Made in Vancouver, Canada by Picovoice
Orca is an on-device text-to-speech engine producing high-quality, realistic, spoken audio with zero latency. Orca is:
- Private; All voice processing runs locally.
- Cross-Platform:
- Linux (x86_64), macOS (x86_64, arm64), Windows (x86_64)
- Android and iOS
- Raspberry Pi (5, 4, 3) and NVIDIA Jetson Nano
- Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge
Please note that Orca is currently in development. While we prioritize stability and compatibility, certain aspects of Orca may undergo changes as we continually enhance and refine the engine to provide the best user experience possible.
- Orca Text-to-Speech currently supports English only.
- Support for additional languages is available for commercial customers on a case-by-case basis.
Orca accepts the 26 lowercase (a-z) and 26 uppercase (A-Z) letters of the English alphabet, as well as
common punctuation marks. You can get a list of all supported characters by calling the
valid_characters()
method provided in the Orca SDK you are using.
Pronunciations of characters or words not supported by this list can be achieved with
custom pronunciations.
Orca supports custom pronunciations via a specific syntax embedded within the input text.
This feature allows users to define unique pronunciations for words using the following format: {word|pronunciation}
.
The pronunciation is expressed in ARPAbet phonemes.
The following are examples of sentences using custom pronunciations:
- "This is a {custom|K AH S T AH M} pronunciation"
- "{read|R IY D} this as {read|R EH D}, please."
- "I {live|L IH V} in {Sevilla|S EH V IY Y AH}. We have great {live|L AY V} sports!"
Orca can synthesize speech with various voices, each of which is characterized by a model file located in lib/common. To synthesize speech with a specific voice, provide the associated model file as an argument to the orca init function. The following are the voices currently available:
Model name | Sample rate (Hz) |
---|---|
orca_params_female.pv | 22050 |
orca_params_male.pv | 22050 |
Orca provides a set of parameters to control the synthesized speech. The following table lists the available parameters:
Parameter | Default | Description |
---|---|---|
speech rate | 1.0 | Speed of generated speech. Valid values are within [0.7, 1.3]. Higher (lower) values generate faster (slower) speech. |
Orca's synthesized speech is delivered as either raw audio data or a WAV file. Output audio will be in single-channel 16-bit PCM format and can be directly fed into a playback audio system.
AccessKey is your authentication and authorization token for deploying Picovoice SDKs, including Orca. Anyone who is using Picovoice needs to have a valid AccessKey. You must keep your AccessKey secret. You will need internet connectivity to validate your AccessKey with Picovoice license servers even though the text-to-speech engine is running 100% offline.
AccessKey also verifies that your usage is within the limits of your account. Everyone who signs up for
Picovoice Console receives the Free Tier
usage rights described
here. If you wish to increase your limits, you can purchase a subscription plan.
To run the Python demo, run the following in the console:
pip3 install pvorcademo
orca_demo --access_key ${ACCESS_KEY} --text ${TEXT} --output_path ${WAV_OUTPUT_PATH}
Replace ${ACCESS_KEY}
with yours obtained from Picovoice Console, ${TEXT}
with the text to be synthesized, and
${WAV_OUTPUT_PATH}
with a path to an output WAV file.
Run the following from demo/ios to install the Orca-iOS CocoaPod:
pod install
Replace let ACCESS_KEY = "..."
inside ViewModel.swift with yours
obtained from Picovoice Console.
Then, using Xcode, open the generated OrcaDemo.xcworkspace and run the application.
For more information about iOS demos go to demo/ios.
Build the demo:
cmake -S demo/c/ -B demo/c/build && cmake --build demo/c/build --target orca_demo
Run the demo:
./demo/c/build/orca_demo -l ${LIBRARY_PATH} -m ${MODEL_PATH} -a ${ACCESS_KEY} -t ${TEXT} -o ${OUTPUT_PATH}
From demo/web run the following in the terminal:
yarn
yarn start
(or)
npm install
npm run start
Open http://localhost:5000
in your browser to try the demo.
Using Android Studio, open demo/android/OrcaDemo as an Android project and then run the application.
Replace "${YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_HERE}"
in the
file MainActivity.java
with your AccessKey
.
