Long story short: DO NOT waste money on NaturalReader 9
You’re going to see me use the product name NaturalReader 9 often in this review. This is to bump up the keyword relevance to make sure this review shows up as close to the program as I can manage in most search engines.
Now, as you may not know, I have problems with processing text in my head. I often lose letters or words randomly. My brain also makes odd substitutions, like b for p and d for q. I lose r in many words like a mothefucker, as wells as e and s. I forget to put in period and my commas, sometime migrate to places they shouldn’t be (yeah, that time it was intentional, just to show you what I mean)
So basically, anything from me that’s earlier than a third draft reads like a dyslexic nightmare.
In Windows XP, I relied upon Microsoft’s Lit Reader to help me proofread documents. I could download a plugin for Word that converted documents to LIT, and then using reader, I could have “Sam” read the story for me and help me find most of my mistakes. So instead of having to do 20 drafts and still only catch 75% of my mistakes, I was catching close to 98% with a very basic and free text-to-speech program.
Recently I chose to upgrade to Windows 7, but I was still using Office XP. Except, the LIT converter plugin no longer works for some reason, and of course, Microsoft apparently isn’t updating the module for Windows 7 users. (In fact, Microsoft’s support site has become next to fucking useless, but that’s another rant altogether.) The new replacement for “Sam” is “Anna,” who speaks so unnaturally at any speed that she annoys me into a full rage within two pages.
After finding no help on Microsoft’s site, (big shock, I know) I ran a search for Text to Speech software and found a link to NaturalReader 9. I listened to the voice samples, and I didn’t find them as grating as Anna. So I thought I’d try the personal edition for $49.95.
Downloading worked well enough, and the install went fine. The voices were separate downloads, and both voice files were roughly six times larger than the program itself. But they installed fine once they finished downloading. Everything went downhill from there fast.
Let’s start off with the so-called natural voices of NaturalReader 9. They don’t sound the least bit natural as readers. They…pause randomly…even on short…sentences with…no commas. When the reader encounters any actual ellipse, the reader ignores them and reads straight through with no pause. Both male and female voices place strange emphasis on consonants randomly, making some words sound like they are REALLY excited. Which might make sense if there were an exclamation point at the end. But even when there isn’t, the reader seems to think it’s supposed to shout.
Pronunciation isn’t clear at all, and words ending in -ed are read sounding like -ing. Short words like a, are, can, for and at get lost because the reader gives no emphasis on them. Which is weird, because oh, yeah, but & and get HEAVY emphasis.
If I were blind, or not looking directly at the screen, I would have to think the writer of the document was at fault. But looking directly at the screen as the document is being read, I can see that the text is right. It’s the reader having issues.
This is before you get into problems with the program interface. The program starts off in a maximized window. You can click the icon at the top to make it a normal window, and then resize it to suit your preferences. But if you minimize the program, your settings are lost. Close the program, and when you open it again, bang, back to maximized size. This problem is compounded by the new system policy in Windows 7 that make setting window behavior an Admin only task. (WTF Microsoft? How is this shit more helpful?) But even if you set that aside, changing the setting does not work right. Setting the size to “normal window” gets a maximized window, while “maximized window” sends the program to the system tray. This isn’t just WTF; it’s WTFBBQ, with heavy WTH sauce.
There is a “Word toolbar” which has the same flaws as the reader, obviously. But in addition to this, any document read by NaturalReader 9 through this bar no longer gets a link in recent documents, both in the Word File menu, and on the Start menu. Somehow, the NaturalReader 9 toolbar corrupts the document history.
If all this weren’t bad enough, when using the reader with large documents like books, pressing play inside the Word toolbar leads to a 5-10 second delay before the reader starts. Find a typo? You have to stop the reader to correct it. No, you cannot edit on the fly if you use the toolbar. So even a minor edit like adding a period takes 30 seconds. Yes, very…unproductive. (BTW, I’m so proud of myself for this review not devolving into a gibbering mess of random cuss words.)
