Palash DebnathandClaude Fable 5
030d5ea01f
* docs(engines): a guide for every engine + index; fix two engine-metadata bugs 21 new pages under docs/engines/ (10 TTS, 10 ASR, index README) — every registered engine now has one: what it's for, platform support, model env vars, quirks with issue refs. Linked from both READMEs' engine sections. Code fixes found while verifying facts against the registries: - KittenTTS docstring claimed default voice 'Jasper'; the code default is expr-voice-2-f - the isolated-ASR sidecar read only ASR_MODEL_FW while the download preflight read ASR_MODEL_FASTER — set one and the other quietly used a different model; both now resolve ASR_MODEL_FW-override → ASR_MODEL_FASTER - moonshine's install hint named 'useful-moonshine', a package the backend never imports; now moonshine-onnx / moonshine-voice Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * docs(changelog): entries for the engine guides + sidecar model fix (#1556) Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * docs(engines): second-harvest fixes — TLS guidance, matrix/code alignment, CN counts - README matrix aligned to gpu_compat (the code is the source of truth): CosyVoice macOS is CPU not MPS, IndexTTS and GGUF gain their real CUDA/CPU/MPS cells - gpt-sovits guide: prefer https/tunnel for non-loopback servers, plaintext warning; first-use download guidance on both OmniVoice pages - preflight empty-env fallback matches the sidecar (ASR_MODEL_FASTER='' no longer resolves a different repo) - nano installs via uv pip; kitten log level wording; index links install guides incl. the Gatekeeper step; README_CN engine counts 16/11 Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * docs(readme-cn): the all-engines-local claim now excludes the remote client Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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VoiceStudio — KittenTTS Engine
KittenTTS (KittenML) is the lightweight English "flash" tier: a 25–80 MB ONNX model with 8 preset voices that runs realtime on any CPU — no torch, no CUDA, no GPU of any kind. Use it when you just need quick English narration (voiceovers, demo reads, short phrases) with no reference sample.
When to pick it
- English-only content where speed and a tiny install matter more than cloning.
- Machines with no usable GPU.
The trade-off against OmniVoice: no voice cloning, English only — but a much faster and much smaller install.
Setup
pip install kittentts
Then select the engine via Model Catalogue → Engines or
OMNIVOICE_TTS_BACKEND=kittentts.
Voices
Eight preset voices, four male/female pairs:
expr-voice-2-m expr-voice-2-f (default: expr-voice-2-f)
expr-voice-3-m expr-voice-3-f
expr-voice-4-m expr-voice-4-f
expr-voice-5-m expr-voice-5-f
An unknown voice id logs an info message and falls back to the default.
Model selection
| Variable | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
OMNIVOICE_KITTENTTS_MODEL |
KittenML/kitten-tts-mini-0.8 |
HuggingFace checkpoint to load |
The ~80 MB model downloads from HuggingFace on first use (retried once on a flaky connection). See downloading-models.md.
Behaviour notes
- Output is 24 kHz mono.
- CPU-only by design — the ONNX graph has no CUDA/MPS path.
- Non-English
languagevalues are ignored with a log line pointing at OmniVoice; reference audio is likewise ignored (no cloning). - Long-input hardening (#1173): the shipped ONNX graph has a hard 512-token cap, and phonemization can expand text massively (digits especially). VoiceStudio pre-measures every chunk with the model's own tokenizer and splits oversized chunks at word boundaries, so long or digit-heavy inputs no longer abort inside onnxruntime with an opaque "invalid expand shape" error.
Known limits
- English only; no cloning, no voice design, no emotion controls (see expressive-speech.md).
- Preset voices only — speed is the one knob.
Troubleshooting
- Engine unavailable:
pip install kittenttsinto VoiceStudio's Python environment and restart. - Other issues: install/troubleshooting.md.
See also: benchmarks.md, disk usage.