Audio reader. Talker online with a male voice in Russian

A high-quality reader aloud, which is in beta testing, but already offers very good functionality and features.

Agree that you can read a book only while you are sitting, eating in a minibus or subway, but not when you are cycling or jogging. Moreover, reading when your eyes are terribly tired is very, very harmful. The application "Reader" will help you with all these problems. It was created by the Center for Speech Technologies and has its own engine for voicing text. In addition, you are offered a choice of as many as 6 different voices that perfectly voice the text. What is most interesting is that it is not just reading the text, but attempts to read the text with intonation are quite audible.

After launching the application, you will be shown a brief instruction, which you must carefully read. You can add any book to the application EPUB format, TXT, FB2 and RTF. The main screen is a bookshelf on which there are 3 pre-prepared books. To add new book, click on the plus sign on the top panel, and then select the book you need on the device. If you want to edit an already added book, hold your finger on it, and then fill in the required fields. When you open a book and if it opens for the first time, then you will have to wait until the text of the book is processed for the speech engine. The interface of the reader is very simple and minimalistic. In the center is the text, on the left is a slider to adjust the brightness of the screen, and on the right is the adjustment of the reading speed. The bottom bar indicates the page number and total hours at the selected reading speed. The only thing that is inconvenient is the lack of the ability to conveniently rewind and select a page. You can only roughly select a page. The first step after opening the book is to click on the head icon and select the voice you want to download. Also on the bottom panel of the reader you will find the ability to view the contents of the book and you can go to the settings.

In the settings, you can change the text font, size and background color. The application is currently in beta testing, so please note that it may not work correctly on all devices. Let's summarize: "Reader" is a very high-quality reader with its own voice engine, which even now perfectly copes with the tasks assigned to it. Happy using!
Download an application that sounds (reads aloud) books and documents - Reader for Android you can follow the link below.

Developer: Speech Technology Center
Platform: Android 4.0 and above
Interface language: Russian (RUS)
Condition: Free (Free)
Root: Not needed

Many people love to read books, and they do it at home, at work, on vacation and even on the road. Everyone likes different literary genres and directions, some people can't even imagine life without their favorite books. Sometimes it happens that we need not only visual reading, but also voice acting of the text (this can be implemented on various sites of accessible content).

Here we will come to the aid of various Internet sites and resources that have voice engines and allow the user to reproduce texts different voices. What is online voiceover? What sites and services are designed for such work and how to quickly use them?

Useful video on the topic (1 minute):

Online text reading

Most often, voice acting online is quite simple and is rather a tool aimed at increasing the capabilities of the engine chosen by the user, rather than voice acting for large and long text files. Free voice acting for text files on many sites will be limited to 250–300 characters, and for the full use of the site to reproduce larger volumes of texts, you will need to pay your own money.

The scheme of working with such sites is similar everywhere: first you go to the selected site, put in the window the one you need text file and click on the play icon. The site plays your file, and you listen and try to understand if you liked the work of the site and whether it is worth working with it further.

Programs for voicing text

The network has many services that can voice text files, but we will present you only the most popular:

• Acapela service.

One of the very first resources designed for voice reproduction of text. The engine has quite high quality voice acting, also presented here choice of male or female voice at your request (Russian language is represented by only one female voice Alyona). The number of characters provided for the free play version goes up to 300, for more large texts will have to pay a fee.

To use the features of the site, first go to it. In the left window, select the language you need, change English to Russian, enter the text in the "tupe your text her" window and check the box "I agree with text and condition". Next, to listen to the text, click on the Listen icon.

• Google translate service.

This translator from the Google system can also be used as voice acting for some texts. The advantages of the site are the absence of a strict restriction on several hundred characters and absolutely free to use the site. The main disadvantage of the site is its voice acting, as it can be several times inferior to sites with paid content.

To listen to the text, it will be enough to go to the site, insert your text and click on the speaker icon. Playback will start automatically.

• Linguatec service.

Another resource that also has a character limit. Here playback volume comes to 250 characters (you also need to pay for the full use of the site), and the quality of voice acting on this site cannot be called the best.

To listen to your text, you need to go to the site and select Russisch in the language settings, you will also have a choice of voices, male or female. After, you need to insert your text into the empty window and click on the play button at the bottom of the screen.

• Service Text - to - Speech.

One of the many talkers, in its work is similar to the previous ones. Here number of free symbols much higher - about 1000, voice acting and playback are at a decent level. Use is possible after going to the site. Here you change the language from English to Russian and enter the text you need in the window. Then you should click on the Say it icon.

• IVONA service.

Another popular online service for reading text files. This resource has the most high-quality and comfortable engine from the above sites. But the downside of the site is its exclusively paid work. If earlier on the site it was possible to listen to several offers and test the quality, now this is no longer possible.

A few more programs for reading text by voice

On the Internet, there are talkers not only with online work, but also those that can be easily downloaded to your personal computer. The most famous of them are Talker and Sacrament Talker.

• Talker program.

