Hello all,
I know the answers to this question would be subjective, but I am still curious to hear them.
With all the various TTS voices available in the VoiceDream app, which ones do you personally consider as the best ones for reading fiction books? For example, I like James from Neospeech, but I feel he is more suited for reading articles and webpages, not so much for the content where more expression is required.
What are your thoughts?
Best,
Victor
Comments
Hello. Personally I find
Hello. Personally I find akapella Peter and Ivona Amy quite good. Use them both for reading.
Tracy
I bought several of the voices when I installed VoiceDream, but the one I keep returning to is Tracy. As far as I'm concerned, I like her inflections best, especially for reading fiction.
Ivona
Recently the developer added Ivona voices to the app. My favourite is Joey. He's very clear and I like the way he pronounces things. No synthetic voice is perfect, but Joey is (in my opinion) as good as it gets.
Ivona Salli
So far, Ivona Salli is my favorite for reading books. I like James from NeoSpeech, but I see what you mean about how that one's more suited to things like Web pages and articles.
Voices
Frankly, I go for either Neospeech James or Ivona Brian. To me, those are the two most human sounding voices. I guess you know, but in case you don't, you can hear samples of all of the available voices within Voice Dream under the voice store in settings.
Reading Speed
Like most of us, reading speed is important to me. I bought one of the Ivona voices for my 4th generation Touch, and while it sounds great in the sample, it cannot operate at the speeds I usually use for reading. The Neospeech voices go plenty fast for me. Until I upgrade to newer hardware, I won't be using Ivona.
My Favorite Voices
One of my favorite voices is Neospeech Bridget. I find that she sounds pleasant, and has some expression. Other voices I like include Neospeech James and Julie, Ivona Amy and Salli, and Acapela Rachel, Tracy and Lucy.
what about reading fast smoothly?
I'm new to Voice Dream (and Apple Vis), and I think Voice Dream is AMAZING!
What voices do you all think are best at higher speeds, I have had experiences with other tools that when the better sounding voices speed up they tend to fall apart a bit.
Thank you!
+Brian
Best voice for high speed comprehension
I have an iPad air 2. Ivona is the most expensive and most recommended quality voice. Speed and comprehension are my objectives. With practice the 700 word maximum is not as fast as I would like. I have found that voice dream reader is an incredible resource for brain stimulation while accumulating knowledge. Ivona Sally is The best that I have downloaded so far. Set at 700 not sure how accurate The speed is but clarity is excellent. Pausing after each sentence is helpful. Anyone with suggestions to help are appreciated.
Salli Ivona
I just upgraded to Salli from Ivona after reading the reviews and using the samples. I had Heather and James loading on in a package when I bought the app. I felt going past 270 words per minute with Heather and James was phonetically grating, and I liked the sample of Salli. The voice capabilities of Salli has far better range and her voice is realitively soothing. It was $7 on iTunes. A little pricey, but it seems worth it. The improvement in quality is a bit shocking. I enjoy listening that much more. Two thumbs up for Salli and can listening at much faster reading speeds.
Ivona Brian
Ivona Brian is superb as far as I'm concerned. If he were available across IOS I would use him across IOS. Ivona Hugh is also decent.
Acapella Peter (Happy)
Hi, I read a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction and for that I use the Acapella Peter (Happy) voice. I find that he reads quite well and has a lot of inflection and the tone is just awesome for the Harry Potter Universe all around. I so can't wait for VoiceDreamReader 4.0. I hope it will be coming soon.
Worst experience working with a TTS service provider!
In 2016 we started the development of an app that would read out a personalized list of professional news items. We compared a range of TTS providers and eventually selected Neospeech VoiceText. Despite the OK quality of the TTS voices, working with neospeech has been a nightmare. Throughout the deployment of our SDK I had 2 contact persons leaving the company with each new guy trying to negotiate a new deal. Having paid a developer license of $1000 and so called ‘porting fees’ for the selected voices of $3000. They said these costs could be deducted from the first year production license. They gave me the following pricing structure.
# of concurrent 4 8 24 48 96 150
2 voices $2,687.00 $3,800.00 $6,576.00 $9,312.00 $13,152.00 $16,500.00
3 voices $3,290.88 $4,656.00 $8,064.00 $11,424.00 $16,128.00 $20,100.00
4 voices $3,800.00 $5,376.00 $9,312.00 $13,152.00 $18,624.00 $23,250.00
5 voices $4,248.52 $6,008.00 $10,416.00 $14,736.00 $20,832.00 $25,950.00
After 11 months into the developer lisence another new guy contacted me (the previous contact having left the company as well). He wanted to discuss the pricing for the production license. I said I did not expect any additional costs and that the first year production license pricing would be covered by the porting fees. He said he would discuss that with his manager and get back to me. I did not hear from the guy for 2 months. When he finally got back to me he said the total $4000 could no longer be applied against the first year production license because the one-year developer license already expired the month before. What a way to do business… Probably afraid to lose his job and desperate to score revenue, the new guy decided not follow up on his previous email and silently let the developer license expire. Then the new price he gave me for 2 voices and 1 concurent thread was $6000!
Please take utmost caution when dealing with Neospeech. They are not to be trusted when it comes to their VoiceText TTS Server SDK, TTS Engine SDK or embeded SDK . Once you have invested in installing their SDK into your environment and are ready to deploy to production they will unilaterally change contract terms and pricing including steep royalty payments and they cannot be reasoned with.
Neospeech is a 9-man band based in San Francisco and I included their CEO Devin Lee in the correspondence but I never got a reaction from him. Currently they have stopped responding my mails alltogether. I have started legal proceedings against Neospeech for breach of contract. Be warned.
Ivona TTS is the best for me.
Before owning my first iPhone, I owned Motorola phones and Samsung. I used many TTS apps until one day I found Ivona TTS. I really liked the sound of their voices because, at least to me, they are far better and less robotic than the other TTS engines out there.
Enjoy Ivona voices while they last
Sadly, I don't know for how much longer Ivona voices will work with programs like Voice Dream Reader. The company does not exist anymore, and with the changes that always seem to go through iOS during updates, there is a chance with every major update that the Ivona voices will cease working. I hope not, though, as I too love Ivona voices.
Atte: sockhopsinger
That is, indeed, bad news, my friend. I will be very sad to see the Ivona voices go.
My favorite voices :)
The 2 non voice-over voices that i use are ivona Sally and acapela Sharon. But what i would like to see is a way to use either google tts or eloquence. I really like eloquence and i use it for voice dream for android. Id also like to see vocalizer zoe as well.
It depends
Of course, it depends on the person.
I've used the voice 'Heather' my entire life, starting in read2go and I was very happy to find it in voicedream. I think it's less about how good or bad the voice may be, but how comfortable you are with it. (I'm approaching 250 words per minute with this one.)
Sharon was my fav until I…
Sharon was my fav until I bought Ashley. Ashley is the most natural but I only use BARD and real narrators for book listening and Voice Dream to scan mail and listen to web articles. I can’t stand a synth voice for books. A real person can give an amazing performance while synths aren’t even close.