Can someone point me to a free text to speech converter

[sirrah]

As per title

 

 

I found this one but it seems to only have female voice. The other ones I found, were either payware, or text-to-mp3 instead of .wav

 

 

 

Also, I created a small mission and added a sound to all trigger. I selected a .wav file, but I can't play it in DCS. Also it can't be heard in the mission and it doesn't show next to the "open" button in the mission editor. When I unzip my mission, I can see the .wav file is there though. Anyone any idea what's happening there?

 

 

EDIT:

 

Seems I now also have this issue where I can't open sound files in the ME triggers menu... :(

Also reported in this thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=200726

Edited September 2, 2020 by sirrah

[Hunter_5E]

I was looking for the exact same thing over the weekend and came across this list on TechRadar

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/the-best-free-text-to-speech-software

 

I chose Balabolka which can use 3 of the Windows 10 voices (2 female, 1 male). Works quite well. Haven't tried any of the others in the list.

 

I found that even though the saved sound files from Balabolka seemed normal volume when played with VLC player, they seem to be a bit quiet in sim so I also downloaded "Audacity" software which lets you increase the gain then re-export them.

https://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/

 

Edit: I used ogg files and they work. Aparently DCS prefers ogg files, or so I remember reading somewhere.

Edited September 2, 2020 by Hunter_5E

[Hunter_5E]

EDIT:

 

Seems I now also have this issue where I can't open sound files in the ME triggers menu... :(

Also reported in this thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=200726

 

I had the exact same problem over the weekend and I think it's because I had tried to open a sound file that was on my D:\ drive. Seems to throw DCS into a loop if your sound files are outside the Saved Games folders.

 

I ended up putting my sound files into a folder called Sounds inside my Missions folder and they work from there.

 

I had to re-boot my PC to get DCS out of its stuck loop and be able to open the sound files again. Just restarting DCS didn't work.

 

Hope that helps.

 

EDIT: Just tried opening sound files from D:\ drive again and they work, so scratch that suggestion.

 

And, I just remembered - I first tried the same free online text to speech converter that you did and that's where my problems started. I think their file formats are borked.

 

After I changed to the files from Balabolka (and after re-boot) everything worked again. I think its if DCS tries to open a bad file format that it gets into a loop. Re-boot should allow you to open files again as long as the format is good.

Edited September 2, 2020 by Hunter_5E

[sirrah]

Thanks Hunter 5E :thumbup:

 

I'll look into it!

[Rudel_chw]

sirrah said:

As per title

 

I found this one but it seems to only have female voice. The other ones I found, were either payware, or text-to-mp3 instead of .wav

 

I use https://ttsmp3.com/ tough it's free speech generation is limited to 3,000 characters per day. I don't mind that it generates only to mp3, as I really like the voice quality that it offers .. here is a sample of how they sound on my missions:

 

 

 

I convert the mp3 to OGG using this free website: https://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-ogg (make sure to tick on "normalize audio" to get a DCS compatible file)

 

Quote

Also, I created a small mission and added a sound to all trigger. I selected a .wav file, but I can't play it in DCS. Also it can't be heard in the mission and it doesn't show next to the "open" button in the mission editor. When I unzip my mission, I can see the .wav file is there though. Anyone any idea what's happening there?

 

no idea, I've never used WAV for DCS sounds, only OGG.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Rudel_chw

[Hunter_5E]

That is really good quality speech for a free converter Rudel, good find.

 

I'll be giving that one a try soon. :thumbup:

[InfinityWingman]

This is a good free one (IBM watson) with a ton of voices that sound pretty real to me. http://https:\\text-to-speech-demo.ng.bluemix.net

 

Example of using it in one of my missions:

 

To create realistic radio sound, get Audacity and follow this: https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/audacity-radio-voice-effect

 

You can also mix in radio alert tones to mix in before and after the speech.

I have a sort of blank template set up with audacity to do this stuff.

[Project Dynamism]

Hi,

 

Recently I started putting audio in one of my missions and settled on the following combo

 

https://ttsmp3.com/

-> text to MP3

with

https://convertio.co/en/

-> MP3 to WAV

 

To me as a non-native speaker it sounds convincing. Having no problem with above generated WAV files in the editor.

