Top tips for alternate voice in Text-to-speech? (New to logos)

Benjamin Quek
Benjamin Quek Member Posts: 22
edited January 3 in English Forum

I'm using Logos Windows desktop. However, the robotic TTS voice is difficult and poor in emphasis. I can change speed and pitch on windows desktop. Does anyone have any suggestions for improving it further? Thank you

Comments

  • Aaron Hamilton
    Aaron Hamilton Member Posts: 1,087 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2024

    Logos uses the text-to-speech voices installed on your Windows desktop. To change the voice, you would have to adjust the default voice from Windows settings.

    Certain books, especially some Bibles, have a dedicated reading voice that comes with the resource.

  • Benjamin Quek
    Benjamin Quek Member Posts: 22

    Is there any way to improve the desktop TTS? E.g. Third party software or download a voice upgrade?

  • Aaron Hamilton
    Aaron Hamilton Member Posts: 1,087 ✭✭✭

    To change the voice in Logos, go to Windows control panel - Ease of Access - Speech Recognition. Then select Text to Speech to the left. In the Speech Properties popup, you can select the voice from the Voice selection dropdown. I only have two voices available to me, and I'm not sure how to point you in the right direction concerning how to expand your options here.

  • Yasmin Stephen
    Yasmin Stephen Member Posts: 1,600 ✭✭✭

    In the past I played around with the options in Windows for text-to-speech and got nothing out of it. I downloaded different English language packs to get better voices but, no matter what I tried, the only voice options I got at the end are David, Hazel, and Zira; all three sound equally awful. This left me wary of looking into buying third party voices; wouldn't it just be a waste of money if Windows didn't recognize them?

  • Michel Pauw
    Michel Pauw Member Posts: 566 ✭✭✭

    I recently started using Logos on my phone (Android), which has an excellent T2S function.

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  • HJ. van der Wal
    HJ. van der Wal Member Posts: 1,773 ✭✭✭

    I have been using the TTS feature on my Android smartphone and on my iPad for several years. It is so much better than the robotic voice on Windows. A further advantage is that on mobile devices the voice automatically changes when you switch to a book that is written in another language whereas on Windows you have to go to the control panel and select the right language/voice.

    If you prefer to use the speakers of your desktop you can use the Phone Link feature in Windows to connect your smartphone to your computer:

  • DMM
    DMM Member Posts: 140 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2

    This only works on Microsoft Edge, but if you open logos at biblia.com (app.logos.com doesn't work well for this purpose), you can use Microsoft's Read Aloud feature. This allows you to select from a number of very good voices.

    But it's going to start talking from wherever you put your cursor so you can't have your book opened and another book or your Bible - it will be switching back and forth to where your cursor is, so I'll usually open Edge and put it on a second monitor with only the one book, and then do my "real" study in Logos on another screen.

  • Pastor Don Carpenter
    Pastor Don Carpenter Member Posts: 113 ✭✭

    Yes!! I too have started to use this function a lot! It makes even a 15 minute drive profitable… get a few more pages "read'.

  • Robert M. Warren
    Robert M. Warren Member Posts: 2,453 ✭✭✭

    When I used Win10, I had to use the Win7 legacy control panel applet to get greater control over the voice used by Logos Desktop. This included exposing higher-quality third-party voices in Logos. It might also expose some other MS voices that are of a higher quality. See if this applet exists on your Win11 / Win10 machine:

    C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Speech\SpeechUX\sapi.cpl

    If it does, create a desktop shortcut for quicker changes. Note: Since we live in a Fallen World, you will still need to restart Logos.

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