Yes, to be allowed buying a Nuance voice, you will have to first own a
software from a Nuance dealer. Far as I know. That is, if you are going to
buy one or more of the Nuance voices from Nextup.com, you first will have to
buy one of Nextup.com's products. The most famous and handy one, being
TextAloud.
TextAloud, in itself, does come with NO voices. It is simply a piece of
software, for transferring text into synthetic speech, or MP3-files if that
is something that might tempt you. Agreed, it is somehow silly, that you
have to buy a piece of software, which you might not really want or need,
just to be allowed owning another voice for your computing. But that is
business. The alternative would have been, if places like GW had started to
sell additional voices. But if you should have had the same range of voices
to choose from that Nextup does offer you, GW would have to make contracts
with a good handful producers.
On the other hand, you can look at the price you pay for TextAloud (which I
do believe is something just about $30), as a membership fee in a club.
First you have bought the software, and installed it on your computer, you
are entitled to buy any of the voices they do offer. And, that is quite a
selection. I am not aware of any other one-stop place, where you will have
the same extensive selection of voices, from a number of manufacturers. And,
first installed on your computer, you might just find that TextAloud can be
handy enough. Specially if you do things like reading books or other lengthy
material on your computer.
When it comes to other manufacturers than Nuance, you might be able to find
chances for buying their voices directly from their homepage. Yet, it is not
too many of them, that sell directly.
Hope this was an answer to your questions.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bud Schwab" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 7:40 PM
Subject: confused about voices
Hi Gang,
I've been using dectalk Paul for many years now, and although I do like it
basically, my old ears are losing the higher frequencies so it's getting
harder to distinguish S from F and C from V and things like that. I notice
that some other speech programs are much better for that like the Nuiance
Tom and AT&t's mike. I'm confused about Textaloud. Do I have to have
that to get one of these other voices? Also, what voices come with
Textaloud? I'm so confused about the whole issue. All I want is to be
able to get one of those other voices that I can use for all my reading
just like dectalk is doing now.
Thanks for any help. I'm not looking for anything free, just looking for
a good voice for my purpose.
Bud Schwab
W 6 Z Y P
Malibu, California
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