New TTS engines

Plugins & Plugin Development Sonos
#1

I open a new topic after a short discussion in private with one of you.

Apparently it exists alternatives to Google TTS engine like Cepstral or the OSX TTS engine that we could easily use in the plugin (in place of Google).

First I changed a little the code to make it more easy to add an alternative TTS engine (mainly put the specific code for Google in a function).

I hope we can have good news soon.

#2

One of the best engines I have come across is this one : http://demo.acapela-group.com/

Sounds perfect in my language (Danish)

/Martin

#3

Of course, we need an engine offering an API and if possible through a simple HTTP request.

#4

[quote=“flyveleder, post:2, topic:178940”]One of the best engines I have come across is this one : http://demo.acapela-group.com/

Sounds perfect in my language (Danish)[/quote]

Oh yes, not too bad in French too 8)

#5

Google TTS is a free service available on the Internet.

We could imagine to use a TTS engine not directly on the Internet but running on a server in our LAN network.
I think this is what will be explained for example with the OSX TTS engine.
What we need here is an HTTP API to request the engine to produce the audio file.

#6

Vera being Linux - maybe installed straight onto the device itself ? :wink: …

#7

A cloud service seems to be available.
I imagine it is not free ?

#8

I’ve succeeded in implementing this using the TTS Server provided here → [url=http://wolfpaulus.com/jounal/mac/ttsserver/]http://wolfpaulus.com/jounal/mac/ttsserver/[/url]

The big benefits of using this are that it doesn’t require an internet connection, it will always exist (meaning google can’t just pull the plug), it’s customizeable (you can select from many voices and adjust the speech rate), and it’s just cool.

I have an implementation file for @lolodomo to review as I’m not sure of the best way to implement this in a way without my hardcoded values pointing at my server.

#9

That’s really a great news. 8)

The big benefits of using this are that it doesn't require an internet connection, it will always exist (meaning google can't just pull the plug), it's customizeable (you can select from many voices and adjust the speech rate), and it's just cool.

I am curious to know if it exists available TTS engine, free if possible, that could be run for example on a raspberry Pi ?

I have an implementation file for @lolodomo to review as I'm not sure of the best way to implement this in a way without my hardcoded values pointing at my server.

I have to see your code but I think a simple variable to define the URL of the TTS server could probably solve this problem.

#10

Cepstral works on a raspberry pi. They have a page on their website talking about this. It’s quite inexpensive from what I understand. The API could probably be put together in a few lines of python.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Edit: here’s the link → [url=http://www.cepstral.com/en/raspberrypi]http://www.cepstral.com/en/raspberrypi[/url]

#11

I tried the demo voices from Cepstral and I am not fully convinced by the quality ! Plus there is no French voices of France :slight_smile:

#12

I just tested patched version by @ericonvera and it is working very well … but you don’t have the choice of the language.

The way to request TTS is absolutely similar to what we do with Google, but in this case you point to a personal TTS server rather than Google.

I will make the required changes and then commit that very soon. 8)

Integration of other TTS engines is of course welcome.

#13

This article has a link to LumenVox: LumenVox Product Overview | Modular, Speech-Enabling Technology
You can try TTS and it is working pretty well. But prices seem to be very high. Maybe not a solution for personal use.

#14

I just downloaded a French voice on my mac. If you choose “Audrey” from the list of available voices in that admin panel I linked you, you’ll get French support. I’ve set it up as the default just so you can hear it. Let me know if it works for you.

#15

Some time ago, I built a TTS replacement using python’s SimpleHTTPServer and OSX’s say command, just in case google’s service ever went away. If anybody’s interested, I can find the code and post it.

#16

I’m pretty sure that’s the same idea behind the one that I got working from this site → [url=http://wolfpaulus.com/jounal/mac/ttsserver/]http://wolfpaulus.com/jounal/mac/ttsserver/[/url] but I’m not sure exactly how he implemented it.

#17

I just downloaded a French voice on my mac. If you choose “Audrey” from the list of available voices in that admin panel I linked you, you’ll get French support. I’ve set it up as the default just so you can hear it. Let me know if it works for you.[/quote]

Yes, it works and the quality is really excellent, maybe the best quality I have heard ! But the speech is just too fast and I cannot use any special characters (french accents). Difficult to find a long sentence without that :slight_smile: Maybe there is a charset encoding for the text to setup on server side ?

Even if it is not a real problem (generally you need one language), can you confirm that with this solution, we can have only one language supported at a time. Because now, if I use en or fr for the language, I always get Audrey’s voice.

#18

This can be changed through the admin panel (I think).

I’m not sure on the charset what our options are. Ideally, I’d like to get the TTSServer code on github and modify it to allow the voice to be set from the URL as well as make adjustments for speech speed and see what needs to be done for encoding. I’ve emailed the original author letting him know about our application here. If I hear back from him, I’ll ask about forking the project - otherwise I’ll look into writing from scratch or using a start from @SM2k.

#19

Read chapter 4.4, you can apparently choose your voice but you have to use a HTTP POST request.

#20

What about the Microsoft translator service ? A HTTP API exists with a speak feature ? Any idea of the audio quality?
The service is free.