DECbot

A Discord bot that uses DECtalk text-to-speech (think Stephen Hawking or Moonbase Alpha).

DECbot uses wine and the original DECtalk say.exe to synthesize text from text chat into a voice channel. The bot offers a set of commands allowing users to control how and where DECbot synthesizes speech. The bot can also take multiple commands at once, allowing multiple sounds and voices to be played back at the same time.

Requirements

• Python 3
• wine
• A copy of the DECtalk executable and support. This includes say.exe, dectalk.dll, and the dictionary, dtalk_us.dic.

Commands

DECbot can synthesize text into different voice channels depending on the command:

• !dec talk <text> plays the text back in the current voice channel.
• !dec tell <@mention> <text> plays the text back in the voice channel of the user mentioned.

The presence of DECbot can also be controlled (to minimize annoyance):

• !dec quiet stops the currently playing text immediately.
• !dec leave forces the bot to leave its current voice channel.

Both TTS commands run using the "Perfect Paul" voice with phonemes enabled (so the bot can "sing"). Additional options can be specified as they would in a normal say.exe command: with brackets and a colon ([:command]). For example, DECbot can talk as "Frail Frank" by starting the text with [:nf].

Installation

$ pip install decbot

The bot can also be run from source as a module. In the top level directory:

$ python -m decbot

Running

A new Discord bot must be set up before the application can be run:

1. Create a new Discord application in the developer portal.
2. Fill in the general information, and note the Client ID on this page.
3. Set up your bot in the "Bot" tab. Note the Token on this page.

Next, to start the application:

1. Create a DECbot configuration file. At minimum, this must have the bot token, and the path to the DECtalk executable, tts.bin.

2. Get an invite link (the client field must be specified in the config):

   $ decbot --invite
   

3. Have the Discord server administrator add the bot. Note that it must be granted the ability to read and send text messages, and be able to view, join, and talk in voice channels.

4. Start the bot. The application looks for a configuration file in the same directory called .decbot. Specify a different path as follows:

   $ decbot --config /path/to/my/config
   

5. To stop the bot, the application can be stopped from the command line, or the owner can issue !dec quit in the Discord server chat.