Do you want to try the best text to speech API with natural voices? We recommend Woord.
There are several names for text-to-speech. Others call it TTS, read aloud, or even voice synthesis. Today, it simply refers to employing artificial intelligence to read aloud words from any website, PDF, email, or document. No voice actor is recording specific sentences, words, or even the full article.
And that is both its beauty and its usefulness. You’re not required to wait. Simply hit “play,” and artificial intelligence will instantly bring the text to life in a voice that sounds quite natural. Various languages support changing accents and voices.
How TTS solutions convert text to a natural-sounding speech
Let’s attempt to explain the TTS engine’s operation in simple terms. It first normalizes or tokenizes unreadable raw text files containing symbols and numbers before assigning phonetic transcriptions to each word that correspond to the word structures and pronunciation in the text. As a result, a symbolic linguistic representation is produced, which is then processed into sound. To assess accent, the program analyzes available speaker recordings and built-in dictionaries.
Traditionally, one of the following two techniques was used to convert text to speech:
In a chain, concatenative synthesis joins together brief audio samples, often known as units.
Formant synthesis is a technique that mimics vowel sounds by using formants, or frequency peaks that arise in a sound wave when humans talk.
Natural sounding text conversion with AI
The quality of synthesized speech could be raised thanks to substantial advancements in AI, machine learning, and deep learning. Now, the software is able to gather speech samples from various databases and perform astonishingly accurate word interpretation. Computers are trained to converse utilizing a lot of human speech using neural networks. Because of this, artificially produced audio sounds are more lifelike and incorporate all the subtleties of human speech, including tone, pitch, and accentuation.
TTS solutions are always evolving; for instance, they can create any form of bespoke voice or, in the case of voiceovers, use the already-existing audio of real-life superstars. Additionally, this software uses optical character recognition to read text from pictures or handwritten notes (OCR).
All mentioned innovations significantly improve the quality of customer experience this type of assistive technology provides.
Why do we recommend Woord?
Woord is an online TTS that has a number of useful features. It is available in over 50 languages, including several English dialects, Portuguese dialects, and Spanish dialects. You can also select a male, female, or gender-neutral voice. All of these features are available, allowing you to test the service before investing in the premium version.
The edition without charge includes premium voices, a Chrome plugin, an SSML editor, an MP3 download, and up to 20,000 characters per month. You can also change the speed and format of the voice with this software.
This API’s vocal characteristics allow you to use it in a variety of situations. You can use Woord‘s Text-to-Speech (TTS) functionality to create applications that assist people with reading difficulties, such as those used in E-learning and education.
Also published on Medium.