Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Nuance Vocalizer Expressive TTS 5.4

Nuance Vocalizer Expressive TTS 5.4
Nuance Vocalizer Expressive TTS 5.4


Download Links

Download from Google Drive
American English - Allison, Ava, Evan, Joelle, Nathan, Noelle, Samantha, Susan, Tom, Zoe
Arabic - Laila, Maged, Maged-Ml (arw,eng), Mariam, Tarik
Argentinian Spanish - Diego, Isabela
Australian English - Karen, Lee, Matilda
Basque - Miren
Belgian Dutch - Ellen
Belgian French - Aude
Bhojpuri India - Jaya
Brazilian Portuguese - Felipe, Fernanda, Luciana
British English - Daniel, Kate, Malcolm, Oliver, Serena, Stephanie
Bulgarian - Daria
Canadian French - Amelie, Chantal, Nicolas
Catalan - Jordi, Montserrat
Chilean Spanish - Francisca
Chinese Mandarin - Bin-Bin, Li-Li, Tian-Tian
Colombian Spanish - Carlos, Soledad, Ximena
Croatian - Lana
Czech - Iveta, Zuzana, Zuzana-Ml (czc,ged,eng)
Danish - Magnus, Sara
Dutch - Claire, Xander
Farsi - Dariush
Finnish - Onni, Satu
French - Audrey, Aurelie, Thomas
Galician - Carmela
German - Anna, Markus, Petra, Viktor, Yannick
Greek - Melina, Nikos
Hebrew - Carmit
Hindi - Kiyara-Ml (hii,eni), Lekha, Neel, Neel-Ml (hii,eni)
Hong Kong Cantonese - Sin-Ji
Hungarian - Mariska
Indian Bengali - Paya
Indian English - Isha-Ml (eni,hii), Rishi, Rishi-Ml (eni,hii), Sangeeta, Veena
Indonesian - Damayanti
Irish English - Moira
Italian - Alice, Federica, Luca, Paola
Japanese - Ayane, Daisuke, Ichiro, Koharu, Kyoko, Mizuki, Otoya, Sakura
Kannada - Alpana
Korean - Minsu, Nuri-Ml (kok,enu), Sora, Yuna
Malay - Amira
Marathi - Ananya
Mexican Spanish - Angelica, Juan, Paulina
Norwegian - Henrik, Nora
Polish - Ewa, Krzysztof, Zosia
Portuguese - Catarina, Joana, Joaquim
Romanian - Ioana
Russian - Katya, Katya-Ml (rur,eng), Milena, Yuri
Scottish English - Fiona
Shanghainese - Lulu-Ml (shc,enu)
Sichuanese - Fangfang
Slovak - Laura
Slovenian - Tina
South African English - Tessa
Spanish - Jorge, Marisol, Marisol-Ml (spe,eng,frf,ged,iti,ptp), Monica
Swedish - Alva, Klara, Oskar
Taiwanese Mandarin - Mei-Jia
Tamil - Vani
Telugu - Geeta
Thai - Kanya, Narisa
Turkish - Cem, Cem-Ml (trt,eng), Yelda
Ukrainian - Lesya
Valencian - Empar
Vietnamese - Linh

