Balabolka vs Natural Reader

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Balabolka

Category: Text to Speech

Industries: Education, Broadcast

Pricing

Free

Natural Reader

Category: Text to Speech

Industries: Education, Professionals, Business, Organization

Pricing

FREE

(Free to use)

Education

$99.50

(One-time payment)

PROFESSIONAL

$129.50

(One-time payment)

ULTIMATE

$199.50

(One-time payment)

20M+ Downloads

#1 in Magazines & Newspapers

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Speechify is the #1 audio reader in the world. Get through books, docs, articles, PDFs, email – anything you read – faster.

"Speechify is absolutely brilliant. Growing up with dyslexia this would have made a big difference. I’m so glad to have it today."

Sir Richard Branson

Most popular feedback for Balabolka

Great and good for using it instead of recording your sound. But to use it for music, need to edit a little. some pronunciation is not so good, need to be improved but it is a great software.

- Aung Aung

Most popular feedback for Natural Reader

An effective means to convert text to speech across a range of languages that can be free for occasional uses, or licensed if you use it commercially. With both app and online modes, this tool should please most people. When computers first reached the level of performance that supported GUIs and not just command lines, voice-to-text applications arrived. Synthesising the human voice from pre-prepared text inputs was a neat trick, and allowed for some interesting interactions. Then the text needed to be converted into a form where words were phonetically disassembled, and that took time and often human intervention. Today these tools, as ably represented by Natural Reader, are much more sophisticated. They can read the text provided in a document, or OCRed from an image, reading it back in numerous voice genders and styles to create quick voiceover or audio presentation. As some of this functionality comes pre-installed in Office 356, what does Natural Reader do that makes it worth using and licensing? For online, Windows and Mac application users, a free tier exists that limits users to 20 minutes per day using the premium voices. For online users, unlimited access to the premium voices, mp3 conversion and more file formats requires Premium tier that costs $9.99 per month or $59.88 per year. You can get access to the Plus tier for a total of over 100 voices for $19.99 per month or $110 a year. Those that use the apps have three tiers to choose from; Personal ($99.50), Professional ($129.50) and Ultimate ($199.50). And, these tiers are one time payments, not subscriptions. However, if you wish to commercial redistribute the audio generated by the Natural Reader process you will require a commercial license with a $49 monthly subscription ($588 per year billed annually), or you can have multi-users deals that reduce the cost per seat. They also have some education options for those that allow all students to use for free, incredibly. Overall, the cost of this service even for commercial use is very reasonable. The interface for Natural Reader is as simple as one might imagine, since its very much a point and shoot affair. A panel is available in the middle of the screen into which text can be pasted, drag-and-dropped or you can load documents from the approved file types. Alternatively, for those using the online model and the Chrome browser, an extension can be installed that allows any text to be highlighted on a web page to be transferred for transcription.

- Mark Pickavance

About Balabolka

The program Balabolka is a Text-to-Speech (TTS) system. Balabolka has access to all computer voices installed on your PC. The text displayed on-screen can be saved as an audio file. The software can read the contents of the clipboard, extract text from documents, modify the font and background color, and control reading from the system tray or global hotkeys.

The following text file types are supported by Balabolka: 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, and XLS, XLSX. The application utilizes several versions of Microsoft Speech API (SAPI); it permits the modification of speech parameters, such as pitch and rate. The user can apply a custom substitution list to enhance the articulation quality of the voice. This function is handy for changing the spelling of words.

The pronunciation correction rules employ the syntax of regular expressions. The synchronized text can be saved in external LRC files or as MP3 tags within the audio files. When a digital audio player or computer player is used to play an audio file, the text is shown simultaneously (at the same way, as lyrics for songs).

