[Guide] Text-To-Speech (TTS) in (almost) any language

[rsb007]

First of all, sorry for my english. I know thats not so good, but I think you can understand it

In this guide I'll teach how to install almost any TTS language (non-robotic) so your device can read things in your native language without problems.

1) Plug your device on computer and create a folder named VocalizerEx
2) Download and install on your device the attached APK
3) Visit this website and download your language. It will be better if you download Premium High
3) Rename that file adding .zip at the end and open it
4) Extract all files and folders of the zip to this folder (created on Step 1)
(Now you can unplug your device)
5) On your device, go to Settings > Language and Input > Text-to-speech output and then select VocalizerEx TTS

Done, now your device speaks your language !

Please, hit THANKS if it helped you

 

[Talaki]

Thx a lot ! works fine with igo primo

 

[Bright.Light]

Sorry, but it didn't work on AOSB KitKat.

I have several folder (dun, eng, frf, ged, ...) in the ExtSdCard\VocalizerEx folder, installed the APK.

I can select VocalizerEx TTS in the text output, but in the settings the language selection is disabled.
So, I tried to change the Voice data folder in the settings to the folder I put the voices in. Still, it didn't work, even after selecting another engine and back to reinitialize the VocalizerEx TTS engine.

Can anyone help me with this?

Edit: Got it working, somehow the appplication doesn't look for the correct folder, despite the possibility to put the voice data on SD card.

Now I have to get iGo with Dutch TTS voice going with this - strange thing is that iGo ONLY works when the Google TTS engine with English language is selected... If not, there is no way to select a TTS voice in iGo.

 

[zedonetx]

hi,
how do we let the program speak the text? i want it to read my smses and caller id. but i dont know how to do.
ps. i installed the apk, formed the folder , and extracted the zip file (premium voices) into it.

 

[beegeero]

In this guide I'll teach how to install almost any TTS language (non-robotic) so your device can read things in your native language without problems.

Thank you for this.
Interesting.

 

[SpPes]

The link for languages is corrupt, exist other one?

 

[ismaels]

you're a life saver, thank you

 

[n'oliv]

Nice thread, it solved my problem with TTS with tasker ans the command "say".
Nice job

 

[mlmoracle]

Hi my bro,

Is it possible to add voices of several country ?

 

[Tony il Capo]

Awesome, it works nicely, can't believe I only found this now... the voices are great quality, can't understand why aren't more people using this. :good:

Hi my bro,

Is it possible to add voices of several country ?

I have tested multiple languages at the same time and it seems to work ok.

 

[xdan8r]

Awesome, it works nicely, can't believe I only found this now... the voices are great quality, can't understand why aren't more people using this.

I agree, these voices are great! I've been looking for tts this good for months and just randomly found this thread. Works perfect on LOS 14.1. Just wanted to share some findings for future readers. You can hear samples of these voices here: http://codefactoryglobal.com/speech-technology/voice-licensing.

After finding that page, I noticed that some of the better english voices (e.g. english-uk malcolm and oliver) weren't available at the vocalizer-nvda site originally mentioned. As discussed here: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?id=22240, those voices are found elsewhere and need a more recent version of the apk. In that thread, they provide a link to a zip that contains the more recent apk and a few additional files needed here: http://www.tyflonet.com/siciliano/VocalizerEx2_TTS.zip

Once you extract the zip and install the apk, create a "VocalizerEx2" dir in your main user dir (should be /storage/emulated/0) and copy the "languages/common" dir from the zip to that dir. You can then download the newer voices from here: http://blindhelp.net/software/vocalizer-expressive-nvda/voices. Choose your language and hit apply as not all the voices they have are in the list first shown.

Download the voices you want and as with the original instructions, add a .zip extension to the downloaded file(s), extract, and copy the contents into the VocalizerEx2 dir you created. You can have multiple voices in that dir that you select by changing the language within the android tts settings for the "VocalizerEx2 TTS" engine.

