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  1. Balabolka is a russian word that can be translated as 'chatterer' and also the name give to this application that can read your texts aloud. Balabolka can read a large list of formats: DOC, RTF, PDF, ODT, FB2 and HTML. Furthermore, it can also save the speech as WAV, OGG, MP3 or OGG.
  2. Portable Version. About 40 MB free space 1280 × 1024. You can download spell checking components from our web-site.

Balabolka is a Text-To-Speech (TTS) program. All computer voices installed on your system are available to Balabolka. The on-screen text can be saved as a WAV, MP3, MP4, OGG or WMA file. The program uses various versions of Microsoft Speech API (SAPI); it allows to alter a voice's parameters, including rate and pitch. Balabolka is a text-to-speech (TTS) software tool. All software installed on your system is available in Voices software. The text on the screen can be saved as a WAV, MP3, MP3, OGG or WMA file.

If you want to help Balabolka, you might draw bitmap images with sizes 32 x 32 or 48 x 48 for buttons (use the images from the resources subfolder). Or you might translate sample.txt from the languages subfolder. If you are interested, please send an email to crossa@list.ru

What is SAPI?
The Speech API (SAPI) is an application programming interface developed by Microsoft to allow the use of speech synthesis within Windows applications. The SAPI provides a high-level interface between an application and speech engines. Text-To-Speech software synthesizes text strings and files into spoken audio using synthetic voices.
Where can I get SAPI 4?
To use SAPI 4 voices, download and install the redistributable Microsoft Speech API 4.0 file. Also, you may download and install the Microsoft Speech Control Panel; the Speech Control Panel will add an icon to your Control Panel to enable you to list the compatible text-to-speech engines installed on your system and customize their settings for your use.
Where can I get SAPI 5?
Windows XP (and later versions) comes with SAPI 5.

Speech Engines

Balabolka is a free text-to-speech engine that boasts quality and flexibility worthy of a paid app. TechRadar.com: With all these features to make life easier when reading text on a screen isn't an option, Balabolka is best free text to speech software around.


How do I know what Text-To-Speech voices have been installed on the computer?
You can view all the voices available on the computer by following Control Panel->Speech->Speech Properties->Text To Speech->Voice selection.
Windows 10 has the new voices Microsoft Mark Mobile and Microsoft Zira Mobile, but they are not available in text-to-speech software. Is it possible to unlock the new voices?
By default, the Microsoft mobile voice is locked for using in text-to-speech software via SAPI 5. You can unlock it with a simple registry tweak. Download the archive, extract the file for your language and for your version of the operating system ('mobile_x86.reg' for 32-bit and 'mobile_x64.reg' for 64-bit), click the right mouse button on the file's name and choose the context menu item 'Merge'. The Microsoft mobile voice will appear in the list of the available voices in Balabolka.
My computer is running the 64-bit version of Windows. I have installed the 64-bit Runtime package for Microsoft Speech Platform and the English voices. But the list of available voices is still empty. Where is a problem?
Balabolka is the 32-bit application. You need to install the 32-bit Runtime package for Microsoft Speech Platform also.
What is Google Text-To-Speech?
In Google Translate you can find a 'Listen' button that converts text to speech. After pressing of this button a browser starts to download MP3 file. The service supports converting to speech texts not longer than 100 symbols. Balabolka allows to divide big text on small parts, create an audio file for each part and merge them together (WAV, MP3 and OGG formats are supported).


How do I change a voice during reading aloud?
Use the XML tags. It is recommended to write the opening and closing tags inside the same paragraph. For example:
<voice required='Name=Microsoft Zira Desktop'>Hello, how are you?</voice>
<voice required='Name=IVONA 2 Amy'>I am good.</voice>
I'm getting the error message 'OLE error 80045042'. What does that mean?
This error means: 'The XML parser failed due to bad syntax.' You must verify the syntax of the XML tags inside the text. Or, some part of the text looks like the start of an XML tag, and it is confusing SAPI. If you don't want to use XML tags, remove the symbols '<' and '>' from the text (or replace them by words 'less than' and 'greater than').

Software Installation

How can I make a silent installation of Balabolka?
To install Balabolka in silent mode without dialogs you may use a silent installation. A silent installation is available by using -silent command-line switch.


My computer contains two sound cards. How can I choose an audio device for text-to-speech playback?
You may select Speech in Control Panel of Windows and click the Audio Output button in the Speech Properties dialog box. Also, Balabolka contains the main menu item 'Options | Audio Output'.

