Sample TTS voice

Sample TTS Voice was a demonstration text-to-speech voice designed to teach programmers how to write text-to-speech voices which interface to the Microsoft Speech API. Unlike Microsoft Sam, Sample TTS Voice uses fully-spoken prerecorded clips to build its speech, instead of building it phonetically. Thus, if Sample TTS Voice runs into a word it doesn't know (i.e. not in the word list), it'll just default to saying "blah". (Example: "Hello, my name is Sample TTS voice!" will be pronounced as "Blah blah blah blah Sample TTS voice.")

Valid Word List

Since Sample TTS Voice relies on fully-recorded word clips, there are only a small number of phrases that can be spoken. A full list of the recognized words can be found here:

• blah
• enter
• spoken
• type
• the
• text
• you
• wish
• to
• speak
• here
• as
• computer's
• default
• have
• sample
• selected
• TTS
• voice

In the TTS world

Introduction to the TTS world

Sample TTS voice was brought to the text-to-speech (TTS) world by AceOfSpadesProduc100 after he got an idea when he downloaded Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1 to get Natural Microsoft Mike, and Mary (his older netbook computer came preinstalled with Natural Microsoft Sam). It somehow came with Sample TTS voice when he came to look at the natural TTS voices in the Speech Properties.

In his universe, he is a glitch TTS voice who came when Bill Gates tried to make the most natural TTS voice of all time, but his creation didn't turn out as it should be, as it almost says nothing but the word "Blah". Gates abandoned him. Sample TTS Voice discovered another glitch named Missingno. They shared their stories and followed around before and after being discovered and rescued by Microsoft Sam and the gang.

Planned series without a title yet

Missingno and Sample TTS Voice shut down the forcefield and corrupted a variant of ROFL-9000. Master Chief rescued Sample TTS Voice whilst Sam rescued Missingno.

Trivia

• This voice's source code is included in the Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1 as well, alongside the voice itself.
  • It was discovered that several voice clips for Sample TTS Voice go unused (not in the words list, so attempting to speak these phrases will just result in the default "blah" clip playing). These unused clips are as follows:
    • "Anglais" (French)
    • "he" (English)
    • "je" (French)
    • "parler" (French)
    • "peut" (French)
    • "she" (English)
• A similar voice for SAPI 1 or 2 known as "Jean" has been found in the Microsoft Voice 2.0 package. However, as of the time of writing this, Jean hasn't been properly introduced into the mainstream TTS world due to its obscurity and due to how early it was introduced.