Quickstart: Convert text to speech

Reference documentation | Package (NuGet) | Additional Samples on GitHub

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

The Speech SDK is available as a NuGet package that implements .NET Standard 2.0. Install the Speech SDK later in this guide. For any requirements, see Install the Speech SDK.

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to speaker output

Follow these steps to create a console application and install the Speech SDK.

1. Open a command prompt window in the folder where you want the new project. Run this command to create a console application with the .NET CLI.

   dotnet new console
   

   The command creates a Program.cs file in the project directory.

2. Install the Speech SDK in your new project with the .NET CLI.

   dotnet add package Microsoft.CognitiveServices.Speech
   

3. Replace the contents of Program.cs with the following code.

   using System;
   using System.IO;
   using System.Threading.Tasks;
   using Microsoft.CognitiveServices.Speech;
   using Microsoft.CognitiveServices.Speech.Audio;
   
   class Program 
   {
       // This example requires environment variables named "SPEECH_KEY" and "SPEECH_REGION"
       static string speechKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SPEECH_KEY");
       static string speechRegion = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SPEECH_REGION");
   
       static void OutputSpeechSynthesisResult(SpeechSynthesisResult speechSynthesisResult, string text)
       {
           switch (speechSynthesisResult.Reason)
           {
               case ResultReason.SynthesizingAudioCompleted:
                   Console.WriteLine($"Speech synthesized for text: [{text}]");
                   break;
               case ResultReason.Canceled:
                   var cancellation = SpeechSynthesisCancellationDetails.FromResult(speechSynthesisResult);
                   Console.WriteLine($"CANCELED: Reason={cancellation.Reason}");
   
                   if (cancellation.Reason == CancellationReason.Error)
                   {
                       Console.WriteLine($"CANCELED: ErrorCode={cancellation.ErrorCode}");
                       Console.WriteLine($"CANCELED: ErrorDetails=[{cancellation.ErrorDetails}]");
                       Console.WriteLine($"CANCELED: Did you set the speech resource key and region values?");
                   }
                   break;
               default:
                   break;
           }
       }
   
       async static Task Main(string[] args)
       {
           var speechConfig = SpeechConfig.FromSubscription(speechKey, speechRegion);      
   
           // The neural multilingual voice can speak different languages based on the input text.
           speechConfig.SpeechSynthesisVoiceName = "en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural"; 
   
           using (var speechSynthesizer = new SpeechSynthesizer(speechConfig))
           {
               // Get text from the console and synthesize to the default speaker.
               Console.WriteLine("Enter some text that you want to speak >");
               string text = Console.ReadLine();
   
               var speechSynthesisResult = await speechSynthesizer.SpeakTextAsync(text);
               OutputSpeechSynthesisResult(speechSynthesisResult, text);
           }
   
           Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit...");
           Console.ReadKey();
       }
   }
   

4. To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

   All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

5. Run your new console application to start speech synthesis to the default speaker.

   dotnet run
   

   Important

   Make sure that you set the SPEECH_KEY and SPEECH_REGION environment variables. If you don't set these variables, the sample fails with an error message.

6. Enter some text that you want to speak. For example, type I'm excited to try text to speech. Select the Enter key to hear the synthesized speech.

   Enter some text that you want to speak >
   I'm excited to try text to speech
   

Remarks

More speech synthesis options

This quickstart uses the SpeakTextAsync operation to synthesize a short block of text that you enter. You can also use long-form text from a file and get finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.

• See how to synthesize speech and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) overview for information about speech synthesis from a file and finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.
• See batch synthesis API for text to speech for information about synthesizing long-form text to speech.

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

Reference documentation | Package (NuGet) | Additional Samples on GitHub

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

The Speech SDK is available as a NuGet package that implements .NET Standard 2.0. Install the Speech SDK later in this guide. For any requirements, see Install the Speech SDK.

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to speaker output

Follow these steps to create a console application and install the Speech SDK.

