eSpeak-NG: A Compact TTS Solution for Apple Devices

In this episode, Ida Grace introduces eSpeak-NG, a compact open-source software text-to-speech synthesizer available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Developed by Yury Popov, eSpeak-NG supports over 100 languages and accents. It is built upon the original eSpeak engine created by Jonathan Duddington. The app acts as a compatibility layer between the eSpeak NG library and Apple VoiceOver, enhancing accessibility for users with visual impairments.

eSpeak-NG on the App Store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/espeak-ng/id6444089174

transcription:
Disclaimer: This transcript is generated by AIKO, an automated transcription service. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hello AppleVis.

This is Ida again and I'm back with another demonstration.

This one is somewhat by request, so thank you for the person who requested this podcast.

They said that they really wanted a demonstration of this app, so I hope that this is satisfactory.

I am doing a demonstration today of the eSpeak NG app.

This app will add the eSpeak synthesizer to VoiceOver for anybody who wants it.

There are settings that you have to change within the app, or that you can change within the app if you want to, and then you can go into the actual VoiceOver settings to start using eSpeak.

Right now I'm using Daniel, which is not an eSpeak voice, but I will select an eSpeak voice throughout this demonstration.

So I am in the app right now, and the first thing you get...

It says eSpeak NG.

It's eSpeak NG, Daniel.

Learn how to pronounce words, please.

Anyway, so this is the name of the app.

So the first button you come to, if I swipe to the right here, that button allows you to set up what languages you want VoiceOver to have available to you in the eSpeak app.

So if I go in here...

First thing you see is back, of course.

You can search in that field for a specific voice and language.

Okay, I deselected that one because that is not my user-preferred language.

As you can tell by Daniel, he is English UK, not English US, so I deselected that.

But in order to do that, I had to keep going to the right.

Let me show you.

So under user-preferred, the only thing that seems to be there is English United States.

Whether it's selected or not, you can double-tap to select and deselect it.

Under this system heading, it gives you all the languages.

And the only one in here for English right now is English UK because I deselected the English United States.

So that means that when we go into the VoiceOver settings, the eSpeak United States English voices will not be available because I deselected that one.

Because I personally think that United States English eSpeak sounds very bad, which I will demonstrate in a moment.

But you have all of these languages that you can, of course, choose what language is your preferred language in this languages listed below may be poorly supported by VoiceOver and might be broken at all.

They are available in spoken content.

Okay, so that's a little disclaimer about the eSpeak app and the VoiceOver languages that it supports.

Okay, so then it's just going to keep going and all of the languages that are available.

There's different dialects of different languages, you know, like English US, English UK.

There's different Spanish dialects and different Chinese dialects and Afrikaans dialects.

So you can select the ones you want.

Right now, I only have English UK selected, which means that only the English UK voices will be available when we go into settings for VoiceOver.

But before I do that, I just touch the top left corner of the screen for the back button because I want to explore and show you there are some other settings within the app that you can fiddle with.

Okay, so I back down to the language settings.

Okay, so the about button is obviously going to just tell you different things about the app.

You have the eSpeak NG, back button, about, head eSpeak NG, the eSpeak NG is a compact open source software text to speech synthesizer.

It supports more than 100 languages and accents.

It is based on the eSpeak engine created by Jonathan Dadington.

GitHub button, eSpeak NG iOS app. eSpeak NG app is wrote by Yuri Popov, Angiophobics.

It is always free and open with respect for the blind people.

Okay.

GitHub button, Xenogram button, VK button, VK button.

Okay, so that is giving you information about the app.

Back out of the about.

Okay, now this language selector button is for the text that you want to type in to hear a sample of the text.

So next to this English language selector, there is a text field.

Voice selector none.

Button, text to speak.

My name is Ida.

I am recording a podcast for Apple this demonstrating the eSpeak NG app for voiceover.

Meep meep.

And you can type your text in there.

Synthesize.

And then you double tap on synthesize.

Right now I have the speak sample voice on English America, so it's going to sound like eSpeak speaking American English.

But if I double tap on synthesize, it will speak the text.

My name is Ida.

I am recording a podcast for Apple this demonstrating the eSpeak NG app for voiceover.

Meep meep.

Meep meep.

This is the second podcast in a row that I've meeped.

Anybody who has heard of Coyote and Roadrunner, you'll understand.

Anyway, so you'll notice when I double tap the synthesize button, it doesn't make the double tap click noise, the voiceover double tap click noise.

That is because you are going to hear, it's going to speak the voice as clearly as possible.

So you're not going to hear the double tap click voiceover noise because it wants to synthesize the voice as clearly as possible.

My name is Ida.

I am recording a podcast for Apple this demonstrating the eSpeak NG app for voiceover.

Meep meep.

So if I go back to the left, voice selector language selector English America, and I change this language selector for the sample text.

Okay, let's select that one.

So this is similar to the voiceover languages dialogue box that we explored a little bit ago, only it only has languages.

Language selector English, Great Britain, but okay, and then you can also select voice selector none, but a voice my favorite is Max.

None.

Adam.