This slow interface forces me to copy text from the Word document, paste it into the NaturalReader 9 window in sections, and then pay extremely close attention to the Word text to see when there is a real mistake instead of “Paul” blowing his lines. And really, “Kate” is like a less computerized version of “Anna.” I can’t listen to her for more than twenty seconds without being annoyed.
There is an added “feature” where NaturalReader 9 can record a reading to an MP3 file, but this is next to worthless with the quality of each reading being so poor. I can’t stand the way the voices read the file the first time through, so why would I want to record a reading for future abuses on the same document?
While it’s true that the NaturalReader 9 voices do sound more human than the Microsoft default Anna, this is a matter of pitch and tone. They do not read any more naturally than Anna, and in fact they have the same problems. Frankly, I’d rather have the computer speak in a flat monotone with a consistent pace instead of this…choppy method of…speaking like there’s….commas all over the…place.
Summing up, I’m extremely dissatisfied with NaturalReader 9, and I would feel bad for blind people who have to rely on such an awful text-to-speech engine for reading to them. The end result of this poor performance can only be confusion for them, and I seriously doubt upgrading to the Pro version would correct this. As near as I can tell, the pro version just means you get four voices that will all mangle the English language like a baby in a wood chipper. That’s hardly a compelling reason to drop an extra $50 on this heap of shit. On a five star rating system, this clunker actually manages to rate a negative score of -2 stars. No, seriously, it’s that bad.
Steer clear of this product, and if anyone asks about NaturalReader 9 discourage them from wasting their money. There has to be a better solution for proofreading and Text-to-Speech services for the blind. Because if this is the state of all TTS software, the handicapped are getting shoddy software for ridiculous prices.
I am a bisexual transsexual with bigender tendencies, a former resident of Texas, but now live in Milan with my husband. I used to write in a variety of genres and published my work through 
Did you ever manage to find a program like this that worked for you?
I was just looking at natural reader 9 moments ago and then found your review of the product. I wont be spending any money on Natural Reader 9 tonight but I would really like to know if you have found a better program that suits your needs.
I happen to simply retain information better when I hear it rather then reading it so I am really in the market for something like this. If you have any suggestions let me know.
Unfortunately for me, I’ve been forced to use NR9. The next best product I could buy with a voice read is Dragon’s voice recognition program, which also comes with a text to speech reader. That is supposed to be a much better voice package, but I can’t test it. The problem is, Dragon software is $199, and with my…um, unique voice, voice recognition has never been accurate. So I can’t justify the cost for it when I won’t use the main program and just need the TTS program. And sadly, Dragon does not sell TTS as a standalone program. =^(
I HAVE to use NR9 because if I don’t have the reader checking my stories, they are full of embarrassing typos. But I would so like to drop it and find something better.
I have been using NaturalReaders now for about a year and am very satisfied. I think that the above review is overly-critical for a mechanical reader and there are no alternatives suggested that can do better.
I use NaturalReaders an average of 3 hours a day and find it very delightful to use, although your comments are correct, I seem to be able to live with it very easily. Admittedly, the program has some quirks, but I seem to work-around them easily. The pronunciation editor really works well for me. Your comment on editing text as you go is totally incorrect if using the small NR window placed in the upper-right on top of Word.. Just pause the reader, make the correction and then restart (un-pause) the reader again. This does not work well with the Word toolbar as it will often cause a freeze-up, requiring a reboot.
I would recommend this program to anyone, but I have not experimented with anything else so am not qualified to say it is the best or not. I’ll give it a 4 star, as I am a happy customer as I read books up to 1000 pages written back in the 16 and 1700’s. My eyes would never allow me to read so much online.
This program is complete crap. The people who run this company are liars. Do NOT waste your money.
I purchased NaturalReader with NeoSpeech voice. I don’t like the software, still it is worth the money as you get 2 neospeech voices. I use TextAloud as it have firefox plugin (NaturalReader says it have firefox plugin, but that won’t work with latest firefox, since they don’t give demo version, they can lie about it). TextAloud take 2 MB memory while NaturalReader take some 40 MB of memory with less features.
Wow – you are one angry woman!
I have been using Natural Readers since 2008. I use it for hours every day and it works just fine for me.
