17.
That would be awesome. I do like Reed somewhat, and it would be nice to be able to hear him better. I did read about Zoe Premium coming to iOS 17, but figured I'd hedge with "if" for iPadOS just in case because my luck hasn't been great lately in general, lol. But yeah, it will be interesting to find out what happens.
I am so happy that eSpeak is available but it has some bugs that are not fixed, like the way it reads sentences with periods. I really want RHVoice to support Russian, Polish and Ukrainian voices! I am tired of nuance voices, they were never my favorite, but I really love Marisol for Spanish, Audre for French, Yalda for Turkish and Zosia for Polish. Russian voices are horible imho.
I use Zoey enhanced but am thinking about trying Susan enhanced. I've also played around with Ava premium and like how she sounds however, her pronounciation of words such as off and year are odd. Excited Zoey premium is coming to iOs 17. :)
Looks like I'll wait until iOS 17 is released to the public and use Zoey premium. Susan sounds she's speaking through a tunnel and had way too much caffeine set at speech rate of 60.
Hi, the Zoe premium thing is kind of strange.
You're saying it's not in iOS 17, but for me it is. Not saying anyone is wrong at all.
Here is my current configuration, where it showed up.
iPhone 15 pro max iOS 17.2 beta 1. So I'm not sure if it’s been added into this version? My iPad is on 17.1 so I'll take a look at that next time I'm near it but yes, I have zoe premium on my iPhone. I won't be using it, always use Daniel compact, but thought I'd check on the off chance.
Eloquence all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apple didn't have to add Eloquence yet they did. They Chose to listen to the users. That is more then I can say for other companies.
I have to say that you have also been making it more challenging for us to get what you mean from time to time, likely because you also rely on dictation and/or do not proofread your posts, albeit not as much and often as Dominic.
I've got the answer to my question , that you actually mean "clearer", which is what I had already guessed prior to finding a similar post of yours in another thread. I still want the question to remain above though, in the hopes that it urges you to write clearer, not clever, posts.
Way, way before I ever got my first phone, my first computer was the braille note MPower by humanware. Since then, eloquence was my favorite voice, yeah parcially its nostalgia, but I got used to that voice ever since the braille note devices I owned. Not to say I dislike all other voices, I like them well enough, Used alex on both my phone apple watch and mac when eloquence wasn't around on these devices, but ever since it became a thing... Bak to eloquence I went. Come to think of it, that's parcially why I kept my braille note apex around till this day... Playing interactive fiction games with the eloquence voice... Yeah for sure some serious bit of nostalgia... but I digress.
I have been using Alex since 2011 when I got my Macbook pro, and was thrilled when he became available on the Iphone with iOS 8. Sometimes, I feel tempted to use a different voice, but usually after less than a day, I always go crawling back to Alex. So happy he's on my watch too. I wish there was a female Alex counterpart, but am pretty sure that will never happen.
Comments
Elequense all the way
Elequense all the way for sure.
Ditto on Eloquence
Now that it's available on the watch I can finally declare that Samantha is truly out of my life.
Eloquence 1000000000000000000000000000000%
Eloquence is truly the best!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Apple for listening to the users and adding the dictionary that corrects a lot of the pronunciation issues.
Eloquence for me too as well
Eloquence for me too as well. Apple has definitely listened to us and has finally added the pronunciation dictionary for mispronouncing certain words. They even fixed the speech rate issue as of iOS 17 and MacOS 14 beta. let's hope that apple continues to listen to us for further feedback leading up to future beta builds, as well as the final release this September and October. also, Red is my preferred voice of choice, as it has always been my default voice since I used Jaws on windows.
Karen
I mostly use Karen but I sometimes use Alex eloquence or ES speak
I also will use Victoria sometimes, but I also sometimes play with Avah, Zoe, Matilda, Catherine, Samantha, did I say Tom well Tom, Nathan, Malcolm, Aiah Jamie,and eloquence Eddie
I also play with Angy Max
When it comes to Greek voices I go with Melina
Joelle and Noelle, two innocent and cute kids
Did you know these were just modified high-pitched versions of Zoe? I sometimes use them. I also use a wide veriety of other voices from Jamie/Malcolm (premium-high) to Zarvox, Alex and, well, definitely Eloquence, as well as tens of other voices in other languages and dialects that I speak or understand to some degree. The thing is, Alex is quite realistic compared to the other voices in certain aspects, due partly to the fact that he breathes, unlike the premium voices and even the Siri voices. And one more fact that is probably already known to many: Did you also notice that the compact voices also breathed? Well, why do the premium or enhanced voices not breathe then? And why was this question not asked in the general TTS discussion thread? Uh, whatever.
Samantha default
Boring, I know. I've been using this voice since I had my first iPhone 5 and I'm just so used to it. I briefly tried Eloquence but I didn't like using the same voice on my phone and laptop.
On Watch I use whichever Siri voice I happen to be using at the time. I tend to fluctuate between the 4 English ones.
Now that I switched to Mac I use Eloquence on there as well.
For other languages I also generally like using the default voices, like German Anna.
Fred on my iPhone...
Hi all. I mostly use Fred on my iPhone since he isn't a system hog, but I've used others as well. I'm still on my trusty iPhone 7 and therefore cannot take advantage of the wonderful Eloquence TTS or perhaps eSpeak, but they are on my Mac and I couldn't be happier. Truth be told, I haven't even tried to download/install eSpeak on my phone but I'll probably do this once I upgrade. Besides Eloquence and eSpeak on the Mac, I switch the voice of choice up all the time. Alex is currently not downloaded but he's excellent. One more thing: the novelty voices are fun and I've been known to use them as well.
ESpeak, for a change.
particularly since it supports many regional languages.
