Luc Wastiaux

Moving off Patreon for new subscriptions

to all fans,

going forward, there will be a new way of subscribing to AwesomeTTS Plus / Language Tools. 

The biggest issue with patreon is that people get charged once, then charged again at the beginning of the month. If you sign up towards the end of the month, you get charged twice within a few days. In the new system, you only get charged when your subscription renews. You can cancel/upgrade/downgrade anytime.

You can see the plans for the new subscription system he...

Azure Voice Update, Language Tools 3.2

Azure has a big voice update, new voices available in AwesomeTTS and Language Tools

New voices from Azure: a number of English US/UK and regional voices  (Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa).  New Spanish voices  (Colombia). New  Jenny/Multilingual voice which sounds similar across different  languages.
2021-06-14 12:57:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Language Tools / Awesome TTS recent news

Language Tools 3.1 released. Previously, when a  single error was found while applying translations or transliterations,  you had to start over (even if you selected 100 notes). This is now  fixed in version 3.1. This should help with problematic services such as  EasyPronunciation which has an extremely restrictive daily limit (I'm  working on fixing that). Also, wanted to remind of the following:

• you can edit any translation or translite...
  2021-05-30 09:45:43 +0000 UTC View Post

Language Tools Tutorial

I finally sat down and wrote a tutorial for Language Tools, you can see it here: https://languagetools.anki.study/tutorials/language-tools-getting-started

additionally,  I plan on adding more tutorials here: https://languagetools.anki.study/tutorials

Going forward, I have a backlog ...

New Audio Service: Cereproc

Language Tools has a new audio service called CereProc, added at the request of a fellow patreon fan. It brings 34 English/UK voices and 19 English/US voices, as well as various latin language voices. 

These new voices are available right now in Language Tools, but not yet in AwesomeTTS. As reminder, you can listen to samples of all the voices here: https://languagetools...

Azure voices - Mandarin - ongoing issue [resolved]

I believe there's currently an issue with Azure Mandarin female voices sounding as male, I will investigate this and post back when I understand the issue, just wanted to post everyone first.

2021/05/19: seems resolved.

Language Tools: choose translations

Language Tools v2.8 is out, you can now edit translations before applying them to notes, and there is now a Choose Translation button on the editor which allows you to retrieve translations from all services and let you select the one you like.

Azure Voice update: Ukranian, Welsh, Dutch/French, Urdu

AwesomeTTS 1.38 released, with the following new Azure voices:

• Ukrainian
• Welsh 
• Urdu
• Belgium (French / Dutch)

Forvo now part of AwesomeTTS Plus

With AwesomeTTS Plus 1.37, Forvo is now part of the AwesomeTTS Plus package. And Forvo is now available in Language Tools as well.

While Forvo is limited to words only, it offers pronunciation for lesser known languages, ones which may not have good TTS offerings (such as Persian).

Also, the daily limit for Forvo has been increased to 10,000 requests / day in total, so we should rarely run into those limits, but if you do, let me know.

The forvo website has a good overview o...

Asking for a favor

I have a lot of ideas regarding features to implement in AwesomeTTS and Language Tools. I don't know what will come first but if you're satisfied with those addons now, you should expect to get more and more features in the future. More to come later.

But now, I have a favor to ask.

If you're a happy user of AwesomeTTS and haven't written a review yet, would you be able to write one ? h...

How does Forvo fit into your workflow ?

I want to add Forvo support to Language Tools and make it available for AwesomeTTS Plus subscribers. Forvo is special because it has pronunciations from native speakers, but it might also has a lot of variance in quality, and may also be missing some words.

• When do you prefer Forvo pronunciation ?
• If a word is not found on Forvo, what do you do ?
• Are you happy with the top-rated pronunciation, or do you prefer to listen to a few and pick one ?

2021-03-24 13:38:35 +0000 UTC View Post

AwesomeTTS: batch generation to create audio flashcards

This is an elementary level tutorial, experienced AwesomeTTS users might not discover anything new here, but you can use this video to educate your friends who may be new to Anki.

Language Tools: filtering by deck now possible

You can now filter by decks in the Language Mapping screen. This will be useful for those who frequently add new decks.

Interested in finding out more about Language Tools ? https://languagetools.anki.study/language-tools

And reminder that every patreon fan has access to Language Tool using the same API key as AwesomeTTS Plus.

Language Tools overview video

I just made a little promo video for Language Tools. And also, a reminder that everyone of you patreon fans has access to Language Tools. Download here: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/771677663

Where do you put your audio tag ?

Do you keep your audio tag separately from the text which was used to generate it, or together ?

Japanese Kana/Romaji, IPA for English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish,

New service in Language Tools: the EasyPronunciation service offers IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) for English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish.
And transcription for Japanese (Kana and Romaji) is available. Note that i'm not a Japanese learner so I can't gauge the quality of this service, if you're interested please give it a try. And please get in touch with me if you have questions !

Need some help on getting started with Language Tools ? See here: 2021-03-11 14:21:56 +0000 UTC View Post

Premium TTS voices on Yomichan

Are you a Japanese learner ? If so, you're probably familiar with Yomichan, a neat browser extension. A couple of weeks ago, a patreon fan asked me whether it would be possible to use premium TTS voices on Yomichan. I have now rolled out this feature in Language Tools. This feature allows you to u...

Samples for all supported voices

You can listen to all supported voices from this web page (choose a language and you'll see play buttons): https://languagetools.anki.study/languages

New Website for AwesomeTTS / Language Tools

I've started a new website: https://languagetools.anki.study/ . This website will eventually contain all sorts of tutorials and resources for language learners, with tips and tricks on how to use AwesomeTTS and Language Tools.

For now, it contains mostly two pages that might be useful:

• The full language list supported: https...
  2021-03-04 14:41:56 +0000 UTC View Post

What features do you want next ?

First, HUGE thanks to all fans, with your enthusiasm and your feature suggestions. Everyone of you make it possible for me to support AwesomeTTS. 

What features would you like to see next in AwesomeTTS or Language Tools ? I have some ideas on what I want to do, to make the add-ons easier and more maintainable. But a lot of very good ideas have come from the community so I'd like to hear them !

AwesomeTTS 1.34: Naver Papago fixed, Oxford fixed

v1.34 is out. This fixes the Naver Papago service (used to be called Naver Translate). Also fixes the Oxford dictionary. These changes may not be relevant to users of AwesomeTTS plus who have access to higher quality voices, but they are useful to those who prefer free services.

Do you feel satisfied with AwesomeTTS ? Please leave a review ! https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1436550454

Japanese learners: do you use Yomichan ?

A fellow patreon fan has asked me about a potential integration between AwesomeTTS / Language Tools and the TTS voices and Yomichan. I am not a learner of Japanese so I wanted to find out more about this tool.

Complete sample of all premium voices

Do you want have a listen to all of the premium voices available in AwesomeTTS and Language Tools ? This file contains them all. 602 voices in total: https://cloud-language-tools-samples.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/awesometts_languagetools_voice_samples.zip

Naver account over capacity

I'm aware that Naver is currently over capacity. Given the service has a limit on it, I will most likely implement some per-user limits to avoid heavy users impacting others.

Update: the issue should be sorted, you may resume using Naver.

AwesomeTTS / Language Tools API Keys

Available to all patreon fans: API keys for premium Text to Speech services.

If you wish to use voices from Google, Azure, Amazon, Naver, Forvo or Watson, the easiest way is to enable AwesomeTTS Plus. Obtain your API Key here: https://cloud-language-tools-tts-prod.anki.study/request_patreon_key , then paste it into AwesomeTTS Configuration, Advan...