[Athen] other alternatives to Kurzweil?

[Joseph Polizzotto]

Hi Kevin:

If you have the time and the student's needs permit it, you might consider
creating MP3s for the student using a TTS voice that supports SSML.

For example, if you are on a PC, you could use the Balabolka command line
utility <http://www.cross-plus-a.com/bconsole.htm> + an IVONA voice
(e.g., IVONA
Joey Voice
<https://harposoftware.com/en/english-usa/130-joey-american-english-voice.html>)
to convert a document to an audio format. Using some find and replace
techniques, you can add the SSML markup to create a more natural sounding
reading of the text.

1. Add SSML markup to a TXT file (e.g., Sed or Word's Find and Replace).

E.g., consider using the following SSML elements for better pausing and
pronunciation:

 <break> for pauses at the end of sentences or paragraphs

<say-as interpret-as> for correct pronunciation of dates, addresses, units,
etc.

See these resources for more info about SSML: IVONA Support for SSML
<http://developer.ivona.com/en/ttsresources/ssml/ssml.html> and SSML
Version 1.1 <https://www.w3.org/TR/2010/REC-speech-synthesis11-20100907/>
(IVONA
supports 1.1).

2. Convert TXT file to WAV (e.g., Balabolka Utility)

balcon -f "path\to\your\input.txt" -w "path\to\your\output.wav" -n "IVONA 2
Joey"

3. Convert WAV to MP3 (e.g., lame or FFmpeg
<https://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html>)

ffmpeg -i path/to/your/input.wav path/to/your/output.mp3

HTH,

Joseph



On Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 4:03 PM Kevin Andrews <kejandre at ucsc.edu> wrote:


> Hi all,

>

> I met with a student who I've seen before. They are finding the voices

> very difficult with Kurzweil and from our discussion, they have tried a

> variety of voices, different rates of speech, etc, and reported disliking

> the robotic-sounding voices, not maintaining inflection appropriately, etc.

> We talked about Learning Ally, but just given a couple of the titles, I

> don't know this will be feasible since LA does not always carry the

> titles--as is the case for the one title they were able to give me already

> thus far.

>

> Does anyone have any other suggestions? It seems computerized voices are

> problematic for the student. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated

> here.

>

> --

> Best,

>

> Kevin Andrews

> Pronouns: He/Him/His

> Accessible Technology Coordinator,

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