Alex HallI gave Pocket TTS a shot. It's a local AI voice that claims to run well on the CPU, so it's faster to generate output and doesn't require a GPU. The main problem with it is the same as with so many voices these days, AI or otherwise: punctuation. Periods and commas sound the same, and question marks aren't always noticeable. Parenthetical phrases sound odd, and the double dash isn't handled at all. I love seeing this field continue to move forward, but I have yet to meet an AI voice I like.
@TalkingDroid @alexhall It's shockingly unbelievable how noone has enough brain to think of such a very important detail when making a synth.
@TalkingDroid @clv1 ESpeak is my daily driver, and it also handles punctuation quite well. It seems like the more "natural" a voice is, the worse it is with punctuation.