Helloall,
I know the answers to this question would be subjective, but I am still curious to hear them.
With all the various TTS voices available in the VoiceDream app, which ones do you personally consider as the best ones for reading fiction books? For example, I like James from Neospeech, but I feel he is more suited for reading articles and webpages, not so much for the content where more expression is required.
Recently the developer added Ivona voices to the app. My favourite is Joey. He's very clear and I like the way he pronounces things. No synthetic voice is perfect, but Joey is (in my opinion) as good as it gets.
Frankly, I go for either Neospeech James or Ivona Brian. To me, those are the two most human sounding voices. I guess you know, but in case you don't, you can hear samples of all of the available voices within Voice Dream under the voice store in settings.
Like most of us, reading speed is important to me. I bought one of the Ivona voices for my 4th generation Touch, and while it sounds great in the sample, it cannot operate at the speeds I usually use for reading. The Neospeech voices go plenty fast for me. Until I upgrade to newer hardware, I won't be using Ivona.
One of my favorite voices is Neospeech Bridget. I find that she sounds pleasant, and has some expression. Other voices I like include Neospeech James and Julie, Ivona Amy and Salli, and Acapela Rachel, Tracy and Lucy.
I have an iPad air 2. Ivona is the most expensive and most recommended quality voice. Speed and comprehension are my objectives. With practice the 700 word maximum is not as fast as I would like. I have found that voice dream reader is an incredible resource for brain stimulation while accumulating knowledge. Ivona Sally is The best that I have downloaded so far. Set at 700 not sure how accurate The speed is but clarity is excellent. Pausing after each sentence is helpful. Anyone with suggestions to help are appreciated.
I just upgraded to Salli from Ivona after reading the reviews and using the samples. I had Heather and James loading on in a package when I bought the app. I felt going past 270 words per minute with Heather and James was phonetically grating, and I liked the sample of Salli. The voice capabilities of Salli has far better range and her voice is realitively soothing. It was $7 on iTunes. A little pricey, but it seems worth it. The improvement in quality is a bit shocking. I enjoy listening that much more. Two thumbs up for Salli and can listening at much faster reading speeds.
Hi, I read a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction and for that I use the Acapella Peter (Happy) voice. I find that he reads quite well and has a lot of inflection and the tone is just awesome for the Harry Potter Universe all around. I so can't wait for VoiceDreamReader 4.0. I hope it will be coming soon.
Before owning my first iPhone, I owned Motorola phones and Samsung. I used many TTS apps until one day I found Ivona TTS. I really liked the sound of their voices because, at least to me, they are far better and less robotic than the other TTS engines out there.
Sadly, I don't know for how much longer Ivona voices will work with programs like Voice Dream Reader. The company does not exist anymore, and with the changes that always seem to go through iOS during updates, there is a chance with every major update that the Ivona voices will cease working. I hope not, though, as I too love Ivona voices.
The 2 non voice-over voices that i use are ivona Sally and acapela Sharon. But what i would like to see is a way to use either google tts or eloquence. I really like eloquence and i use it for voice dream for android. Id also like to see vocalizer zoe as well.
Of course, it depends on the person.
I've used the voice 'Heather' my entire life, starting in read2go and I was very happy to find it in voicedream. I think it's less about how good or bad the voice may be, but how comfortable you are with it. (I'm approaching 250 words per minute with this one.)
Being able to identify His voice has been of tremendous help to me in the interpretation of my dreams and visions. I no longer worry or get anxious when I receive a dream or a vision during the day or at night.
One of the ways God communicates with His children is through dreams and visions. When I look back, I can only give Him glory for His voice in the night. As a wife and a mother, I always need divine guidance and revelation. Sometimes God can give me dreams or visions that expose the enemy. Especially, if the cause of events going on in my life, home, the lives of my children, or a loved one etc. has to deal with spiritual warfare. I have learned to run to Him for the interpretation of the dream/vision and ask Him for help on how to handle the situation.
