nvda support for new natural sounding voices in windows 11 dev build

[mayson199514]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

no, this is not relating to a problem with nvda.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like nvda in the near future to support the new natural sounding voices that you can use with narrator in windows 11 dev build 22543

Describe alternatives you've considered

no Alternatives

Additional context

[LeonarddeR]

Have you confirmed on a system where these voices are available that they aren't available in NVDA under the one core synthesizer?

[mayson199514]

Hello, I have installed this on my secondary computer and after installing these voices using the narrator settings page, they display in narrator's voices combobox, however after restarting nvda, they domnot show up in onecore voices or sapi 5.

[codeofdusk]

I suspect the sv2 voices aren't exposed to third-party apps.

[josephsl]

Hi, I don’t think so as Narrator retrieves them from Store as evidenced by these voices being listed in the library. I’m doubtful that these natural voices (which I think is a different synthesizer being tested by Microsoft) will make the cut for nickel milestone (I’m thinking perhaps in the 2023 cycle, either as a nickel refresh, copper, or a zinc cycle); I hope I can be proven wrong by the time 22H2 config is frozen in a few weeks. Thanks.

[animeshahilya]

microsoft has given them in the windows 11 beta as well. so we all will get those in 22 h2 it self. so we should try bringing it for n v d a as well

[LeonarddeR]

microsoft has given them in the windows 11 beta as well.

As long as they're not publicly exposed, we can't do anything about it.

[timonvanhasselt]

Any news on the topic of bringing Natural voices to NVDA? The natural voices for Narrator are now publicly available in Win11 version 22h2. Thanks in advance.

[LeonarddeR]

I'm afraid they are Narrator only.

[timonvanhasselt]

That's a pitty. Hopefully in the future. Thanks.

[josedaredevil]

any news on this? Has anyone been able to get narrator voices to work in NVDA?

[LeonarddeR]

As far as I know, those voices are private to Narrator.

[CoBC]

Hi,
I wrote this comment in feedback hub to request Microsoft to open this natural voices to third-party apps. Please vote for this comment if you're interested, hopefuly Microsoft will hear us:
https://aka.ms/AAm87z0

[lbk2907]

Hi, I wrote this comment in feedback hub to request Microsoft to open this natural voices to third-party apps. Please vote for this comment if you're interested, hopefully Microsoft will hear us: https://aka.ms/AAm87z0

@CoBC
Thanks for this.

[ObjectInSpace]

I asked someone from Microsoft about this at the last NFB convention, and he said something about developers needing to get signed up through Azure's AI speech service. I was pretty confused by this, since NVDA's use case is not cloud-based. I think I get it now after some searches.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/speech-service/embedded-speech documents the imbedded speech service for offline use, and how to implement this in apps. However, access to imbedded speech is limited to customers managed by Microsoft, meaning those who are working directly with Microsoft account teams. The embedded Speech is made available under the terms governing a subscription to Microsoft Azure Services, including the Service Specific Terms. Someone from NVAccess will need to register by submitting this form :
https://aka.ms/csgate-embedded-speech

Has this been tried yet? I didn't see a screenreader specific use case on the form, but it's hard for me to imagine how Narrator fits a use case NVDA does not.

[seanbudd]

@gexgd0419 - please do not share or encourage the use of illegal software or breaking licences here. It is against GitHub TOS.