Speech Synthesis Settings

How to use the Speech Synthesis Settings robot skill

Use this skill to adjust the settings for spoken speech synthesis. This skill needs to be added to configure the voice settings.

You will need to add additional voices from third-party vendors to control some of these settings. Not all voices support the settings provided within this skill. For example, the native Microsoft Windows SAM voice will only use the speed settings, and not the gender, etc..

*Note: Speech Synthesis is a separate skill. Find it here.

Main Window

1. Voice Drop-down
This drop-down contains a selection of installed voices.

2. Emaphsis Drop-down
This drop-down contains a selection of speech emphasis levels.

3. Rate Drop-down
This drop-down contains a selection of speech speeds.

4. Volume Slider
This slider sets the volume percentage for the text-to-speech output (1-100% range).

How to Use Speech Settings

1) Add the Speech Settings Skill to your ARC project (Project -> Add Skill -> Audio -> Speech Synthesis Settings).

2) Add the Speech Synthesis Skill to your ARC project (Project -> Add Skill -> Audio -> Speech Synthesis).

3) Select the settings you would like to output in the Speech Synthesis Setting skill.

4) Write/paste the desired text in the Speech Synthesis text field.

5) Press the Say (PC Speaker) or Say (EZ-B v4 Speaker) Button to listen to the text-to-speech.

*Note: In order to hear the speech out of the EZ-B v4 speaker you must be connected to the EZ-B.

Requirements

Internal or external sound card on your computer attached to Speakers or an EZ-B I/O Controller.

Resources

Here's a community tutorial for using the speech synthesis in Windows 8.1: here

There are additional languages available also. Inexpensive languages can be downloaded for your operating system from http://www.cepstral.com/downloads/personal.php.

To access the additional hidden voices in Windows 10 please see the instructions from @EzAng in the comments of the Speech Synthesis skill here.