blastbay studios tts voices

Hi everyone,

Thanks for sharing about the Blastbay voices — I agree that they sound very impressive, and it’s great to hear that Philip Benefall is planning to bring them to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS in the future.

I also wanted to highlight that another TTS product called Speechelo , which many may not realize, is also developed by the same person or team behind Blastbay , as mentioned in this thread. Speechelo uses the same neural-style voices, and being a cloud-based platform , it works across all systems — Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and any browser. I personally subscribed to the Pro Plan , and the voices are quite expressive and natural, with multiple languages and tone options like friendly, serious, or joyful.

However, I do want to share an important caution for fellow screen reader users: Speechelo’s login page currently includes a visual CAPTCHA that is not accessible with screen readers . This means that as a VoiceOver user, I am completely blocked from logging in without sighted help. This is quite frustrating, especially since this is a paid tool that I use for work-related projects.

I’ve already reported this to their payment/support provider, Paddle, and I’m still waiting for a proper resolution. So, while the voice quality and platform independence are great, I strongly advise other blind users to be aware of this accessibility issue before purchasing.

I’ll post an update once the CAPTCHA problem is resolved. For now, please proceed with caution if you’re a screen reader user.

Best regards

Good morning. Just wanted to clear up some confusion. I am a close personal friend of the person who developed these blastbay voices. Speechelo was not developed by the same person. I’ve honestly never heard of that.

I loathe using SAPI 5 with NVDA, and as for Narrator, I use Jenny from the Neural voices.

Hmm, now if I could use these on my Xbox, then you'd have a winner. 🙂

these voices just sound flat and dull, just like microsoft Eva etc.

i'd pay if they were expressive like 11-labs but unless i am personally missing the attraction, they just seem uninspiring.

Great to see them out in the wild though.

Maybe the newer versions will have something but for now, I can get the same type of voices with sapi, maybe if you released them for free peple would download them but I don't think you'll get many peple paying for these.

When I tapped the play button on my iPhone, the voices weren't working. I rarely—if ever—have access to a computer, so I had to ask one of my family members to pull up the website so I could hear what the voices sound like. I don’t know if they’re supposed to play on iPhone or if I’m doing something wrong, or if it’s that these voices are meant for Windows users. Now, I’m not trying to compare products because once I start doing that, I’ll always be chasing the next “better thing.” And while these voices aren’t as lifelike as some others, I’m hoping that if they do come to iPhone, and they’re offered as a one-time purchase, then yeah—I’d be totally on board. I really can’t afford a monthly subscription, but I love creativity, I love innovation, and I absolutely support people building tools that make a difference. I can’t do month-to-month payments. If there’s ever a lifetime option, or the ability to buy voices when I need them, then that would be ideal.

Also, knowing how locked-down Apple’s ecosystem is, someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but even if these voices came to iPhone, would we be able to use them for VoiceOver or Speak Screen? Personally, I’d love to use them to read books. That’s where the issue comes in for me. A lot of book platforms don’t have auto-page turning, their apps are hard to navigate, and they don’t include any built-in TTS or neural speech options. So even though Kindle isn’t perfect, it’s still the best experience I’ve had so far.

That said, if these developer voices ever do come to iOS, I’d definitely support them. I’d probably start by buying one voice first, then get the other one later when I can. And if there’s a bundle—maybe both voices for $25 or $30 total—I’d jump on that. Even $20 per voice would be fine. I’m always happy to support good developers, especially when I can hear the effort that’s gone into it. Even if I’m not blown away right now, if I believe in the product, I’ll still support it so it can grow into something better. There seems to be some confusion about the Speechelo voices. I’ve heard them too and I’m not sure if these are the same, but they’re definitely good. If voices like that ever came to iOS and could be used for reading books or even integrated into VoiceOver, and if I could buy them outright with no subscription? I’d absolutely go for it.

Anyway, I do hope the developers keep going strong, and I wish them the best. But also, can someone please start a thread about Apple voices? Because I’ve had Samantha as my default for years . We seriously deserve an upgrade. I feel like Apple could offer a voice package with new neural TTS voices—maybe even with a one-time cost per voice. I’d 100% pay for that.

you can do this since IOS 17 I think but as far as I know only espeak has bin released

Unless I am misunderstanding you, and apologies if that is the case, but you, can, buy these for $20, each.
Again, unless I am missing a bit of information here. 😣

Sorry for the confusion—I see that the voices are $20 each, and I definitely plan to purchase them once they’re supported on iPhone. I don't need them for my computer. I need them for my mobile device. I was wondering though, is it possible to purchase the voices directly from my iPhone and get a serial number, and then later transfer or activate them once they become available for iOS? Or would this not work?

Also, thanks for the info about eSpeak. I didn’t realize that this open source voice was available on the iPhone. And I see there’s a podcast too—I’ll check it out.

, bookmark the following Audio Games Forum thread:

https://forum.audiogames.net/topic/56672/new-release-text-to-speech-voices-from-blastbay-studios/

subject line says it all. I'd like to see English, welsh, Scottish voices in the offering. These voices sound good but region is important to me.