Festival Speech Synthesis System

Infobox Software
name = Festival



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author =
developer = Centre for Speech Technology Research (CSTR) of the University of Edinburgh
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latest release version =
latest release date =
latest preview version = 1.95
latest preview date = July 2004
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programming language = C++
operating system = Linux
platform = Cross-platform
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genre = Speech synthesizer
license = similar to MIT License (Free software)
website = [http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/ www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival]

Festival is a general multi-lingual speech synthesis system originally developed at [http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/ Centre for Speech Technology Research] (CSTR) at the University of Edinburgh. Substantial contributions have also been provided by Carnegie Mellon University and other sites. It is distributed under a free software license similar to the BSD License.

It offers a full text to speech system with various APIs, as well an environment for development and research of speech synthesis techniques. It is written in C++ with a Scheme-like command interpreter for general customization and extension. ["As a whole it offers full text to speech through a number APIs: from shell level, though a Scheme command interpreter, as a C++ library, from Java, and an Emacs interface." [http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/] ]

Festvox

The [http://www.festvox.org/ Festvox] project aims to make the building of new synthetic voices more systematic and better documented, making it possible for anyone to build a new voice. It is distributed under a free software license similar to the MIT License.

Festvox is a suite of tools for building synthetic voices for Festival. It includes a step-by-step tutorial with examples in document called [http://www.festvox.org/bsv/ Building Synthetic Voices] .

Flite

[http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/flite/ Flite] is a small run-time speech synthesis engine developed at Carnegie Mellon University. It is derived from Festival, originally from the University of Edinburgh, and the Festvox project from Carnegie Mellon University.

Linux compatibility

There is a Festival plug-in for GStreamer. Festival is pre-packaged for several Linux distributions.

See also

* [http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/tts/flinger/ Flinger] - FestivaL sINGER. MIDI based Festival interface for producing synthesized singing.
* MBROLA, which Festival can optionally use as a back-end.
* [http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/ HTS] , which Festival can also use as a back-end.
* The Cepstral speech synthesis engine can be used with Festival.

External links

* [http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/ The Festival Speech Synthesis System]
* [http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/festival/ Festival at CMU]
* [http://www.festvox.org/ Festvox]
* [http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/flite/ Flite] : a small, fast run time synthesis engine
* [http://carnival.sourceforge.net/ Carnival] - a GUI for Festival
* [http://accessibility.kde.org/developer/kttsd/ KTTS] - a KDE frontend for speech synthesis that supports Festival
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/fala/ Fala] , a GNOME Festival frontend
* [http://linux-sound.org/speech.html Speech Synthesis & Analysis Software]
* [http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/ HTS] - HMM-based Speech Synthesis System

References