Speak

Offline text to speech generation, using the Kokoro-82M model.

Two tools:

• speak.py — speak a fixed phrase once, with timing stats
• say.py — interactive keyboard control over SSH, with preset phrases, voice and speed control

Both use CUDA when available. Pass --cpu to force CPU inference.

./speak.py
./speak.py --cpu
./say.py
./say.py --cpu

Setup

On first run, the model and all voices download into cache/.

speak.py

Speak a single block of text. Edit the TEXT constant in speak.py to change what is spoken.

Generated audio files are saved in audio/ as 001.wav, 002.wav, etc.

say.py

Interactive speech tool. Press keys to speak phrases.

Single keypresses work without Enter. Preset phrases are in phrases.json, triggered by keys 1–9.

Controls

Key	Action
t	Type a custom phrase
r	Repeat last custom phrase
c	Cancel current speech
x	Clear queued speech
+ / -	Speed up / down
v	Next voice
h	Show help
q	Quit

Default speed is 1.5x. Use + / - to adjust, v to change voice.

Generated audio files are saved in audio/.

Pass --test to speak the first two preset phrases and exit.

Testing

./test.py
./test.py --fresh

Runs speak.py and say.py --test online, with --cpu, and offline. Pass --fresh to clear cache/ and audio/ first. Requires internet when the model is not cached.

Tools

• tools-offline.sh — block internet for offline testing, ./tools-offline.sh --fix to restore
• tools-perf.sh — show CPU info

Notes

• First say.py launch downloads all voices and takes longer. Later launches are faster.