Simple Windows Text to Speech
Windows from certainly at least version 7+ and the equivalent server versions have an excellent built-in Speech engine that does both text-to-speech and speech recognition.
The speech engine is written as a system library and so is easily called from PowerShell.
This flow makes use of that feature and uses the exec node to shell out to PowerShell, calling the speech engine using a one-line PowerShell script.
You send the text into the exec node and it passes it through.
See the comment node for some details. This is exactly the way that the popular say.js library works.
You could easily take this further and control things like the speed and volume, changing voices, etc.
For example, adding the code $speak.rate = -5; just before $speak.Speak... will slow down the speech rate (rate goes from -10 to +10 with 0 being normal rate).
To change the volume, add $speak.Volume = 50 where the number is from 0 to 100. The default is 100 which is max volume.
If you want more control, change $speak.Speak to $speak.SpeakSsml and pass in an SSML XML string.
This is an example of SSML:
<speak version="1.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/synthesis"
xml:lang="en-GB">
<voice xml:lang="en-GB">
<prosody rate="1">
<p>Normal pitch. </p>
<p><prosody pitch="x-high"> High Pitch. </prosody></p>
</prosody>
<p><say-as interpret-as="vxml:currency">USD45.329</say-as></p>
<p><say-as interpret-as="vxml:currency">GBP10.45</say-as></p>
</voice>
</speak>
You can find more information in the standards or in the Microsoft SSML Documentation.
The full list of controls is shown by this output from PowerShell:
PS > $speak | gm
TypeName: System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
BookmarkReached Event System.EventHandler`1[System.Speech.Synthesis.BookmarkReachedEventArgs] BookmarkReached(System.Object, Sy...
PhonemeReached Event System.EventHandler`1[System.Speech.Synthesis.PhonemeReachedEventArgs] PhonemeReached(System.Object, Syst...
SpeakCompleted Event System.EventHandler`1[System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeakCompletedEventArgs] SpeakCompleted(System.Object, Syst...
SpeakProgress Event System.EventHandler`1[System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeakProgressEventArgs] SpeakProgress(System.Object, System...
SpeakStarted Event System.EventHandler`1[System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeakStartedEventArgs] SpeakStarted(System.Object, System.S...
StateChanged Event System.EventHandler`1[System.Speech.Synthesis.StateChangedEventArgs] StateChanged(System.Object, System.S...
VisemeReached Event System.EventHandler`1[System.Speech.Synthesis.VisemeReachedEventArgs] VisemeReached(System.Object, System...
VoiceChange Event System.EventHandler`1[System.Speech.Synthesis.VoiceChangeEventArgs] VoiceChange(System.Object, System.Spe...
AddLexicon Method void AddLexicon(uri uri, string mediaType)
Dispose Method void Dispose(), void IDisposable.Dispose()
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetCurrentlySpokenPrompt Method System.Speech.Synthesis.Prompt GetCurrentlySpokenPrompt()
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetInstalledVoices Method System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection[System.Speech.Synthesis.InstalledVoice] GetInstalledVoi...
GetType Method type GetType()
Pause Method void Pause()
RemoveLexicon Method void RemoveLexicon(uri uri)
Resume Method void Resume()
SelectVoice Method void SelectVoice(string name)
SelectVoiceByHints Method void SelectVoiceByHints(System.Speech.Synthesis.VoiceGender gender), void SelectVoiceByHints(System.Speec...
SetOutputToAudioStream Method void SetOutputToAudioStream(System.IO.Stream audioDestination, System.Speech.AudioFormat.SpeechAudioForma...
SetOutputToDefaultAudioDevice Method void SetOutputToDefaultAudioDevice()
SetOutputToNull Method void SetOutputToNull()
SetOutputToWaveFile Method void SetOutputToWaveFile(string path), void SetOutputToWaveFile(string path, System.Speech.AudioFormat.Sp...
SetOutputToWaveStream Method void SetOutputToWaveStream(System.IO.Stream audioDestination)
Speak Method void Speak(string textToSpeak), void Speak(System.Speech.Synthesis.Prompt prompt), void Speak(System.Spee...
SpeakAsync Method System.Speech.Synthesis.Prompt SpeakAsync(string textToSpeak), void SpeakAsync(System.Speech.Synthesis.Pr...
SpeakAsyncCancel Method void SpeakAsyncCancel(System.Speech.Synthesis.Prompt prompt)
SpeakAsyncCancelAll Method void SpeakAsyncCancelAll()
SpeakSsml Method void SpeakSsml(string textToSpeak)
SpeakSsmlAsync Method System.Speech.Synthesis.Prompt SpeakSsmlAsync(string textToSpeak)
ToString Method string ToString()
Rate Property int Rate {get;set;}
State Property System.Speech.Synthesis.SynthesizerState State {get;}
Voice Property System.Speech.Synthesis.VoiceInfo Voice {get;}
Volume Property int Volume {get;set;}
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