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Software Usage

I open a DjVu file, but the program doesn't show any text. What is wrong?
DjVu format was designed to store scanned documents. A DjVu file contains images of pages for books, magazines, etc. Also, DjVu can contain an OCR text layer. Balabolka can extract data from a text layer of DjVu only. If such layer is not available, the only way to get text is to use a text recognition system (for example, FineReader).
How can I remove dashes in the beginning of paragraphs?
You should use the main menu item 'Edit | Replace'. Type ^p— in the Find what box and ^p in the Replace with box. The program allows to use most of special codes from Microsoft Word:
^p
Paragraph mark
^t
Tab character
^nnn
ASCII character (where nnn is the character code)
^0nnn
ANSI character (where 0 is zero and nnn is the character code)
^Unnnnn
Unicode character (where nnnnn is the character code)
^+
Em dash ( — )
^=
En dash ( – )
^^
Caret character
^s
Nonbreaking space
^?
Any character (in the Find what box only)
^#
Any digit (in the Find what box only)
^$
Any letter (in the Find what box only)
^c
Microsoft Windows Clipboard contents (in the Replace with box only)
^&
Contents of the Find what box (in the Replace with box only)
I am not satisfied, how Balabolka extracts text from PDF files. Can I use the other way for processing of PDF?
The process of text extracting from PDF files is complicated enough, because PDF files do not contain plain text. You may use an external command-line utility for text extracting: for example, the program pdftotext.exe from the Xpdf project. Copy pdftotext.exe to the subfolder 'utils' in the folder of Balabolka, choose the main menu item 'Options | Text Import', the tab 'Custom Text Import', and click the Add button. Define the command for using of pdftotext.exe:
%BFolder%utilspdftotext.exe -q -nopgbrk -enc UTF-8 %Input% %Output%
Define the name of the converter (for example, 'Xpdf Converter'), file extension ('PDF') and output encoding ('UTF-8'). After activating of the option Use instead of default extracting method for this file type the program will be able to use the external utility for text extracting from PDF files.


How can every line of a text file be converted to a separate audio file?
You may add two empty lines after every line with text in the document. Open the file in Balabolka, choose the main menu item 'Edit | Replace', type ^p in the Find what box and ^p^p^p in the Replace with box, click the Replace all button. Choose the main menu item 'File | Split and Convert to Audio Files'; choose the split method 'by two empty lines in succession' and click the Split and Convert button.
Can I use the first line of text as the name of the audio file (for example, '01 Chapter One.mp3', '02 Chapter Two.mp3')?
Type %FirstLine% in the 'Base Output Filename' box in the window 'Split and Convert to Audio Files'. The application will replace this variable by the first line of each text part. To change the position of the sequence number inside the filename, use the %Number% variable.

Subtitles

I use the voices eSpeak for converting of subtitles to audio files. But the result audio file contains speech without pauses. Where is a problem?
I strongly recommend not to use eSpeak for subtitle converting. These voices don't support the XML tag 'silence'; the same problem was in the old versions of some other voices. It is recommended to use the latest versions of commercial software (Cepstral, IVONA, etc.).
Balabolka allows to set the second voice for creating of pauses only. It must be a new voice with full support of SAPI tags.


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What is Spritz-Reader?
Spritz is a a new speed-reading technology. It allows to speed reading rates anywhere from 100 to 1000 words per minute. The time consuming part of usual reading lies mainly in the actual eye movements from word to word and sentence to sentence. Spritz positions words in a spot on a display where you can recognize the word, without moving your eyes.
What is the IFilter interface?
The IFilter interface works with documents. It provides filters to extract information from proprietary file formats. Full-text search engines call the methods of the IFilter interface. IFilters are available for Adobe PDF, WordPerfect and many other popular file formats. You can get IFilter installers from respective vendors. IFilter.org is a good place to get started. Note that because Balabolka is the 32-bit application you may need to install the 32-bit version of IFilters.
Can I use media files generated with Balabolka in YouTube videos?
Balabolka is freeware, so you may create audio files for free. But if you use the commercial voices, you need to contact the developers of the voice and purchase the license for commercial use/audio broadcast. The audio distribution license will allow you to use speech in YouTube videos.
For example, the information from the Cepstral web-site: 'Cepstral Personal voices are for personal use only and are NOT licensed for audio distribution. This means the audio you create is for your use only and cannot be shared with others or used in videos, presentations, or webpages. If you are interested in an audio distribution license, please contact sales.'
Is it possible to create a video file in Balabolka (containing speech as audio data and synchronized text as video data)?
No, Balabolka doesn't have such option. But you can get the similar result in another way.
My application allows to create files in SRT and LRC formats. Use the main menu item 'Options | Audio Files' in Balabolka. On the tab 'LRC, SRT' you may define settings for subtitle files. The application will convert text to an audio file (for example, FILE.MP3) and create a subtitle file for this audio file (for example, FILE.SRT).
  1. You can play an audio file in three ways:
    • in video player (for example, The KMPlayer, PotPlayer or VLC Media Player)
    • in audio player (for example, Foobar2000 with Lyric Show Panel 3)
    • in karaoke software (for example, KaraFun Player)
  2. You can get a video file by using of the FFmpeg software. It is a command-line tool that creates video files and converts video formats. Download the example of the command file: it converts an audio file INPUT.WAV and a subtitle file INPUT.SRT to OUTPUT.MP4 with rendered text (all files must be at the same folder where FFMPEG.EXE is placed). It is a basic example: read the documentation to get more information about the FFmpeg parameters.
I am creating a 3D character, and it is necessary to generate a lip animation synchronized with audio generated by a text-to-speech engine. Can you help me?
When a speech engine reads aloud, it generates information about visemes. A viseme is the basic visual unit of speech that represents the position of the mouth and face when pronouncing a phoneme. SAPI 5 supports the list of 21 visemes. The console application of Balabolka contains the command line parameter that allows to generate the output text file with visemes. The application will create the audio file and then read it aloud to get visemes and their timecodes.