Also, just as a final note, there is an app called "Vocalizer TTS Voice (English)" in the play store that provides/uses the same voices but is a different app and not what you want.

 

[Tony il Capo]

Thanks for the info.

btw, you don't need to add zip extension to the files if you use 7zip, a free and open source archiver/extractor. With the 'shell context menu' option enabled you can extract many files (that are actually some kind of archive), then just right click >7z >extract/open archive

 

[koroji]

I have tried everything mentioned here but it's still not working for me.
My device is a car head unit with android 7.1.1.
I installed vocalizerex (tried both 1 and 2) and created the folder VocalizerEx in /storage/emulated/0 with the downloaded voice inside this folder.
I can see the tts engine in settings but there is also another engine preinstalled (pico tts). If I select vocalizerex and go into its settings I can see and select my voice but it's never working. Also if I exit and enter the tts settings again the selected engine is always the pico tts.
Could it be a permissions issue and how could it be fixed on an unrooted device?

 

[leech4]

I have tried everything mentioned here but it's still not working for me.
My device is a car head unit with android 7.1.1.
I installed vocalizerex (tried both 1 and 2) and created the folder VocalizerEx in /storage/emulated/0 with the downloaded voice inside this folder.
I can see the tts engine in settings but there is also another engine preinstalled (pico tts). If I select vocalizerex and go into its settings I can see and select my voice but it's never working. Also if I exit and enter the tts settings again the selected engine is always the pico tts.
Could it be a permissions issue and how could it be fixed on an unrooted device?

Have you changed the actual location of "VocalizerEx" folder in application settings ?
If no, change it in application settings to the actual location of the folder (for example, "/storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx. exit settings and enter again, you should see your language as supported and listening to voice sample may work after that.

If you put the folder on sd card, maybe you have to grant application access to sd card, as I don't have android 7, you could probably find how to do it easily.

 

[koroji]

Have you changed the actual location of "VocalizerEx" folder in application settings ?
If no, change it in application settings to the actual location of the folder (for example, "/storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx. exit settings and enter again, you should see your language as supported and listening to voice sample may work after that.

If you put the folder on sd card, maybe you have to grant application access to sd card, as I don't have android 7, you could probably find how to do it easily.

The settings were correct. I am able to see and select the voice I put in /storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx.
The problem is it's never working and if I get in the settings again, the selected engine is not the vocalizerex but the pico tts.
It's like that it's never activated.

 

[leech4]

The settings were correct. I am able to see and select the voice I put in /storage/emulated/0/VocalizerEx.
The problem is it's never working and if I get in the settings again, the selected engine is not the vocalizerex but the pico tts.
It's like that it's never activated.

The engine is failing to initialize, either because it may require a reboot just after changing the default TTS engine, but I guess that it would be painful to try it several times (or at least once) in a car head unit, or it did'nt found required drivers/interface in the device.
For example, I still have a galaxy s3 with a custom stock ROM in which, SamsungTTS.apk was removed, every attemp to set a TTS engine failed till I grabbed the apk from another ROM and installed it as a regular application, after what, every TTS engine worked flawlessly.

BTW, did your unit came with the car or was it an aftermarket one ? Some after market units have their rom set to read only, not allowing to change any of default system settings or using any other preinstalled application, it may sound weird but I had seen such (faulty ?) units.

As a last attemp, you could probably "root" the unit, backup the system before doing anything in case something goes wrong, then force remove pico tts engine so the system will be "forced" to deal with the new voice engine. This is only a suggestion, if you are not familiar with such process, I highly recommend you to read througly the appropriate information available for your device before making any pricey mistake.

 

[koroji]

The engine is failing to initialize, either because it may require a reboot just after changing the default TTS engine, but I guess that it would be painful to try it several times (or at least once) in a car head unit, or it did'nt found required drivers/interface in the device.
For example, I still have a galaxy s3 with a custom stock ROM in which, SamsungTTS.apk was removed, every attemp to set a TTS engine failed till I grabbed the apk from another ROM and installed it as a regular application, after what, every TTS engine worked flawlessly.