Install the Python SDK:
pip3 install pvorca
Create an instance of the engine and generate speech:
import pvorca
orca = pvorca.create(access_key='${ACCESS_KEY}')
pcm = orca.synthesize('${TEXT}')
Replace ${ACCESS_KEY}
with yours obtained from Picovoice Console and ${TEXT}
with
the text to be synthesized including potential custom pronunciations.
Finally, when done make sure to explicitly release the resources:
orca.delete()
For more details see Python SDK.
Create an instance of the engine and synthesize:
import Orca
let modelPath = Bundle(for: type(of: self)).path(
forResource: "${MODEL_FILE}", // Name of the model file name for Orca
ofType: "pv")!
do {
let orca = try Orca(accessKey: "${ACCESS_KEY}", modelPath: modelPath)
} catch {}
do {
let pcm = try orca.synthesize(text: "${TEXT}")
} catch {}
Replace ${ACCESS_KEY}
with yours obtained from Picovoice Console, ${MODEL_FILE}
with the model file name for Orca and ${TEXT}
with
the text to be synthesized including potential custom pronunciations.
When done be sure to explicitly release the resources using orca.delete()
.
The header file include/pv_orca.h contains relevant information on Orca's C SDK.
Build an instance of the object:
pv_orca_t *handle = NULL;
const char *model_path = "${MODEL_PATH}";
pv_status_t status = pv_orca_init("${ACCESS_KEY}", model_path, &handle);
if (status != PV_STATUS_SUCCESS) {
// error handling logic
}
Replace ${ACCESS_KEY}
with the AccessKey obtained from Picovoice Console,
and ${MODEL_PATH}
with the path to the model file available under lib/common.
Create a synthesize_params
object to control the synthesized speech:
pv_orca_synthesize_params_t *synthesize_params = NULL;
status = pv_orca_synthesize_params_init(&synthesize_params);
// change the default parameters of synthesize_params as desired
Now, the handle
and synthesize_params
object can be used to synthesize speech:
int32_t num_samples = 0;
int16_t *synthesized_pcm = NULL;
status = pv_orca_synthesize(
handle,
"${TEXT}",
synthesize_params,
&num_samples,
&synthesized_pcm);
Replace ${TEXT}
with the text to be synthesized including potential custom pronunciations.
Finally, when done make sure to release the acquired resources:
pv_orca_delete_pcm(pcm);
pv_orca_synthesize_params_delete(synthesize_params);
pv_orca_delete(handle);
Install the web SDK using yarn:
yarn add @picovoice/orca-web
or using npm:
npm install --save @picovoice/orca-web
Create an instance of the engine using OrcaWorker
and synthesize speech:
import { OrcaWorker } from "@picovoice/orca-web";
import orcaParams from "${PATH_TO_BASE64_ORCA_PARAMS}";
const orca = await OrcaWorker.create(
"${ACCESS_KEY}",
{ base64: orcaParams }
);
const speechPcm = await orca.synthesize("${TEXT}")
Replace ${ACCESS_KEY}
with yours obtained from Picovoice Console. Finally, when done
release the resources using orca.release()
.
To include the Orca package in your Android project, ensure you have included mavenCentral()
in your
top-level build.gradle
file and then add the following to your app's build.gradle
:
dependencies {
implementation 'ai.picovoice:orca-android:${LATEST_VERSION}'
}
Create an instance of the engine and generate speech:
import ai.picovoice.orca.*;
final String accessKey = "${ACCESS_KEY}"; // AccessKey obtained from Picovoice Console (https://console.picovoice.ai/)
final String modelPath = "${MODEL_FILE_PATH}";
try {
Orca orca = new Orca.Builder()
.setAccessKey(accessKey)
.setModelPath(modelPath)
.build(appContext);
short[] pcm = orca.synthesize(
"${TEXT}",
new OrcaSynthesizeParams.Builder().build());
} catch (OrcaException ex) { }
Replace ${ACCESS_KEY}
with yours obtained from Picovoice Console, ${MODEL_FILE_PATH}
with an
Orca voice model file and ${TEXT}
with the text to be synthesized including
potential custom pronunciations.
Finally, when done make sure to explicitly release the resources:
orca.delete()
For more details, see the Android SDK.
- Beta release
You can find the FAQ here.