Text to Speech software

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 2024-07-03 at 23:35 +0100, Grizzlly via ubuntu-users wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Looking for good  "Text to Speech" software, would like something that does not 
> sound like Stephen Hawkins trying decide on lunch choices but is not too hard 
> to install and setup, a search around the net found ESpeakm all others I found 
> seemn to be aimed at software devs to combine in other projects, and need very 
> high coding levels to use (so really a /w dev)
> 
> I don't mind if it's CmdLine or GUI, but it should sound natural(ish) Enflish 
> is fine so multi-language support is not that important, a few voices would be 
> nice, but a good male & female will do at a push
> 
> thanks
> 

Semi-off-topic

I can hardly watch highly interesting documentaries on German television
anymore because the "natural" (artificial) speakers always sound like
they're having a stroke twice per sentence. I can't stand it in the long
run and have to switch off the documentaries. I suppose I could cope a
bit longer with the C64 SAM or the slightly better Hawkins robo voices.
There used to be a few female speakers on the iPad who sounded really
good as long as they didn't speak slowly. In particular an artificial
Irish woman, IIRC "Karen". When she spoke slowly, she also sounded like
she had a stroke or brain surgery. Apple has now replaced the pleasant
voices that sounded nice when speaking quickly with horrible-sounding
voices. I can't imagine that there is anything more tolerable under
FLOSS.