Frequently Asked Questions

Text-to-speech (TTS) is technology that converts written text into spoken audio. Modern TTS systems use advanced machine learning algorithms to produce natural-sounding voices that closely mimic human speech patterns.

TTS Tool supports multiple voice providers including Amazon Polly, Google Wavenet, and Piper TTS. Each provider offers different voices and capabilities.

The main free tool accepts up to 1,000 characters per section and 10,000 characters in total. Split longer passages into sections at sentence boundaries. The separate Amazon Polly and Google Wavenet tools use your own provider account and are subject to provider limits and billing.

The SSML Tool allows you to enter text containing Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) tags to customize how your text is spoken. SSML lets you control aspects like pronunciation, pauses, emphasis, speaking rate, and pitch. This tool is perfect for creating more natural and expressive speech output with precise control over how words and phrases are delivered.

Soundboard lets you create phrases and play them with your browser's available voices. It does not export audio or save your board between visits. Copy your phrases elsewhere before reloading or closing the page.

The Amazon Polly tool requires you to provide your AWS credentials (Access Key ID and Secret Access Key). Once configured, you can use all of Amazon's high-quality voices to convert your text to speech. The synthesis cost is billed directly to your AWS account based on Amazon's pricing. This tool is ideal when you need enterprise-grade voices or need to process larger amounts of text.

To use the Google Wavenet tool, you need to provide your Google Cloud credentials. This allows you to access Google's premium Wavenet voices, which offer some of the most natural-sounding speech synthesis available. The cost of using these voices is billed directly to your Google Cloud account. This is a great option for professional-quality voice synthesis with a wide range of languages and voice types.

The Piper tool is a browser-based speech synthesizer that generates speech locally in your browser using Piper AI voices. Since the processing happens on your device, there's no need for cloud services or API keys. This provides a privacy-friendly alternative with no usage costs. Piper voices offer good quality with the convenience of local processing.

You can adjust several voice parameters including volume, rate (speed), and pitch. Each text segment can have its own voice settings, allowing you to create dynamic and expressive speech.

The main TTS Tool downloads your narration as an MP3. The SSML editor opens generated audio in another tab, where your browser may offer a save option. Soundboard is for playback only. The separate cloud tools offer their own output-format controls.

The supported languages depend on the voice provider you select. Amazon Polly, Google Wavenet, and Piper all offer a wide range of languages and regional accents. You can select your preferred language when choosing a voice.