Download from Yandex Disk
American English - Allison, Ava, Evan, Joelle, Nathan, Noelle, Samantha, Susan, Tom, Zoe
Arabic - Laila, Maged, Maged-Ml (arw,eng), Mariam, Tarik
Argentinian Spanish - Diego, Isabela
Australian English - Karen, Lee, Matilda
Basque - Miren
Belgian Dutch - Ellen
Belgian French - Aude
Bhojpuri India - Jaya
Brazilian Portuguese - Felipe, Fernanda, Luciana
British English - Daniel, Kate, Malcolm, Oliver, Serena, Stephanie
Bulgarian - Daria
Canadian French - Amelie, Chantal, Nicolas
Catalan - Jordi, Montserrat
Chilean Spanish - Francisca
Chinese Mandarin - Bin-Bin, Li-Li, Tian-Tian
Colombian Spanish - Carlos, Soledad, Ximena
Croatian - Lana
Czech - Iveta, Zuzana, Zuzana-Ml (czc,ged,eng)
Danish - Magnus, Sara
Dutch - Claire, Xander
Farsi - Dariush
Finnish - Onni, Satu
French - Audrey, Aurelie, Thomas
Galician - Carmela
German - Anna, Markus, Petra, Viktor, Yannick
Greek - Melina, Nikos
Hebrew - Carmit
Hindi - Kiyara-Ml (hii,eni), Lekha, Neel, Neel-Ml (hii,eni)
Hong Kong Cantonese - Sin-Ji
Hungarian - Mariska
Indian Bengali - Paya
Indian English - Isha-Ml (eni,hii), Rishi, Rishi-Ml (eni,hii), Sangeeta, Veena
Indonesian - Damayanti
Irish English - Moira
Italian - Alice, Federica, Luca, Paola
Japanese - Ayane, Daisuke, Ichiro, Koharu, Kyoko, Mizuki, Otoya, Sakura
Kannada - Alpana
Korean - Minsu, Nuri-Ml (kok,enu), Sora, Yuna
Malay - Amira
Marathi - Ananya
Mexican Spanish - Angelica, Juan, Paulina
Norwegian - Henrik, Nora
Polish - Ewa, Krzysztof, Zosia
Portuguese - Catarina, Joana, Joaquim
Romanian - Ioana
Russian - Katya, Katya-Ml (rur,eng), Milena, Yuri
Scottish English - Fiona
Shanghainese - Lulu-Ml (shc,enu)
Sichuanese - Fangfang
Slovak - Laura
Slovenian - Tina
South African English - Tessa
Spanish - Jorge, Marisol, Marisol-Ml (spe,eng,frf,ged,iti,ptp), Monica
Swedish - Alva, Klara, Oskar
Taiwanese Mandarin - Mei-Jia
Tamil - Vani
Telugu - Geeta
Thai - Kanya, Narisa
Turkish - Cem, Cem-Ml (trt,eng), Yelda
Ukrainian - Lesya
Valencian - Empar
Vietnamese - Linh


System Requirements for Windows
OS: Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 and later (Vocalizer Expressive 5.2.3 does support Windows XP)
Reading application: any application with SAPI-5 support


System Requirements for Android
OS: Android 4.4 KitKat and later
TTS Engine: SmartVoice
Reading application: any application with TTS engine support, such as Librera


Description
Vocalizer Expressive is a text-to-speech engine used by Reading applications to produce speech from electronic text. The voices sound very close to the natural human speech. Some of them, like Spanish Jorge, were first developed by Loquendo and then improved by Nuance.

Incompatibility
The Voices from this release may not function properly if installed on the same computer with the following products: Vocalizer Expressive 5.2.3 (Previous release), kobaspeech.com, harposoftware.com. It's recommended to remove these products before installing Vocalizer Expressive 5.4.

Installation
To install the voices, extract the archive(s) to any folder and run Setup.exe
After installation is complete, Windows Installer will delete files in unpacked folder because it assumes them been temporary. So, unpacked folder will not have any further use and it must be deleted.
The list of voices can be seen in the Speech Properties, which is located under Control Panel, Speech Recognition, Text to Speech.

Uninstallation
To uninstall particular voice go to Start Menu, All Programs, VE 5.4 [Name of Voice], Uninstall.

Additional information
On some websites "Vocalizer Expressive TTS 5.4" can be referred to as "Vocalizer Expressive Version 2", while "Vocalizer Expressive 5.2.3" can be referred to as "Vocalizer Expressive Version 1". These are essentially the same products, only names are different. All voices have the quality "High", except Bin-Bin, Li-Li, Sin-Ji, Tian-Tian, Fang-Fang which have the quality "Embedded". You can check out installed voices with SAPI5 TTSAPP. It's small file, which doesn't require installation.

