For 99% of users, Amazon Polly is the best way to experience the legacy of Ivona Eric. Here’s a quick tutorial.
Pro Tip: If you want the classic Eric sound, lower the speaking rate slightly (e.g., 90% speed) using the SSML <prosody rate="slow"> tag. This matches the original Ivona Reader’s default pace.
If you have an old copy of Ivona Voice (the desktop application) or Ivona MiniReader, you can still install it on Windows 10 or 11 using compatibility mode. However, these are no longer sold.
Unlike early TTS voices that sounded like a robot reading a shopping list, Eric understands sentence structure. He pauses at commas, raises pitch for questions, and emphasizes keywords naturally. This isn't perfect—no 2013-era TTS was—but it was leaps ahead of competitors like Microsoft Sam or early Google TTS.
Small YouTubers who want a "British narrator" voice without hiring an actor often turn to Eric. His clear delivery is perfect for:
The Eric voice was one of Ivona’s flagship English (US) male voices. Modeled after a professional voice actor, Eric was designed to sound like a calm, articulate news anchor or audiobook narrator. He is neither too deep (like a movie trailer voice) nor too high-pitched. He sits perfectly in the "neutral professional" zone, making him ideal for long-form content where listener fatigue is a concern.
If you have been in the audiobook, e-learning, or meme creation space for more than five years, you know exactly who Eric is.
Long before the era of ElevenLabs and OpenAI’s whisper-smooth tones, there was Ivona Text to Speech. And within that suite of voices, Eric (often paired with Joanna) was the undisputed king of natural-sounding British English.
Even though Amazon shut down the standalone Ivona service years ago, Eric’s voice refuses to die. Here is the story of that iconic voice and exactly how you can still use it today.
Some APK files of “Ivona Text-to-Speech” (including Eric) circulate on forums like XDA Developers. Be warned: These are unsupported, may contain malware, and violate Ivona’s original EULA. Proceed with caution.
In short: Unlikely. Amazon has moved entirely to neural TTS (Polly). Maintaining the old concatenative synthesis system (which Eric used) is not commercially viable. However, there is a slim chance that Amazon might release a "classic" voice pack as a novelty—but no announcements exist.
If you love Eric’s style, your best bet is to test Amazon Polly’s "Brian" or fine-tune a custom ElevenLabs voice to sound similar. Some hobbyists have even trained AI replicas of Eric (though this raises serious legal red flags).
For 99% of users, Amazon Polly is the best way to experience the legacy of Ivona Eric. Here’s a quick tutorial.
Pro Tip: If you want the classic Eric sound, lower the speaking rate slightly (e.g., 90% speed) using the SSML <prosody rate="slow"> tag. This matches the original Ivona Reader’s default pace.
If you have an old copy of Ivona Voice (the desktop application) or Ivona MiniReader, you can still install it on Windows 10 or 11 using compatibility mode. However, these are no longer sold.
Unlike early TTS voices that sounded like a robot reading a shopping list, Eric understands sentence structure. He pauses at commas, raises pitch for questions, and emphasizes keywords naturally. This isn't perfect—no 2013-era TTS was—but it was leaps ahead of competitors like Microsoft Sam or early Google TTS. ivona eric text to speech
Small YouTubers who want a "British narrator" voice without hiring an actor often turn to Eric. His clear delivery is perfect for:
The Eric voice was one of Ivona’s flagship English (US) male voices. Modeled after a professional voice actor, Eric was designed to sound like a calm, articulate news anchor or audiobook narrator. He is neither too deep (like a movie trailer voice) nor too high-pitched. He sits perfectly in the "neutral professional" zone, making him ideal for long-form content where listener fatigue is a concern.
If you have been in the audiobook, e-learning, or meme creation space for more than five years, you know exactly who Eric is. For 99% of users, Amazon Polly is the
Long before the era of ElevenLabs and OpenAI’s whisper-smooth tones, there was Ivona Text to Speech. And within that suite of voices, Eric (often paired with Joanna) was the undisputed king of natural-sounding British English.
Even though Amazon shut down the standalone Ivona service years ago, Eric’s voice refuses to die. Here is the story of that iconic voice and exactly how you can still use it today.
Some APK files of “Ivona Text-to-Speech” (including Eric) circulate on forums like XDA Developers. Be warned: These are unsupported, may contain malware, and violate Ivona’s original EULA. Proceed with caution. Pro Tip: If you want the classic Eric
In short: Unlikely. Amazon has moved entirely to neural TTS (Polly). Maintaining the old concatenative synthesis system (which Eric used) is not commercially viable. However, there is a slim chance that Amazon might release a "classic" voice pack as a novelty—but no announcements exist.
If you love Eric’s style, your best bet is to test Amazon Polly’s "Brian" or fine-tune a custom ElevenLabs voice to sound similar. Some hobbyists have even trained AI replicas of Eric (though this raises serious legal red flags).