1. Create a C++ console project in Visual Studio Community named SpeechSynthesis.

2. Replace the contents of SpeechSynthesis.cpp with the following code:

   #include <iostream> 
   #include <stdlib.h>
   #include <speechapi_cxx.h>
   
   using namespace Microsoft::CognitiveServices::Speech;
   using namespace Microsoft::CognitiveServices::Speech::Audio;
   
   std::string GetEnvironmentVariable(const char* name);
   
   int main()
   {
       // This example requires environment variables named "SPEECH_KEY" and "SPEECH_REGION"
       auto speechKey = GetEnvironmentVariable("SPEECH_KEY");
       auto speechRegion = GetEnvironmentVariable("SPEECH_REGION");
   
       if ((size(speechKey) == 0) || (size(speechRegion) == 0)) {
           std::cout << "Please set both SPEECH_KEY and SPEECH_REGION environment variables." << std::endl;
           return -1;
       }
   
       auto speechConfig = SpeechConfig::FromSubscription(speechKey, speechRegion);
   
       // The neural multilingual voice can speak different languages based on the input text.
       speechConfig->SetSpeechSynthesisVoiceName("en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural");
   
       auto speechSynthesizer = SpeechSynthesizer::FromConfig(speechConfig);
   
       // Get text from the console and synthesize to the default speaker.
       std::cout << "Enter some text that you want to speak >" << std::endl;
       std::string text;
       getline(std::cin, text);
   
       auto result = speechSynthesizer->SpeakTextAsync(text).get();
   
       // Checks result.
       if (result->Reason == ResultReason::SynthesizingAudioCompleted)
       {
           std::cout << "Speech synthesized to speaker for text [" << text << "]" << std::endl;
       }
       else if (result->Reason == ResultReason::Canceled)
       {
           auto cancellation = SpeechSynthesisCancellationDetails::FromResult(result);
           std::cout << "CANCELED: Reason=" << (int)cancellation->Reason << std::endl;
   
           if (cancellation->Reason == CancellationReason::Error)
           {
               std::cout << "CANCELED: ErrorCode=" << (int)cancellation->ErrorCode << std::endl;
               std::cout << "CANCELED: ErrorDetails=[" << cancellation->ErrorDetails << "]" << std::endl;
               std::cout << "CANCELED: Did you set the speech resource key and region values?" << std::endl;
           }
       }
   
       std::cout << "Press enter to exit..." << std::endl;
       std::cin.get();
   }
   
   std::string GetEnvironmentVariable(const char* name)
   {
   #if defined(_MSC_VER)
       size_t requiredSize = 0;
       (void)getenv_s(&requiredSize, nullptr, 0, name);
       if (requiredSize == 0)
       {
           return "";
       }
       auto buffer = std::make_unique<char[]>(requiredSize);
       (void)getenv_s(&requiredSize, buffer.get(), requiredSize, name);
       return buffer.get();
   #else
       auto value = getenv(name);
       return value ? value : "";
   #endif
   }  
   

3. Select Tools > Nuget Package Manager > Package Manager Console. In the Package Manager Console, run this command:

   Install-Package Microsoft.CognitiveServices.Speech
   

4. To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

   All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

5. Build and run your new console application to start speech synthesis to the default speaker.

   Important

   Make sure that you set the SPEECH_KEY and SPEECH_REGION environment variables. If you don't set these variables, the sample fails with an error message.

6. Enter some text that you want to speak. For example, type I'm excited to try text to speech. Select the Enter key to hear the synthesized speech.

   Enter some text that you want to speak >
   I'm excited to try text to speech
   

Remarks

More speech synthesis options

This quickstart uses the SpeakTextAsync operation to synthesize a short block of text that you enter. You can also use long-form text from a file and get finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.

• See how to synthesize speech and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) overview for information about speech synthesis from a file and finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.
• See batch synthesis API for text to speech for information about synthesizing long-form text to speech.

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

Reference documentation | Package (Go) | Additional Samples on GitHub

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

Install the Speech SDK for Go. For requirements and instructions, see Install the Speech SDK.

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to speaker output

Follow these steps to create a Go module.

1. Open a command prompt window in the folder where you want the new project. Create a new file named speech-synthesis.go.

