Forum Discussion
Text to speech speed
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
Hi, everyone!
I have some great news to share. We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 83, we've included important fixes and new features!
One of the new features we've included:
- Unlock new possibilities for text-to-speech audio. Use speech synthesis markup language (SSML) to adjust the speaking rate, modify pronunciation, emphasize words, add pauses, and more.
Launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer to take advantage of this update, and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You'll find our step-by-step instructions here.
Please let me know if you need additional help!
Hi Mohamed,
That's a neat idea, and I can see how the ability to adjust the narration speed with a slider would be very useful for a lot of people. I'm happy to pass along this idea for you!
For now, you can use punctuation, such as commas and semicolons, when you want to insert brief pauses. If you need longer pauses, convert your text to speech, then open the clip in the built-in audio editor and insert silence where it's needed.
- MohamedAmanCommunity Member
Thank you Alyssa.
but the problem with using extra punctuation is that the narration is too distorted , it's like some thing was chancing the narrator :D .
the silence option is good in very little cases .
- RafikWahid-cca1Community Member
Hi, I'd like to see this feature installed too. Adding punctuation that's wrong grammatically generate a mono-toned automated narration without the human touch.
We want something that can control the pace in general. Thanks, Rafik and Mohamed! It's helpful feedback, so as Alyssa mentioned we'd pass it along. 🙂
- OlaLabib-68be5eCommunity Member
Having the speed feature in the TTS would be a great addition, as learners complain from the speedy narration, and adding pauses doesn't solve the problem. Please try to make it work in the next update 🙂
- ChrisReynolds-bCommunity MemberI've tried to find ways to add pauses between paragraphs but have so far been unsuccessful. It seems the conversion process ignores blocks of spaces, line breaks and commas.
The only way that works for me is to break the text into discrete objects and then use the timeline to adjust the timing. This has the added benefit of keeping subtitles in-sync too.
Acronyms are a real problem for me. We've got a system called HBCIS but pronounced "Hibiscus", like the flower. I have to type "Hi-Biscus" to get Russell to pronounce it correctly, then go back through the subtitles and manually change each instance to the acronym.
After a few review cycles this can get quite tedious.It'd be good if there was some markup that could be used to overcome these failings. Here's my current thoughts. I'll give them a bit more thought and then submit a feature request. Any ideas or suggestions from the community would be good.- [[p,10]] inserts a pause of ten seconds.[[s,HBCIS,Hi Biscus]] Uses the first word in subtitles and the second for text-to-speech.[[em,this]] puts extra emphasis on the word "this".
I'd also have a drop-down that allows you to choose whether your text uses this markup or if it's just plain text.
- LMCortinoCommunity Member
It'd be nice if it would recognize VTML (not HTML) coding like the voice to text in captivate. With VTML coding you can change the pitch, speed, add pauses and much more. I love Articulate 360 but this is one thing I do miss about Captivate.
Thanks, LM! We are tracking this feature request, so I'll add your notes to our documentation!
- CorrissaLandCommunity Member
Is there an update on this topic? Does Storyline plan to add VTML coding to TTS? I currently need to adjust how the narrator is pronouncing a company name and I've tried everything without success. If I was able to use VTML I could have solved the problem quickly.
Hi Corrissa and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)
I know that accessibility is at the forefront of what our team is focused on right now and other text to speech options, including VTML, have been shared.
You are in the right place to be notified of any updates that we have to share on this topic.
- JamesFerroneCommunity Member
I have the exact same thought, I was just coming on the see if there was a way to adjust speech speed. It's not so much adding silence, it's slowing down the speech. This is a really cool feature, but we have a lot of people where English is their second language, and they speak so quickly it will be difficult to pick up for many.
But I do LOVE this feature, it works a lot better than I expected...you guys did a great job with this one, I've had dedicated programs in the past that aren't as smooth as this one is.
- ChrisReynolds-bCommunity Member
It looks like Articulate are using Amazon Poly for the text-to-speech, and it allows the use of SSML tags.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/voice-speed-vip.html
It looks like SSML is a W3C standard whereas VTML is a proprietary standard so my preference would be to support the former; especially since it seems to already be supported by AWS.
Could the prosody tag be permitted within Storyline to control speed?
- CorrissaLandCommunity Member
I wanted to try the SSML tags you mentioned so I added the 'prosody' tag just like in the AWS link you shared but the TTS in Storyline just reads it as regular text. But I wasn't aware of SSML or Amazon Polly before now so thanks for sharing that info.