A Balabolka alternative with natural neural voices
Balabolka is a free Windows program that reads text aloud with the voices installed in the system and can save the speech to audio files. It works well, but it sounds only as good as those voices. SuperClonica brings a neural model, Supertonic 3, with natural-sounding voices that also run offline on an ordinary processor.
This page compares the two honestly, says when Balabolka is still the better tool, and shows how to turn text files into MP3 with SuperClonica on Windows.
Two different engines
Both run offline on your own computer; the difference is the voice technology and the way you work with it.
- Balabolka: a desktop program with a window, using the speech voices installed in Windows.
- SuperClonica: a free command-line engine and Python library with a neural model and voices as JSON files.
- SuperClonica has no window of its own: you work in PowerShell or with a small script.
- SuperClonica voices speak 31 languages; Chinese is not supported yet.
When Balabolka is the better tool
If you want a familiar window with menus, read text from many document formats and the clipboard, and are happy with the system voices, Balabolka remains a convenient choice. SuperClonica does not try to be a document reader with a user interface.
When SuperClonica fits better
On Windows you can also train your own voice in the SuperClonica studio with an NVIDIA RTX 20 series card or newer, or a GTX 16.
- You want natural neural voices instead of the robotic system ones.
- You need narrators, character voices or a voice trained from your own recording.
- You want the same voice in 31 languages.
- You want to automate: the same engine works from scripts, Python and a Docker HTTP server.
Text files to MP3 on Windows
Install Python from python.org, then the engine in PowerShell: py -m pip install superclonica-cpu. Create a file read.bat with the line py -m superclonica --text-file "%~1" --voice F1 --lang en --output "%~dpn1.mp3", and drag any .txt file onto it: the engine voices the text and saves an MP3 with the same name next to it. Save documents as .txt in Notepad first; long texts are split at natural pauses and joined into one file.
What it costs
The engine and the ten stock voices of the model are free, with no character limit, and several catalog voices are free too. Other voices are bought once, with no subscription, and stay yours as a JSON file. Balabolka itself is free; its voices are the ones your system provides.