2. Copy the following code into speech-synthesis.go:

   package main
   
   import (
       "bufio"
       "fmt"
       "os"
       "strings"
       "time"
   
       "github.com/Microsoft/cognitive-services-speech-sdk-go/audio"
       "github.com/Microsoft/cognitive-services-speech-sdk-go/common"
       "github.com/Microsoft/cognitive-services-speech-sdk-go/speech"
   )
   
   func synthesizeStartedHandler(event speech.SpeechSynthesisEventArgs) {
       defer event.Close()
       fmt.Println("Synthesis started.")
   }
   
   func synthesizingHandler(event speech.SpeechSynthesisEventArgs) {
       defer event.Close()
       fmt.Printf("Synthesizing, audio chunk size %d.\n", len(event.Result.AudioData))
   }
   
   func synthesizedHandler(event speech.SpeechSynthesisEventArgs) {
       defer event.Close()
       fmt.Printf("Synthesized, audio length %d.\n", len(event.Result.AudioData))
   }
   
   func cancelledHandler(event speech.SpeechSynthesisEventArgs) {
       defer event.Close()
       fmt.Println("Received a cancellation.")
   }
   
   func main() {
       // This example requires environment variables named "SPEECH_KEY" and "SPEECH_REGION"
       speechKey :=  os.Getenv("SPEECH_KEY")
       speechRegion := os.Getenv("SPEECH_REGION")
   
       audioConfig, err := audio.NewAudioConfigFromDefaultSpeakerOutput()
       if err != nil {
           fmt.Println("Got an error: ", err)
           return
       }
       defer audioConfig.Close()
       speechConfig, err := speech.NewSpeechConfigFromSubscription(speechKey, speechRegion)
       if err != nil {
           fmt.Println("Got an error: ", err)
           return
       }
       defer speechConfig.Close()
   
       speechConfig.SetSpeechSynthesisVoiceName("en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural")
   
       speechSynthesizer, err := speech.NewSpeechSynthesizerFromConfig(speechConfig, audioConfig)
       if err != nil {
           fmt.Println("Got an error: ", err)
           return
       }
       defer speechSynthesizer.Close()
   
       speechSynthesizer.SynthesisStarted(synthesizeStartedHandler)
       speechSynthesizer.Synthesizing(synthesizingHandler)
       speechSynthesizer.SynthesisCompleted(synthesizedHandler)
       speechSynthesizer.SynthesisCanceled(cancelledHandler)
   
       for {
           fmt.Printf("Enter some text that you want to speak, or enter empty text to exit.\n> ")
           text, _ := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin).ReadString('\n')
           text = strings.TrimSuffix(text, "\n")
           if len(text) == 0 {
               break
           }
   
           task := speechSynthesizer.SpeakTextAsync(text)
           var outcome speech.SpeechSynthesisOutcome
           select {
           case outcome = <-task:
           case <-time.After(60 * time.Second):
               fmt.Println("Timed out")
               return
           }
           defer outcome.Close()
           if outcome.Error != nil {
               fmt.Println("Got an error: ", outcome.Error)
               return
           }
   
           if outcome.Result.Reason == common.SynthesizingAudioCompleted {
               fmt.Printf("Speech synthesized to speaker for text [%s].\n", text)
           } else {
               cancellation, _ := speech.NewCancellationDetailsFromSpeechSynthesisResult(outcome.Result)
               fmt.Printf("CANCELED: Reason=%d.\n", cancellation.Reason)
   
               if cancellation.Reason == common.Error {
                   fmt.Printf("CANCELED: ErrorCode=%d\nCANCELED: ErrorDetails=[%s]\nCANCELED: Did you set the speech resource key and region values?\n",
                       cancellation.ErrorCode,
                       cancellation.ErrorDetails)
               }
           }
       }
   }
   

3. To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

   All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

4. Run the following commands to create a go.mod file that links to components hosted on GitHub:

   go mod init speech-synthesis
   go get github.com/Microsoft/cognitive-services-speech-sdk-go
   

   Important

   Make sure that you set the SPEECH_KEY and SPEECH_REGION environment variables. If you don't set these variables, the sample fails with an error message.

5. Now build and run the code:

   go build
   go run speech-synthesis
   

Remarks

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

Reference documentation | Additional Samples on GitHub

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

To set up your environment, install the Speech SDK. The sample in this quickstart works with the Java Runtime.

1. Install Apache Maven. Then run mvn -v to confirm successful installation.

2. Create a pom.xml file in the root of your project, and copy the following code into it:

   <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
       <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
       <groupId>com.microsoft.cognitiveservices.speech.samples</groupId>
       <artifactId>quickstart-eclipse</artifactId>
       <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
       <build>
           <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>
           <plugins>
           <plugin>
               <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.7.0</version>
               <configuration>
               <source>1.8</source>
               <target>1.8</target>
               </configuration>
           </plugin>
           </plugins>
       </build>
       <dependencies>
           <dependency>
           <groupId>com.microsoft.cognitiveservices.speech</groupId>
           <artifactId>client-sdk</artifactId>
           <version>1.38.0</version>
           </dependency>
       </dependencies>
   </project>
   

3. Install the Speech SDK and dependencies.

   mvn clean dependency:copy-dependencies
   

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to speaker output

Follow these steps to create a console application for speech recognition.

1. Create a file named SpeechSynthesis.java in the same project root directory.

2. Copy the following code into SpeechSynthesis.java:

   import com.microsoft.cognitiveservices.speech.*;
   import com.microsoft.cognitiveservices.speech.audio.*;
   
   import java.util.Scanner;
   import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
   
   public class SpeechSynthesis {
       // This example requires environment variables named "SPEECH_KEY" and "SPEECH_REGION"
       private static String speechKey = System.getenv("SPEECH_KEY");
       private static String speechRegion = System.getenv("SPEECH_REGION");
   
       public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException, ExecutionException {
           SpeechConfig speechConfig = SpeechConfig.fromSubscription(speechKey, speechRegion);
   
           speechConfig.setSpeechSynthesisVoiceName("en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural"); 
   
           SpeechSynthesizer speechSynthesizer = new SpeechSynthesizer(speechConfig);
   
           // Get text from the console and synthesize to the default speaker.
           System.out.println("Enter some text that you want to speak >");
           String text = new Scanner(System.in).nextLine();
           if (text.isEmpty())
           {
               return;
           }
   
           SpeechSynthesisResult speechSynthesisResult = speechSynthesizer.SpeakTextAsync(text).get();
   
           if (speechSynthesisResult.getReason() == ResultReason.SynthesizingAudioCompleted) {
               System.out.println("Speech synthesized to speaker for text [" + text + "]");
           }
           else if (speechSynthesisResult.getReason() == ResultReason.Canceled) {
               SpeechSynthesisCancellationDetails cancellation = SpeechSynthesisCancellationDetails.fromResult(speechSynthesisResult);
               System.out.println("CANCELED: Reason=" + cancellation.getReason());
   
               if (cancellation.getReason() == CancellationReason.Error) {
                   System.out.println("CANCELED: ErrorCode=" + cancellation.getErrorCode());
                   System.out.println("CANCELED: ErrorDetails=" + cancellation.getErrorDetails());
                   System.out.println("CANCELED: Did you set the speech resource key and region values?");
               }
           }
   
           System.exit(0);
       }
   }
   

3. To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

   All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

4. Run your console application to start speech synthesis to the default speaker.

   javac SpeechSynthesis.java -cp ".;target\dependency\*"
   java -cp ".;target\dependency\*" SpeechSynthesis
   

   Important

   Make sure that you set the SPEECH_KEY and SPEECH_REGION environment variables. If you don't set these variables, the sample fails with an error message.

5. Enter some text that you want to speak. For example, type I'm excited to try text to speech. Select the Enter key to hear the synthesized speech.

   Enter some text that you want to speak >
   I'm excited to try text to speech
   

Remarks

More speech synthesis options

This quickstart uses the SpeakTextAsync operation to synthesize a short block of text that you enter. You can also use long-form text from a file and get finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.

• See how to synthesize speech and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) overview for information about speech synthesis from a file and finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.
• See batch synthesis API for text to speech for information about synthesizing long-form text to speech.

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

Reference documentation | Package (npm) | Additional Samples on GitHub | Library source code

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

To set up your environment, install the Speech SDK for JavaScript. If you just want the package name to install, run npm install microsoft-cognitiveservices-speech-sdk. For guided installation instructions, see the Install the Speech SDK.

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to file output

Follow these steps to create a Node.js console application for speech synthesis.

1. Open a console window where you want the new project, and create a file named SpeechSynthesis.js.

2. Install the Speech SDK for JavaScript:

   npm install microsoft-cognitiveservices-speech-sdk
   

3. Copy the following code into SpeechSynthesis.js:

   (function() {
   
       "use strict";
   
       var sdk = require("microsoft-cognitiveservices-speech-sdk");
       var readline = require("readline");
   
       var audioFile = "YourAudioFile.wav";
       // This example requires environment variables named "SPEECH_KEY" and "SPEECH_REGION"
       const speechConfig = sdk.SpeechConfig.fromSubscription(process.env.SPEECH_KEY, process.env.SPEECH_REGION);
       const audioConfig = sdk.AudioConfig.fromAudioFileOutput(audioFile);
   
