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I'm looking for a program that quickly converts a passage of text to speech and delivers in MP3 format. (Other audio formats may be fine too.)
There are a bunch of websites that do this, but they're either pretty slow (you have to wait for them to process it, which can take minutes, then click download) or have a word/character limit.
I was wondering if there's a simple lightweight program that does this. (I'm using Windows 10 if that matters.)
Balabolka is free and can save as MP3. It's free and runs on Windows. It's even available as a portable version. It will detect the installed voices.
Since both, the program and the voices are available on your PC, you'll not need an Internet connection and it's fast.
There are various voices available for 45 USD. I am happy with the Nuance voices.
TextAloud is a commercial tool for ~ 30 USD. It's an application that you install on your PC and it will use voices from your PC, so it works offline. I own a very old version that cannot save in MP3 format (just WAV). However, there are tutorials available that give instructions on how to save as MP3, so I guess they added that feature.
There are various voices available for 45 USD. I am happy with the Nuance voices.