If you want to add none trivial speech output to your application, no matter if it's a desktop, web, or mobile app, you need to find a way to convert text into speech (TTS) and eventually provide it in a sound format (like MP3) that can be played back on end-users' devices. While some operating systems come with TTS capabilities built-in, the quality of the voice sound may vary more than you like, and an user experience spanning multiple OSes and platforms, almost always justifies or even requires the deployment of a TTS Web service.
All this is old news of course and companies like Nuance, iSpeech, or NeoSpeech provide Text-To-Speech services, varying greatly in price, quality, and performance. Other TTS-providers like Acapela or LumenVox lease their TTS-Server software, i.e. you get a performance-constrained binary that can be deployed on a RedHat Linux server in your own server room or for instance on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). The obvious advantage over the completely out-sourced approach is quality of service (response time) as well as security and privacy.
[from Michelle Branch's – Spark .]
Getting started with something new, sometimes requires only little more than a spark, which I hope to provide by showing how to use your Mac as a Text-To-Speech server, converting text strings to MP3 voice sound files on the fly. When we are done, you can request an mp3 sound file by either sending an HTTP GET request like:
Note: These voices are property of Apple Computer, and are part of the Macintosh Operating System (Mac OS) for Apple Macintosh computers. They are not availa. TextSpeech Pro is a professional text-to-speech software product, proudly awarded 'The Best Text-to-Speech Software for Mac OS X'. Do not get fooled by other 'similar' software! TextSpeech Pro is the highest quality and the most feature-rich text-to-speech software on. TextEdit, the text editor built into Mac OS X, includes a text to speech feature that will read back any text you type into the editor. Using the Services feature built into Mac OS X, you can use the text to speech built into TextEdit to create a recording of your text you can play in iTunes or on your iPod.
http://localhost:8080/tts/?text=Hello World
which would stream an MP3 back in return or send an HTTP POST request and receive a path to the mp3 file back, ready to be downloaded once or multiple times. Resolume arena 6.
. as easy as one, two, three
1. MP3 Encoding
Not only are mp3 files almost universally playable, they are also considerably smaller than wav or aiff files for instance and still provide a decent sound quality. While each and every Mac comes with Text-To-Speech capabilities built-in, the output comes aiff encoded and is only accessible as an command line tool.
Mac2Speech – a Speech Synthesis Server for OS X, on the other hand allows you to use your Mac as a Text-To-Speech server, converting text strings into MP3 voice sound files on the fly.
There are plenty of reasons you might want to downgrade or run an older version of macOS on your computer.You may find that after the latest update your computer runs slower, your apps don't function, or that the programs you need to run are not yet compatible with the upgrade. Maybe as a developer, you want to create a test environment to ensure your software runs properly in all available versions of OS X - check out the below. Best os for old mac. Or you may simply like the look of the old version better (no judgement) and not want to upgrade until absolutely necessary. Impossible with Get Backup Pro on Mac.Running the latest software is not always the best decision.
2. TTS Server
There are no pre-requisites. Mac2Speech is a HTTP server that by default is available on port 8080. HTTP server, MP3 encoder, and everything else is all encapsulated in a single compact binary. A web user-interface allows for rapid testing and experimentation with different languages and voices, accessible in your web browser via http://localhost:8080
Once launched, the server puts an icon into the dock, which when control-clicked, exposes a menu, to further configure the application. Here for instance the HTTP port can be changed:
3. Download and Go
Enough with theory, now it's time to go and download the dmg file, put it into you Applications folder, and try it out.
The Web user-interface allows access to all installed languages and voices. Click the row, marked with a small arrow, to open a list of all currently installed Languages and Voices. Changing the language will also influence the available voices. More importantly, when changing the language, remember to enter the text to be synthesized in that language.
Unfortunately, neither of the pre-installed voices are great, but Apple provides free access to much higher quality voices, if you care enough to install them. ‘Allison' for instance is great and less robotic, but there is still room for improvement.
To install some of the better voices from Apple, open ‘System Preferences' then ‘Dictation & Speech'. Now click on the ‘Text to Speech' and then on the selected ‘System Voice' (e.g. Alex) and in the appearing drop-down, select Customize…
Here you can discover (play) and install some amazingly good voices. Please do yourself a favor and install Allison and Tom, two very good American-English voices.
But there is more, Acapela for instance offers natural-sounding text to speech that easily plug-in to the Mac2Speech TTSServer. The Infovox iVox product, developed by the Acapela Group, allows to download and install additional voices into the OS X Voices repository. You can install those HQ voices and try them for a few weeks and then buy them for $20 to $30 each.
HTTP GET Request
Sending an HTTP GET with voice and text parameters, will result in a MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM. I.e. the audio content is streamed directly in the HTTP response.
If the optional save=true parameter-value pair is sent with the request, an additional HTTP header gets include, to encourage downloading instead of directly playing the MP3.
Here is an example:
HTTP POST Request
Sending an HTTP POST with voice and text parameters, will create and temporarily store an MP3 file on the server.
