Voice Attack with Microsoft Alternative TTS Voices.

[yxpoh]

Hi all,

This was posted by "Voran" from the Roberts Space Industries forums, but I thought this might be useful, so I will just post it here as well. (Please do tell me what I need to do as well to give credits to Voran.)
Reason why I posted the text here, is because the thread is being blocked via forum login.

Example with Japanese Haruka TTS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sf6UsMLlQY&index=2&list=PLKa5kS01PpP4RpUbxdiXwL-C_lftv2xUJ

So if your sick of Microsoft Anna, here is how to get some alternatives:

!!!WARNING!!!

This involves manual edits to your registry. If you mess it up, don't blame me. Do at your own risk.

Step 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Install the Speech Platform v11 (Yxpoh: You might be better off using 32-bit, as VA seems to be only 32-bit right now. At least I was having problems with the x64 version in Windows 10.)

a) go here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27225
b) click "Download"
c) select the "x64_SpeechPlatformRuntime\SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi"
d) run the installer (duh )

Step 2: --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Get the alternate voices

a) go here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224
b) click "Download"
c) select the voice files you want. They are the ones that have "TTS" in the file name. There are 6 English (all female). I have not listened to the other languages, so I dont know how they sound. GB_Hazel and US_ZiraPro are IMO the better sounding voices.
MSSpeech_TTS_en-CA_Heather
MSSpeech_TTS_en-GB_Hazel
MSSpeech_TTS_en-IN_Heera
MSSpeech_TTS_en-US_Helen
MSSpeech_TTS_en-US_ZiraPro
MSSpeech_TTS_en-AU_Hayley
d) run the installers for each (duh )

Step 3: --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Extract the registry tokens

a) Open Regedit
b) Under - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices - right click the "Tokens" folder and export. Save this file to your desktop as voices1.reg so it will be easy to find later.

YXPOH: Skip the b) if you are using the x86 or 32 bit version.
b) Under - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices - right click "Tokens" and again export it, again to the desktop. Call it voices2.reg.

Step 4: --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit the voices1/2 files

a) open Voices1.reg in Notepad.
b) press "cntrl + H"
c) enter \Speech Server\v11.0\ into the "Find What" field
d) enter \Speech\ into the "Replace With" field
e) click "Replace All"
f) Save File

YXPOH: Skip the g) if you are using the x86 or 32 bit version.
g) Repeat a-f with the Voices2.reg file

Step 5: --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merge the new Registry files into your registry

a) double click to "run" both Voices1.reg and Voices2.reg
b) Click "Yes" when it prompts

You should now have access to the new voices in Voice Attack, and in the Windows TTS options menu(Not able if you are using Windows 10. Only works for Voice attack, for some reason...).

This process may also work with other voice packs. I have a couple others I will try when I get home and will edit this post if they are successful

Hope this helps everyone to get more voices.

[ralf44]

Thank you OP, this is very useful info which I could not find in the FAQ or elsewhere. Since there is no feature to Like or +1 a thread I am bumping it and suggest that it should be Stickied.

[Gtrshop]

I have done this, I located it myself before joining this forum. I still cannot get Voice Attack to use the GB Hazel voice. Any help out there?

[Gtrshop]

OK, I have managed to get MS Hazel working, so I'm posting this for the benefit of anyone else who might have trouble. I can't make and guarantees this wont crash your system as its a REGISTRY MODIFICATION...so do so at your own peril

The initial tutorial (above) indicates to make some modifications after downloading and installing the required files. Do all those things first.

Next...

GO back a level or two and export the Voices folder. THis will grab values for ANNA also. You have to be able to see ANNA and whatever other voice packs in the TOKENS folder. Since the ANNA files are referenced from this location, you have to see the added voices packs here also.

The important part:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\MS-Anna-1033-20-DSK\Attributes]
"Age"="Adult"
"AudioFormats"="18"
"Gender"="Female"
"Language"="409"
"Name"="Microsoft Anna"
"Vendor"="Microsoft"
"Version"="2.0"

Hazel's language is 809 by default. Change it to whatever ANNA is set to...409... and change the Version number to 2.0, instead of 11.0.
See my registry entry below:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\TTS_MS_en-GB_Hazel_11.0\Attributes]
@=""
"Age"="Adult"
"AudioFormats"="18"
"Gender"="Female"
"Language"="409"
"Name"="Microsoft Hazel"
"Vendor"="Microsoft"
"Version"="2.0"


I also changed the "name" to Microsoft Hazel, instead of whatever was there... I doubt that had any effect, I believe that changing the VERSION was the key.

I did the same thing with ZiraPro, but have not tested it..since getting Hazel to work was my goal.

I hope this helps someone else.

Steve

[Rhaedas]

Just a side note, when that thread went login viewers only, someone grabbed it and preserved it for non-SC players.

http://deepbot.deep.sg/forums/index.php?topic=5285.0

[ralf44]

Bump, please sticky