I am a partially sighted commercial writer and could not work without this brilliant but occasionally quirky tool at my disposal. In fact, I read your wonderfully vitriolic review using the current version 10 of Natural Reader.
I think a lot of your disappointment probably comes from technical issues with Windows rather than problems with the software itself. Also – you clearly want the software to sound EXACTLY like a real person reading back your text. Technically the only tool that will do that for you is . . . well . . . a real person, and I hear they cost a lot more than $50.
I think it’s fair to say this software is a work in progress and I have found upgrading to the latest version each time improves some of the minor pronunciation glitches.
When I am researching – as I do a lot – I use the little floating toolbar which sits on top of all the other windows I have open. Frankly – it’s a snap to use and I can sit in my comfy chair on the other side of the room with a coffee and absorb everything – and play again if I missed something because the phone rang.
Actually – I find it very easy to edit on the fly using the floating toolbar which works better for me than the integral toolbars.
I chose Natural Readers over Text Aloud (I purchased both) as I find the Text Aloud to be too complicated to use. Natural readers is just click and read – and I love that.
Funny how people can draw such different conclusions. But I think the main problem for you is that you want it for accurate editing purposes, whereas the main function of this software is as a reader, which I think it does pretty well for such a small amount of cash.
I agree about Microsoft however – they disable things all the time to force you into buying the next version. I always use non-MS software when possible because it doesn’t die with the next version of Windows.
Keep taking the tablets!
I still saw better pronunciation and less mistakes using the DEFAULT voice in Win 2K. (“Sam”) The new Microsoft voice is terrible, but Natural reader is the SAME terrible quality as Microsoft’s free solution. The difference is, Natural Reader 9 charged me for “natural voices” (which sound like crap) to run over the same free engine, or so it seems. There’s no change in pronunciation quality between Microsoft’s “Anna” or either of the two voices I paid for with the “Pro” package. So for what it offers, I see the product as grossly overpriced.
I’m real happy for you that you just love the programs to pieces, and I’ll even give you the chance to post your counter-review. But it’s still a shit program to me, and I have long since abandoned using it out of sheer frustration.
And PS: I only come across as angry in text. In the real world…no wait, I’m a bitch. But there you go, you got you 0.02 cents on the topic. Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for the review Zoe! But have you heard if the next version is any better? I started college at the beginning of the year and have a 4.0 so far but its taking me 60 hrs per week. I lost my memory and just started to read again 2 years ago, so I am doing well but with kids, cats, a husband, volunteer work,…. see my point finding a reader that could read back my work instead of 10 draft would cut down on the lag time. Let me know I keep watch on your reply. Thanks again your comment are both useful and entertaining! Bravo!
Thank you for reading my review, and no, I have no idea how the new versions are. I will be trying to put together funds to get Dragon Natural, which includes a separate TTS engine as a separate program. When I can get it, I will probably issue a review for it too. Thanks again for visiting, and for commenting.
Thank you for posting a review of NaturalReader 9. Originally I too was fairly frustrated by the software, the interface and the lack of forum support. Fortunately I figured out a few tricks to make it usable. If you know the flaws NaturalReader 9 has you can work around them(mosty).
The big draw to this software for me was the Graham UK voice. So far this is the best TTS Voice that comes closest to being natural in my ears. The US voices they have were OK. But Grahams was a deal maker for me.
I have been using NaturalReader 9 for about two weeks now and am coming to understand the big flaws that the software has. Primarily the Pronunciation Editor is incredibly limited. It works pretty well on big words. But on small words like air, ear, dove(verb), mage. It’s impossible to get them to sound just right. Also there is no way to get the software to recognize context. A few times I had to go into the original document and just change the word completely to get the context correct so the reader understood the difference between wound and wownd. Now if I can only trick it to know the difference between dove verb and dove noun.
I just wish p. editor had ways to force a word to say long As or long Os. Playing with the word only seems to work on words that are over 4 letters long. Anything shorter and it just doesn’t sound right.
