Forum Discussion

KD2's avatar
KD2
Community Member
1 year ago

Slow down entire slide/voice - text to speech

Is there an easy way to slow down the text-to-speech for each slide-to-speech file? Meaning, I don't want to slow down a specific word or words but rather the entire paragraph of text on a slide. I ...
advice
Articulate 360
articulate 360 training
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storyline 360
EricSantos's avatar
EricSantos
Staff
1 year ago

Hello Katrina,

Thanks for reaching out! I'm happy to share that you can slow down your text-to-speech audio using SSML, which Storyline supports.

To enable SSML support, you must enclose your text-to-speech narration with the start tag <speak> and the end tag </speak>. You can control the speaking rate using the <prosody> tag, as shown by the sample below and the attached file containing the resulting text-to-speech audio. If you'd like to slow down an entire paragraph, enclose all of it with the <prosody> tag.

<speak>
<prosody rate="x-slow">
We’re so glad you’re here! You are now part of a growing community of professionals creating, collaborating, and connecting worldwide via Articulate Storyline.

Whether you’ve joined to create something of your own or just to connect with other professionals, we’ve got something for you.
</prosody>
</speak>

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have additional questions.

JaySlay's avatar
JaySlay
Community Member
30 days ago

Hi Eric, 

It would appear that the speed adjustment does not work when using the AI text-to-speech widget in SL 360. Can you confirm this? I did get the <break> SSML tag to work which is helpful. 

It would be a great addition to the SL 360 interface if you could support a "break" button or some other quick access feature to insert breaks and then adjust the length of the break .I have tried various technique to slow "Mark" (AI-voice V2) down and insert pauses, but I can't seem to find the 'magic wand'. 😊I've read numerous ideas on these pages.

I believe behind the scenes you are using ElevenLabs. In their studio editor they provide a insert break button and also supports "/" to insert breaks.

Thanks for this possible feature enhancement and help on using this tool more effectively.

  • EricSantos's avatar
    EricSantos
    Staff
    24 days ago

    Hi JaySlay,

    Thanks for sharing those details and for digging into this so thoroughly.

    You’re correct that while Storyline supports a range of SSML controls for classic text-to-speech, AI Text-to-Speech doesn’t currently support all SSML tags, including reliable control over speaking rate. That’s why you’re seeing <break> work, but not having the same success using other tags with AI voices.

    I can see how having built-in controls, like an easy way to insert and adjust pauses, would make the workflow much smoother and remove a lot of trial and error. I’ve shared your feedback with our product team so they can consider expanding the AI Text-to-Speech controls in Storyline.