Read Aloud on Resources
I normally read and listen to the ESV Bible concurrently with the voice of David Cochran Heath. I would give a thumbs up for the audio. 
However, in other resources, I would have to resort to the Read Aloud by System Narrator feature provided by Windows 7 Home Premium. Tweaking the narrator settings for pitch and speed does not attain the desired tone, which at times seem to overlap with a slight echo effect.
Any recommendations please, including a paid or free download of an audio program. Thank you.
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Windows 8 default voice is much better IMO, I still use both.
I have the splendid Heather voice from Cereproc installed on my Windows 8.1 and Android tablets. This voice is especially listenable. There is a known issue with reading through some resources. I've not been notified of a resolution. The Android voice is especially affordable.
- https://www.cereproc.com/en/products/voices for Windows
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cereproc.Heather
Consider casting a vote for adding TTS support to the Faithlife Android apps.
"The Christian mind is the prerequisite of Christian thinking. And Christian thinking is the prerequisite of Christian action." - Harry Blamires, 1963
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I use Ivona voices, which are excellent: http://harposoftware.com/en/14-american-english
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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I have two ivona voices. Joey (Yank) & Brian (Brit). They"re both very good, although it seems they bave put a little more effort into Brian, as he sounds more natural and expressive, with fewer robotic artifacts.
These were once sold directly by Ivona, and they also had a reader program that I use to make audio books. Maybe the resellers have a similar program.
You can also customize the vocabulary to expand abbreviated Bible book names.
By the way, I always thought Jose Ferrer would have been s great Bible narrator (yes, I know he's dead now).macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
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Robert M. Warren said:
You can also customize the vocabulary to expand abbreviated Bible book names.
BTW, here is my custom lexicon file for Ivona voices that expands Bible book abbreviations (and some other common notations, such as "vv", "cf.", etc).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gy93dajqujda36k/british-english-ivona.lex?dl=0
If anyone needs more info on implementing this, reply back and I'll bore you with the details.
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
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Mark Barnes said:
I use Ivona voices, which are excellent: http://harposoftware.com/en/14-american-english
I had not heard of this before. Thanks for sharing.
Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God
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I use an iOS text-to-speech app (Voice Dream) with 3 available voice types, and the Ivona ones are the best. The other two are NeoSpeech and Acapela.
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Can you point to instructions on how to use Ivona voices in Logos? It always uses the default system narrator when I try to use Read Aloud, even when I have changed the system narrator for windows to an Ivona voice. (I use windows 10).
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Justin McCleskey said:
Can you point to instructions on how to use Ivona voices in Logos? It always uses the default system narrator when I try to use Read Aloud, even when I have changed the system narrator for windows to an Ivona voice. (I use windows 10).
It 'just worked' for me, when I changed the setting below, and then restarted Logos:
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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Robert M. Warren said:Robert M. Warren said:
You can also customize the vocabulary to expand abbreviated Bible book names.
BTW, here is my custom lexicon file for Ivona voices that expands Bible book abbreviations (and some other common notations, such as "vv", "cf.", etc).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gy93dajqujda36k/british-english-ivona.lex?dl=0
If anyone needs more info on implementing this, reply back and I'll bore you with the details.
Robert, I'd be interested in knowing how to implement this, but I use the Voice Dream app. The app has an area to insert substitutions and also an area for this where you can enter code. I tried just insertin the copied text from your doc but it didn't work. Do you have any ideas?
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Thanks Mark for the Ivona voices link.. Soooooooo Much better..
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Liam said:
but I use the Voice Dream app. The app has an area to insert substitutions and also an area for this where you can enter code. I tried just insertin the copied text from your doc but it didn't work. Do you have any ideas?
Hi Liam:
I don't have Voice Dream, so I'm not able to test this. I went to this link at their support site: http://www.voicedream.com/support/reader-faq/ , which discusses adding to the custom pronunciation dictionary. Like Ivona, Voice Dream's custom dictionary apparently can be opened like a text file have entries inserted into it from another text source.
I have included two files in the zip: 1. the Excel file with the formulas and stages of constructing, in case you need it. 2. a text file containing the end result, which is my original cross-reference, but in the structure of the Voice Dream pronunciation dictionary.
Two notes: 1. I have excluded three common words, because they might drive you crazy: "Act", "Is", and "Sir" (yes, apocrypha included). You can manually insert them if you want to, but I doubt your will. 2. The serial books are set up to pronounce in what I perceive to be the American tradition of "Second Kings", rather than "Two Kings". If you want to, you can find and replace in the text file to quickly make that more British, Canadian, whatever.
2781.Voice Dream Bible Book Abbreviations.zip
I think from your post you know how this might be done; (i.e., what file to edit, where it is found) if not, maybe a fellow Voice Dream user here can tell your that.
