I was looking for a text to speech service that had a natural sounding voice for personal use. I saw that Azure has one and it has a voice Jane that is really easy to listen to. I saw there was a very limited demo but there are sites like Naturalreader that use it but they cost 20$ a month. Is there any way to use that voice for free that I could use instead? I'm not making anything professional with it I just want to use it for myself not for anything commercial. Thanks!

edit: I've outlined 5 different ways to do this, all with differing pros and cons

special thanks to this post by u/jiayounokim Method 01:

• Link to download APK is here v0.5, link is in chinese: here's a screenshot of the english translation

• After downloading and installing, select this option shown in the image here

• This will open the Preferred engine settings, select the engine shown in the image here

• Change the language by clicking this setting

• Input this code block to change the language into en-US-ChristopherNeural:

<speak version="1.0" xml:lang="en-US"><voice name="en-US-ChristopherNeural"><prosody rate="${(rate-100)?c}%" pitch="${(pitch-100)?c}%"><mstts:express-as style="serious">${text}</mstts:express-as></prosody></voice></speak>

• Use an epub reader with TTS feature (like Google Play Books), then open TTS feature and enjoy!

• If you want to change it to a different language/voice, try out other voices here and then get the id of the name in here.

  • e.g. I tried and want to use the voice package, Monica (Neural) in English (United States)

  • I will look for the id of Monica (Neural) here

  • The language is "en-US", and the id is "en-US-MonicaNeural".

  • I will now substitute these two information to the code block below.

<speak version="1.0" xml:lang="language here"><voice name="id here"><prosody rate="${(rate-100)?c}%" pitch="${(pitch-100)?c}%"><mstts:express-as style="serious">${text}</mstts:express-as></prosody></voice></speak>

which will make it:

<speak version="1.0" xml:lang="en-US"><voice name="en-US-MonicaNeural"><prosody rate="${(rate-100)?c}%" pitch="${(pitch-100)?c}%"><mstts:express-as style="serious">${text}</mstts:express-as></prosody></voice></speak>

If the TTS is too slow for you, you can change it in Android Settings > Accessiblity > Text-To-Speech > Speech Rate. Or maybe your epub reader has a built-in speech rate and pitch setting (like Moon Reader+).

found a chinese thread which is the origin of the app

Why use Microsoft Azure's TTS?

• It's much better and sounds more natural than the default TTS engine (Google TTS)

• Has a variety of voices which you can choose from based on your preferences.

Why use TTS at all?

• If you love reading books, this TTS engine is so good that it's practically turns all your books into a decent audiobooks. Official audiobook are still better but the voices sound natural enough that it gets the job done.

Edit:

I found out Android's Microsoft Edge also has this feature, it has less voices but it's still has a variety of good ones. Method 02: Using Android's Microsoft Edge

• Just open your novel in Microsoft Edge (maybe via Royal Road, WuxiaWorld, Google Play Books, etc.),

• open the options (three dots in bottom middle of the screen)

• then click Read Aloud.

• You can choose from a variety of voices by clicking voice options on the top right.

  • (e.g. Microsoft Christopher Online (Natural) - English (US), which is my favourite voice among the ones available).

Edit: I saw that the system-wide TTS isn't working for some of you, here's an alternative I found.

Method 03: System wide TTS engine using TTS Server app

• Download the zip appropriate apk file or just the largest sized one if you don't know in this github link (note: you have to login to your github account for link to work changed the link, you don't have to log in now.)

• Extract the zip file

• Install the apk

• The app is in broken English so it's a bit easier to navigate, although you might need to change it in the app settings.

• Click the "+" on the top right

• Change the language in to your desired choice (e.g. English US)

• Choose your chosen voice

  • You can get a preview of the voice by putting words in the preview form and then hit play.

• Exit out of the app and go to Android Settings

• Search for Text to Speech or go to System > Language & Keyboard > Text-to-Speech Output (it will vary on your phone but this is the general idea).

• Change the engine to TTS Server

• Use an epub reader with TTS feature (like Google Play Books), then open TTS feature and enjoy!

• Too slow? try this: Hamburger Menu (Top Right) > Settings > Turn on User DNS to resolve API IP

"This is a lot of work, is there an easier way?"

Well you can change the voice of the default TTS Engine on your phone (mostly Google TTS or Samsung TTS). I noticed that the default voice is bad, but some of the other voices is a slight upgrade.

Method 04: Adjusting Google Speech Services/Samsung TTS Engine

• go to Android Settings

• Search for Text to Speech or go to System > Language & Keyboard > Text-to-Speech Output (it will vary on your phone but this is the general idea).

• Click on the setting icon near the TTS Engine

• Find Install Voice Data

• Find your language of choice (English US, English UK, etc.)

• Download/Choose among the various voices in there

• Go back and then you can preview the voice. You can also change the speed and pitch of the voice.

• Use an epub reader with TTS feature (like Google Play Books), then open TTS feature and enjoy!

Bonus: If you're using Google Play Books for book reading and using Google TTS, you can go to Google Play books setting and turn on "High Quality Voice" (Idk how much of a difference this makes but it should be better).

Method 05: another TTS app

• Download the TTS Apk in this github link

• Install the TTS

• In your Android Settings, find Text-To-Speech settings.

• Change engine from the previously installed Text-To-Speech to this new one.

• Use an epub reader with TTS feature (like Google Play Books), then open TTS feature and enjoy!

• If you want to change the default voice (Jenny+) to another,

  • Open the installed TTS (it's in Chinese so it's a bit hard to navigate).

  • Next Click this to enable customization.

  • Double click the name of your choice to choose and hear an example of said voice (i.e. Christopher, Sonia, etc.)

  • There are other settings in there, here's a link to an album of screenshots and their corresponding translation.

(I'll update the links to the pictures later.)