Simple TTS

A simple text-to-speech program powered by kokoro.

Setup

Clone repo and go into the directory

$ git clone https://git.ayo.run/ayo/simple-tts
$ cd simple-tts

Create new environment. Here I use conda.

$ conda create -n tts

### for Intel XPU specific device usage:
$ conda create -n tts --clone llm-pt26

Important

For using Intel XPUs, you need to set up ipex-llm environment with pytorch 2.6. Also, see Intel XPU environmental variables" section below.

Activate the environment and install the dependencies

$ conda activate tts
$ python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Because vlc is used to automatically play the generated audio, you will have to install it:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install vlc

Note

Installing vlc via flatpak or snap will not work, as the code need access to libvlc.

Intel XPU environmental variables

For XPUs, we need to set some environmental variables. I have added a env.sh script which will activate the conda environment tts and set the environmental variables.

$ . env.sh

Usage

Go into the directory and activate the environment:

$ cd simple-tts
$ conda activate tts

If using Intel XPUs, set the env variables

$ . env.sh

Running the program without arguments will use the demo text tongue-twister.txt with the default voice.

$ python tts.py # will use default arguments

You can pass a string as first argument:

$ python tts.py "Hello world!" # will be read by the default voice

To run the program with an input file, use flag --input_file.

$ python tts.py --input_file demo/tongue-twister.txt

Voices

Optionally, you can indicate a voice you want to use with the --voice flag. See all voices available.

$ python tts.py --voice am_michael

There are four shortcuts available to the best voices: pro, hot, asmr, brit (i.e., best trained voices), and pro is the default if no value is given

$ python tts.py --voice pro # af_heart

$ python tts.py --voice hot # af_bella

$ python tts.py --voice asmr # af_nicole

$ python tts.py --voice brit # bf_emma

Disable audio player

You can disable the built-in audio player with --skip_play if you choose to play the audio files generated with your preferred player.

Demo Outputs

Pro (ah_heart)

https://git.ayo.run/ayo/simple-tts/src/branch/main/demo/tongue-twister-af_heart-0.wav

https://git.ayo.run/ayo/simple-tts/src/branch/main/demo/tongue-twister-af_heart-1.wav

https://git.ayo.run/ayo/simple-tts/src/branch/main/demo/tongue-twister-af_heart-2.wav

ASMR (ah_nicole)

https://git.ayo.run/ayo/simple-tts/src/branch/main/demo/tongue-twister-af_nicole-0.wav

https://git.ayo.run/ayo/simple-tts/src/branch/main/demo/tongue-twister-af_nicole-1.wav

https://git.ayo.run/ayo/simple-tts/src/branch/main/demo/tongue-twister-af_nicole-2.wav