You mentioned its difficult to edit the document that your listening to. I also found this difficult UNTIL I found that you can change the settings to have the reader read sentence by sentence. Whenever I hear an odd word I go into the pronunciation editor and start fiddling. Then pick back up my book where I left off.
After I finally got MOST of the kinks worked out I started using the MP3 format and, again its nice not having to be tethered to the computer while the reader is talking to me. Plus compiling the MP3 takes only a few minutes to get the audio file compiled.
Please wright a review of Dragon Naturally if you actually do buy the software. If you don’t buy it, look into getting Graham UK voice. I think its the best voice available. And if you want any pointers or if you’d like me to share my P. editor file with you, let me know.
Hell, this a good review on its own. Are you sure you shouldn’t put this up on a blog as your own verdict of the software? =^)
Dragon is on my list of stuff to buy, but it’s quite a bit more expensive as it’s not just a TTS engine I’m buying. I really wish Dragon would sell the TTS engine as a standalone product, but that’s just sour grapes on my part.
Mp3 wasn’t useful to me at all, as I was using it for editing of e-books. Also, I couldn’t change the words in the ebooks so that my computer could understand them, because then my human readers would be left scratching their heads a lot at my new spelling system.
I’m not really happy working without a TTS readers, though as my more recent releases have had more spelling mistakes than I had back with the PC reading my stuff out loud. But the thing is, NR is so grating that I don’t work more than an hour before I want to walk away and grouch and gripe. Not really conducive to remaining productive.
Matthew, thank you for sharing your take on the software. I’m sure future readers of this review can find some of your ideas useful if they want to try tweaking NR to better suit their needs.
Have you thought about trying Ivona Text to Speech? The voices sound pretty natural. You can try an online demo at http://www.ivona.com/us/ or hear samples at their http://www.ivona.com/us/voices/ (CAUTION! Don’t buy at this page otherwise you will only get the voices. Instead, go to the Reader page and buy the Reader with bundled voices. This is the reader page: http://www.ivona.com/us/reader/ )
PS: I’m not affiliated with Ivona. I just thought of sharing here since none of the comments above or your post mention it.
Apologies. I just noticed, it seems my “caution” notice is misinformed. If you buy a package of voices you will get the free MiniReader bundled with them. The MiniReader is actually enough to read text.
I’m not sure of the features of the full Reader that the free MiniReader does not have, except I think Mini lacks MP3 conversion. But I want to make it clear that you can buy just the voices and start using the Free MiniReader instead of buying the Full Reader with voices (if you don’t need those extra features).
TRIAL available: You can download the Free MiniReader and try out the voices for 30 days.
I’ll let you add the other resource, because I do want people to see other options before making a choice. Picking a TTS reader is hard enough without knowing what’s out there.
But for myself, I’ve bought Dragon Naturally Speaking, and am now using the TTS reader that came with it. It is a computerized voice closer to Sam than the natural reader, but it respects punctuation better and doesn’t make up random gaps in sentences, sending me scrambling to hunt for an extra space or comma where there is no problem; natural reader just hiccupped. So for now, I like it.
But thank you for posting the link,and for the correction. And for visiting my blog…and for commenting. =^)
Thank you for your reply.
I’m currently trying out Ivona and I find the voices to be very natural and human-like. Doesn’t sound robotic or computerized like NaturalReader voices (Acapela, NeoSpeech, AT&T etc.) or Microsoft Anna (the worst!). I don’t know how the TTS of Dragon sounds like, but if you think it sounds robotic/computerized, there’s a good chance you’ll find Ivona much more human-like and natural.
Of course, I don’t know whether Ivona would send you “scrambling to hunt for an extra space or comma where there is no problem” (it doesn’t seem to though). You’ll have to try their Trial to find it out (or just paste the text on their online version*).
* The one here can read very long lengths of text (not limited to 250 characters): http://www.ivona.com/us/recordings/ Just paste in the text, choose a voice and click Play. There will be a pause between sentences to load the voice from server. This pause will not be there in a local installation of the application.
Anyway I understand you have already spent quite a lot of money on TTS (why didn’t you try out trial versions first?) so you will probably stick with Dragon. That’s OK if it works well for you.