SayBuf

Extension

Description

SayBuf helps the Say class to render text-to-speech as soundfiles and buffers, in order to use play them as sound sources within SC.

Rendering say-events to soundfiles is on average 15-40x faster than realtime (tested on a 2014 Macbook Pro), so with short text fragments, writing soundfiles and reading them into buffers is fast enough for near-realtime use.

SayBuf has two schemes for preparing buffers: By default, it uses a ring of 100 buffers that get used round-robin. This leaves the most recent buffers loaded, and is recommended.

Creating and freeing buffers individually is also supported.SayBuf.usesRoundRobin // prepare a sayEvent, use bufAction to say it as soon as ready: SayBuf.prepare( (text: "this is 'say' from a buffer!", voice: \Alex, bufAction: (_.play)) ); // Say the example texts for all voices backwards with buffers: ( Tdef(\allVoicesByBuf, { Say.voices.do { |voicedict| // make the say event var ev = ( voice: voicedict.name.postcs, text: voicedict.exampleText, // this will play the buffer instantly when it is ready: bufAction: { |buf| (instrument: \saybuf, buf: buf.bufnum, pan: 1.0.rand2, // stereo pan rate: exprand(-0.5, -2) // randomize playback rate ).postln.play; } ); // render it to a buffer SayBuf.prepare(ev, s); 1.wait; }; // wait long enough for the last buffer to finish playback 5.wait; // if you used the bufs pool, the free all buffers and delete temp soundfiles // SayBuf.freeBufs; }).play; ) // The newer high-res voices can have rates between 90 and 720 syllables per second. // say ignores rates outside that range and plays them at default rate! // Therefore, Say clips them to this range, so that e.g. too-fast rates run at maimum rate. ( Tdef(\rateTest, { var rates = (16..0).linexp(0, 16, 90, 720).round(0.01).postln; rates.do { |rate| var ev = ( rate: rate, text: "rate test 1 2 3 4 5", bufAction: { |buf| (instrument: \saybuf, buf: buf.bufnum, pan: 1.0.rand2, // stereo pan ).postln.play; } ); // render it to a buffer SayBuf.prepare(ev, s); 1.wait; }; }).play; )

Class Methods

.dir

.freeBuf

.clearDir

.bufs

.bufring

.prepare

Examples

More on Preparing Speech to Buffers

// TODO: measure all prepare variants and recommend best ones. // e.g. try with SayBuf.prepare in fork and non-fork versions.// use saybuf to write to a buffer and use it: SayBuf.prepare((type: \say, voice: "Anna", text: "saybuf", bufAction: { |b| b.play })); // prepare a single file by hand, to measure time it takes: ( var x = File.mkdir("~/Desktop/saybuf".standardizePath); var dict = Say.voices.choose; var starttime = Main.elapsedTime; var path = "~/Desktop/saybuf/%.aiff".format(dict.name).standardizePath; var event = (type: \say, voice: dict.name, text: dict.exampleText, wait: true, cmds: "-o" + path).play; var writetime = Main.elapsedTime - starttime; var sfdur = SoundFile.openRead(path).duration; "// dur, prepTime, ratio: ".postln; [sfdur, writetime, sfdur / writetime].round(0.001).postln; ) // prepare a lot of them in sequence with WAITING and measure overall time: ( var x = File.mkdir("~/Desktop/saybuf".standardizePath); var starttime = Main.elapsedTime; var delta, sfdur; var pathnames = Say.voices.collect { |dict| var path = "~/Desktop/saybuf/%.aiff".format(dict.name).standardizePath; "preparing : %\n".postf(dict.name); (type: \say, voice: dict.name, text: dict.exampleText, cmds: "-o" + path, wait: true).play; path }; var writetime = Main.elapsedTime - starttime; var durs = pathnames.collect { |path| SoundFile.openRead(path).duration; }; var ratio = durs.sum / writetime; "// durSum, prepTime, ratio: ".postln; [durs.sum, writetime, ratio].round(0.001).postln; ) // on MacBook Pro 2015 2,9 GHz Intel Core i5: // durSum, prepTime, ratio: [ 238.263, 16.778, 14.201 ] // prepare a lot of files by pipeline using maxPIDs ( Say.pendingPIDs.clear; Say.maxPIDs = 16; Tdef(\prepAll, { var start = Main.elapsedTime; var durSum, prepTime, ratio; Say.voices.do { |dict| Say.pendingPIDs.size.postln; while { Say.pendingPIDs.size >= (Say.maxPIDs - 1) } { 0.01.wait }; "preparing : %\n".postf(dict.name); SayBuf.prepare( (voice: dict.name, text: dict.exampleText, bufAction: { |b| var writetime = Main.elapsedTime - start; var dur = b.duration; ratio = dur / writetime; d.put(dict.name.asSymbol, [dur, writetime, ratio]) }) ); 0.01.wait; }; while { d.size < Say.voices.size } { 0.01.wait }; durSum = d.sum(_[0]); prepTime = Main.elapsedTime - start; ratio = durSum / prepTime; "// durSum, prepTime, ratio: ".postln; [durSum, prepTime, ratio].round(0.001).postln; }).play; ) // on MacBook Pro 2015 2,9 GHz Intel Core i5: // not really faster, even a bit slower ... // durSum, prepTime, ratio: [ 238.263, 18.19, 13.099 ]