Balabolka is a Text-To-Speech (TTS) program. All computer voices installed on your system are available to Balabolka. The on-screen text can be saved as an audio file. The program can read the clipboard content, extract text from documents, customize font and background colour, control reading from the system tray or by the global hotkeys. Balabolka supports text file formats: AZW, AZW3, CHM, DjVu, DOC, DOCX, EML, EPUB, FB2, FB3, HTML, LIT, MD, MOBI, ODP, ODS, ODT, PDB, PRC, PDF, PPT, PPTX, RTF, TCR, WPD, XLS, XLSX.
The program uses various versions of Microsoft Speech API (SAPI); it allows to alter a voice's parameters, including rate and pitch. The user can apply a special substitution list to improve the quality of the voice's articulation. This feature is useful when you want to change the spelling of words. The rules for the pronunciation correction use the syntax of regular expressions. Balabolka can save the synchronized text in external LRC files or in MP3 tags inside the audio files. When an audio file is played with players on a computer or on modern digital audio players, the text is displayed synchronously (at the same way, as lyrics for songs). |
Text-to-Speech Demos Voice Reader 15. Voice Reader Studio 15: Test voices for free! Enter your text and listen to the selected language and voice. Voice Forge is an easy and fun way to explore synthesized voice. With a simple text to speech UI and over 40 custom, unique voices, Voice Forge can make your music, game or videos stand out from the crowd. The fast and simple interface makes text to speech a breeze. Dream up your characters with our distinctive voices.
| Size: MB | |
| Version:Changelog | |
| Licence: Freeware | |
| Operating System: |
Portable Balabolka does not require an installation and can be run from a USB drive.
A computer must have at least one voice installed.
The utility contains no graphical user interface and works only from the command line.
The application handles various command line parameters to be able to read text aloud or save as an audio file.
The program allows to extract text from the various types of files. The extracted text can be combined into one file or/and split into few files. The utility works from the command line, without displaying any user interface.
*Balabolka is a Russian word, it can be translated as 'chatterer'.
The program allows to use skins for customizing your window appearance.
Download Skin Pack (6.7 MB, 107 skins)
Balabolka can use the Microsoft Speech API 4.x/5.x voices and the Microsoft Speech Platform text-to-speech engines.
Use the fresh versions of speech engines.
RHVoice - free and open source speech synthesizer (it supports English, Esperanto, Georgian, Kyrgyz, Portuguese, Russian, Tatar and Ukrainian):
UkrVox - free Ukrainian voice created by Yaroslav Kozak (Lviv, Ukraine):
Ekho - free TTS engine (it supports Cantonese, Mandarin and Zhaoan Hakka):
Hear2Read - free voices for Indic languages (Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu):
To get better voice quality, you can purchase commercial TTS engines.
High Quality Commercial Voices:
- Acapela Group (demo) - Infovox 4
- Alfanum (demo)
- Cepstral (demo)
- IVONA (demo)
- Nuance/Cerence (demo)
- ReadSpeaker (demo)
The Microsoft Speech Platform allows developers to build and deploy Text-to-Speech applications. The Microsoft Speech Platform consists of a Runtime, and Runtime Languages (engines for speech recognition and text-to-speech). There are separate Runtime Languages for speech recognition and speech synthesis. The version of the Runtime Languages must match the version of the Speech Platform that you installed.
Use the following steps to install the Microsoft Speech Platform (version 11.0):
- Download and install the Speech Platform Runtime
(the file 'x86_SpeechPlatformRuntimeSpeechPlatformRuntime.msi'). - Download and install Runtime Languages for use with the Speech Platform
(file names starting with 'MSSpeech_TTS_').
The Microsoft Speech Platform provides support for 26 languages for speech synthesis. XML tags can be used both for SAPI 5 and the Speech Platform.
Balabolka can use Hunspell (hunspell.github.io). Hunspell is the default spell checker of OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice and Mozilla Firefox.
Spell checker dictionaries for Windows:
Balabolka can use language modules from Microsoft Office 97/2000 for spell checking. If Microsoft Office is not installed on your computer, or you use the other version of Microsoft Office, you can download spell checking components from my web-site:
Balabolka allows to use the spell checking built in operating system. The Spell Checking API is available beginning with the Windows 8.
Cepstral Voices can speak any text they are given with whatever voice you choose. Try out a sample of some of the voices that we currently have available. We are building new synthetic voices for Text-to-Speech (TTS) every day, and we can find or build the right one for any application.
This demo is made available for non-commercial demonstration purposes only.
Please note that mobile users may need to start the audio with the media player that will appear below the demo form.
Kidaroo Voice Text To Speech Free
Kidaroo Voice Domo
This service provided for demonstration and evaluation purposes only. No additional rights to use or distribute audio are provided. All submissions are logged.
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Interested in hearing some character voices, or using Cepstral TTS as a web service? Check us out on VoiceForge to learn more.