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eSpeak: Voice Files
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5. VOICES
5.1 Voice Files
A Voice file specifies a language (and possibly a language variant or dialect) together with various attributes that affect the characteristics of the voice quality and how the language is spoken.
Voice files are placed in the espeak-data/voices directory, or within subdirectories in there.
The available voice files can be listed by:
espeak --voices
or
espeak --voices=<language>
5.2 Contents of Voice Files
The language attribute is mandatory. All the other attributes are optional.
Identification Attributes
-
name <name>
- A name given to this voice.
-
language <language code> [<priority>]
- This attribute should appear before the other attributes which are listed below.
It selectes the default behaviour and characteristics for the language, and sets default values for
"phonemes", "dictionary" and other attributes. The <language code> should be a two-letter ISO 639-1 language code. One or more language variant codes may be appended, separated by hyphens. (eg. en-uk-north).
The optional <priority> value gives the preference of this voice compared with others for the specified language. A low value indicates a more preferred voice. The default value is 5.
More than one language line may be present. A voice may be selected for other related languages (variants which have the same initial 2 letter language code as the specified language), but it will be less preferred for these. Different language variants may be specified by additional language lines in order to indicate that this is a preferred voice for them also. Eg.
language en-uk-north
language en
indicates that this is voice is for the "en-uk-north" dialect, but it is also a main choice when a general "en" language is specified. Without the second language line, it would be disfavoured for "en" for being a more specialised voice.
-
gender <gender> [<age>]
-
This attribute is only a label for use in voice selection. It doesn't change the sound of the voice.
<gender> may be male, female, or unknown.
<age> is optional and gives an age in years.
Voice Attributes
-
pitch <base> <range>
- Two integer values.
The first gives a base pitch to the voice (value in Hz)
The second controls the range of pitches used by the voice. Setting
it equal to the base pitch will give a monotone. The default values are 82 118.
-
formant <number> <frequency> <strength> <width> <freq_add>
- Systematically adjusts the frequency, strength, and width of the
resonance peaks of the voice. Values are percentages of the
default values. Changing these affects the tone/quality of the voice.
freq_add Adds a constant value (in Hz) to the frequency of the formant peak. The value may be negative.
- Formants 1,2,3 are the standard three formants which define vowels.
- Formant 0 is used to give a low frequency component to the sounds, of
frequency lower than F1.
- Formants 4,5 are higher than F3. They affect the quality of the voice.
- Formants 6,7,8 are weak, high frequency, additions to vowels to give
a clearer sound.
-
echo <delay> <amplitude>
- Parameter 1 gives the delay in mS (0 to 250mS).
Parameter 2 gives the echo amplitude (0 to 100).
Adding some echo can give a clearer or more interesting sound,
especially when listening through a domestic stereo sound system,
rather than small computer speakers.
-
tone
- Controls the tone of the sound.
tone is followed by up to 4 pairs of <frequency> <amplitude> which define a frequency response graph. Frequency is
in Hz and amplitude is in the range 0 to 255. The default is:
tone 600 170 1200 135 2000 110
This means that from frequency 0Hz to 600Hz the amplitude is 170. From
600Hz to 1200Hz the amplitude decreases from 170 to 135, then decreases to 110 at 2000Hz
and remains at 110 at higher frequencies. This adjustment applies only to voiced sounds such as
vowels and sonorant consonants (such as [n] and [l]). Unvoiced sounds such
as [s] are unaffected.
This tone statement can also appear in espeak-data/config, in which case it applies to all voices which
don't have their own tone statement.
-
flutter <value>
- Default value: 2.
Adds pitch fluctuations to give a wavering or older-sounding voice.
A large value (eg. 20) makes the voice sound "croaky".
-
roughness <value>
- Default value: 2. Range 0 - 7
Reduces the amplitude of alternate waveform cycles in order to make the voice sound creaky.
-
voicing <value>
- Default value: 100.
Adjusts the strength of formant-synthesized sounds (vowels and sonorant consonants).
-
consonants <value> <value>
- Default values: 100, 100.
Adjusts the strength of noise sounds which are used in consonants. The first value is the strength of unvoiced consonants such as "s" and "t". The second value is the strength of the noise component of voiced consonants such as "z" and "d".
-
breath <up to 8 integer values>
- Default values: 0.
Adds noise which corresponds to the formant frequency peaks. The values give the strength
of noise for each formant peak (formants 1 to 8).
Use together with a low or zero value of the voicing attribute to make a "wisper".
For example:
breath 75 75 60 40 15 10
breathw 150 150 200 200 400 400
voicing 18
flutter 20
formant 0 100 0 100 // remove formant 0
-
breathw <up to 8 integer values>
-
These values give bandwidths of the noise peaks of the breath attribute. If breathw values are not given, then suitable default values will be used.
Language Attributes
5.3 Voice Files Provided
A number of Voice files are provided in the espeak-data/voices directory.
You can select one of these with the -v <voice filename> parameter to the
speak command.
-
default
- This voice is used if none is specified in the speak command. Copy your preferred voice to "default" so you can use the speak command without the need to specify a voice.
For a list of voices provided for English and other languages see Languages.
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