I'm swiping to the right to get through all these.

Jeff, John, Walter.

Okay, almost.

But here we go.

Language selector English, Great Britain, voice selector Max, but okay, so now it's going to speak with Max's voice in Great Britain if I synthesize this text.

My name is Ida.

I'm recording a podcast for Apple this demonstrating the eSpeak NG app for voiceover.

Meep meep.

Yay.

Okay, so.

Rate 12% adjustable.

So these are other settings you can adjust in the app.

We have the rate, volume, pitch, pitch, word gap, 0%, adjust.

Word gap is similar to the per voice, the per voice setting in voiceover.

So that's what this is.

Inflation, 50% adjustable.

Okay, I do want to show you this because if you turn the inflection all the way down and you're using Max, he sounds kind of like Arctic Speech Chip.

And we all want Arctic Speech Chip to come back, don't we?

50%, 50%, 50%.

Oh, that's interesting.

It was letting me change it last night.

And now when I swipe up and down, it's not letting me change the inflection in the app.

So I think you have to be in the voiceover settings to do that.

We will explore that.

SSNO break time multiplier, 50%, adjustable.

Inflection, word gap.

Okay, so those are the settings you adjust in the app itself.

Now we're going to close the app.

App switcher.

And we are going to open voiceover settings.

Because now these voices are available to us in voiceover.

Voiceover.

Voice, voice, tap, dub, lip, lop, speak, speech.

We go into speech.

Voiceover.

And we go into voice, speech.

And it's saying voice Daniel because right now that's who I have selected.

But if I go...

English, English, US.

That heading not found.

English, Australia, English.

English Island, English, English, South Africa, English, UK.

Heading, selected, Daniel, eloquence, SPBNG.

There it is, eSpeakNG because I have the app installed.

So I'm going to double tap here.

English, English.

And now it gives me a list of all of the voices.

And again, this is only under English UK because that's the only language I wanted available in the app.

So SPBNG at English UK Adam.

Okay.

So now it's going to give us all of the eSpeak voices.

And of course you can have it speak a sample.

Hello, my name is Adam.

Ew.

I don't like his...

Ew.

Gross.

That voice is weird.

Oh my.

Okay.

I'm going to swipe over to Max, which is going to take a while because there's millions of voices in this thing.

Okay.

We're on I, J, K, M, M. Here is Max.

So.

I like him.

So.

Ready?

We're going to change my voice over voice.

Bye, Daniel.

Boom.

Then we did it.

Now.

Okay.

I'm going to just touch the top left of the...

Okay.

There's the back button.

Okay.

So now that I've selected eSpeakNG and selected a voice, now when I go back out, it's going to tell me the current voice I have selected is eSpeakNG Max. eSpeakNG, of course, being the synthesizer and Max being the voice.

And now I'm back in the list of UK voices available for voiceover.

And now...

Oh, and we're in the language list.

Okay.

So now I'm going to go back out of the voice.

So now we're at the voice.

Okay.

So it's all the same settings that you're used to.

None of that has changed.

Okay.

So it appears that you cannot...

I haven't found a way in playing around with this.

You cannot actually change the inflections in here.

You can change the rate, obviously.

And the rate and pitch and volume settings are available in the eSpeak app for these specific voices.

Okay.

So that is basically a demonstration of the eSpeak app, my friends.

It is a very simple, very basic app to use.

Very high quality voices.

They don't take up that much room.

And if you want the eSpeak voices, this app is free to download.

So you do go to the app store and you search for eSpeak NG, and then it is a free app and all the voices are free.

One other thing I did want to mention is that if you...

And I tried this out for fun to see what would happen.

And if you have a voice from eSpeak selected, and then you...

Yeah, if you heard it, went back to Samantha.

So if you have a voice selected for VoiceOver from the eSpeak app, and then you go out of the eSpeak app and you go to your home screen and you delete the eSpeak app, it will default back to VoiceOver's default voice, which is Samantha.

For a second, it was on Daniel, which is the voice I had before eSpeak.

So I thought it was going to stay with Daniel.

Mindfulness.

But it has not.

It has gone back to Samantha.

So now I have to...

And compact version of Samantha no less.

Anyway, I will switch it back to Daniel.

But I tried that out because I wanted to see what would happen if you had a voice from eSpeak selected and you deleted the app in which it resided.

I wanted to know, so I deleted the app.

And that is what happens.

And I figured that would be what would happen.

It would just default back to Samantha compact, which is VoiceOver's default voice when you first power it up.

But I thought maybe it would go back to Daniel or maybe it would shut VoiceOver completely off and I'd have to turn it on, which is fine.

But anyway, that is the eSpeak app, my friends.

Very simple app to use.

And it is free.

And the voices are small and high quality.

So if you like them, or if you use them on a regular basis, if you're an NVDA user, or you just use eSpeak on any program, and you like them on your iPhone or iPad, now you know that that is the eSpeak app for iOS and iPad OS.

If you have any questions, you can feel free to email me at rainbow.girl.radio at gmail.com.

So thank you all for listening, and goodbye for now.