No-AI TTS question
I have an urge to make how-to and let's-explore videos, but the 2019 flu made it too painful to talk for long enough to narrate anything. That means my only options are either captions over voiceless videos or using a text-to-speech (TTS) program to read text I write.
What are my slop-free options for TTS programs and feminine voices folks would be willing to listen to?
I prefer a FreeBSD program, but one for Linux, Windows 7, or an easy to emulate older OS can work as well.
re: No-AI TTS question
I still welcome help and/or recommendations for alternatives.
Balabolka runs on Windows 7, and it found a SAPI 5 voice I sorta like: Microsoft Anna. Sorta because it trips on some word combinations.
No-AI TTS question
@arielmt Not quite sure what you mean by slop-free in this context (because pretty much all new TTS models are going to have some LLM component) but I have been super impressed by Piper after I read the blog post by @Edent about it:
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/04/better-tts-on-linux/
The latency isn't bad, it integrates with speech-dispatcher and there are quite a few voices I like. It might be worth a go for you!
No-AI TTS question
@arielmt http://festvox.org/festival/ maybe?
there is also https://rhvoice.org/
No-AI TTS question
@arielmt festival is not prebuilt, but is on linux mrew.
rhvoice i think would be a better choice.
re: No-AI TTS question
I'm scared to use anything cloud-based because half of them say they're slop-powered and the other half don't imply they're not.
I have espeak-ng, but I would need some serious help making its speech reasonable.
I have Balabolka on Windows 10, but IDK if it still works on Windows 7 or older, if it isn't slop itself, or how to install SAPI voices other than Microsoft Sam, and I'd need help and/or pointers.
I also want to know what other options I have.