Additional TTS Engines

[M. Schrijver]

@Con-Hennekens
You can only use the demo voices in the Acapela app. So can listen and play a bit with some settings. If you buy a voice, you can use it in other app.
It is a bit of a gamble.

[Corjan Meijerink]

Greatly appreciate you sharing this! @M-Schrijver

[Con Hennekens]

@M-Schrijver, The app shows me this:

I pressed the play button and it starts circling but not any of the voices are audible. On their website some voices are demoed:
https://www.acapela-group.com/demos/

Also I see that most voices are € 4,99 except Thijs en Merel, they go for € 11,99 but both are not in the demo. I guess they are the sexy ones...

[Dave J 0]

@Con-Hennekens Like you, I pressed the button in the app (Google Pixel 6 Pro) and the voices played as demo as the circle turned with no problems. That was all languages and all samples.

[Con Hennekens]

@Dave-J-0, good to know. Strange though
(yes I have the volume up )

[Skellum]

@Nick-Carthew Thank you Nick, all sorted now with Kate (enhanced) cheers Tony

[Nick Carthew]

@Skellum Your welcome, happy to help.

[Stephane 30]

Hi, I bought Rachel (English voice) and took her out for a ride today. Loud and clear - a huge improvement!
The original MRA voice is too timid and not loud enough.
Thanks for the suggestion.

[Con Hennekens]

On my other phone (the rugged one I actually use on the bike) I was able to play the demo voices indeed. They do seem to be a bit louder indeed, but the Dutch voices are really ugly (3 of them are childs voices). The default Google TTS is much clearer and smoother in my opinion. I never understood why some people call it "robotic". That's definitely not the case on any phone I used (quite a few).

[M. Schrijver]

Did a nice ride last saturday.
Filtsmeister does use the default Android voice. Sometimes Flitsmeister did give some info (it runs in the background). It was a good comparisson with the Acapela voice "Daan" which is set in MRA.
What a difference in favour of "Daan" Louder and less robotic/metalic

What is a robotic voice? This a typical example of a robotic voice (female):
https://youtu.be/yHdemBdvRIo?si=duWDWleqc7P8b-Qs&t=84
At least for me. The default google TTS voice sounds very similiar (to me)
The voice synthesizer of Stephen Hawkins is probably the best known "robotic" voice.

[Con Hennekens]

@M-Schrijver, That does not sound very good indeed.
But my Android sounds like this:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CV5qdP4cRgdpfD968

The voice is clear and natural in my opinion.
Just a tad low on the volume.
The demo from the Acapela TTS is much worse:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/u3QwyjEkh5z3ES5M7