About Natural Reader

Get your books read to you aloud! With the help of the mobile software NaturalReader - Text To Speech, you may listen to books, documents, and other written content instead of reading them. With NaturalReader - Text To Speech, you may listen to books, websites, PDFs, cloud documents, photos, notes, e-Learning materials, and more. Our program was developed to aid in reading, help users save time, and increase productivity. It might be very difficult to find the time to sit down and read when you have a hectic schedule, but you don't have to with NaturalReader! With our software, you may use your mobile device to be productive anywhere, similar to a podcast or audiobook. Complete readings while commuting to work, wandering around school, or lying in bed. When you listen on the go, you produce. For people with dyslexia and other reading challenges, NaturalReader is a crucial reading aid. Readers can concentrate more on the topic they are reading when the text is presented both visually and vocally. Additionally, we provide a dyslexia-friendly typeface for our text box and closed captions. Are you a student who is overburdened with reading assignments? To lessen the load and give your eyes a break, upload your e-textbooks, eBooks, or class notes using NaturalReader. While commuting to class or multitasking at home, listen and review on the go. Save key pages in your bookmarks for later access. NaturalReader is a useful tool for writers and students alike for editing work.

For all types of readers, NaturalReader is a terrific software. You can change the background color and speaker's speed to fit your personal preferences. Use it to multitask and enjoy listening when exercising, traveling, or performing any domestic chores.

Balabolka reviews

At least for English Viewers, This is a very good app to get your text converted to audio and can be used in any of the e Learning application.

- Anurag Nigam

An excitingly fabulous program.An eleven out of ten score Balabolka from me. I am a self taught advanced computer dummy and Balabolka is just a fabulous program and so easy to use with all its features. I have searched and tried many other programs, most of which offer a free download until you go to use it and then you find you are tricked into buying add ins to make it work. Well done Balabolka.

- Chris Hough

It is the only tts application that is, as far as I know, both free and offers a function to set pauses in between sentences and paragraphs. Great tool.

- Anonymous

Natural Reader reviews

The best of the best, but not perfect This has got to be the best voice reader I have ever found, and trust me, I’ve searched a lot. The voices in the premium are miles better than anything any other company produces, most certainly better than comes standard on my laptop. That is why I give this five stars, because this app deserves it. That being said, it’s still not perfect. I use this primarily to read back my work while I am writing. It’s incredibly helpful to do so, to separate my mind from my work. However, the reader does not distinguish the purposes of punctuation, such as quotation points or ‘...’s (I cant for life of me remember it’s name), nor does it hesitate when it jumps from paragraph to paragraph. Then again, I do understand why it works like that (most people use this for reading articles or things like that). All I’m asking for is perhaps an option that allows the reader to change between the normal reading and the ‘writer-story’ reading.

- Karrigan Atkins

Nice concept. Great list of features. However the app suffers from freezing and notifications flooding and overall brokenness. It means a lot more work in order to be truly useful. Plus it can't handle over 50k worth of text characters which is ridiculously small and it does try to compensate by splitting the file but that is also a shortcoming. I really wanted to love this app because I need something that can do this work. I have yet to find a stable working TTS app

- Mark Kamoski

Pros

Balabolka
Supports multiple file formats
Features bookmarking tools
Multiple voice options
Simple and clean interface

Natural Reader
Powerful Text-to-Speech for at home, work, or on the go
Upload text and documents or convert to mp3 to listen to anywhere anytime.

Cons

Balabolka
Needs updates for new languages
Lags in performance
Some pronunciation is not good

Natural Reader
Can sound stilted
Heavily used on YouTube

What is Speechify?

Speechify is one of the most popular audio tools in the world. Our Google Chrome extension, web app, iOS app, and Android app help anyone listen to content at any speed they want. You can also listen to content in over 30 different voices or languages.

How can Speechify turn anything into an audiobook?

Speechify provides anyone with an audio play button that they can add on top of their content to turn it into an audiobook. With the Speechify app on iOS and Android, anyone can take this information on the go.

Learn more about text to speech online, for iOS, Mac, Android, and Chrome Extension.