Native Chinese - Free voice engine for listening text

[krishnamurthyu]

Hi,

I need to develop my listening skills hence found out nice way to start is using "Microsoft simplified Chinese " (comes default in XP), voice engine. Pls help me with following few queries.

1.In terms on language pronunciation how good is Microsoft simplified Chinese speech engine ?

2.Are there any better , free ,native voice engines? if you know pls let me know the link .

( preferably one Native male and female voice engine )

3.I am looking for just voice engine , not Text to Speech reader.many of the text to speech reader use underlaying voice engine.

I looked at www.baidu.com also but not able to find few good ones.

Thanks in Advance

[muppetwonder]

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. Are you trying to learn Chinese and therefore want to train your ear to be able to understand spoken Mandarin? Or are you trying to find a free TTS engine, so that you can write your own software?

A member of the forum has posted this demo of a TTS engine, which is by far the best one I've ever encountered. http://www.iflytek.com/speech%20shows.asp If you want to develop your own software, I suppose you can contact the researchers to see if they license the engine.

If you want to train your ear, there are many websites mentioned in the forums that have audio recordings with transcripts. Off the top of my head, CSLPod, Chinese Voices Project, FSI.

[krishnamurthyu]

Thanks for your suggestion.

I am looking for TTS engine to read text on web page, or my notes ,online course materials and convert them to MP3 and listen to them.

I am looking for a native engine so that i can read(printout notes),listen. This way it helps me to grasp clearly.

Appreciate your help and suggestion.

[jfdjftea]

Any more?

[geek_frappa]

1. Have you talked to the developers of YellowBridge, NJStar Pen, MDBG or Primezero Chinese Tools yet? Each development project has a different approach to TTS.

2. Have you tried out the Primezero Pinyin Inventory? It's a free collection of Mandarin Chinese sounds recorded by a native speaker. It may be useful.

3. Please Google harder for the following words in any combination: mandarin chinese TTS text-to-speech bell labs ibm microsoft beijing

Hope this helps.

Good luck with your project.

Sounds interesting.