lost-number

Exploring pocket-tts

tts-demo

Exploring what I can do with pocket-tts.

Reference

Blog post that introduced me to pocket-tts (authored by the creators): https://kyutai.org/blog/2026-01-13-pocket-tts

Mac failure

Not supported on my macos. Always a good reason to spin up my OrbStack app instead.

  × No solution found when resolving tool dependencies:
  ╰─▶ Because only the following versions of torch are available:
          torch<=2.5.0
          torch==2.5.1
          torch==2.6.0
          torch==2.7.0
          torch==2.7.1
          torch==2.8.0
          torch==2.9.0
          torch==2.9.1
          torch==2.10.0
      and torch>=2.5.0 has no wheels with a matching platform tag (e.g., `macosx_15_0_x86_64`), we can conclude that torch>=2.5.0 cannot be used.
      And because all versions of pocket-tts depend on torch>=2.5.0 and you require pocket-tts, we can conclude that your requirements are unsatisfiable.

      hint: Wheels are available for `torch` (v2.10.0) on the following platforms: `manylinux_2_28_aarch64`, `manylinux_2_28_x86_64`, `macosx_11_0_arm64`, `win_amd64`

Linux setup

Running in a linux VM for the time being. Setup steps for linux below:

  1. curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
  2. uvx pocket-tts generate
  3. uvx pocket-tts serve
  4. head to http://localhost:8000 or check out the below for an example: web

General usage

pocket-tts generate --text "Hello, this is a custom message."

Models hosting: https://huggingface.co/kyutai/tts-voices

Other variants of the default alba voice:

alba-mackenna/

Characters voice-acted by Alba MacKenna:

    Casual: Very casual flavour dialogue.
    Merchant: A seller you'd typically encounter in RPG's etc.
    Announcer: An announcer you'd hear typically in competitive games.
    A Moment By: Private recordings requested by Kinder World for their 'Moment' series.

For local testing with no hf authentication, the following voices are available: ['alba', 'marius', 'javert', 'jean', 'fantine', 'cosette', 'eponine', 'azelma']

Testing it out

Random

My brain thought of this random string late at night. No voices could produce finish the quote. No voices had that dAWg.

uvx pocket-tts generate --text "And in the blue corner, weighing 249 pounds, biiiiiiiiiig dAWWWWWWg" --voice "marius"

  1. attempt1
  2. attempt2

Next, I thought of popular quotes that have stuck in my head over the years. Not from scientists, teachers or soccer players. But rather from ...

Halo 1 - Cortana

uvx pocket-tts generate --text "This cave is not a natural formation" --voice "eponine"

halo

Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith - Chancellor Palpatine

uvx pocket-tts generate --text "Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life… He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself." --voice "javert"

starwars

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Colonel Volgin

uvx pocket-tts generate --text "This is war major. A cold war. Filled with information and espionage." --voice "javert"

First attempt

Hmm not quite. It started off strong but the pauses came in fast. The punctuation and grammar needed refining. Below are a few more attempts with subtle tweaks.

  1. "This is war major, a cold war! Filled with information & espionage." - didn't know "war" could be stretched out into "woooooore"
  2. "This is WAR major, A cold war! Filled with information & espionage." - 2nd half has too many pauses
  3. "This is war major! A cold war, filled with information & espionage." - close, but massive pause after "information"
  4. "This is WAR major, A cold war, filled with information & espionage." - again, too many pauses

At this point, I searched up the exact quote and confirmed I had a few changes to make ...

"This is war, Major. A Cold War, fought with information and espionage." -> BINGO!

Pretty pleased with that final effort. Who knew my hours spent playing 20 years ago would return the favour when I needed a final quote.

snake-salute

#pocket-ttl #text-to-speech #voice training