What Text-to-Speech Software Are You Using?

Feb 15, 2022

Hi, everyone! I'm trying to shift away from paying professional narrators to do the voiceovers in our courses, and we're looking for some good text-to-speech (TTS) options. It's very important that the output is as realistic sounding as possible, even if it's a paid service! I'm aware there are some freebies out there, but most of them are easily recognizable as AI within seconds. Have any of you had success with any such software? If so, I would love to hear about your experiences!

In my limited research, I've come across products like WellSaidLabs, Murf, Speechelo, Voicemaker, and Notevibes. I briefly looked into Amazon Polly, but I wasn't really blown away.

If you can recommend a really good option, please let me know! Thanks so much!

7 Replies

Alexis MacMillan

2 years ago02/16/22 at 2:39 am (UTC)

I use Speechalo and MicMonster - there are a few good voices in each one. Need pro accounts.

Richard Mulcahy

2 years ago02/16/22 at 4:06 pm (UTC)

Natural Reader is also very good and Synthesia adds an AI talking head to the mix!

Ridvan Saglam

2 years ago02/16/22 at 7:07 pm (UTC)

I usually use https://freetts.com/ It is quite good.

One of my friends working for a game company has suggested this one; https://replicastudios.com/product/studio I am still playing with it but I can say that it offers a lot more than usual text-to-speech softwares I have tried so far.

Kari Mueller

2 years ago02/16/22 at 8:10 pm (UTC)

Check out https://murf.ai/

2 years ago02/16/22 at 8:16 pm (UTC)

@Kari Yup, that's among the few I had in the original message. It's among my finalists! We're absolutely willing to pay as long as it sounds very much like a human. I think WellSaid might have the edge, but Murf is less than a third of the cost, so I'm trying to convince myself to like it.

Have you had any issues getting it to emphasize specific words or dealing with situations where there are two correct pronunciations and having it say the wrong thing? Very curious what a current Murf user thinks for narrated courses that go 15-20 minutes.

Thanks!