A small program for reading any text file through voice playback. There is a possibility convert read text into files format such as wav and mp3 audio. The size of the file that is played in the program should not exceed 2 gigabytes, there is also a convenient adjustment of the reading speed, voice volume and highlighting of the read as you wish. To work with the program, you need to download it from the Internet resource, install it on your PC and run it. Next, enter a text file into an empty window and click on the file playback icon.

• Sacrament Talker Program.

Another source for voice acting for your file is the Sacrament Talker program. This resource has its own universal engine Sakrament TTS Engine 3.0 and six different voices in Russian. The program is able to work with voluminous and large text files, while the program has an excellent soundtrack that is not inferior to other online sites and PC programs.

Working with text here is carried out in the same way as in the previous program.

Application for playing text by voice on a mobile device

There are many mobile applications for reading books that have built-in voice reading of text materials in their functionality. This function can be used any user application data. Among these readers are: Cool Reader, Normad Reader, FBReader, EBookDroid and many others. All of these programs have an automatic document reading function; to use them, the user must go through the settings of the programs.

conclusions

For online playback of text by voice, you can use many various programs both free and paid, at your discretion. Wherein in free software the number of characters goes without limitation, and in paid ones it is limited to several hundred, for a larger amount of text in this case you will have to pay. Which site to choose and which one to use is up to you.

Online speech synthesizers are a useful find that you could only dream of before. They allow you to voice any text you specify, adjusting the voice, timbre, tempo, etc. Initially, the utility was designed for people with poor eyesight who are unable to read text from the monitor. Now it is often used as an auxiliary tool in the study foreign languages, allowing you to perceive speech by ear and get used to the correct placement of stress and intonation. Also, for convenience, with the help of a synthesizer, you can listen to books while doing household chores.

On the Internet, it is easy to find a lot of such applications available for download on a PC. However, in order not to fill up the computer's memory once again and not jeopardize the security of its operation, it is better to use online services. We will talk about the three most convenient and multifunctional.

Acapela – the most famous speech synthesizer online

The Acapela website provides a huge selection of languages ​​and voices for voiceovers. This is especially true for English - it can be heard in twenty different options: female voice, male, childish, senile, joyful, etc.

It is convenient that all parameters are configured immediately on home page

Unfortunately, things are worse with Russian texts - they are voiced by only one voice - a certain Alena. But nevertheless, the result is quite worthy.

The settings here are very simple - you just need to select the language and voice, enter the desired text, then agree to the terms of use of the resource and click the "Listen!" button.

The interface is designed in English, but even without translation it is quite clear what and how to press

The audio playback limit is 300 characters. This is the main disadvantage of most online speech synthesizers, so if you need voice acting for a large file, this option is clearly not suitable. To use voiceover without restrictions, they offer to buy full version programs. It is available for all operating systems on PC and phone.

Google Translator: fast, easy, affordable

Speaking of playing text files, one cannot fail to mention the famous Google Translate. As the name implies, this service is designed to translate texts. In addition, here you can also listen to files - this is done literally in one click.

Everything is designed in Russian, so it is very easy to understand the interface

To listen to the file, you need to paste your text into the appropriate window and click on the megaphone icon in the lower left corner. It is convenient that this can be done both with the original and with the translation. Note that the limit here is much larger than in Acapela - 5000 characters. There are no extensions or paid versions.

Since this program was created for other purposes, the functionality here leaves much to be desired. Timbre, reading speed and other important parameters are not regulated in any way. The voice acting is unnatural, with distinct "metallic" notes. Intonations, pauses, semantic stresses - all this is done unprofessionally, so in every sentence you feel like the words are unevenly “glued” together.

This application is useful, for example, if you want to understand how the text you write is perceived by ear. For this, intonations and timbre are not particularly important, because the wording itself, the presence of tautologies and dissonant statements are interesting.

Of the advantages, one can only note a huge selection of languages, which, in fact, is quite logical for online translator

ServiceFromtexttospeech to voice your text

The last application we want to talk about is Fromtexttospeech . Let's start with the fact that the limits on the number of characters here are the most loyal - up to 50,000. This is a serious competitive advantage, but let's see if Fromtexttospeech has any other clear advantages.

The algorithm of the program is approximately the same as that of Acapela:

• configure the parameters of the speech synthesizer online: language, timbre and speed;
• click "Create Audio File";
• download or just listen to the finished file.

So let's try. Copy a few sentences from our article and paste it on fromtexttospeech.com. Just below the working panel, the number of characters that we can still add is displayed.

It is very convenient that it is possible to choose the speed of reading: slow, medium, fast and very fast

There is nothing more to configure here, so let's move on to the actual procedure for converting to audio. This process takes several minutes (depending on the file size), after which it will be possible to evaluate the result of the work in a separate window.

The ability to save the resulting audio file to your computer is a very convenient feature that distinguishes this service from many others.