[vctpil]

This one also is quite nice :

 

https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/

[sirrah]

I use https://ttsmp3.com/ tough it's free speech generation is limited to 3,000 characters per day.

 

I convert the mp3 to OGG using this free website: https://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-ogg (make sure to tick on "normalize audio" to get a DCS compatible file)

 

I tried this and the text to audio works fine. The mp3 generated, works.

 

But when I convert from mp3 to ogg I think something goes wrong, because the audio files won't play in DCS

 

 

Added a screenshot of the ogg converter. Are my settings ok?

 

Also added the mp3 and converted ogg file

Radio check.zip

[Bailey]

take a look at amazon polly. https://aws.amazon.com/polly/

exports as:

MP3

OGG

PCM

Speech Marks.

Has about 8 English voices an 20 from other languages. And its free if you are not doing a TON of text-2-speech.

Edited September 3, 2020 by Bailey

[Hunter_5E]

@sirrah

 

I tried your .ogg file and it works fine for me in both Stable 2.5.6.52437 and Open Beta 2.5.6.54046, although it is a bit quiet.

 

Did it not play at all for you or did you just not hear it? I struggled to hear my sounds at first and had to adjust my in sim audio settings to be able to hear them well. Screenshot below with my audio settings.

 

Also noticed that your file had a high bit rate and was quite a big file. Screenshot below with my recommended converter settings to keep files small but still good quality.

 

I've recently noticed that the sound file selection window doesn't show the "play" controls for all files, even though they are created with the same settings. Selection window seems to only show play controls for short sound clips. Even so, if you select a sound that won't play in that window, it will play with the "play" control in the main triggers window. See screenshots.

 

Hope that's of some help.

[ataribaby]

I am using this one https://github.com/akaAgar/radio-message-generator

 

If you are interested I made my own modification so it produces ogg files directly.

 

Just added modified version as attachement. Use Save OGG button.

Release.zip

Edited September 3, 2020 by ataribaby

[Rudel_chw]

I am using this one https://github.com/akaAgar/radio-message-generator

 

If you are interested I made my own modification so it produces ogg files directly.

 

Just added modified version as attachement. Use Save OGG button.

 

Thanks a lot for sharing this .. just tested it and the male english voice is quite good, if a bit too fast (even on the slowest setting). Seems to be limited to short messages only, as longer ones are cut short .. Please, can you modify it so that it allows longer texts?

 

Best regards

[sirrah]

@sirrah

 

I tried your .ogg file and it works fine for me in both Stable 2.5.6.52437 and Open Beta 2.5.6.54046, although it is a bit quiet.

 

Did it not play at all for you or did you just not hear it? I struggled to hear my sounds at first and had to adjust my in sim audio settings to be able to hear them well. Screenshot below with my audio settings.

 

Also noticed that your file had a high bit rate and was quite a big file. Screenshot below with my recommended converter settings to keep files small but still good quality.

 

I've recently noticed that the sound file selection window doesn't show the "play" controls for all files, even though they are created with the same settings. Selection window seems to only show play controls for short sound clips. Even so, if you select a sound that won't play in that window, it will play with the "play" control in the main triggers window. See screenshots.

 

Hope that's of some help.

Very helpful!

 

I am using this one https://github.com/akaAgar/radio-message-generator

 

If you are interested I made my own modification so it produces ogg files directly.

 

Just added modified version as attachement. Use Save OGG button.

 

That's great! I'll give it a try :thumbup:

 

 

 

 

I love this community! :wub:

(Or at least the larger portion)

[Hunter_5E]

@ataribaby - That's a very cool radio message generator. I like that it automatically adds the radio sounds. Perfect for DCS.

 

@sirrah - Yup, you gotta love the good side of this community. Helped me many times over and I try to do my bit where I can too.

 

Question - do you guys have to boost the gain on your sound files to match the volume of in game speech like the request refuel/rearm and ground crew reply for example?

 

I've found that no matter what speech generator I use, I always have to boost gain by 8 to 10 dB on my sound files to make them come through in DCS at the same volume level as the ground crew conversation. If I don't boost the gain they sound about half the volume of the built in DCS speech.

