Hi, Are there any plans to upgrade the Articulate Storyline text-to-speech functionality to use Amazon Polly neural? Would the licensing fee change to include this option for customers?
Please, please incorporate Microsoft Azure neural voices!
I've recently been testing Microsoft Azure's text to speech service, which has a huge variety of languages and accents, in masculine and feminine voices, and its pronunciation is impeccable. Even better than Google and Amazon's neural voices. I tested its pronunciation in Australian voices, of some lengthy medications (currently working on some health-related eLearning videos) and a pharmacist on our team confirmed the TTS got it right, the first time. I've been using it pretty heavily for the last month, and it's only costing us a dollar so far!
You can use IPA and SSML to correct pronunciation, and can even upload a custom lexicon if there's particular words used throughout your transcripts that require correction. E.g. names of local towns, and in our case, Aboriginal nations. Emphasis can kind ofbe created by using the web-based TTS tool to increase the volume and speed/rate that particular words are spoken. However, for some reason volume changes can only be applied to entire sentences. Here is a screenshot of how I've used the TTS tool to create emphasis on the words "will not". I have then done some basic audio trimming and stitched the sentence together in Storyline.
Our eLearning participants really hate listening to American or British narrators, and they hate the fake, robotic sounding Australian Amazon voice that's built into Storyline. Some have said they would rather mute the entire video and read the captions instead. Us non-American eLearning developers really need an integrated, high quality neural voice within Storyline. But until Articulate make this a priority, the Microsoft Azure voices are a great alternative.
We experience similar problem to Pierre. Other tools (cf. Active Presenter) allow you to integrate Azure Voices, put switching back and forth is a pain…
Thanks for checking in on this! I understand you're looking for an update on the neural voice feature request. I'd be happy to get you an update on this! There currently hasn't been any movement on this as we prioritize other feature requests. I'm going to include your voice in the request. We’ll update this discussion when there is any news to share about this.
Have you thought of changing your current text-to-speech to Neural quality. This may help boost your customer base.
Neural TTS is text to speech powered by artificial intelligence and deep learning. As a result, neural speech synthesis is significantly more natural and expressive than standard text to speech synthesis.
My best,
Marilyn McNeil M.Ed., PMP
Instructional Design & Developer
IT Learning & Development
US | National Grid
170 Data Drive, Waltham, MA 02451
Cell: 978-886-1160
Thank you for sharing your thoughts within this thread. We'll be sure to share any updates in this thread in the future!
Donna, It looks like part of your email signature came through when you replied via email. You can remove that if needed by clicking ‘Edit’ beneath your response. Here’s a quick Peek video if you need help.
We are using ActivePresenter now as well. The voiceover feature with Microsoft Azure integration is soooo good! We are supposed to be transitioning to Articulate but this is a deal-breaker for us.
Just to jump on this thread. Is Microsoft Azure that good? I'm looking at text to speech software because the built in voices are too robotic. I've sampled Azure and Google Cloud, Google Cloud seemed like the more realistic voices but this was only on a quick sample.
We use Well Said Labs. Its a little pricy but they are the most realistic sounding voices I have found, and have like 25-80 different voices available depending on the package you choose.
I am using the Speech Studio, which is in Microsoft Azure, for my Storyline trainings and videos. They have several voices, plus you have a lot of options for customization. How to pronounce certain words, speed and much more that I'm still learning.
I am simply exporting the audio and importing to Storyline. But an integration would be a life saver for me.
16 Replies
Hi, Marilyn.
Thank you for reaching out!
While not currently a feature in Storyline, we have a feature request logged to add support for NTTS or Neural Voices.
I will update this discussion if I have any news to share or if this request makes it to our feature roadmap.
Thank you!
Please, please incorporate Microsoft Azure neural voices!
I've recently been testing Microsoft Azure's text to speech service, which has a huge variety of languages and accents, in masculine and feminine voices, and its pronunciation is impeccable. Even better than Google and Amazon's neural voices. I tested its pronunciation in Australian voices, of some lengthy medications (currently working on some health-related eLearning videos) and a pharmacist on our team confirmed the TTS got it right, the first time. I've been using it pretty heavily for the last month, and it's only costing us a dollar so far!