Free software to read text aloud
For Windows PC:
Claude
SAPI5 TTSAPP
Balabolka
Natural Reader
Demagog 64-bit
KMPlayer 32bit, Daum PotPlayer - Video players with ability to speak subtitles of movies.
For Android phone:
SmartVoice - Android TTS Engine, which can speak with Vocalizer Expressive TTS 5.4 voices (Vocalizer Expressive Version 2)
TTS Readers: AlReaderX, Librera, Moon+ Reader Pro

Screenshots

Balabolka Natural Reader KMPlayer

Edit Pronunciation
The pronunciation of the Voices can be modified by creating "User dictionary". It's binary (unreadable for human) file with name "userdct_xxx.dat", where xxx is abbreviation of a language. Where to get this abbreviation? This abbreviation can be found inside of the table:

Abbreviations
LanguageAbbreviation of a language
American Englishenu
Arabicarw
Argentinian Spanishspa
Australian Englishena
Basquebae
Belgian Dutchdub
Belgian Frenchfrb
Bhojpuri Indiabhi
Brazilian Portugueseptb
British Englisheng
Bulgarianbgb
Canadian Frenchfrc
Catalancae
Chilean Spanishspl
Chinese Mandarinmnc
Colombian Spanishspc
Croatianhrh
Czechczc
Danishdad
Dutchdun
Farsifai
Finnishfif
Frenchfrf
Galiciangle
Germanged
Greekgrg
Gulf Arabicarg
Hebrewhei
Hindihii
Hong Kong Cantonesecah
Hungarianhuh
Indian Bengalibei
Indian Englisheni
Indonesianidi
Irish Englishene
Italianiti
Japanesejpj
Kannadakai
Koreankok
Malaymsm
Marathimai
Mexican Spanishspm
Norwegiannon
Polishplp
Portugueseptp
Romanianror
Russianrur
Scottish Englishens
Shanghaineseshc
Sichuanesesic
Slovaksks
Sloveniansls
South African Englishenz
Spanishspe
Swedishsws
Taiwanese Mandarinmnt
Tamiltai
Telugutei
Thaitht
Turkishtrt
Ukrainianuku
Valencianvae
Vietnameseviv

At a present time the file "userdct_xxx.dat" can be created in two ways: with Python and with "Vocalizer Expressive Studio". When using Python, it's necessary to know phonetic transcriptions of words, while adding them to dictionary. In contrast, Vocalizer Expressive Studio automatically generates phonetic transcriptions. However, Vocalizer Expressive Studio works only with "Vocalizer Expressive 5.2.3". Created dictionaries can be used in older and newer versions of Vocalizer (5.2.3 and 5.4). Below I will describe both methods.

Creating user dictionary with Python 2.5.4 and Vocon 3200

This method doesn't require "Vocalizer Expressive" been installed. The voices may not be present on a PC and still, it's possible to create user dictionary for them.
As an example, I will create user dictionary for the Finnish language. In this case the file name of user dictionary would be "userdct_fif.dat". First, create usual text file with similar content:

[Header]
Name
=userdct_fif.dct
Description
=userdct_fif
Language
=FIF
Content
=EDCT_CONTENT_BROAD_NARROWS
Representation
=EDCT_REPR_SZZ_STRING
[Data]
tuhatvuotta
// #te.x:At.vu.ottA#
ikuisuus
// #@:nKu&iso:S#

This file must be encoded in UTF-8 without BOM. Here, the Name is the name of text file; Description can be any description; Language is uppercase of abbreviation; tuhatvuotta is the source string with 40 characters maximum length; space plus // plus space is separator; #te.x:At.vu.ottA# is a destination string – it's how the word should be pronounced. Note, the # sign here is the pause (silence). Destination string can only contain phonetic symbols in so called L&H+ (Lernout & Hauspie) notation.
All necessary symbols can be found in four tables of this PDF document. These tables contain all Finnish symbols of L&H+. First is called "Special characters" on page 13, another is "Punctuation Marks" on page 14, third is "The Finnish L&H+ and UNIPA Phonetic Alphabets" on pages 15-16 and the fourth is "SAPI5 Symbols" on pages 18-19. From the third and the fourth tables you'll need only first column.
You can add as many words as you like, but they must be separated by newline (CR+LF). After creating text file, you can save it as userdct_fif.dct.
Now, download python-2.5.4 and VoCon 3200. Install them to some path without spaces such as C:\Python25 and C:\PF\Nuance\vocon3200\EDS3. Create *.bat file with content:

@echo off
set dictionaryFile=C:\userdct_fif.dct
set outputFile=C:\userdct_fif.dat
set VOCON3200_INSTALL_PATH=C:\PF\Nuance\vocon3200\EDS3
C:\Python25\python.exe %VOCON3200_INSTALL_PATH%\tools\dictcpl.pyc --dictionaryFilepath=%dictionaryFile% --outputFilepath=%outputFile%

Here, C:\userdct_fif.dct is a path to text file, created earlier and C:\userdct_fif.dat is path for output binary file. When you run bat file Python will generate binary dictionary "userdct_fif.dat"

Creating user dictionary with Vocalizer Expressive Studio 1.4.0

This method requires installation of Vocalizer Expressive 5.2.3 voices, for which you intend to create a dictionaries. These dictionaries can also be used by Vocalizer 5.4 voices of corresponding language. If you are going to use this method and you also have Vocalizer 5.4 installed, I recommend to uninstall Vocalizer 5.4 first, or use this method on another PC or in virtual machine.
As an example, I will create user dictionary for the German language. In this case the file name of user dictionary would be "userdct_ged.dat". Download archive VEX_GED_Markus.zip from the link above, unpack archive to any folder and run Setup.exe. It will install the voice "Markus". Download and install Java 32-bit if it is not already installed. To check if you have Java, open CMD and type in "java -version". Download archive VEStudio.zip and unpack it to any folder. Inside unpacked folder open "studio" folder and run "VocalizerExpressiveStudio.exe". After launching Studio go to the tab "TTS" and click button "Setup". Select folder "C:\Program Files (x86)\VEX". It's location, where Vocalizer 5.2.3 installed. Next, you'll be asked to select language and voice:

Voice Setup
Click OK. After selecting language and voice the tab "TTS" will look like this:

TTS Setup
Now go to the tab "User Dictionary Editor" and press "New" button in upper-right corner. Click "Add" button to add new words. Inside textbox "Sounds Like:" enter text - modified pronunciation. Click button "Generate Transcription". It will produce phonetics in L&H+ format. Click button "Copy To Dictionary Entry":

Add words to dictionary
After dictionary is full, press "Save" button in upper-right corner:

Save dictionary
Select option to save dictionary as binary DCB file. Rename DCB file into "userdct_ged.dat" (also change extension).

Installing user dictionary

Now, we have the file "userdct_xxx.dat", created by Python or by Studio. It's time to install this dictionary. Installation is just copying this file into the "components" folder of the installed Voice. For example, in case of Finnish voice, copy "userdct_fif.dat" to the C:\Program Files\VE\languages\fif\speech\components. In case of German voice, copy "userdct_ged.dat" to the C:\Program Files\VE\languages\ged\speech\components. Now, if you open TTS application, the pronunciation of words, defined in dictionary will change.

The file userdct_fif.dat is a language specific dictionary – it can be used by either voice of the same language. If you want it to be used only by particular voice, such as Satu, you must rename it (or create new) to userdct_fif_satu.dat.
For the particular voice you can also add another dictionaries – these must be referenced in *.HDR file of the Voice. If you've created new dictionary named userdct_fif_satu1.dat, then you must add the following code to the end of *.HDR file:

<RESOURCE content-type="application/edct-bin-dictionary;loader=broker">
  userdct/fif/satu1
</RESOURCE>

Here, the slash corresponds to the underscore in the filename. So, the end of *.HDR should look like this:

<RESOURCES>
<!-- The next entries specify default broker strings for the user dictionary resources, once language specific and once voice specific -->
<RESOURCE content-type="application/edct-bin-dictionary;loader=broker">
  userdct/fif
</RESOURCE>
<RESOURCE
content-type="application/edct-bin-dictionary;loader=broker">
  userdct/fif/satu
</RESOURCE>
<RESOURCE
content-type="application/edct-bin-dictionary;loader=broker">
  userdct/fif/satu1
</RESOURCE>
<!-- The next entries specify default broker strings tuning resources if available -->
</RESOURCES>

Remember, all user dictionaries must be located inside "components" folder of the Voice/Language.

