Which voices do you like?

[Samlaptop85213]

Which voices do you like?

ATT
Neospech
Scansoft
Acepla

I like all of them. How about you?

[BigDAS]

Which voices do you like?

ATT
Neospech
Scansoft
Acepla

I like all of them. How about you?

For pure narration , like reading news or announcements, I prefer the VW Kate and Paul voices. I choose Cepstral's Lawrence's rich British voice for classical readings. Don't forget the very clear loq voices also.

[meschle]

I've tested quite a few now

No 1 for me is Neospeech Paul
No 2 is AT&T crystal (appears to have larger word database than paul but is a less fluid voice) - crystal to me has a lovely female tone
No 3 Acapella Lucy

Kate seems less fluid than paul to me so is not on the list

[BigDAS]

I've tested quite a few now

No 1 for me is Neospeech Paul
No 2 is AT&T crystal (appears to have larger word database than paul but is a less fluid voice) - crystal to me has a lovely female tone
No 3 Acapella Lucy

Kate seems less fluid than paul to me so is not on the list

Kate is on the bland side, true. My alternative female voice would be Scansoft's Samantha.

[kremesch]

depends on what I want narrated.

Right now Scansoft Tom really suits the story I'm listening to, character-wise. He has a bit of a bronx sound.

Though, usually, I prefer Neospeech Paul, even though he's a little too musical at times, he still sounds the most natural to me, and the pitch adjustments really come in handy for the odd change in narration here and there.

Secondly, I like Acapela's Heather and Ryan.

As far as classical stories, or those in third person, I tend to go for Ryan or AT&T's Mel, they both have a very classical and rich sound to their voices.

Cepstral voices are great for creating characters within a story, mostly because there's a good selection of them, and they allow pitch adjustments to offer a wider variety.

[kremesch]

Dang, wish I could edit. Where do you get loq voices from? I've listened to their demos. But I can't figure how to find a way to purchase them. Did you contact them?

[BigDAS]

Dang, wish I could edit. Where do you get loq voices from? I've listened to their demos. But I can't figure how to find a way to purchase them. Did you contact them?

A friend gave a CD containing 27 Loqΰendo voices. I don't know about where and how to purchase them. You might inquire on their website.

[BigDAS]

Getting back, the voice I chose for classical readings was Cepstral's Lawrence.
I wanted an expressive but staid voice for readings of Poe's works. The best reading of the Raven I've ever heard was by Basil Rathbone, but I've yet to find something even close to his perfornance. Lawrence does a good job without lexicon revision. Here is his reading of the Raven:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucswcc-LMhE

[brettman9]

For what it's worth, I have been a long-time fan of neo's Paul.

The new UK Peter from acapelo is absolutely head and shoulders the best voice I've found. Gives a kind of gravitas to everything. real smooth, rich tone. No wavering ever.

But I don't really care about pitch adjustments, etc...
Also found that the Nuance australian Lee is real good.

For comparison sake, I am real surprised to see so many mentions of Cepstral or ATT voices in this thread...IMO they are a long ways behind in the technology in terms of fluidity and the natural 'melody' of human conversational speaking.

[Drew3D]

Which voices do you like?

I own the following: Mike (AT&T), Crystal (AT&T), Audrey (AT&T), Anjali (AT&T), Charles (AT&T), Lauren (AT&T), Peter (Acapela), Heather (Acapela), Daniel (ScanSoft), Karen (ScanSoft), Samantha (ScanSoft), Sanjeeta (Scansoft), Jennifer (ScanSoft), Jill (ScanSoft), Emily (ScanSoft), and Lee (ScanSoft).

I use them for reading news and blog articles on the web.

My overall favorite is Lee (Australian accent). Pleasing voice, very few errors, and a delightful accent. Peter (UK accent), and Daniel (UK accent) are my second favorite, with Karen (Australian accent) and Sanjeeta (Indian accent) tied for third. Those are the ones I rotate through. The others I own are merely novelty factor because too often they don't sound natural... too many gurgles.

Peter is becoming my new favorite though, despite a few text interpretation mistakes in reading. That voice is very impressive and the accent is fantastic.

Charles and Audrey get an honorable mention, but IMHO the AT&T voices are lagging behind the newer ScanSoft and Acapela voices in voice quality and text interpretation.

I am anxious to get Paul when that voice is available again, it sounds great to me. It seems it is available now only with ClaroRead (?).

[Mnurlan]

Which voices do you like?

ATT - Audrey (UK) - my most favorite
Neospech - Paul and Kate both are good for me

[Ashen]

Lee (Australian accent)

i own others(company i was doing some work for bought me scansoft, neospeach and att voices)

honestly out of them all, Lee is the most "real" sounding to me, infact i havent even installed the others this time around, tho if some nicer voices appear i may get those as well.

I will say that i didnt care for the acepla voices personaly, to file was alot slower with them for one thing, and they dont sound as good as lee either.....

[Oschkar]

I personally prefer female voices.
At&T Crystal
Scansoft Samantha
Acapela Heather
Scansoft Serena
AT&T Audrey
AT&T Mike
Cepstral Allison
Neospeech Paul
Microsoft Anna
Neospeech Kate

[framebuffer]

I use Neospeech Paul and Scansoft Samantha on a daily basis.

Neospeech has come up with a new voice called Julie but its not available for purchase yet. I like it a lot too.

[courtneycoles27]

I preferred with Neospeech Paul and Scansoft Samantha... I really like there voices a lot....