Support Chinese words in play module text to speak

[Guest Ada]

I would like to ask that does VoiceGuide support Chinese words in play module text to speak? It is because when I type Chinese words, it shows ????? instead of Chinese words. Thank you.

[SupportTeam]

You can specify a text file (.txt) as the 'sound file to play'. Like this:

 

The contents of the .txt file will then be played out using the selected Text-to-Speech engine.

All characters in the .txt file will be passed to the TTS engine.

The current Script Designer only allows ASCII/Latin characters in the "Text to Speak" text box. Using the .txt file is the current workaround that limitation.

[Guest Ada]

Thank you. However, when I run the script, it can't not say Cantonese. Do I need to install any software?

[SupportTeam]

You need to either install a Cantonese TTS engine, and then set VoiceGuide to use that TTS engine, or create an account with Google Cloud and configure VoiceGuide to use Google Cloud TTS.

Please see:

https://www.voiceguide.com/vghelp/source/html/config_tts.htm

 

[Guest Ada]

Thank you. I have just install a Cantonese TTS engine . How do I config with  VoiceGuide . Please refer to the attachment.

[SupportTeam]

From  https://www.voiceguide.com/vghelp/source/html/config_tts.htm :

Quote

 

List of SAPI TTS engines installed on the system is saved in the ktTts trace log file.

The ktTts trace log file is created in VoiceGuide's \log\ subdirectory.

 

 

If you can post the latest ktTts trace file from your system we can see if the app you installed added a SAPI compatible TTS engine to your system, and if it did, then what is its name.

[Guest Ada]

Please refer to the attachment. Thank you.

0615_ktTts.zip

[SupportTeam]

ktTts show that the only SAPI TTS engines installed on this system are:

Quote

161310.573  3316        tts voice 0 : Microsoft David Desktop - English (United States)
161310.573  3316                      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\TTS_MS_EN-US_DAVID_11.0
161310.573  3316        tts voice 1 : Microsoft Zira Desktop - English (United States)
161310.573  3316                      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\TTS_MS_EN-US_ZIRA_11.0

So looks like the app that you installed did not install any SAPI TTS engines on your system.

Searching Google for "Chinese Cantonese TTS SAPI" brings up a number of links. Recommend that you select and install one of them. (eg: Ekho)

 

Also: For what type of data do you need to use the TTS? The trace shows that the TTS right now is used to play sound files that do not change from call to call. Those files can just be per-recorded instead of using TTS to generate them each time.

[Guest Ada]

I have installed Ekho software, but how can I config in in VG.INI's section [TTS] ? Also, where is the VG.INI's section [TTS] file path? Thank you.

[SupportTeam]

You just edit the file VG.INI using any text editor.

Recommend using the Notepad++ editor :  https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

VG.INI file is in VoiceGuide's directory.

 

From  https://www.voiceguide.com/vghelp/source/html/config_tts.htm :

 

To use SAPI TTS engine, the EngineType entry in VG.INI's section [TTS] must be set to SAPI:

[TTS]
EngineType=SAPI

And the SAPI_Engine entry needs to be set to the SAPI TTS Engine to use. eg:

[TTS]
SAPI_Engine=Cepstral Allison-8kHz

List of SAPI TTS engines installed on the system is saved in the ktTts trace log file.

The ktTts trace log file is created in VoiceGuide's \log\ subdirectory.

The section that lists all SAPI TTS engines installed on the system looks something like this:

124244.953 2812 tts voice 0 : Microsoft Mary
124244.953 2812 tts voice 1 : Microsoft Mike
124244.953 2812 tts voice 2 : Microsoft Sam
124244.953 2812 tts voice 3 : Cepstral Allison-8kHz
124244.953 2812 tts voice 4 : Sample TTS Voice

The name of the engine is listed after the "tts voice X : " tag.

The example listing above shows that the following TTS engines are installed on the system:

Microsoft Mary
Microsoft Mike
Microsoft Sam
Cepstral Allison-8kHz
Sample TTS Voice

so any of the above can be specified as the value of the SAPI_Engine entry in the VG.INI file.

 

 

Dynamically changing TTS Engine

The TTS Engine type used can also be dynamically set during the call, by setting new values to $RV:

$RV[tts_EngineType]

This allows the script to dynamically select which TTS engine type should be used at any time during the call.

The voices to be used by each engine can also be dynamically set during the call, as outlined in previous sections.

[Guest Ada]

Thank you. I would like to ask how to change the tts voice 0 to tts voice 8, according to 0617_ktTts.txt . Please refer to the attachment.

0617_ktTts.zip

[SupportTeam]

To set VoiceGuide to use Ekho's Cantonese TTS engine change this setting in VG.INI:

SAPI_Engine

to be:

SAPI_Engine=Ekho Cantonese

and then restart the VoiceGuide service.