piper-whistle 1.6.43

CLI tool to manage piper voices.

piper-whistle

Tool to manage voices used with the piper speech synthesizer. You may also browse the docs online at https://think-biq.gitlab.io/piper-whistle/

usage

whistle [-h] [-v] [-V] [-R] {guess,path,speak,list,preview,install}

positional arguments:
  {guess,path,speak,list,preview,install}

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --verbose         Activate verbose logging.
  -V, --version         Show version number.
  -R, --refresh         Refreshes (or sets up) language index by downloading the latest lookup.

commands

guess

whistle guess [-h] language_name

positional arguments:
  language_name  A string representing a language name (or code).

optional arguments:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit

Tries to guess the language you are looking for (and is supported by piper) from the name you provide.

path

whistle path [-h] voice_selector

positional arguments:
  voice_selector  Selector of voice to search.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help      show this help message and exit

Shows the local path to a specific model. The voice_selector has the format:

${CODE}:${NAME}@${QUALITY}/${SPEAKER}

The ${SPEAKER} part is optional; as is the ${CODE} part. So if you want to select the voice named 'alba' in quality 'medium', you could simply query: alba@medium

The language code is infered. Alternatively, you can just query with the model name listed by the list command.

${CODE}-${NAME}-${QUALITY}

So for the example above, that would be en_GB-alba-medium

speak

whistle speak [-h] something

positional arguments:
  something   Something to speak.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

Currently only works on linux / bsd systems, with a FIFO (aka. named pipes) setup. The basic idea is, having one pipe accepting json input (provided by this command), which is listened to by piper. After piper has processed the audio, it is either saved to file or passed on to another FIFO, which can then be read by a streaming audio player like aplay.

Example: Assuming piper is installed at /opt/wind/piper, the named pipes are located at /opt/wind/channels and whistle is available in $PATH, the aformentioned setup could look like the following:

pipes:

• /opt/wind/channeld/speak - accepts json payload
• /opt/wind/channeld/input - read by piper
• /opt/wind/channeld/ouput - written by piper

processes:

• tty0: tail -F /opt/wind/channels/speak | tee /opt/wind/channels/input
• tty1: /opt/wind/piper/piper -m $(whistle path alba@medium) --debug --json-input --output_raw < /opt/wind/channels/input > /opt/wind/channels/output
• tty2: aplay --buffer-size=777 -r 22050 -f S16_LE -t raw < channels/output

The tail command makes sure, that the payload on speak is send to input, thereby keeping the file open after processing. Otherwise, the setup would exit after piper has finished the first payload. This way you can continually prompt.

list

whistle list [-h] [-I] [-a] [-L] [-p] [-l LANGUAGE_CODE] [-i VOICE_INDEX]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -I, --installed       Only list installed voices.
  -a, --all             List voices for all available languages.
  -L, --languages       List available languages.
  -p, --install-path    List path of voice (if installed).
  -l LANGUAGE_CODE, --language-code LANGUAGE_CODE
                        Only list voices matching this language.
  -i VOICE_INDEX, --voice-index VOICE_INDEX
                        List only specific language voice.

This command lets you investigate available voices for specific languages, or simply list all available voices. Using the --installed switch, you can filter voices that are currently installed in the local cache directory. The cache is located in the user app path, as provided by userpaths pip package. On linux this would be ${HOME}/.config/piper-whistle.

preview

whistle preview [-h] [-l LANGUAGE_CODE] [-i VOICE_INDEX] [-s SPEAKER_INDEX]
                       [-D]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -l LANGUAGE_CODE, --language-code LANGUAGE_CODE
                        Select language.
  -i VOICE_INDEX, --voice-index VOICE_INDEX
                        Specific language voice. (defaults to first one)
  -s SPEAKER_INDEX, --speaker-index SPEAKER_INDEX
                        Specific language voice speaker. (defaults to first one)
  -D, --dry-run         Build URL and simulate download.

With preview, you can download and play samples audio files, for any voice supported by piper. It currently uses mplayer to play the audio file.

install

whistle install [-h] [-D] language_code voice_index

positional arguments:
  language_code  Select language.
  voice_index    Specific language voice. (defaults to first one)

optional arguments:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  -D, --dry-run  Simulate download / install.

With install you can fetch available voice models and store them locally for use with piper. You may first want to search for a voice you like with list and then note the language code and index, so install knows where to look. The model file (onnx) as well as its accompanying config (json) file, will be stored in the local user data path as provide by userpaths. On linux this would be ${HOME}/.config/piper-whistle.