Vocalizer Expressive 5.2.3 (Previous Release)
Here are 87 voices from previous version of Vocalizer - Vocalizer 5.2.3. All these voices, including Sin-Ji, Mei-Jia and Tian-Tian have the "High" quality and can be installed on Windows XP. However, this release is not compatible with Vocalizer 5.4. Therefore, before installing Vocalizer 5.2.3, the Vocalizer 5.4 must be uninstalled if it exist. Similarly, before installing Vocalizer 5.4, the Vocalizer 5.2.3 must be uninstalled.

Download from Google Drive
American English - Allison, Ava, Samantha, Susan, Tom
Arabic - Laila, Tarik
Argentinian Spanish - Diego
Australian English - Karen, Lee
Basque - Miren
Belgian Dutch - Ellen
Brazilian Portuguese - Felipe, Luciana
British English - Daniel, Kate, Oliver, Serena
Bulgarian - Daria
Canadian French - Amelie, Chantal, Nicolas
Catalan - Jordi, Montserrat
Chinese Mandarin - Tian-Tian
Colombian Spanish - Carlos, Soledad
Czech - Iveta, Zuzana
Danish - Magnus, Sara
Dutch - Claire, Xander
Finnish - Onni, Satu
French - Audrey, Aurelie, Thomas
Galician - Carmela
German - Anna, Markus, Petra, Yannick
Greek - Melina, Nikos
Hebrew - Carmit
Hindi - Lekha
Hong Kong Cantonese - Sin-Ji
Hungarian - Mariska
Indian English - Veena
Indonesian - Damayanti
Irish English - Moira
Italian - Alice, Federica, Luca, Paola
Japanese - Kyoko, Otoya
Korean - Sora
Mexican Spanish - Angelica, Juan, Paulina
Norwegian - Henrik, Nora
Polish - Ewa, Krzysztof, Zosia
Portuguese - Catarina, Joana, Joaquim
Romanian - Ioana
Russian - Katya, Milena, Yuri
Scottish English - Fiona
Slovak - Laura
South African English - Tessa
Spanish - Jorge, Monica
Swedish - Alva, Klara, Oskar
Taiwanese Mandarin - Mei-Jia
Thai - Kanya
Turkish - Cem, Yelda
Valencian - Empar


Claude v1.0
Warning: some animated Characters contain nudity
Supported OS: Windows Xp and later 64bit
Other requirements: None
Installation: run ClaudeInstaller.exe as Administrator
Description: Claude is Text-To-Speech program with built-in support of MSAgent and SSML 1.0. The interface is intuitive and simple. It doesn't have many settings because its purpose is a preservation of MS Agent technology which is only present in older OS'es preceding Windows 7. Claude automatically fixes the absence of MSAgent in recent versions of Windows and puts 40 Characters to their default location.
This program can open, edit and speak the following formats: HTML, RTF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, XML. It can operate in two modes - with MSAgent enabled or disabled.
To switch into second mode uncheck "Use MSAgent".
To install your own MSAgent Characters copy *.acs files to folder "C:\Windows\MSAgent\chars".
Additional notes: HTML files, containing Unicode, must have tag <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> inside their <head> tag in order to correctly render in Claude.
Screenshots:

With MSAgent Without MSAgent SSML

Download: ClaudeInstaller.exe 125Mb (MD5: 963ff3692804ceb0cb155ce8c49fbe36)

SAPI5 TTSAPP
Supported OS: Windows Xp and later
Other requirements: None
Description: SAPI5 TTSAPP is portable Text-To-Speech program. It was taken from Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1. It supports Unicode text, XML tags. I would recommend to select "22kHz 16 Bit Stereo" in combobox "Format" for better audio output if you're using this program with Vocalizer voices.
Screenshot:

