Your Mellifluous Mac
Mac Tip #344, 25 June 2008

Do you find your Mac’s ‘voice’ grating? You may have tried listening to your Mac reading a document aloud, if you followed last week’s Tip, What’s black and white and heard all over?, Mac Tip #343, 18 June 2008.

Perhaps you found it all too ‘computery’ and decided it wasn’t for you.

Well, try tuning up the voice and have another go. You may change your mind.

Select a System Voice from the pop-up.

Go to System Preferences > Speech > Text to Speech, and select a System Voice from the pop-up. Then press the Play button to hear a sample. Alex is pretty smooth, but my preference is for Vicki.

Some of the Novelty voices from earlier versions of the Operating System have been hidden in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5). Choose Show More Voices to see the whole selection.

Next try speeding the voice up or slowing it down. Move the Speaking Rate slider to the left to slow down the voice, and to the right to speed it up. Press Play to hear a sample.

Once you’ve found the settings that seem pleasing to you, try selecting some text, perhaps in Safari, and have your Mac read it to you. A short sample is all very well, but only an extended selection will really give you an idea of whether the speed is right for you. I prefer to listen to Vicki just a little faster than Normal.

Some third parties make additional voices you can buy, for example, Infovox iVox and Cepstral.

Their voices also extend the range with UK, Spanish and other voices, rather than just US. No Kiwi voices though. The demo voices on their websites sound good, but I’m happy with Vicki myself.