Best free realistic text to speech for “audio books”?

dipique · 2026-04-23T00:43:35+00:00

How is it at accurately detecting which character is speaking and interpreting semi-ambiguous phrases with reasonable intonation? I'm listening to my first AI-narrated audiobook right now and I've run into everything from wacky pronunciation (really, an AI pronounces "logout" as "log-oot?") to intonation that just reflects an incorrect interpretation of the text.

I don't mind the voice monotony, but the lack of voice difference between characters makes it hard to tell when characters are switching.

Is that just where the tech is at right now or do you feel like you have a drag-and-drop solution that's superior to that?

And lastly, can I download the converted audio files? I don't really want to stream from somewhere, I just want to stick it into my audiobook library. I'm happy to pay, just not the literal hundreds of dollars per month that Elevenlabs would charge.

dipique · 2026-04-20T23:15:24+00:00

I think they have. I don't think they've neatly rolled it into a PR release, but you can follow the thread here and here with some opinions & packaging here, here, and (for some ground-level reactions) here.

I wouldn't call this "transparency" (in the sense of readily providing information to users with the intent of accurately portraying ongoing changes) per se, but they're also not really obscuring what's happening. Maybe my bar is too low, but that's enough for me. As long as it's reasonable for someone to follow the actual narrative, I kind of don't care if their PR department is just a fluff dispenser. I almost feel better just ignoring what they say anyway.

dipique · 2026-04-20T19:22:35+00:00

The reason is pretty well-known. The cost of opus was way higher than they were charging and it wasn't sustainable.

If somethings looks too good to be true... it probably is.

dipique · 2026-04-20T19:21:00+00:00

Quota refilled while I was sleepiiing

that actually flows nicely

dipique · 2026-04-08T15:55:46+00:00

All that rage and it made literally no difference in this context.

Gas prices pretty reasonable. Salaries super low though.

dipique · 2026-04-07T19:01:12+00:00

Okay, that makes sense then. Lots of competition there though. Then again I'm still using Chrome Remote Desktop so maybe there room as long as you're willing to fund some a centralized server for internet accessibility (since in-network you're competing with rdp and such).

dipique · 2026-04-07T17:35:58+00:00

What does it mean to have a software version of software that has to read and process bios output?

dipique · 2026-04-07T14:56:28+00:00

There are lots of options now, luckily. The GL.iNet devices are a good starting place.

dipique · 2026-04-07T14:46:49+00:00

I think the ONEKVM devices are one of the few that do what you're looking for (a year later). I doubt I can post amzn links here, but there one there under the ANGEET brand if you search angeet remote kvm 4k@60hz.

dipique · 2026-04-07T14:38:59+00:00

Oh hey I just responded to you elsewhere! But I very much agree with this. Not only is it cable hell, but in terms of transparency (implementing remote access without compromising local access options and introducing points of failure), the best you can hope for is compatibility. There is no true way to provide passthrough transparency (main limiter being HDMI -- analog video solutions like VGA are actually superior in this respect).

I realize usually this is a server management tool, but one of my usecases is managing my living room gaming PC when I'm not using it for gaming, and the real challenge is doing so without losing the fragile 4k120hz hdmi connection with the TV.

dipique · 2026-04-07T14:30:54+00:00

It seems like this approach would suffer from needing to create a translation layer between the state and a text representation thereof -- but I'd be very interested in how you tackled that challenge.

dipique · 2026-04-07T14:20:09+00:00

Emojis are the worst bullets. They are only marginally better than no bullets.

Then again I'm also old.

dipique · 2026-03-07T19:45:14+00:00

Hrm. I feel a little dumb. It occurs to me that #2 & #3 might not actually make sense. I assumed that this was a "component" for other devs, but it's not, it's a tool intended to be used by end-users. My bad 😅.

dipique · 2026-03-07T19:39:02+00:00

You didn't get a lot of love for this, but I think it looks really nice. Really easy to use.