[sirrah]

I am using this one https://github.com/akaAgar/radio-message-generator

 

If you are interested I made my own modification so it produces ogg files directly.

 

Just added modified version as attachement. Use Save OGG button.

 

Could you please explain to me how to use this?

 

I unzipped the "Release" file and tried to run the RadioMessageGenerator.exe, but nothing happens. I'm probably doing something wrong :(

[ataribaby]

Probably missing .net framework runtime. You need .net framework 4.5 installed to run it.

 

Also try donwload and run release from https://github.com/akaAgar/radio-message-generator if it works for you instead my modified version.

 

Look at windows event log for error message otherwise hard to help you. Like looking into crystal ball.

Edited September 4, 2020 by ataribaby

[sirrah]

Probably missing .net framework runtime. You need .net framework 4.5 installed to run it.

 

Also try donwload and run release from https://github.com/akaAgar/radio-message-generator if it works for you instead my modified version.

 

Look at windows event log for error message otherwise hard to help you. Like looking into crystal ball.

 

.net framework 4.5 was already installed. Also tried the un-modified version of the Radio message generator, but same result. Double click RadioMessageGenerator.exe, I see Windows try to do something (the small blue circular thingy) and then nothing happens.

 

Sorry to bother you with this, but could you tell me what to look for in the Windows event log? Never used it before

 

EDIT:

Think I just found it (see screenshot). No idea though what it all means :P

Edited September 4, 2020 by sirrah

[ataribaby]

Looks like you are missing TTS engine on your system or there is some problem with that.

 

Try install MS TTS again.

[sirrah]

Looks like you are missing TTS engine on your system or there is some problem with that.

 

Try install MS TTS again.

 

 

Is this an official Microsoft app? I do my mission editing on my work laptop (as my main pc is setup for VR only) and I'm supposed to be careful with installing apps from unknown sources.

 

I found this on the Microsoft App store: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/search?q=TTS

[Hunter_5E]

What version of Windows are you running sirrah?

 

You need to look for core Microsoft Text to Speech engine, rather than apps.

 

Edit: I think the Microsoft Speech Engine has been built in to the last few Windows versions as the only download I can find for "Microsoft Speech Platform - Runtime" is on here and it's dated 2011.

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/search.aspx?q=Microsoft+Speech+Platform+-+Server+Runtime+Languages&p=0&r=10&t=&first=31

 

Since you're using your work laptop - have you got an IT person in the office? Maybe ask them to install TTS on it for you?

 

If you're running a recent version of Windows, maybe it just needs turned on in settings?

Edited September 4, 2020 by Hunter_5E

[sirrah]

What version of Windows are you running sirrah?

 

You need to look for core Microsoft Text to Speech engine, rather than apps.

 

Edit: I think the Microsoft Speech Engine has been built in to the last few Windows versions as the only download I can find for "Microsoft Speech Platform - Runtime" is on here and it's dated 2011.

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/search.aspx?q=Microsoft+Speech+Platform+-+Server+Runtime+Languages&p=0&r=10&t=&first=31

 

Since you're using your work laptop - have you got an IT person in the office? Maybe ask them to install TTS on it for you?

 

If you're running a recent version of Windows, maybe it just needs turned on in settings?

 

I don't want to involve our IT department as they are gonna ask me why I want this and I don't think DCS World is on the "trusted" software list :P

 

I'll try and figure it out myself. Any idea where I can turn TTS on?

I searched for "TTS" and "text to speech" in my Windows start menu and I did find some stuff. However I didn't find a main on/off button so far

[Hunter_5E]

Depends on what Windows version you have. I'm running "Windows 10 Home" version and it's under Settings, Time & Language.

 

Pretty sure mine was on by default though and there doesn't appear to be an "On/Off" option.

Edited September 4, 2020 by Hunter_5E

[sirrah]

Depends on what Windows version you have. I'm running "Windows 10 Home" version and it's under Settings, Time & Language.

 

Pretty sure mine was on by default though and there doesn't appear to be an "On/Off" option.

 

Yes, that's exactly what I also see. Wonder why it's still not working then :huh: