Text to speech speed

Feb 03, 2018

Mohamed Aman
By Mohamed Aman

Hello Guys, i think Articulate Storyline needs to improve the text to speech features, so that we are able to adjust the speed of the narrator. because all the narrators (voices), are really too fast, and in order to make it some how slower, we have to add punch of commas; which make the sound very annoying but understandable. 

It will also be great , to make the narration speed in a slider (from 1 to 10)not drop-down list (slow, medium, fast).

Thanks

101 Replies
Lesli Baar
over 3 years ago11/07/19 at 4:23 pm (UTC)
Clint Clarkson

Just spent some time mucking around with the Storyline 360 TST and the following seems to be true. I used Salli's voice, but it looked to be the same on other voices.

It's not perfect, but something to work with. These should immediately follow text. They haven't been tested extensively:

  • Comma [,] = 1/4 sec silence (works even if not followed by a space)
  • Period [.] = 1/2 sec silence (must be followed by a space)
  • Period [.], [Return] = 3/4 sec silence
  • Period [.], [Return], [Return] = 5/8 sec silence
  • Period [.], [Return], Caret [^], Asterisk [*], Open Bracket [(], [Return] = 1 1/8 sec silence

Anyone come up with any other combinations?

Cheers,

CC

Thank you for these tips. I'd l had tried the carriage returns, but not the caret, asterisk  or open bracket.

simondavide tritto
3 years ago02/05/20 at 2:12 pm (UTC)

Hi SL guys, any update on this request? Beside playing trick to generate a slower audio file, what is truly needed is the possibility for the learners to modify the audio speed WHILE they watch the course. Of course the side needs are to keep the closed captions AND the screen actions synced with the new pace. Are you planning to implement this feature next?

BTW, just read it's not yet on top of your roadmap. Well, it should be, because being able to vary the speech speed is the very first question I'm getting from my learners since we went broad with our courses.

Thor Melicher
almost 3 years ago04/22/20 at 9:22 pm (UTC)

I recently created an application that might address your need of adjusting the speed for Text to Speech in Storyline.  It’s a bit of a workaround though as you’ll have to go to the source that Storyline uses, Amazon Polly voices.  

Here’s what you do: 

  1. Get an Amazon Polly account (yes, there is some cost involved but doesn’t seem that prohibitive) (https://aws.amazon.com/polly/)
  2. Save your scripts as separate files (MS-Word or Text)
  3. Download HeroVoice TTS from the Microsoft Windows Store (fully functioning 15-day free trial)
  4. Encode your files with HeroVoice TTS – apply a global setting for speed and even comma duration so your files are consistent.
  5. Select the voice you want – these are the same as you’ll find in Storyline today including Neural voices (which aren’t currently available in Storyline)
  6. Load each audio file into Storyline

If you want to have even more control, you can also use SSML tags for creating more nuanced text to speech.

Spencer Lewis
almost 3 years ago05/14/20 at 5:38 pm (UTC)

I wanted to quickly add my voice to this request.

Like others have mentioned already, I am having to use AWS Polly, with SSML tags to slow down the narration and create better pauses for many of my courses. We have many classes for students that do not speak English natively, so this is essential for the training.

I know that other companies have been able to create a switch in the text to speech tool that allows people to chose to use basic text or SSML code for their text to speech from within the application. Is there any way this might be a feature that can be added to Storyline? This would save me and my team a huge amount of time.

Thanks.

Janet Nesseth
over 2 years ago09/04/20 at 3:31 pm (UTC)

Just wanted to jump on the band wagon and let you know that I would very much appreciate the ability to adjust the speed of narration/speech in Storyline 360.   Also, we have many acronyms that we have to spell out, as the TST pronounces the letters in an odd way.  Even if I seperate the letters, leave them capitalized, it will mispronounce the letter A.    Ah instead of Ay 

James Ferrone
over 2 years ago09/09/20 at 1:55 pm (UTC)

I've found a couple of things like this, like "can" generally gets pronounced "kin".  So if I want to say 'garbage can', I get around it by misspelling it in TTS...so it's "cann".

If I need to say "A" I go with "Ay".  It's a bit of a pain, but it works, you start to recognize which ones need  tweaking.

Julia Jones
over 2 years ago10/07/20 at 6:33 pm (UTC)

Hi, new to using Articulate but we have created and tested some material and we are also in need of more control on speed of text to speech. This was the only negative feedback that we had from our test group on our new material. More natural voices and more choice in other languages would also be great.

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