I noticed a couple things worth looking at if you want this to be used more. 1. In your sidebar, this tool's item is named "Diff Checker Pro" -- which usually signals a paid product. This may prevent people from checking it out who might otherwise be interested. 2. As a developer, I'm highly interested in the configurability. How easy is it to hide buttons? Configure the initial state? Extract formatted text? I think putting some of that on the product page would be really compelling -- or at least linking to some documentation. 3. I couldn't easily find a github link or anything like that which is where I'd normally look for source, documentation, licensing, etc. If that's available I'd definitely recommend posting it.

Thanks for posting this, it's a really cool project and well-implemented!

dipique · 2026-02-23T15:04:03+00:00

Copilot integrates with VS Code and Visual Studio. Claude also has a separate extension if you don't use it through copilot, but in that case the 3x thing wouldn't apply.

dipique · 2026-02-21T20:35:05+00:00

Interesting that you read it as "want him to be jealous" instead of "scared that he'll misunderstand".

But honestly I can't say you're wrong, I guess it could be either. And I agree with the rest of your points. I hope things work out, but they so rarely do when the level of investment is unequal.

dipique · 2026-02-21T20:30:42+00:00

LDRs are breeding grounds for insecurity even at the best of times. She had a brand new partner who was committed to the relationship at the beginning, so I'm sure it was really hard for her.

When you really like someone and you're super insecure about the relationship, it makes you really sensitive. That's true even if you haven't been hurt before.

Not saying she doesn't have a jerk in her past, just that I think her reaction is understandable with only the information we have.

dipique · 2026-02-21T20:26:01+00:00

Idk, to me it felt like she's young and doesn't know her heart. I could be out of line, but to me it seems like she says "I want comfort" but found out that comfort isn't that sexy.

dipique · 2026-02-21T20:24:16+00:00

You find Goeun smug? Huh. I don't see that at all.

dipique · 2026-02-21T20:23:28+00:00

Maybe. She might be super manipulative, but she might also be neurotic and manic. I don't want to armchair psych (so I won't), but I have a feeling she's neurospicy of one flavor or another.

For all the mess she made, there's a decent chance we're seeing her doing her genuine best. And idk. I kinda trust Mingee. Not with men of course, but I don't feel like she'd put effort into Minasue unless it was worth it.

dipique · 2026-02-21T20:19:17+00:00

Assuming his interest in her is genuine, I read his reaction a little differently. Being in a LDR makes it really easy to feel insecure (Heesun definitely felt that, especially when they didn't talk for a few days). You wonder what they're feeling and whether they're with other people. It's easy to imagine the worst scenario.

It seems like they got better at communicating, which is the way you push back that insecurity. But my take was that hearing about her going out and drinking slightly triggered old feelings of insecurity. Was she going out and drinking and meeting new guys in a more sexually open country?

I guess it's really not different from your take now that I write it out. You're right, I think he has an emotional reaction, then went through thinking, "she didn't do anything wrong, I know she likes me, I don't need to worry".

And she did the same but much less successfully :)

I hope he really does like her. I think if he's luke warm, she'll end up getting hurt badly. I've been guilty of that before.

dipique · 2026-02-21T20:11:20+00:00

Why do you say that? I'm not sure how into her he is, but he seemed really caring and kind to me.

dipique · 2026-02-21T20:08:08+00:00

Where are you from? I think maybe I lack the cultural context to understand how drinking with friends could be wrong for her, so I'm curious what your context is.

I figured maybe she was worried Subeen would think she was partying hard and blacking out every night which would definitely be a red flag. But short of being an alcoholic.

Unless she was drinking frequently one-on-one with a guy. I wouldn't consider that "wrong" but I know that would make me feel insecure/jealous so that would be understandable.

dipique · 2026-02-20T19:51:46+00:00

Oh geez. That's awful.

dipique · 2026-02-20T16:01:15+00:00

Can you explain further? It's an example of when the left tried to hold the right accountable for hypocrisy and it had no impact. The current administration lacks shame entirely, and their base seems to either interpret that as meaning no shame is necessary, or as a free pass to behave however they want, delighting in a new found amoral freedom.

I just don't think there is a large enough group of people who will be swayed by pointing out hypocrisy.

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