       // The language of the voice that speaks.
       speechConfig.speechSynthesisVoiceName = "en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural"; 
   
       // Create the speech synthesizer.
       var synthesizer = new sdk.SpeechSynthesizer(speechConfig, audioConfig);
   
       var rl = readline.createInterface({
         input: process.stdin,
         output: process.stdout
       });
   
       rl.question("Enter some text that you want to speak >\n> ", function (text) {
         rl.close();
         // Start the synthesizer and wait for a result.
         synthesizer.speakTextAsync(text,
             function (result) {
           if (result.reason === sdk.ResultReason.SynthesizingAudioCompleted) {
             console.log("synthesis finished.");
           } else {
             console.error("Speech synthesis canceled, " + result.errorDetails +
                 "\nDid you set the speech resource key and region values?");
           }
           synthesizer.close();
           synthesizer = null;
         },
             function (err) {
           console.trace("err - " + err);
           synthesizer.close();
           synthesizer = null;
         });
         console.log("Now synthesizing to: " + audioFile);
       });
   }());
   

4. In SpeechSynthesis.js, optionally you can rename YourAudioFile.wav to another output file name.

5. To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

   All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

6. Run your console application to start speech synthesis to a file:

   node SpeechSynthesis.js
   

   Important

   Make sure that you set the SPEECH_KEY and SPEECH_REGION environment variables. If you don't set these variables, the sample fails with an error message.

7. The provided text should be in an audio file:

   Enter some text that you want to speak >
   > I'm excited to try text to speech
   Now synthesizing to: YourAudioFile.wav
   synthesis finished.
   

Remarks

More speech synthesis options

This quickstart uses the SpeakTextAsync operation to synthesize a short block of text that you enter. You can also use long-form text from a file and get finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.

• See how to synthesize speech and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) overview for information about speech synthesis from a file and finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.
• See batch synthesis API for text to speech for information about synthesizing long-form text to speech.

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

Reference documentation | Package (Download) | Additional Samples on GitHub

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

The Speech SDK for Objective-C is distributed as a framework bundle. The framework supports both Objective-C and Swift on both iOS and macOS.

The Speech SDK can be used in Xcode projects as a CocoaPod, or downloaded directly and linked manually. This guide uses a CocoaPod. Install the CocoaPod dependency manager as described in its installation instructions.

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to speaker output

Follow these steps to synthesize speech in a macOS application.

1. Clone the Azure-Samples/cognitive-services-speech-sdk repository to get the Synthesize audio in Objective-C on macOS using the Speech SDK sample project. The repository also has iOS samples.

2. Open the directory of the downloaded sample app (helloworld) in a terminal.

3. Run the command pod install. This command generates a helloworld.xcworkspace Xcode workspace that contains both the sample app and the Speech SDK as a dependency.

4. Open the helloworld.xcworkspace workspace in Xcode.

5. Open the file named AppDelegate.m and locate the buttonPressed method as shown here.

   - (void)buttonPressed:(NSButton *)button {
       // Creates an instance of a speech config with specified subscription key and service region.
       NSString *speechKey = [[[NSProcessInfo processInfo] environment] objectForKey:@"SPEECH_KEY"];
       NSString *serviceRegion = [[[NSProcessInfo processInfo] environment] objectForKey:@"SPEECH_REGION"];
   
       SPXSpeechConfiguration *speechConfig = [[SPXSpeechConfiguration alloc] initWithSubscription:speechKey region:serviceRegion];
       speechConfig.speechSynthesisVoiceName = @"en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural";
       SPXSpeechSynthesizer *speechSynthesizer = [[SPXSpeechSynthesizer alloc] init:speechConfig];
   
       NSLog(@"Start synthesizing...");
   
       SPXSpeechSynthesisResult *speechResult = [speechSynthesizer speakText:[self.textField stringValue]];
   
       // Checks result.
       if (SPXResultReason_Canceled == speechResult.reason) {
           SPXSpeechSynthesisCancellationDetails *details = [[SPXSpeechSynthesisCancellationDetails alloc] initFromCanceledSynthesisResult:speechResult];
           NSLog(@"Speech synthesis was canceled: %@. Did you set the speech resource key and region values?", details.errorDetails);
       } else if (SPXResultReason_SynthesizingAudioCompleted == speechResult.reason) {
           NSLog(@"Speech synthesis was completed");
       } else {
           NSLog(@"There was an error.");
       }
   }
   

