Text to MP3?

[FunkyChicken]

Hi guys i was wondering if there was any quick and simple yet effective software that will allow we to quickly change text into an audio file. What i want to do is have my MP3 player read out lecture notes to me while im at work. I know i can simply use a reading program to read the text, then a wav program to capture the sound file. Then using a MP3 encoder program to convery into MP3 (or WMA) format. There are too many steps here to make the process quick and enjoyable.

Any help anyone? cheers

P.s. I forgot to mention, ive used google but i cant find any free programs.

[astcell]

I saw a box that will read the words when you put a book under it, guess it is for the blind. Not cheap, and be prepared for really bad sounds that are supposed to be words.

[FunkyChicken]

all of my notes are pretyped into ms word so all i need is a text to mp3 converter

[Voltage Spike]

Perhaps you could pipe the output of the Festival Speech Synthesis System into an MP3 encoder (e.g., LAME).

[atripes]

i started using this approach to studying a year ago. though it takes time, i find it to offer more success to me than just reading.

i have always done the long process you described. i'll keep my eyes peeled for a simpler program.

ps > i find the robotic voice of the program i use to be more tolerable than some of my professors.

[LosT]

I don't know how handy you are, but in essence this is exactly what my TCP/IP embedded device entry did this year. I was feeding ASCII from a POST on an webpage, and had a chip that spoke the text out-loud. The voice doesn't sound "Hawking-esque", but sounded OK. If you have the Word files, I don't see this as much of a problem...I believe (but I don't use) XP has text to speech built right in...

I would just take the ASCII stream, feed it to a microcontroller, and have that feed a text-to-speech IC, just like I did in my device- but this will take design , building and coding. (My idea of a good time.)

LosT

[Demon Furor]

You can try using something i experimented with in high school for or BPA presentations. Worked out pretty well:

www.bytecool.com/coolspch.htm

[EvilMoFo]

ms agent uses a text to speech deal...

[Spider M. Mann]

Try this handy little app... free trial and only $20.00 if you like.

Text-to-Speech Maker. It'll read to WAV, MP3, or VOX files for listening to later with your portable MP3 player. Go to http://www.xrlly.com/text-to-speech.htm and enjoy!

-Spider.