* 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>
76 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
76 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
# 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](omnivoice.md): no voice cloning, English
|
||
only — but a much faster and much smaller install.
|
||
|
||
## Setup
|
||
|
||
```bash
|
||
pip install kittentts
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
Then select the engine via **Model Catalogue → Engines** or
|
||
`OMNIVOICE_TTS_BACKEND=kittentts`.
|
||
|
||
## Voices
|
||
|
||
Eight preset voices, four male/female pairs:
|
||
|
||
```text
|
||
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](../downloading-models.md).
|
||
|
||
## Behaviour notes
|
||
|
||
- Output is 24 kHz mono.
|
||
- CPU-only by design — the ONNX graph has no CUDA/MPS path.
|
||
- Non-English `language` values are ignored with a log line pointing at
|
||
OmniVoice; reference audio is likewise ignored (no cloning).
|
||
- **Long-input hardening
|
||
([#1173](https://github.com/debpalash/VoiceStudio/issues/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](../expressive-speech.md)).
|
||
- Preset voices only — speed is the one knob.
|
||
|
||
## Troubleshooting
|
||
|
||
- Engine unavailable: `pip install kittentts` into VoiceStudio's Python
|
||
environment and restart.
|
||
- Other issues: [install/troubleshooting.md](../install/troubleshooting.md).
|
||
|
||
See also: [benchmarks.md](../benchmarks.md),
|
||
[disk usage](disk-usage.md).
|