Eloquence
I've been using it since it was available.
Fred sucks at high speech rates
Fred and the other synthetic/artificial voices by Apple cannot pronounce sounds like "s", "sh" and "ch" well enough to let you still understand what they're blabbering about at high speech rates. And they also have some other pronunciation issues, like not pronouncing certain vowels long enough, that make it more challenging to get certain words at high speaking rates. And some others like Bruce and Victoria pronounce things in bits and pieces, like old voices where you can hear the chunks of the recordings used to make them, so they're not convenient at high speech rates either.
Only sometimes does Alex breathe
I know this is what makes him sound way more realistic than most other voices to many, but breathing only sometimes could even be worse than not breathing at all. At least you can imagine someone using some microphone or other software/hardware to somehow filter out all the breaths and only let the speech be heard, but breathing occasionally is not really that realistic, in my opinion. A voice should either breathe much more often, or not breathe at all. And apart from that, I don't see anything that makes Alex particularly more realistic or preferable. Siri voices are smaller in size and often sound more humanlike. And if not because it's more realistic that you use Alex, then it's just a matter of personal preferences but I'd recommend a more responsive, clearer and smaller voice, like Eloquence. And there's one more thing that makes Alex' breathing a lot less realistic: He sometimes just begins speaking without or before finishing inhaling.
Eloquence seems mushy/slurred compared to others
I don't know if it's my iPad or my hearing or what, but the Eloquence voices don't seem clear to me; the voices are so muffled and the words mushy enough that I have to turn the volume up really high just to slightly understand what they're saying. The UK Eloquence voices are slightly clearer than the US ones, but still muffled compared to most other voices. Am I missing something or overlooking a setting that could help? I am partial to Zoe Enhanced myself, and am looking forward to hearing the Premium voice if it becomes available.
Let's find out if the high…
Let's find out if the high sample rate option actually does what it's supposed to do in a later beta or official release of iOS 17. If it does, then Eloquence may become clearer. And some posts on this forum confirm that Zoe-premium is back with iOS 17.
Let's hope!
That would be awesome. I do like Reed somewhat, and it would be nice to be able to hear him better. I did read about Zoe Premium coming to iOS 17, but figured I'd hedge with "if" for iPadOS just in case because my luck hasn't been great lately in general, lol. But yeah, it will be interesting to find out what happens.
eloquence is good in iOS 17
As of today in iOS 17 if you turn off high sample rate eloquence is good.
ESpeak, but it has some issues
I am so happy that eSpeak is available but it has some bugs that are not fixed, like the way it reads sentences with periods. I really want RHVoice to support Russian, Polish and Ukrainian voices! I am tired of nuance voices, they were never my favorite, but I really love Marisol for Spanish, Audre for French, Yalda for Turkish and Zosia for Polish. Russian voices are horible imho.
Zoey
I use Zoey enhanced but am thinking about trying Susan enhanced. I've also played around with Ava premium and like how she sounds however, her pronounciation of words such as off and year are odd. Excited Zoey premium is coming to iOs 17. :)
Susan sounds like whoever…
Susan sounds like whoever behind this voice didn't record her voice with a professional microphone. Why is the quality so low?
I'll just wait.
Looks like I'll wait until iOS 17 is released to the public and use Zoey premium. Susan sounds she's speaking through a tunnel and had way too much caffeine set at speech rate of 60.
Zoe premium
Hi, the Zoe premium thing is kind of strange.
You're saying it's not in iOS 17, but for me it is. Not saying anyone is wrong at all.
Here is my current configuration, where it showed up.
iPhone 15 pro max iOS 17.2 beta 1. So I'm not sure if it’s been added into this version? My iPad is on 17.1 so I'll take a look at that next time I'm near it but yes, I have zoe premium on my iPhone. I won't be using it, always use Daniel compact, but thought I'd check on the off chance.
Hardware requirement?
Perhaps the Zoe Premium is only on the newer iPhone hardware?
Just a thought...
Alex for the Win!
I've enjoyed using the Alex voice since 2012 and OS X Snow Leopard. Call me old fashioned. 🤷🏻♂️
@Lottie,
😝🫣
Best,
Brian~
Eloquence all the way
Eloquence all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apple didn't have to add Eloquence yet they did. They Chose to listen to the users. That is more then I can say for other companies.
Default Samantha or American…
Default Samantha or American Siri voice 4.
Clever?
I have to say that you have also been making it more challenging for us to get what you mean from time to time, likely because you also rely on dictation and/or do not proofread your posts, albeit not as much and often as Dominic.
I've got the answer to my question , that you actually mean "clearer", which is what I had already guessed prior to finding a similar post of yours in another thread. I still want the question to remain above though, in the hopes that it urges you to write clearer, not clever, posts.
What? Abuse?
What do you mean @Lottie?
Eloquence
Way, way before I ever got my first phone, my first computer was the braille note MPower by humanware. Since then, eloquence was my favorite voice, yeah parcially its nostalgia, but I got used to that voice ever since the braille note devices I owned. Not to say I dislike all other voices, I like them well enough, Used alex on both my phone apple watch and mac when eloquence wasn't around on these devices, but ever since it became a thing... Bak to eloquence I went. Come to think of it, that's parcially why I kept my braille note apex around till this day... Playing interactive fiction games with the eloquence voice... Yeah for sure some serious bit of nostalgia... but I digress.
Seconded! Alex for the win!
I have been using Alex since 2011 when I got my Macbook pro, and was thrilled when he became available on the Iphone with iOS 8. Sometimes, I feel tempted to use a different voice, but usually after less than a day, I always go crawling back to Alex. So happy he's on my watch too. I wish there was a female Alex counterpart, but am pretty sure that will never happen.