Monica, this is great information. Thanks so much for sharing it, as I'd wondered about others experiences with the acapella voices. It also sounds like version 3 of textaloud will make working with it to read bookshare and brf books so much easier than it has been in the past!
Judy s. Monica Willyard wrote:
Hi Judy. I use Text Aloud and have upgraded to version 3. It is my understanding that it and the AT&T voices work well under Windows 7. I can say for sure that the Acapela Heather and Laura voices work beautifully under Windows 7 since I've seen them in action. I have purchased Heather and really enjoy her voice for reading fiction. If you would like a sample of her reading, I can make you one and post a link so you can hear her. I'll use a public domain book so we won't get in trouble with anyone. (smile) For right now, owners of Text Aloud 2 are eligible to buy a $50 bundle that upgrades you to Text Aloud 3 and includes *all* of the Acapela American voices. Those voices are normally $35 per voice. Without the voices, you can upgrade to Text Aloud 3 for just $19.95. You can find Text Aloud 3 on the downloads page right under the links for Text Aloud 2. Version 3 is still in beta status, and that's one reason they're offering the special pricing on it. I'm having a blast with it. I don't usually get excited about new versions of things. Text Aloud has been an exception for me because they have done four things that really help disabled users. I'll tell you about them here, and if you're not interested, you can delete this. :) 1. Text Aloud works natively with XML files now. No more converting to another format and then recording. 2. Text Aloud can import brf Braille files such as those found on WebBraille. You use their custom converter tool to do it. The help file explain how. 3. Text Aloud 3 has a much faster way to record long books to mp3 files, about twice as fast as version 2. You load your book in the file splitter, letting it save the split book as articles. You can press shift F8, and it'll record each article as an mp3 file. I have mind split at every 90K of text, making mp3 files that last around an hour. The software knows enough to split the files at the nearest sentence boundary for a nice, even split. I load up several books as articles and let it go to town while I sleep. In the morning I have my books in mp3 format, ready to transfer to my devices. 4. This version of Text Aloud gives you absolute control over pronunciation, no matter which voice you use. You can do simple rules for words, or you can make it pronounce syllables the same way in any word in which they appear. I think it's pretty amazing. Uh oh! My oven timer is going off. If I can help you with trying the new voices, please ask. Monica Willyard On 08/08/2010, Judy s. <cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Has anyone successfully installed an AT&T Natural Voice, using a version they got for an XP and/or Vista system, on a Windows 7 system? I'm not sure I want to just toss it in and hope it works, but if I can do that without having to rebuy a new version for Windows 7, it would be great. We just got a new Windows 7 laptop and I'm hoping to move my TextAloud with the AT&T voice over to it, because its processor is so much faster. Also, if I have to buy over, any thoughts on the quality of the other voices available that work with TextAloud? Are they as good as or better than the AT&T Natural voices? The options I have are RealSpeak voices, Acapela voices, and the Cepstral voices. Thanks in advance for any advice! Judy s. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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