# Text to speech: indian accent



## Sridhar_Rao (Oct 19, 2008)

Well.. there are many text-to-speech softwares out there which can convert text to speech and save it in wav or mp3 format. 

1) Which among the FREEWARES is the best?
2) Since all the voice are American, is there any Indian accent that can be used to generate Indian voice?


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## amitava82 (Oct 19, 2008)

As long as it use Microsoft speech engine, all are same. AT&T Labs Speech engine is the best (almost natural) and it has indian accent too. But its not free. You can try online demo to convert text to wav: *www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php


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## ashu888ashu888 (Oct 19, 2008)

^^ any other brand of s/w available ?? i knw abt dragon, but they all hv US,UK accents...

or else, how can i make the PC learn step-by-step.. I guess that will take ages.. considering thefact that i'll hv to speel each and every work in my accent.. 

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edit: hey i was impressed by the demo (in US accent)..


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## amitava82 (Oct 19, 2008)

Dragon and others are Speech-to-text. And this is Text-to-Speech. Microsoft speech engine is used in most T2S softwares. So, quality is same. AT&T is the best natural sounding AFAIK. For Speech-to-text, Dragon is the best. Not very productive IMO.


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## dheeraj_kumar (Oct 19, 2008)

I have a question - why would anyone want to hear an indian accent? I mean, US and UK accents are far more natural than indian.


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## comp@ddict (Oct 19, 2008)

^^ Y not Indian accent, hum bhi kisi se kum nahi!


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## dheeraj_kumar (Oct 19, 2008)

^^ Translate, please...


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## Sridhar_Rao (Oct 19, 2008)

Opinions differ. Not every Indian is comfortable with the western accent. When the target audience is Indian, why present them with a western accent? What do we prove by doing that? 

Please leave this discussion aside...and let me know if you are aware of any such Indian speech engines.


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## comp@ddict (Oct 19, 2008)

dheeraj_kumar said:


> ^^ Translate, please...



aau? U english eh?


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## ashu888ashu888 (Oct 19, 2008)

> ^^ Translate, please...



lol.. good one 

btw, yup after hearing the AT&T's Hindi accent, sum words (like, Anjali, the speech AI herself cannot pronounce the name properly) also, the US accent was really simple adn smooth..

yup, i do understand ppl hv different tastes, but was really impressed by the clarity..


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## dheeraj_kumar (Oct 19, 2008)

> aau? U english eh?


No, I'm Telugu/Tamil/English 

Actually, I can also speak a meaningless linguistically-challenged Japanese, but my friends call it grumbling.


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## ashu888ashu888 (Oct 20, 2008)

^^ 

Well zulu for me here.. (but yes, none of my family or friends or jus anyone can understand it)..lol.. joking


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## dheeraj_kumar (Oct 20, 2008)

@OP

Try this: Nuance Realspeak

*www.nuance.com/realspeak/

You need to register for free to see the demo, use BugMeNot.


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## NucleusKore (Oct 20, 2008)

I tried the AT&T engine mentioned above with Anjali (IN English). It's funny


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## ashu888ashu888 (Oct 20, 2008)

^^ yeah i knw, infact the US version is really clear...and understandable... Anjali messes up with the pronounciation of certain words..


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## NucleusKore (Oct 20, 2008)

I tried a few abuses


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## mkmkmk (Oct 20, 2008)

try this.......

 	Sangeeta Indian Accent English 22khz Voice Sample

*nextup.com/TextAloud/SpeechEngine/voices.html#Nuance


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## ashu888ashu888 (Oct 21, 2008)

> I tried a few abuses



lol.. wtf...btw, did they sound right ???


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## dheeraj_kumar (Oct 21, 2008)

@Sridhar, if you are planning to have lots of desi names/words, these engines pronounce it funny. My name for example  You'll have to bend your jaws in unnatural angles to speak like that lol


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## Saharika (Oct 21, 2008)

if for opposite speech to text then

the best 
dragon naturally speaking ....any one above 9.0 

in that they have "indian accent" itself...for normal user it is 90% accurate..if you are somebody who work in call center and all...you will forget trying....

i am not sales person of that ...but just a recommendation...was very nice that some software do care about indian consumers as well....


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## dheeraj_kumar (Oct 21, 2008)

@Sridhar, If you are looking for some professional work, I can lend my voice for some remuneration. I've got a pretty good voice, and can do the indian accent, plus a semi-american accent.


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## Ramakrishnan (Oct 21, 2008)

all text to speech engines sound the same. They don't sound natural. they sound as if from robots. Even AT& T also don't sound good. Just as a fancy one can listen, that is all.


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## NucleusKore (Oct 21, 2008)

ashu888ashu888 said:


> lol.. wtf...btw, did they sound right ???



sort of


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## ashu888ashu888 (Oct 22, 2008)

^^ 

thanx for the update


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