EDIT 10/5/15 3:35 AM EDT US: Yikes, I forgot to replace the ' with " in the text file; fixed.
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
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Mark: How do I buy from the U.S. The price is Euro's. Can I use my credit card to purchase and download? Are there voices available to read Logos Books and Bibles on the Ipad?
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John Brumett said:
Are there voices available to read Logos Books and Bibles on the Ipad?
I will let Mark answer the other questions... I have no idea.
About the mobile app: FL does not have a "read aloud" feature on mobile outside of the audiobooks (i.e. ESV, LEB,etc.). The computer generated "read aloud" isn't available as a FL service. There are other methods to try and create this utilizing accessibility features of iOS. I don't use those features and am not the best to advise. You would be best served to search the iOS forum where other users have discussed the issue, or to post your own inquiry there.
macOS, iOS & iPadOS |Logs| Install
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John Brumett said:
Mark: How do I buy from the U.S. The price is Euro's. Can I use my credit card to purchase and download? Are there voices available to read Logos Books and Bibles on the Ipad?
You can switch to dollars at the top right of the screen. You'll get a link to download the voices after purchase. As far as I know the voices will only work on Windows.
I don't believe Apple allows developers to add voices to the iPhone/iPad. You can buy apps that will speak text, but they won't speak text from within other apps.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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Mark Barnes said:
I don't believe Apple allows developers to add voices to the iPhone/iPad.
Sadly this seems to be the case.
OT: I found an article about the voices of Siri that might be of interest to some. I am grateful for the voice artists who contribute their talent to improve TTS quality.
"The Christian mind is the prerequisite of Christian thinking. And Christian thinking is the prerequisite of Christian action." - Harry Blamires, 1963
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Alan said:
I normally read and listen to the ESV Bible concurrently with the voice of David Cochran Heath. I would give a thumbs up for the audio.
However, in other resources, I would have to resort to the Read Aloud by System Narrator feature provided by Windows 7 Home Premium. Tweaking the narrator settings for pitch and speed does not attain the desired tone, which at times seem to overlap with a slight echo effect.
Any recommendations please, including a paid or free download of an audio program. Thank you.
In my OP, thank God that patience won at the end of the day. Just upgraded to Windows 10 and the System Narrator voices of "Mark" and "Zira" work perfectly well for me now. Saving some dollars here simply by clicking away on the speech settings. [:)] [Y]
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I own the Ivona Brian .
I got it to read for me ,however I use Text aloud version.
Please tell me how and where to integrate it..
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I own the Ivona Brian .
I got it to read for me ,however I use Text aloud version.
Please tell me how and where to integrate it..
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Robert , thanks you for your work.
I would like to us your download.
please tell me how to integrate it to my ivona on textaloud.
Thanks
Tim
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Robert , thanks you for your work.
I would like to us your download.
please tell me how to integrate it to my ivona on textaloud.
Thanks
Tim
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Hi Timothy:
i took a quick look at the NextUp website and it looks like the 'PLS' files that the TextAloud reader uses is in xml format. I don't know much about xml and one of their staffers replied in one of their forum posts that they didn't have a way to convert Ivona to TextAloud.
All of that is about the TextAloud reader. While I used the Ivona reader to create and edit the lexicon file, I think the voice operates independently from the reader when configured for use with Windows. So, you might try just saving the British file I posted to the place where Windows and/or the voice expect to find it. It might use the lexicon for Logos Read Aloud.
Try this. My lexicon file is found in: C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\IVONA 2 Voice\ . See if this folder exists on your computer, replacing YourName with your user name. (I assume here you're using Windows; if Mac, someone will have to chime in on where the folder should be.) If it doesn't exist, create it. Get the file "british-english-ivona.lex" from my post near the top of this thread, an put it in the folder. Maybe you should restart Logos and maybe even Windows
If it works, and you don't need it for any of the reader functions, then you're fixed. Let us know what happens.
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
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John you can also purchase from https://www.ivona.com/
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Robert M. Warren said:Robert M. Warren said:
You can also customize the vocabulary to expand abbreviated Bible book names.
BTW, here is my custom lexicon file for Ivona voices that expands Bible book abbreviations (and some other common notations, such as "vv", "cf.", etc).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gy93dajqujda36k/british-english-ivona.lex?dl=0
If anyone needs more info on implementing this, reply back and I'll bore you with the details.
Thanks Robert. This is gold! [*]
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Robert M. Warren said:
BTW, here is my custom lexicon file for Ivona voices that expands Bible book abbreviations (and some other common notations, such as "vv", "cf.", etc).
Sorry to bring back an old thread, but I noticed my Dropbox link has been fat-fingered out of existence. Here's a new one:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tj050dku3p9r4ut/british-english-ivona.lex?dl=0
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
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