You can use IPA and SSML to correct pronunciation, and can even upload a custom lexicon if there's particular words used throughout your transcripts that require correction. E.g. names of local towns, and in our case, Aboriginal nations. Emphasis can kind of be created by using the web-based TTS tool to increase the volume and speed/rate that particular words are spoken. However, for some reason volume changes can only be applied to entire sentences. Here is a screenshot of how I've used the TTS tool to create emphasis on the words "will not". I have then done some basic audio trimming and stitched the sentence together in Storyline.
Our eLearning participants really hate listening to American or British narrators, and they hate the fake, robotic sounding Australian Amazon voice that's built into Storyline. Some have said they would rather mute the entire video and read the captions instead. Us non-American eLearning developers really need an integrated, high quality neural voice within Storyline. But until Articulate make this a priority, the Microsoft Azure voices are a great alternative.
I agree with this. I would be great with more Azure integrations like Cognitive Services.
Azure Voices in Storyline would be awesome!
Current version is useless for us because we have too many acronyms and technical stuff mispronounced.
Any update on this feature?
We experience similar problem to Pierre. Other tools (cf. Active Presenter) allow you to integrate Azure Voices, put switching back and forth is a pain…
Hi Lena,
Thanks for checking in on this! I understand you're looking for an update on the neural voice feature request. I'd be happy to get you an update on this! There currently hasn't been any movement on this as we prioritize other feature requests. I'm going to include your voice in the request. We’ll update this discussion when there is any news to share about this.
It would be great if Storyline could expedite on the text to speech feature. We are a small company and need new voices for e learning
Thank you for your reply on text-to-speech.
Have you thought of changing your current text-to-speech to Neural quality. This may help boost your customer base.
Neural TTS is text to speech powered by artificial intelligence and deep learning. As a result, neural speech synthesis is significantly more natural and expressive than standard text to speech synthesis.
My best,
Marilyn McNeil M.Ed., PMP
Instructional Design & Developer
IT Learning & Development
US | National Grid
170 Data Drive, Waltham, MA 02451
Cell: 978-886-1160
Marilyn.McNeil@nationalgrid.com
[cid:image001.png@01D983F4.2DBED400]<https://www.credly.com/badges/a7a0c8a0-38a5-4bd8-af7d-9b10e35ad06f/public
Hi Donna and Marilyn!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts within this thread. We'll be sure to share any updates in this thread in the future!
Donna, It looks like part of your email signature came through when you replied via email. You can remove that if needed by clicking ‘Edit’ beneath your response. Here’s a quick Peek video if you need help.
Hope that you both have a great week! ☀️
Hello, Everyone!
I'm happy to share that we have released a new update for Storyline 360 (v3.80.30988.0.).
In this update, we included an enhancement for:
Please update to the latest version of Storyline 360 to see this improvement. Here's how:
Update Authoring Apps
If you have any questions, please let us know in this thread or privately in a support case.
Have a great day!
We are using ActivePresenter now as well. The voiceover feature with Microsoft Azure integration is soooo good! We are supposed to be transitioning to Articulate but this is a deal-breaker for us.
Just to jump on this thread. Is Microsoft Azure that good? I'm looking at text to speech software because the built in voices are too robotic. I've sampled Azure and Google Cloud, Google Cloud seemed like the more realistic voices but this was only on a quick sample.
Any input would be appreciated :)
We use Well Said Labs. Its a little pricy but they are the most realistic sounding voices I have found, and have like 25-80 different voices available depending on the package you choose.
Microsoft Azure Audio content creation tool demo (to try/test before you subscribe): https://speech.microsoft.com/audiocontentcreation
And here is a demo of me (an Australian) using the subscriber version of Azure text to speech: https://youtu.be/_KpkvwN8sdU?si=7N3WPrm2w2ENXvwE
I am using the Speech Studio, which is in Microsoft Azure, for my Storyline trainings and videos. They have several voices, plus you have a lot of options for customization. How to pronounce certain words, speed and much more that I'm still learning.
I am simply exporting the audio and importing to Storyline. But an integration would be a life saver for me.