Over the years, technology has opened several doors of opportunities, convenience, and learning. Text-to-speech software can be quite helpful for the visually impaired and dyslexic people. Beyond that, it can help people learn a language or overcome language barriers. At times, you don’t want to rush through long-form textual content. A text-to-speech program can let you listen to a document while you continue attending to other tasks. With several options online, it can be overwhelming to choose the right software. Balabolka, a popular tool, is one program that can make that decision easier.

Does Balabolka live up to the expectations?

Articulated, clear speech with multiple voice options.
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Based on SAPIMicrosoft’s speech APIBalabolka comes with several changes designed to improve articulation and clarity of speech generated. The default settings include Microsoft Anna to convert text to speech. To check error correction and spelling, it uses VBScript, making it compatible with a wide range of spell-checkers. While using the program, you can also work with high-quality TTS voices.

Developers working on Balabolka recently released updates to improve Windows 8 readiness and German language support. Overall, it’s a good text-to-speech software, with just some scope for improvement. The installation process is simple and straightforward, and makes Balabolka an ideal choice for novices. To hear Balabolka’s TTS output, it’s essential to enable sound and speakers/headphones. If you’re unfamiliar with text-to-speech converters, you could check the audio output button. It appears on the Microsoft Speech Platform and SAPI5 tabs. A single-click on the button allows you to choose a specific audio output device.
Balabolka comes with several customization options, using which you can change the program’s skins, colors, and fonts. The Tools menu has a comprehensive set of options, such as Batch File Converter, File Splitter, Magnifier and more. If you’re not good with the language of the text, you can use a Panel of Dictionaries for quick reference. Balabolka also allows you to bookmark sections, and extract, convert,and save clips. If it seems overwhelming, the Help file lets you find answers to queries and issues.

A simple and clean user interface

The UI may seem a bit dull but it’s simple and clean. Users won’t face any trouble opening and playing a file. It doesn’t take much time to get a hang of toolbars, features and components. You can even vary the rate and pitch produced for amusing effects.With a simple online search, it’s easy to add several TTS voices to Balabolka. A lot of these are free! Without a doubt, this text to speech converter allows every user to create high-quality TTS sounds.

Text To Speech Balabolka

Additionally, it’s great that you can read the Clipboard text aloud, skip to a specific line or paragraph, and reset the pitch and rate. What’s more? It can easily identify pairs of names and rules in the text.

The software comes with a Clipboard monitoring tool, file comparison function, batch file converter, Google translator, subtitle converter, text extractor, and magnifier. With a few clicks, you can even enable a spellchecker, which shows a list of spelling errors and repeated words.

There’s still a lot more you can do. It’s possible to edit ID3 tags, use the search function, convert and split tracks to different audio formats (MP3, WMA, OGG and WAV), replace numbers with words, undo actions, insert audio clips and find homographs. Last but not least, the UI supports multiple languages, which makes things a lot easier.

Where can you run this program?

It can be installed on Microsoft Windows Vista/XP/7/8/10. Moreover, the platform is also available in a portable version, which doesn’t require installation. You can simply run it from a USB. Just remember that your computer will need at least one voice pre-installed.

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Is there a better alternative?

Until a few years ago, text-to-speech software was quite expensive. With new technology, most of these tools are now available for free. While Balabolka is a great choice, you might want to look for other options too.
Here are 3 alternatives you might find interesting. Panopreter basic is a no-frills text-to-speech converter that is quite popular among users. As input, it accepts web pages, Microsoft Word documents, plain files, and rich text files. The resulting output is received in MP3 and WAV format. WordTalk is an add-on for Microsoft Word. Developed by the University of Edinburgh, it’s also available as a toolbar. It works with all editions of Microsoft Word. Zabaware text-to-speech reader offers a lot more than meets the eye though it looks basic. Users can conveniently copy and paste text in the program, or open numerous file formats directly. Overall, it’s a good choice.

Our take

With the kind of quality and flexibility that Balabolka offers, it’s on par with any paid program available in the market. Numerous features, clean UI, and accurate conversions make Balabolka quite popular among users. With support for multiple formats, such as MP3, MP4, OGG, WMA and WAV, Balabolka is definitely a viable option.

Should you download it?

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Yes, without a thought! Balabolka doesn’t freeze or crash, and you get no pop-up error boxes. Moreover, since it uses low RAM and CPU, your system performance continues running smoothly. With its multiple features and configuration parameters, rest assured that it’s a multi-faceted and reliable text-to-speech software.

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