Summing up, it is worth saying that all the services we have considered are very individual and have their own characteristics. If you are interested in professional voice acting, then Acapela is perfect for these purposes. On the official website of the program, you can test its operation, evaluate the sound and functionality in order to decide whether to purchase the full version. If the issue of quality is not too important for you, choose the good old Google Translate or Fromtexttospeech, which allow you to convert large text files to audio for free.

You can listen to how fragments of one text sound performed by different voice engines in our video.

The program "" is intended for reading aloud text files. To reproduce the sounds of a human voice, any speech synthesizers installed on a computer can be used. Speech playback can be controlled using standard buttons, similar to those present in any multimedia program ("play", "pause", "stop"). The application can read the contents of the clipboard aloud, show text contained in documents, change font and color settings, control the reading process from the system tray (notification area) or using global keyboard shortcuts, speak text typed on the keyboard, check spelling, split a text file for several smaller files, look for homographs. "" provides the ability to remove from the text all hyphens at the ends of lines; this will avoid stuttering when reading words. File formats supported: AZW, AZW3, CHM, DjVu, DOC, DOCX, EML, EPUB, FB2, FB3, HTML, LIT, MOBI, ODP, ODS, ODT, PDB, PDF, PPT, PPTX, PRC, RTF, TCR, WPD, XLS, XLSX.

File size: MB
Version: History of changes
License type: Freeware
Operating system:
Interface languages:	Russian, English, Arabic, Armenian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Dutch, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Korean, German, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Finnish, Filipino, French, Croatian, Czech, Japanese
Help files:	Russian, English, Spanish, Italian, Korean, German, Ukrainian, French, Czech

Portable version: Download(MB)
The portable (portable) version of "Balabolka" does not require installation and can be run from a "flash drive".
At least one speech synthesizer (voice) must be installed on the computer.

Console Application: Download(KB)
The console application does not have a graphical interface and runs in text mode.
The operating mode can be set using command line options or a configuration file.

Utility to extract text from files: Download(MB)
The program allows you to extract text from files of various formats.
The utility does not have a graphical interface and runs in text mode.

It is still not clear why such a program is needed? Here are some useful related links:

The program "" allows you to change it appearance using themes.

The program can use computer voices that support SAPI 4, SAPI 5 or Microsoft Speech Platform. There are free and paid (commercial) speech engines. The highest quality speech synthesis is provided by commercial voices.

Speech synthesizers produced by the company RealSpeak(free votes, published on Microsoft's server):

• British English (19.4 MB)
• Spanish (21.7 MB)
• Italian (21.5 MB)
• German (20.7 MB)
• French (22.5 MB)

Olga Yakovleva has developed an open source multilingual speech synthesizer RHVoice(Russian, English, Georgian, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Ukrainian languages and Esperanto):

• Description of the speech synthesizer
• Windows version

Yaroslav Kozak from Lviv created a Ukrainian speech synthesizer UkrVox. The voice of the Ukrainian radio announcer Igor Murashko was taken as the basis.

• UkrVox

• Nuance (demo)

Of the commercial speech synthesizers, the following voices are of interest to Russian users:

• Alyona(Acapela Group)
• Katya, Milena And Yuri(Nuance)
• Nicolai(Digalo - Acapela Elan Speech Cube)
• Tatyana And Maxim(IVONA)

Microsoft Speech Platform

Microsoft Speech Platform (version 11.0) is a set of tools that enable developers to build voice recognition and text-to-speech solutions.

To use the speech synthesizer, you need to download and install the following components:

1. Microsoft Speech Platform - Runtime is the server part of the platform that provides an API for programs (file x86_SpeechPlatformRuntime\SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi).
2. Microsoft Speech Platform - Runtime Languages ​​- a set of languages ​​for the server side. On this moment voices for 26 languages ​​are offered, including a Russian voice Elena(files whose names start with "MSSpeech_TTS_").

Tags (control commands) that are used for SAPI 5 voices can also be used for Microsoft Speech Platform voices. But remember, SAPI 5 voices and Microsoft Speech Platform voices are not compatible with each other, so you can't switch between them using Voice or Lang tags.

Pronunciation correction

The user can use a special replacement list to improve the quality of speech reproduction. This is useful in cases where there is a need to change the pronunciation of words or individual syllables; for this, some expression in the text is replaced by the necessary readable expression. To write such replacement rules, the syntax of regular expressions is used; replacement lists are stored in *.rex files.

At the request of Russian users, support for pronunciation correction dictionaries with *.dic extension was added. This format of dictionaries was used in the Talker program. Simple Rules replacements are applied to text faster than regular expressions.

The *.bxd format combines the advantages of the other two formats. The dictionary can contain both regular expressions and rules for simple text replacement. In a special editor, you can create separate dictionaries both for the selected computer voice and for a specific language.

Dictionary files are located in the " Documents\Balabolka" ("My Documents\Balabolka" in Windows XP).

Spellchecking

The program "" supports Hunspell(hunspell.github.io). Hunspell is a spell checker designed for languages ​​with complex word formation and extensive morphology. Hunspell is used in the OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice office suites, as well as in the Mozilla Firefox browser.

Dictionaries for Windows can be downloaded from here: