Forum Discussion

SteveNixon-af38's avatar
SteveNixon-af38
Community Member
6 years ago

Adding pauses in text to speech

Any updates on this? I just had a request to pause between sentences and while adding   ...   at the end of sentences does add a bit of a delay it seems to have limits. Best, Steve
storyline 360
ThorMelicher-b5's avatar
ThorMelicher-b5
Community Member
6 years ago

I recently created an application that might address the 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 for creating even more nuanced text to speech.