Engines/Voices
The Engines / Voices panel is used to configure the speech engines and voices used by TextAloud.
Setting Engine and Voices Options
- From the menu, select Options -> Voices and File Options
- Select the Engines / Voices Options panel.
The following fields are available on the File Options panel
| Field or Control |
Description |
| SAPI Version |
Use this dropdown list to restrict which speech engines are loaded by TextAloud.. |
| Treeview |
The treeview contains a list of Engines and Voices loaded into TextAloud. |
| Slider Controls |
Speed, Pitch and Volume slider controls are enabled if you select a voice entry from the treeview. |
Setting SAPI Version
SAPI is Microsoft's Speech Application Interface, and is an interface for application programs like TextAloud to interact with speech engines. There are currently two versions of SAPI available, SAPI4 and SAPI5. Both interfaces are supported by TextAloud, but there are some differences in available / implemented features.
The following table summarizes the main differences between using SAPI4 and SAPI5 speech engines in TextAloud:
| Engine Feature |
SAPI4 Support |
SAPI5 Support |
| Pause Tags (manually inserted / automatically generated) |
Most Voices |
Yes |
| Progress Bar feedback when generating WAV files |
Yes |
No |
| Advanced Pronunciation Editor |
No |
Yes |
| Voice switching tags in TextAloud articles |
No |
Yes |
Engines that support SAPI implement one or both of the available SAPI interfaces. So setting the SAPI Version in TextAloud to either "Use SAPI4 Only" or "USE SAPI5 Only" will load only the voices that support the corresponding SAPI version, and exclude the other voices.
Some engines implement both interfaces, and will be available regardless of the SAPI version chosen. If "Use Both" is selected, TextAloud will use an engine's SAPI4 interface if the engine supports both interfaces. If you want to use Voice Switching Tags or the Advanced Pronunciation Editor for these voices, you must switch the SAPI Version to "Use SAPI5 Only".
Setting Volume
The volume control on the Engine / Voices panel is a SAPI attribute of a voice, like Pitch and Speed. Use the volume setting to set the volume of a voice relative to other voice volumes. Changing the volume control on this panel does not effect your system audio volume.
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