So in such instances, the various transcription software available come to rescue. This software mainly performs speech to text conversion making your job a whole lot easier. Here are Top 10 Transcription Software for Mac.
1. Express Scribe
Express Scribe is designed considering the needs of Mac users. The user can control the audio playback using a transcription foot pedal or by using the keyboard. Express Scribe also offers many other functionalities such as variable speed playback, multi-channel control, playing video, file management, and much more.Using the free version, you can use the standard audio formats such as wav, mp3, wma, and dct. By upgrading to the professional version, you can get proprietary format support.
It supports both audio and video playback and plays formats including encrypted dictation files. You can also use professional USB foot pedals to control playback. This transcription software automatically receives and loads files by the internet (FTP), email or over a local computer network.
It also works with speech recognition software to automatically convert speech to text. Using the plug and play foot pedal, you can make your foot control the playback as you type, which can help you increase your typing speed. You can also load CD audio and start working as the audio loads.
Express Scribe Basic costs $29.99, and Professional version costs $34.99.
2. Inqscribe
You can download and install this transcription software for free, or register for a 14-day trial or get the paid version for lifetime use. You can play audio and video in almost all popular formats. Using USB foot pedal, the control playback is smoother.There are options to save the document and to insert shortcuts and snippets. Using snippets, you can add frequently used words in a single click. With Inqscribe, you can create a subtitled QuickTime movie or even print the transcripts. You can add time codes to jump to a particular point in the film clip.
The single license costs $99, but students and staff can get a maximum of up to $60 off on discounts.
3. Dragon
Dragon is designed specifically to help you create documents, spreadsheets or presentations faster. It is useful for sending emails and for filling out forms. The transcription by Dragon is very accurate.You can also customize words for the terms you use every day, insert text or graphics that are often used and create command shortcuts for repetitive tasks. You can also transcribe voice memos from your smartphone or portable voice recorder, podcasts or audio files of any single speaker’s voice to text quickly.
It is capable of advanced customization features so that it adapts well to even the most industry-specific terminology that you use every day. It can transcribe all commonly used formats like .mp3 aif, .aiff , .wav, .mp4, .m4a, .m4v. For accurate transcription, it can also capture notes.
4. VoxSigma Speech to Text
VoxSigma is equipped with extensive vocabulary multilingual speech-to-text capabilities. Keeping in mind the needs of professional users, it can transcribe even clips with slight noises. And it is useful in the text to speech conversion of large quantities of audio and video documents such as broadcast data, either in batch mode or in real-time.Data available from call centers can be analyzed using these. First, the audio segments that contain the speech are identified followed by the language. Then, the text to speech conversion is done.
It has adaptive features that can distinguish voices even if some background music is playing and is capable of converting them into text. VoxSigma outputs an XML document with annotations including speech and non-speech segments, speaker labels, and words with time codes, high-quality confidence scores, and punctuation. This XML file can be converted into plain text.
5. Transcriva
The biggest charm of Transcriva is its usability. You can organize your transcripts all in one place. It also adjusts itself with variable speed audios for accurate transcription. You can further print your transcripts or export them as RTF or Word documents for editing, sharing, and publication.It allows you to play back your transcripts when you're done transcribing. It also comes with foot pedal support to ease things for you. And apart from this, there are so many customization features available to fit each user needs.
6. ATMac
ATMac can be used to write your emails, for chatting and for other text to speech needs. It is capable of identifying many English dialects and accents including American, Northern Ireland, Southern, Australian, British, Indian and much more.7. iSay
iSay has a clean interface to give the users a positive transcription experience. You can use them for emails and other notes. And there are hotkeys to speed up transcription process. It was also compatible with cell phones.8. Mac Speech Scribe
Mac Speech Scribe gives excellent accuracy in converting audio files. It avoids typos and misspelled words. Simply open the file and click on the Transcribe button. Your work is done!It supports up to six speech profiles and guarantees accuracy to six different voices. It also allows transcription from audio recordings on Mac, iPhone, and other digital voice recorders. It doesn't require much time to be spent on training as it quickly adapts to different sounds. It is also sensitive towards 13 different English dialects.