There are a few reasons why God gives us dreams and visions instead of showing us the pictures and symbols physically. From my personal experience in my relationship with God; there are some things He cannot show me physically because I will be terrified. Another reason why He gives me dreams is because my rational mind may not be able to comprehend the message He is trying to pass across to me. For example, a lion wearing a crown of gold knocks on my door. I opened the door for Him to come into the house. He sits at my dining table and then asked me to cook so we could eat together. I rushed off quickly to prepare the meal and we sat down eating, laughing, and just enjoying ourselves.
Therefore, in order for God to pass some messages across to me, He has to drop the letter into my spiritual mailbox of dreams and visions. He is not the author of fear and confusion. He knows each one of His children and He knows what we can handle.
The course Christian Dream Interpretation laid the foundation to dream interpretation for me, and it just got better with the new book that was recently written by Dr. Virkler and Dr. Charity Kayembe; Hearing God Through your dreams.
I had to ask the Lord why George Reeves was the Superman in my dreams. It came to me that there is a long list of Supermen with attractive talents and super skills but George Reeves was my first Superman.
If you would like to be able to Ask Jesus questions like we do in many of our blogs and have Him answer back to you personally, we can show you how. Please see our foundational teaching on 4 Keys to Hearing God's Voice. If you already know how to have these conversations, join the discussion and share what Jesus is saying to you!
For several decades people who are visually impaired have used text-to-speech (TTS) software to access electronic text documents. Synthesized speech has evolved and improved markedlyover the years, and its use has spread to the point that, these days, you'll hear it chattering away everywhere from flight announcements at the airport to a host of apps designed to give sighted tablet and smartphone users the ability to multitask or take a break from eye strain.
In this article we'll take an in-depth look at a self-voicing app foriOS devices the called Voice Dream Reader. This mainstream app has been aptly described as a Swiss Army knife for opening and reading aloud a wide variety of file formats, ranging from PDF files to PowerPoint presentations. It also does an excellent job organizing and voicing Microsoft WordDOC and DOCX files, web articles, and various e-book formats, including works from Project Gutenberg and Bookshare.
Voice Dream Reader costs $9.99 in the US App Store and comes standard with the Acapela Heather voice. It is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and requires iOS 5 or later. During the brief setup process, you're taken to the Voice Store where you can sample and purchase other Acapela and NeoSpeech voices for $1.99 and $2.99,respectively. There are 78 voices in 20 languages to choose from.
You can also try out the app before you buy it with the Voice Dream Reader Lite app. This free version is nearly complete with all of the features, but it will only read the first 300 characters of any book or document.
The app interface is extremely speech friendly. All of the buttons are labeled, and there are several features and controls specifically for VoiceOver users. Four features (full-screen reading mode, text highlighting, dictionary lookups, and the ability to create and embed notes) do not currently work with VoiceOver, but the developeris actively working on changing that.
The home screen contains the Documents list and comes preloaded with three files: Welcome, Help, and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Each title is followed by an approximate total listening time, which is updated whenever you change the voice or voice speed.
When you double tap any title, the reading pane will appear. Near the middle of this screen you'll find a text box containing the first few lines of text of the selected title. At thetop and bottom of the box are a number of button controls. The "Play" button is located at the center of the screen about three-quarters of the way down. Double tapping this button will begin to voice the document. To pause the document, tap the button again. You can use VoiceOver to find this or any other control without interrupting the reading, but once your document starts voicing, you can also use the familiar two-finger double tap to stop and restart listening.
Double tapping the "Home" button at the top left of the screen saves your place, closes the active document, and returns you to themain screen. The next time you open the document, reading will pick up right where you left off.
The "Clipboard" option in the Add menu turns the contents of your clipboard into a readable document. It will show up in your Documents list as "Untitled," but if you open the file and double tap the "Edit" button, you can name the file and even add text to it. The "Edit" button in the Add menu is a great way to build your own document via multiple cutand pastes and a bit of touch typing.
Many iOS apps that create text offer the option to share a document with another app. Double tap the "Tools" button in Pages, and you'll be given the chance to send the current document to a number of other apps, including Voice Dream Reader. You can also use the double-tap-and-hold gesture onan attachment you receive in an e-mail and send the document directly to the app for voicing and file management.
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