6. In AppDelegate.m, use the environment variables that you previously set for your Speech resource key and region.

   NSString *speechKey = [[[NSProcessInfo processInfo] environment] objectForKey:@"SPEECH_KEY"];
   NSString *serviceRegion = [[[NSProcessInfo processInfo] environment] objectForKey:@"SPEECH_REGION"];
   

7. Optionally in AppDelegate.m, include a speech synthesis voice name as shown here:

   speechConfig.speechSynthesisVoiceName = @"en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural";
   

8. To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

   All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

9. To make the debug output visible, select View > Debug Area > Activate Console.

10. To build and run the example code, select Product > Run from the menu or select the Play button.

    Important

    Make sure that you set the SPEECH_KEY and SPEECH_REGION environment variables. If you don't set these variables, the sample fails with an error message.

After you input some text and select the button in the app, you should hear the synthesized audio played.

Remarks

More speech synthesis options

This quickstart uses the SpeakText operation to synthesize a short block of text that you enter. You can also use long-form text from a file and get finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.

• See how to synthesize speech and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) overview for information about speech synthesis from a file and finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.
• See batch synthesis API for text to speech for information about synthesizing long-form text to speech.

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

Reference documentation | Package (Download) | Additional Samples on GitHub

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

The Speech SDK for Swift is distributed as a framework bundle. The framework supports both Objective-C and Swift on both iOS and macOS.

The Speech SDK can be used in Xcode projects as a CocoaPod, or downloaded directly and linked manually. This guide uses a CocoaPod. Install the CocoaPod dependency manager as described in its installation instructions.

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to speaker output

Follow these steps to synthesize speech in a macOS application.

1. Clone the Azure-Samples/cognitive-services-speech-sdk repository to get the Synthesize audio in Swift on macOS using the Speech SDK sample project. The repository also has iOS samples.

2. Navigate to the directory of the downloaded sample app (helloworld) in a terminal.

3. Run the command pod install. This command generates a helloworld.xcworkspace Xcode workspace that contains both the sample app and the Speech SDK as a dependency.

4. Open the helloworld.xcworkspace workspace in Xcode.

5. Open the file named AppDelegate.swift and locate the applicationDidFinishLaunching and synthesize methods as shown here.

   import Cocoa
   
   @NSApplicationMain
   class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate, NSTextFieldDelegate {
       var textField: NSTextField!
       var synthesisButton: NSButton!
   
       var inputText: String!
   
       var sub: String!
       var region: String!
   
       @IBOutlet weak var window: NSWindow!
   
       func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) {
           print("loading")
           // load subscription information
           sub = ProcessInfo.processInfo.environment["SPEECH_KEY"]
           region = ProcessInfo.processInfo.environment["SPEECH_REGION"]
   
           inputText = ""
   
           textField = NSTextField(frame: NSRect(x: 100, y: 200, width: 200, height: 50))
           textField.textColor = NSColor.black
           textField.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
   
           textField.placeholderString = "Type something to synthesize."
           textField.delegate = self
   
           self.window.contentView?.addSubview(textField)
   
           synthesisButton = NSButton(frame: NSRect(x: 100, y: 100, width: 200, height: 30))
           synthesisButton.title = "Synthesize"
           synthesisButton.target = self
           synthesisButton.action = #selector(synthesisButtonClicked)
           self.window.contentView?.addSubview(synthesisButton)
       }
   
       @objc func synthesisButtonClicked() {
           DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInitiated).async {
               self.synthesize()
           }
       }
   
       func synthesize() {
           var speechConfig: SPXSpeechConfiguration?
           do {
               try speechConfig = SPXSpeechConfiguration(subscription: sub, region: region)
           } catch {
               print("error \(error) happened")
               speechConfig = nil
           }
   
           speechConfig?.speechSynthesisVoiceName = "en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural";
   
           let synthesizer = try! SPXSpeechSynthesizer(speechConfig!)
           let result = try! synthesizer.speakText(inputText)
           if result.reason == SPXResultReason.canceled
           {
               let cancellationDetails = try! SPXSpeechSynthesisCancellationDetails(fromCanceledSynthesisResult: result)
               print("cancelled, error code: \(cancellationDetails.errorCode) detail: \(cancellationDetails.errorDetails!) ")
               print("Did you set the speech resource key and region values?");
               return
           }
       }
   
       func controlTextDidChange(_ obj: Notification) {
           let textFiled = obj.object as! NSTextField
           inputText = textFiled.stringValue
       }
   }
   

