The best AIs for text-to-speech in Ukrainian
16 January 2024
Introduction
The technology that converts text to sound is known as TTS, which stands for Text-to-Speech. It has a broad range of applications, from education and entertainment to business and communication.
Numerous platforms are available for generating audio from text. Recordings can be produced in various languages and with different voices, depending on the capabilities of the service.
We have compiled a rating of the best TTS technologies capable of creating audio in Ukrainian.
ElevenLabs
This artificial intelligence is based on a multilingual model. This means that it does not have separate voices for different languages. Instead, the user can access the entire library to generate audio in the chosen language (Ukrainian, English, Polish, and others).
The library has a large set of voices with various characteristics and emotional colouring. For example, you can choose to have the text read by a child or a veteran. The website has a user-friendly interface. It includes functionality such as voice selection, advanced settings, audio playback according to the text entered, and the ability to download the recording.
The resulting audio sounds very natural, the words are read with the correct accent, and the intonation gives the impression that the text is read by a real speaker. Sometimes, however, there are errors in the reading of the text. These are mostly caused by typos or incorrect punctuation. Inaccuracies in the pronunciation of some words can be corrected by rephrasing the phrase or sentence.
The platform has free and paid plans. The free plan allows users to generate 10,000 characters per month. Paid subscriptions increase the character limit and allow you to add your own voice to the library.
An example of text voice-over
Clipchamp
Clipchamp is a free video editor from Microsoft with an additional text-to-speech feature. The library contains many languages, including Ukrainian, English, German, French, and many others. Each language has its own set of speakers. Two voices are available in Ukrainian: Ostap and Polina. These are the voices that are represented in most TTSs, although they may have different names.
The generated audio is of good quality, the AI follows punctuation, and it mostly pronounces words correctly. However, mistakes can occur. In this case, user should rephrase the phrase or the whole sentence.
Clipchamp is an application that comes with Windows 11 by default. It has both a free and a paid plan, but this does not affect TTS. It also has a web version and is available for use in a browser.
An example of text voice-over
Voiser
In addition to text-to-speech, this platform offers many other AI-based services, such as transcription and creating your own voice for speech synthesis.
The TTS library includes more than 75 languages. In Ukrainian, in addition to the already known Ostap and Polina, Valeria's voice is also available.
The sound of the audio track is very good. As in the case of Clipchamp, AI can make mistakes in accent and pronunciation. To fix this, user needs to rewrite the text.
The platform allows not only entering text but also dividing it into logical blocks and inserting pauses.
Voiser has several plans. With a free subscription, users can generate up to 3,500 characters per month. The option to download the generated audio is not available in the free plan.
An example of text voice-over
QuData
QuData is a Ukrainian startup founded in 2018 that emerged from the game development industry. However, the machine learning methods they have implemented have gone far beyond the field of game development. In addition to text-to-speech (TTS), the service now provides a variety of AI services, including text and image analysis and speech recognition.
Despite its wide range of services, the TTS library is rather limited. It contains only 10 languages, and Ukrainian has 4 voices: Anatoly, Maryana, Natalia, and Vladimir. When generating audio, the user can specify the correct accent, which improves pronunciation.
Despite its useful functionality, the sound quality is somewhat disappointing. The voice sounds robotic and uneven.
Speech synthesis services on this platform are completely free.
Bonus(PlayHT)
This artificial intelligence platform contains the following Ukrainian text-to-speech voices: Ostap, Polina, Valeria (in PlayHT this voice is called Yulia). The free plan allows you to generate up to 2,500 characters.
In addition, the free subscription includes the ability to generate one custom voice. To do this, you need to upload a video or audio recording of a person speaking for at least 30 seconds. The artificial intelligence will perfectly copy the person's speech features and tone of voice. Unfortunately, this feature is only available in English at the time of writing.
An example of text voice-over
Conclusion
TTS technologies are developing rapidly and are set to become even more advanced in the near future. This will open up new opportunities in audio content creation, education, entertainment, and other areas of human activity.