The URL to that MP3 file is returned and can be requested, until the server gets restarted, at which time all temporarily created files are deleted.
Edit a video without using a mouse or trackpad. Build a presentation without seeing the screen. Or track down important files for your next project with just your voice. Because Mac is designed for everybody to create amazing things.
Voice ControlUse your voice to make things happen.
1. MP3 Encoding
Not only are mp3 files almost universally playable, they are also considerably smaller than wav or aiff files for instance and still provide a decent sound quality. While each and every Mac comes with Text-To-Speech capabilities built-in, the output comes aiff encoded and is only accessible as an command line tool.
Mac2Speech – a Speech Synthesis Server for OS X, on the other hand allows you to use your Mac as a Text-To-Speech server, converting text strings into MP3 voice sound files on the fly.
There are plenty of reasons you might want to downgrade or run an older version of macOS on your computer.You may find that after the latest update your computer runs slower, your apps don't function, or that the programs you need to run are not yet compatible with the upgrade. Maybe as a developer, you want to create a test environment to ensure your software runs properly in all available versions of OS X - check out the below. Best os for old mac. Or you may simply like the look of the old version better (no judgement) and not want to upgrade until absolutely necessary. Impossible with Get Backup Pro on Mac.Running the latest software is not always the best decision.
2. TTS Server
There are no pre-requisites. Mac2Speech is a HTTP server that by default is available on port 8080. HTTP server, MP3 encoder, and everything else is all encapsulated in a single compact binary. A web user-interface allows for rapid testing and experimentation with different languages and voices, accessible in your web browser via http://localhost:8080
Once launched, the server puts an icon into the dock, which when control-clicked, exposes a menu, to further configure the application. Here for instance the HTTP port can be changed:
3. Download and Go
Enough with theory, now it's time to go and download the dmg file, put it into you Applications folder, and try it out.
The Web user-interface allows access to all installed languages and voices. Click the row, marked with a small arrow, to open a list of all currently installed Languages and Voices. Changing the language will also influence the available voices. More importantly, when changing the language, remember to enter the text to be synthesized in that language.
Unfortunately, neither of the pre-installed voices are great, but Apple provides free access to much higher quality voices, if you care enough to install them. ‘Allison' for instance is great and less robotic, but there is still room for improvement.
To install some of the better voices from Apple, open ‘System Preferences' then ‘Dictation & Speech'. Now click on the ‘Text to Speech' and then on the selected ‘System Voice' (e.g. Alex) and in the appearing drop-down, select Customize…
Here you can discover (play) and install some amazingly good voices. Please do yourself a favor and install Allison and Tom, two very good American-English voices.
But there is more, Acapela for instance offers natural-sounding text to speech that easily plug-in to the Mac2Speech TTSServer. The Infovox iVox product, developed by the Acapela Group, allows to download and install additional voices into the OS X Voices repository. You can install those HQ voices and try them for a few weeks and then buy them for $20 to $30 each.
HTTP GET Request
Sending an HTTP GET with voice and text parameters, will result in a MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM. I.e. the audio content is streamed directly in the HTTP response.
If the optional save=true parameter-value pair is sent with the request, an additional HTTP header gets include, to encourage downloading instead of directly playing the MP3.
Here is an example:
HTTP POST Request
Sending an HTTP POST with voice and text parameters, will create and temporarily store an MP3 file on the server.
The URL to that MP3 file is returned and can be requested, until the server gets restarted, at which time all temporarily created files are deleted.
Edit a video without using a mouse or trackpad. Build a presentation without seeing the screen. Or track down important files for your next project with just your voice. Because Mac is designed for everybody to create amazing things.
Voice ControlUse your voice to make things happen.
Text To Speech For Mac Os X 10.12
Now you can fully control your Mac using only your voice.1 Quickly open and interact with apps, search the web, and write and edit more efficiently with rich text editing commands. So you can simply say, 'Move up two lines. Select previous word. Capitalize that.' And your Mac does it.
VoiceOverYou don't need to see your Mac to use your Mac.
VoiceOver is a revolutionary built-in screen reader that's more than a text-to-speech tool. It tells you exactly what's on your screen and talks you through actions like editing a video, building a presentation, or quickly navigating from one app to another.
Hover TextGet a quick size boost of what you're reading.
Move your cursor over any text — a paragraph, a caption, a headline — then press Command for a bigger, high-resolution version of what you selected. Hover Text also lets you choose the fonts and colors that work best for you.
SiriMake requests by talking or typing.
Siri on Mac lets you quickly find and open files, set reminders, send text messages, and more, making it easy to handle the things you do every day.2 With 'Type to Siri' mode, you can make requests using a physical or onscreen keyboard. And Siri can also predict your next word based on what you've said before, so you can minimize typing over time.
Text to SpeechGo from written word to spoken word.
Text To Speech For Mac Os X
If you learn better when you can hear what you're reading or writing, Text to Speech lets you highlight any text and have your Mac read it aloud. And you can choose from more than 70 male or female voices across 42 languages.