6. In AppDelegate.m, use the environment variables that you previously set for your Speech resource key and region.

   sub = ProcessInfo.processInfo.environment["SPEECH_KEY"]
   region = ProcessInfo.processInfo.environment["SPEECH_REGION"]
   

7. Optionally in AppDelegate.m, include a speech synthesis voice name as shown here:

   speechConfig?.speechSynthesisVoiceName = "en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural";
   

8. To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

   All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

9. To make the debug output visible, select View > Debug Area > Activate Console.

10. To build and run the example code, select Product > Run from the menu or select the Play button.

After you input some text and select the button in the app, you should hear the synthesized audio played.

Remarks

More speech synthesis options

This quickstart uses the SpeakText operation to synthesize a short block of text that you enter. You can also use long-form text from a file and get finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.

• See how to synthesize speech and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) overview for information about speech synthesis from a file and finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.
• See batch synthesis API for text to speech for information about synthesizing long-form text to speech.

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

Reference documentation | Package (PyPi) | Additional Samples on GitHub

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

The Speech SDK for Python is available as a Python Package Index (PyPI) module. The Speech SDK for Python is compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS.

• On Windows, install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022 for your platform. Installing this package might require a restart.
• On Linux, you must use the x64 target architecture.

Install a version of Python from 3.7 or later. For any requirements, see Install the Speech SDK.

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to speaker output

Follow these steps to create a console application.

1. Open a command prompt window in the folder where you want the new project. Create a file named speech_synthesis.py.

2. Run this command to install the Speech SDK:

   pip install azure-cognitiveservices-speech
   

3. Copy the following code into speech_synthesis.py:

   import os
   import azure.cognitiveservices.speech as speechsdk
   
   # This example requires environment variables named "SPEECH_KEY" and "SPEECH_REGION"
   speech_config = speechsdk.SpeechConfig(subscription=os.environ.get('SPEECH_KEY'), region=os.environ.get('SPEECH_REGION'))
   audio_config = speechsdk.audio.AudioOutputConfig(use_default_speaker=True)
   
   # The neural multilingual voice can speak different languages based on the input text.
   speech_config.speech_synthesis_voice_name='en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural'
   
   speech_synthesizer = speechsdk.SpeechSynthesizer(speech_config=speech_config, audio_config=audio_config)
   
   # Get text from the console and synthesize to the default speaker.
   print("Enter some text that you want to speak >")
   text = input()
   
   speech_synthesis_result = speech_synthesizer.speak_text_async(text).get()
   
   if speech_synthesis_result.reason == speechsdk.ResultReason.SynthesizingAudioCompleted:
       print("Speech synthesized for text [{}]".format(text))
   elif speech_synthesis_result.reason == speechsdk.ResultReason.Canceled:
       cancellation_details = speech_synthesis_result.cancellation_details
       print("Speech synthesis canceled: {}".format(cancellation_details.reason))
       if cancellation_details.reason == speechsdk.CancellationReason.Error:
           if cancellation_details.error_details:
               print("Error details: {}".format(cancellation_details.error_details))
               print("Did you set the speech resource key and region values?")
   

4. To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

   All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

5. Run your new console application to start speech synthesis to the default speaker.

   python speech_synthesis.py
   

   Important

   Make sure that you set the SPEECH_KEY and SPEECH_REGION environment variables. If you don't set these variables, the sample fails with an error message.

6. Enter some text that you want to speak. For example, type I'm excited to try text to speech. Select the Enter key to hear the synthesized speech.

   Enter some text that you want to speak > 
   I'm excited to try text to speech
   

Remarks

More speech synthesis options

This quickstart uses the speak_text_async operation to synthesize a short block of text that you enter. You can also use long-form text from a file and get finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.

• See how to synthesize speech and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) overview for information about speech synthesis from a file and finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings.
• See batch synthesis API for text to speech for information about synthesizing long-form text to speech.

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

Speech to text REST API reference | Speech to text REST API for short audio reference | Additional Samples on GitHub

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set environment variables

Your application must be authenticated to access Azure AI services resources. For production, use a secure way of storing and accessing your credentials. For example, after you get a key for your Speech resource, write it to a new environment variable on the local machine that runs the application.

