Hello there, I am starting to work on a complex text to speech installation.
Have tried ‘‘SpeechSynthesis’’ from the addons. Its a little bit too simple, I need more variety in voices and languages.
Have tried MicrosoftSpeech https://vvvv.org/contribution/microsoftspeech and installed it multiple times, but the node/plugin does not recognize the runtime or the runtime language. The node appears red, so does the pull-down menu, cannot change the voices. Installed Microsoft Speech Platform Runtime (x86) and at several Runtime Language
Maybe there is a more recent plugin/node for realizing some text to speech.
With VL you could quickly patch this Speech Synthesis node yourself. I’ve attached a simple example here that reads an input text, but if you peak inside the VL patch you’ll see that you can easily retrieve many useful information about the speech synthesizer : its current state (Playing/Paused/Ready), as well as some progress information (such as the current word).
You could try exploring the SpeachSynthesizer category in the node browser there to see if you can achieve what you want.
Please note that this node seems to be a bit capricious : if you change the voice Name while it’s paused or playing, vvvv might hang forever. Guess this is related to the speech synthesis thingy. Only change the voice when the output state says “Ready” :)
As for other languages, I downloaded an installed one from Windows’ Speech Settings, restarted vvvv and the node picked it up.
As an alternative, you could also try the online Azure Cognitive Services thingy that gives incredible results, but will require an internet connection, an API key, and potentially some money :)