9. Hyper Transcribe
Hyper Transcribe supports all the major audio formats such as MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG, AVI, MOV, etc. It can export the output file as RTF or plain text. You can first install the trial version and then upgrade to paid version after purchase.10. Seventh String
Seventh String transcribes Assistant is designed to help musicians. With the use of foot pedal, faster transcription can be done. This tool slows down the tracks which are not suitable for transcription thus making them fit for speech to text conversion. It slows down the music without changing the pitch so that you can analyze chords and notes that it represents.Final Words
Transcription is now made easy with these tools. You have provisions to make smooth conversions even to even noisy data. And this software is highly dynamic in the sense that they adjust according to the user. So the experience gets better with use. Give it a try now!Express Scribe Transcription Software is a simple software which can be used to convert speech to text. In order to do that you have to undergo the following process: Go to the options settings. Choose the option of speech to text. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine for U.S. Other languages and dialects use the speech-recognition engine previously available with Enhanced Dictation. If you're on a business or school network that uses a proxy server, Voice Control might not be able to download. Download Free Dj Drop Software - real advice. CK's Text-to-Speech to MP3 0.9 Free. Zulu Free Virtual DJ mixing software for Mac is a complete virtual DJ solution. Nov 16, 2017 Download the latest version of Speech To Text for Mac - Turn speech into text. Read 0 user reviews of Speech To Text on MacUpdate.
Whether you prefer articles read to you while you do something else or trying to grasp a new foreign language or even for specially abled students, TTS (short for text-to-speech) has proved to be very useful.
In our previous articles we saw some of the best text to speech apps for Windows and Android. And today, we take a look at some of the best TTS options available for Macs.
Text To Speech For Mac
1. macOS TTS
Before we get too ahead of ourselves and start downloading third party apps, it is very trivial to know that macOS itself comes with a built-in TTS and you can use it anywhere on your computer from the Notes app to any browser.
To get started, highlight or select the text which you want to be read and then right click, go to Speech and then to Start Speaking; and your Mac should start reading the text to you. It also supports a lot of other languages other than English and there are a lot of voices to choose from in all the languages. To change the language option simply go to Accessibility > Speech. Although some voices are very robotic, there are a few which aren’t and sound more like a human.
But the TTS is far from perfect; it is very basic and barebones and lacks options like pause/play, picking up from a selected word instantly and a lot more.
Quick Tip: It blew my mind and might even blow yours to know that the native TTS on Mac also supports converting your text into audio files. Just select the required text, right click and go to Services > Add to iTunes as a spoken track. The text will be converted to an audio track and added to your iTunes library.
Pros:
– Built-in system wide
– Lots of voice options
– Converting text to iTunes track
Cons:
– No Pause/Play
– Have to select manually all the words to be read
– No instant pickup
Verdict:
Overall, the TTS that comes with macOS is very barebones without all the bells and whistles and should be perfect for somebody looking for a basic TTS experience without even buying or installing any third party software.
2. Invicta TTS
Invicta TTS is a very simple free Text To Speech app available on the Mac App Store.
Once you open up the app, it presents you with a text box where you can enter or paste any text which will be then converted to speech. The app is very lightweight and minimal in nature with everything being to the point.
Although the app is very basic, unlike the built in TTS of Mac OS, it does add the option of playing or pausing the audio which becomes crucial when listening to long texts or articles. The voice settings cannot be changed but the in built voice does the job pretty good enough.
Pros:
– Minimal and Light
– Play/Pause Option
Cons:
– Cannot read documents automatically
– Supports only English
Verdict:
If you need a simple and light TTS app and might be listening to long articles, Invicta TTS does the job pretty well but do remember that it can only read English.
Link: Get Invicta TTS on the App Store
Price: Free
3. Natural Reader
The next app on our list is Natural Reader which is an extremely powerful TTS software available not only on Mac OS but also on Windows, iOS, Android and even has an online reader.
The app comes in many flavours, each with its fair share of features for the price. The free version comes with basic TTS features along with the ability to read directly from file formats such as Docx, PDF, ePub and Txt. It also has a floating bar which can be used to read text while you are in other applications. The next option or the Personal version, at a steep $100, allows you to read web pages directly, converting text to audio files and syncing everything between your phone apps. There are also Professional and Ultimate versions which add OCR support and a bunch of natural voices.
Pros:
– Support for file formats
– Convert to audio files
– Cross Platform
– OCR Support
Cons:
– Pricey
– No instant pickup
Verdict:
All the features of Natural Reader definitely come at a price and you should be able to decide whether it is a suit for you with respect to your investment in TTS, but even for a casual user the free version works really well. Overall, Natural reader is not just best text to speech software with natural voices, but since it also support PDF, it’s also a good option for those who are looking for PDF Voice Reader for macOS.
Pricing Options: Pricing for Natural Reader
Link: Download Natural Reader from here
4. Read Aloud
Read Aloud is not exactly a stand alone Mac app but instead a Chrome extension which might appeal to some people. Considering how many posts and articles are read on the internet everyday, we had to include Read Aloud.
It is completely free and once you install it, its icon will appear in the extension bar which you can now use to read any webpage or any online article, just by a single click. When it is in work, you get a play/pause button along with a forward or rewind button which can be used to advance or backtrack paragraphs. Considering it is free, the voice options are really good and feel very natural and premium.
Pros:
– Great natural voice
– Forward or rewind by paragraphs
– Listen to webpages
Cons:
– Works only on Chrome
Verdict:
Suggesting Read Aloud is very straight forward; if you are someone who reads a lot on the internet and are looking for a free TTS software for that, nothing beats Read Aloud.
Price: Free
Download Speech To Text Software For Macs
Link: Download Read Aloud from the Chrome Store
5. Capti Voice
Capti Voice is probably the most polished and well rounded TTS software available for the Mac and the award are only there to justify that. Starting off, Capti Voice uses your browser for the app to function instead of a stand alone Mac application. Don’t worry, you can still use it while you are offline as it stores all its data locally and personally I have had no issues.
Capti Voice has a subscription based model and even the free version has a lot to offer from various file format supports to text search while the premium versions add features like creating playlists, OCR Support and intelligent dictionary lookup. The voices offered across all the platforms are very high quality and commendable.
Quick Tip: Don’t forget to use the Chrome extension which allows you to save articles or webpages to be read later by Capti Voice.
Pros:
– Cross platform with mobile apps
– Create Playlists
– Dictionary lookup
– Shortcuts to get around
Cons:
– No standalone app
– Syncs only when you add to cloud storage
Verdict:
Overall, Capti Voice is a really compelling app with features packed to the brim and is very similar to natural Reader but with a subscription based model. It is really the best TTS experience you can get on Mac OS.
Pricing Info: Pricing Options for Capti Voice
Link: Download Capti Voice from here
6. Honorable Mentions
CereProc has some of the most natural sounding computer speeches available on the market, which you can use to replace the default voice on your Mac (also available for other platforms). There are a lot of high quality voice packs to choose from and each costs around $35.
Zamzar is a free online service which you can use to convert your text to audio files or mp3s. Unlike the iTunes spoken track which you can use only on Apple devices, you can use it on any platform without any hassle.
Wrapping up: Best Text to Speech for Mac
So these were some of the TTS software available on the Mac and we hope we made your decision a little bit easier. If you are someone who reads mainly on the internet, Read Aloud is by far the best free option. Although a little limited, the built-in TTS feature seems to work just fine, but it can be a pain for long stretches of texts or long articles for which there is Invicta which is also free.
Natural Reader and Capti Voice both are spectacular TTS apps with a lot of plans to choose from, but I guess what it comes down to is the paying model. Natural reader is a one time purchase and should be better if you feel you will be invested in TTS for a long time whereas Capti Voice follows a subscription based model also with a one week free trial. Thanks for reading and do comment below which one is your favorite TTS app on Mac OS.
Speech To Text Converter
Read: Make your Devices Read Out Text, With Text to Speech