To set the environment variable for your Speech resource key, open a console window, and follow the instructions for your operating system and development environment.

• To set the SPEECH_KEY environment variable, replace your-key with one of the keys for your resource.
• To set the SPEECH_REGION environment variable, replace your-region with one of the regions for your resource.

setx SPEECH_KEY your-key
setx SPEECH_REGION your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

export SPEECH_KEY=your-key
export SPEECH_REGION=your-region

Synthesize to a file

At a command prompt, run the following cURL command. Optionally, you can rename output.mp3 to another output file name.

curl --location --request POST "https://%SPEECH_REGION%.tts.speech.microsoft.com/cognitiveservices/v1" ^
--header "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: %SPEECH_KEY%" ^
--header "Content-Type: application/ssml+xml" ^
--header "X-Microsoft-OutputFormat: audio-16khz-128kbitrate-mono-mp3" ^
--header "User-Agent: curl" ^
--data-raw "<speak version='1.0' xml:lang='en-US'><voice xml:lang='en-US' xml:gender='Female' name='en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural'>my voice is my passport verify me</voice></speak>" --output output.mp3

curl --location --request POST "https://${SPEECH_REGION}.tts.speech.microsoft.com/cognitiveservices/v1" \
--header "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: ${SPEECH_KEY}" \
--header 'Content-Type: application/ssml+xml' \
--header 'X-Microsoft-OutputFormat: audio-16khz-128kbitrate-mono-mp3' \
--header 'User-Agent: curl' \
--data-raw '<speak version='\''1.0'\'' xml:lang='\''en-US'\''>
    <voice xml:lang='\''en-US'\'' xml:gender='\''Female'\'' name='\''en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural'\''>
        my voice is my passport verify me
    </voice>
</speak>' > output.mp3

curl --location --request POST "https://${SPEECH_REGION}.tts.speech.microsoft.com/cognitiveservices/v1" \
--header "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: ${SPEECH_KEY}" \
--header 'Content-Type: application/ssml+xml' \
--header 'X-Microsoft-OutputFormat: audio-16khz-128kbitrate-mono-mp3' \
--header 'User-Agent: curl' \
--data-raw '<speak version='\''1.0'\'' xml:lang='\''en-US'\''>
    <voice xml:lang='\''en-US'\'' xml:gender='\''Female'\'' name='\''en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural'\''>
        my voice is my passport verify me
    </voice>
</speak>' > output.mp3

The provided text should be output to an audio file named output.mp3.

To change the speech synthesis language, replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with another supported voice.

All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set es-ES-ElviraNeural, the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

For more information, see Text to speech REST API.

Remarks

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.

In this quickstart, you run an application that does text to speech synthesis.

Prerequisites

Set up the environment

Follow these steps and see the Speech CLI quickstart for other requirements for your platform.

1. Run the following .NET CLI command to install the Speech CLI:

   dotnet tool install --global Microsoft.CognitiveServices.Speech.CLI
   

2. Run the following commands to configure your Speech resource key and region. Replace SUBSCRIPTION-KEY with your Speech resource key and replace REGION with your Speech resource region.

   • Terminal
   • PowerShell

   spx config @key --set SUBSCRIPTION-KEY
   spx config @region --set REGION
   

Synthesize to speaker output

Run the following command for speech synthesis to the default speaker output. You can modify the voice and the text to be synthesized.

spx synthesize --text "I'm excited to try text to speech" --voice "en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural"

If you don't set a voice name, the default voice for en-US speaks.

All neural voices are multilingual and fluent in their own language and English. For example, if the input text in English is "I'm excited to try text to speech" and you set --voice "es-ES-ElviraNeural", the text is spoken in English with a Spanish accent. If the voice doesn't speak the language of the input text, the Speech service doesn't output synthesized audio.

Run this command for information about more speech synthesis options such as file input and output:

spx help synthesize

Remarks

SSML support

You can have finer control over voice styles, prosody, and other settings by using Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML).

OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech

OpenAI text to speech voices are also supported. See OpenAI text to speech voices in Azure AI Speech and multilingual voices. You can replace en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural with a supported OpenAI voice name such as en-US-FableMultilingualNeural.

Clean up resources

You can use the Azure portal or Azure Command Line Interface (CLI) to remove the Speech resource you created.