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Text to speech software for Mac OS X - ?


Guest alexkos

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Hello, try using TypeIt ReadIt. It is freeware :) and can be downloaded at www.schoolfreeware.com. If you have Mac OS 10.5 , I suggest using the Alex voice. That voice is really nice to listen to. The save to sound feature of the program is nice too. I use this program so I can listen to the text on my iPod and to help proof-read my documents.

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TypeIt ReadIt doesn't solve the problem. It might make listening to roman text more convenient if that is needed.

None of the voices included in the release version of Mac OS 10.5 can actually read Chinese characters. There will be no sound while it reads the chinese characters.

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Sorry, I didn't realize that you were looking for a Chinese version. As far as I know, the built-in TTS in Mac OS X only does English. Mac OS 9 supposedly did Chinese TTS but was not ported to Mac OS X. I searched a few places and came to Asia Communications Québec Inc. I never used their program (it is expensive), but it might be what you are looking for. They claim that there is a TTS Chinese format on a CD package that they offer for Mac OS X. Their site is found at: www.cjkware.com/index.html

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  • 7 months later...
  • 1 year later...

You can get some Windows TTSs running in wine/crossover. However, after I did get this working after many hours of fiddling, I showed it to my (Chinese) girlfriend and and to say she wasn't impressed would be a big understatement. She said that learning with the help of a TTS would be positively harmful and actively discouraged me from doing it. Just my two cents.

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  • 1 month later...

You could try Gradint http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/ssb22/gradint/ which has a Mac version (you have to download the voice separately). This is a syllable-by-syllable synth, so it doesn't have the glitches and inaccuracies of the commercial statistically-programmed unit-selection synths (which sound fluent in some sentences but wrong in others). I think Yali's voice is better than the other syllable-by-syllable synths (like CJKWare's), but it's not perfect because we didn't record any full-third-tones (only half-third tones) and we had trouble calibrating the pitches of the 4th tones. If you want you can configure Gradint to use two different synthesizers and alternate them on different repetitions of the audio flashcards; that means if there's any fault in one synth then hopefully the other one won't have the same fault and you'll realise something's up. However if you do have a girlfriend who is a native speaker then see how good she is at recording the phrases you want; if she has a clear voice and high availability then that could be the best synth you've got ;-)

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  • 1 year later...

If you search in the app store for speak chinese you will find an app for 2 bucks that seems to do the trick. I am currently looking into whether or not the built in mac option can work with Chinese, as it is pretty awesome and can export directly to iTunes.

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I figured out the best (and free) way to listen to Chinese text on a mac.

1. Open system preferences

2. Click on speech

3. Click on the "Text to Speech" tab, if it's not already clicked

4. The first preference you can change is the system voice. Scroll down the list and there are six choices. (2 Mainland, 2 HK, 2 Taiwan) I picked the first of the mainland voices.

After you do this, whenever you want to listen to some Chinese text, whether it be short or long, just right click and go to the speech option. Your computer can now read in passable mandarin whenever you need it. I also use it sometimes to read back things I've written in English, so I can hear how they sound.

http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/

If this doesn't work check out the above link for much more info.

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