Chant VoiceMarkupKit

Avoid putting your end users to sleep with boring synthesized speech. You will be amazed at how adjusting the speed, adding pauses, injecting emphasis, and switching voices can break up the monotony of synthesized speech.

Text-to-speech (TTS) markup is text with imbedded indicators that control speech synthesis from the text. Speaking qualities such as the speed, pitch, emphasis, and word pronunciation may be tailored in reproducing speech from text.

A TTS grammar is a collection TTS markup. A text-to-speech engine (i.e., synthesizer) uses TTS markup to enhance its ability to synthesize speech from text and generate the audio for playback.

What is Markup Management?

Markup management enables you to:

• fine-tune speech synthesis,
• tailor synthesis for specific voices, and
• integrate dynamic markup generation as part of deployed applications.

Applications benefits include:

• enhanced quality of TTS playback,
• added flexibility to use various synthesizers and tailor markup at runtime, and
• expanded adaptability to run with available technology on the deployed system.

What is VoiceMarkupKit?

Chant VoiceMarkupKit is text-to-speech (TTS) markup language management software that enables you to generate TTS markup to enhance the playback quality when synthesizing.

The VoiceMarkupKit class library includes a voice markup management class that provides you a simple way to generate text-to-speech markup. Your application can markup text as part of its runtime operation to enable real-time customization and tailoring of your text-to-speech environment.

It simplifies the process of generating Microsoft SAPI 5, Nuance L&H Native Control Sequence, and W3C SSML markup language to use with your favorite speech synthesizers.

VoiceMarkupKit includes C++, C++Builder, Delphi, Java, .NET Framework, and Silverlight class library formats to support all your programming languages and sample projects for popular IDEs—such as the latest Visual Studio from Microsoft and RAD Studio from Embarcadero.

The class libraries can be integrated with 32-bit and 64-bit applications.

Voice Markup Component Architecture

The VoiceMarkupKit class library includes a voice markup management class that provides you a simple way to generate text-to-speech markup. Your application can markup text as part of its runtime operation to enable real-time customization and tailoring of your text-to-speech environment.

The voice markup management class, ChantVM, enables you to specify a markup language, the markup options, and generate markup prior to synthesis. Your application uses the ChantVM class to manage the activities for generating the markup in the format you need. The ChantVM class supports the following markup syntax:

• Microsoft SAPI 5 XML markup,
• Nuance L&H Native Control Sequence, and
• W3C Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML).

The ChantVM class encapsulates all of the technologies necessary to make the process of generating markup simple and efficient for your application.

You instantiate a ChantVM class object before you want to generate markup within your application. You destroy the ChantVM class object and release its resources when you no longer want the to generate markup within your application.

Feature Summary

The goal of text-to-speech markup is to enhance the quality of the text-to-speech playback. With Chant VoiceMarkupKit, you can:

• Generate markup language in Microsoft SAPI 5 XML, Nuance L&H Native Control Sequence, and W3C SSML syntax;
• Generate pronunciation phonemes for Cepstral, Microsoft SAPI 5, Microsoft Speech Platform, and Nuance Vocalizer synthesizers;
• Dynamically switch among speech APIs and syntax formats.

Chant VoiceMarkupKit handles the complexities of generating text-to-speech markup for various markup syntax. This enables you to tailor speech synthesis to produce sounds in familiar dialects, speaking patterns, and accents of your end users. You can adjust TTS markup as needed for the synthesizer to enhance the playback quality when synthesizing.

Synthesizers (i.e., speech APIs) support unique markup syntax. VoiceMarkupKit supports the following synthesizers and their markup syntax:

Synthesizer	Speech API	Markup Syntax
Cepstral (all languages)	Cepstral Swift	W3C SSML
Microsoft SAPI 5 (all languages)	SAPI 5	SAPI 5 XML Markup, W3C SSML
Microsoft MSP (all languages)	MSP	W3C SSML
Nuance Vocalizer Automotive (all languages)	Nuance Vocalizer Automotive	L&H Native Control Sequence, SAPI 5 XML Markup
Nuance Vocalizer Expressive (all languages)	Nuance Vocalizer Expressive	L&H Native Control Sequence
Nuance Vocalizer Mobile (all languages)	Nuance Vocalizer Mobile	L&H Native Control Sequence
Nuance Vocalizer Network (all languages)	Nuance Vocalizer Network	L&H Native Control Sequence, SAPI 5 XML Markup, W3C SSML

By generating TTS markup at runtime, your application can maximize the quality of TTS playback and offer your end users the flexibility of using various synthesizers with your application.

Within Chant Developer Workbench, you can:

• Create and edit documents with TTS markup;
• Generate TTS markup;
• Generate word pronunciation phonemes;
• Edit word pronunciation phonemes (requires LexiconKit); and
• Playback text with TTS markup (requires SpeechKit).

VoiceMarkupKit License

You may explore the capabilities of Chant VoiceMarkupKit for 30 days. To continue to use the product after 30 days, you must purchase a license for the software or stop using the software and remove it from your system.

A valid purchased license gives you the right to construct executable applications that use the applicable class library and distribute it with executable applications without royalty obligations to Chant.

The Chant VoiceMarkupKit license is a single end-user license. Each developer who installs and uses VoiceMarkupKit to develop applications must have their own license.

VoiceMarkupKit class library names vary by platform: Windows 32-bit and 64-bit. This helps ensure the correct library is deployed with your application.

You may purchase a license for Chant VoiceMarkupKit on-line at the Chant store or through your preferred software reseller.

VoiceMarkupKit System Requirements

Development Environment

• Intel processor or equivalent,
• Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7,
• 120 MB of hard drive space,
• CD-ROM drive,
• VGA or higher-resolution monitor,
• Acapela, Cepstral, Microsoft SAPI 5, Microsoft Speech Platform, or Nuance Vocalizer synthesizer,
• C++, C++Builder, Delphi, Java, .NET Framework, or Silverlight development environment.

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