SAPI5 TTSAPP

Download: TTSApp.exe 1.17 Mb (MD5: 7132acf6ecbab7f086f113959f1c13b7)

SmartVoice 4.1.10 (tts.smartvoice)
Supported OS: Android 4.4 KitKat and later, armeabi-v7a arm64-v8a
Description: SmartVoice is a free Android TTS Engine, which can speak Vocalizer Expressive TTS 5.4 voices. It also can speak emoji and has few built-in voices of robotic quality. To use Vocalizer Expressive TTS 5.4 voices on Android device follow these steps. For convenience sake, perform steps 3-5 on Windows PC:
1) Download file SmartVoice.apk and install it on your phone. Give it access to Files, Notifications, Music and audio, Photos and videos.
2) On your phone create a folder, where Vocalizer voices will be located. This folder could have any name and any location. For example, I created folder "/storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx2".
3) Download some Vocalizer voice/voices. For example, I downloaded voice VE_Spanish_Marisol-Ml_22kHz.zip
4) Extract archive VE_Spanish_Marisol-Ml_22kHz.zip into some folder, for example, into "C:\VE_Spanish_Marisol-Ml_22kHz".
5) Inside the folder "C:\VE_Spanish_Marisol-Ml_22kHz" will be directory "msi". Inside the directory "msi" will be directory "languages":

Structure of folder C:\VE_Spanish_Marisol-Ml_22kHz\msi\languages

Now, we need to copy all files in all subfolders of "languages" folder to some new directory. In Windows Explorer create new directory, for example, "C:\Marisol-Ml". Open the Command Line (press Win+R, type cmd) and enter these two lines:
cd /d "C:\VE_Spanish_Marisol-Ml_22kHz\msi\languages"
for /r %a in (*) do @copy "%a" "C:\Marisol-Ml"

Command Line Window

After copying all files, directory "C:\Marisol-Ml" will look like this:

directory C:\Marisol-Ml

6) Copy directory "C:\Marisol-Ml" from Windows PC into folder "/storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx2" on Android phone. There are several ways to do it: connect phone to PC by USB cable, use FTP server... After copying all files, directory "/storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx2" on Android phone will look like this:

directory /storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx2 on Android phone as seen from Total Commander

7) Open app SmartVoice and tap cogwheel in upper right corner - "Settings":

Main screen of SmartVoice app

In "Settings" screen will be four subsettings - "General settings", "Voices assignment", "Per voice settings", "Automatic language switching setup":

Settings screen of SmartVoice app

Tap "General settings" and point data folder to "/storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx2":

General settings screen of SmartVoice app

Now, return back to Main screen of SmartVoice app and tap "Refresh" button. Go again to "Settings", "Voices assignment" subsetting and change voice for Spanish language from "Robot" to "Marisol". Also set "Preferred latinic letters pronunciation voice", "Preferred numbers pronunciation voice" and "Emojis pronunciation voice" to "Marisol":

Voices assignment screen of SmartVoice app Voices assignment screen of SmartVoice app

In "Per voice settings" subsetting you can change volume, rate and pitch of voices. After adjustments you can close SmartVoice app.
8) In phone settings set Preferred TTS Engine to SmartVoice and TTS language to Spanish. On different phones location of TTS in settings might be different. For example, in my phone, it was System → Languages and input → Text-To-Speech output:

Text-To-Speech output in phone settings

9) Now you can open app such as Librera and read text aloud with Vocalizer voice:

Librera app with book open Librera app with TTS Settings window

Take a note, if you're using multilingual voices (their names contain "-Ml") you might need to select checkbox "Use only default voice or the one requested by client" in SmartVoice settings, "Automatic language switching setup" subsetting. The reason is: SmartVoice by default assigns different voices to latinic and non-latinic parts of text. But multilingual voices already have such functionality, they can distinguish different parts of text without external applications.

Download: SmartVoice.apk 22.06 Mb (MD5: 1d7610f53098bb21ea1cde7f0a93dd6d)