BTW, did your unit came with the car or was it an aftermarket one ? Some after market units have their rom set to read only, not allowing to change any of default system settings or using any other preinstalled application, it may sound weird but I had seen such (faulty ?) units.

As a last attemp, you could probably "root" the unit, backup the system before doing anything in case something goes wrong, then force remove pico tts engine so the system will be "forced" to deal with the new voice engine. This is only a suggestion, if you are not familiar with such process, I highly recommend you to read througly the appropriate information available for your device before making any pricey mistake.

My unit is an aftermarket one. I'm not familiar with rooting android devices so I wan t try anything that could mess it up.
Is there any way to install an apk like you did, that would include the required drivers for the tts?
The pico tts is working so I think the reason might be a permissions issue. Could I change somehow this behaviour without rooting my device?

 

[leech4]

My unit is an aftermarket one. I'm not familiar with rooting android devices so I wan t try anything that could mess it up.
Is there any way to install an apk like you did, that would include the required drivers for the tts?
The pico tts is working so I think the reason might be a permissions issue. Could I change somehow this behaviour without rooting my device?

Generally, aftermarket means poor if no software support, they manage to get the latest android along with a series of production and stop at that step, they also may relase a poorly designed firmware that has an unsolved bug. If an official firmware update doesn't solve the issue for you, you should try the following suggestion, it does'nt require root, but it may require an extensive search without guarantee to find something suitable, here's how to proceed:
- As your unit is an aftermarket one, it is certainly a single SoC (System on Chip), usually a Rockchip RK31xx but it may be anything else. If you cannot open the unit to see the chip without messing it up, I suggest you to find a way to identify it exactly. Either looking with your reseller, or by seeing at the site where you could find firmware update. The filename of the update file may also give you the answer or a manufacturer code for the chip which you have to identify. Needless to say that the shortest path is to go straight and open carefully the unit, which may require to teardown a "warranty void" label, it's up to you.

- Find a phone that uses the exact Chip as your device (it may be any chinese cheap phone), IT HAS TO BE THE EXACT CHIP. No prefixe nor suffixe, not even a letter in difference, otherwise it may not work. Try googling "[YOUR CHIP NAME] based phones / devices"

- Look for a ROM / Official Firmware for that particular phone (or any other similar chip device if no success).

- Find a way to extract system apk's (it may be painful...) and try to identify any application related to tts, you can proceed by elimination. Usually TTS works fine with phones as it is more likely to be used in comparison to android based computers (TV boxes, gps, car units).

- Install what you extracted in your car unit and proceed with the VocalizerEx steps above.

For your second question, to change permissions (I guess file permissions) you have either to root you device or use ADB with usb connection to a laptop, with appropriate USB drivers required for your device (the chip...once again) and some technical stuff that includes CHMOD command I'm not familiar with ... you may find help around in xda.

- Good luck :fingers-crossed:

 

[shnk123]

no Hindi or Tamil, why?

 

[IngolfN]

Link to zip is broken

... As discussed here: ..., those voices are found elsewhere and need a more recent version of the apk. In that thread, they provide a link to a zip that contains the more recent apk and a few additional files needed here: LINK IS BROKEN

Unfortunetly, this link is no longer working.

Once you extract the zip and install the apk, create a "VocalizerEx2" dir in your main user dir (should be /storage/emulated/0) and copy the "languages/common" dir from the zip to that dir.

I tried to search for "VocalizerEx2" and found some hits, but in all these zip-files, there is no folder "languages/common". And it seems, without this content, it will not work. I have downloaded some voices as described and I can choose VocalizerEx2 as TTS-Engine (I checked the correct path), and I can also select my downloaded voices, but there is no noise if I press the button for Example-Voice. Is it possible to renew the link to that zip with the additional content please?