YakYak

YakYak is a utility for the generation of synthetic voice through use of Wyoming-Piper. It can be used from the command line or called from python. It opens a TCP socket to Wyoming-Piper running in Docker anywhere on your local area network. It scales to run efficiently on large multi-core computers or small single board computers.

Install YakYak, Docker Compose & FFMPEG

To install YakYak, python virtual environment is recommended.

Step 1, create a python virtual environment and activate it

cd some_directory
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Step 2, install the yakyak package

pip install yakyak

Setup wyoming-piper in docker, on your local area network.

The default docker_compose.yml is distributed in github.

docker compose up -d

Install ffmpeg for mac

brew install ffmpeg

Install ffmpeg for Ubuntu

sudo apt install ffmpeg

Test YakYak, Wyoming-Piper and FFMPEG installation

It will take a little longer the first time running YakYak, the Wyoming-Piper app needs time to download voice files.

yakyak -t mp3

Observe successful test results

INFO:root:Server localhost:10200 is online
INFO:root:Success, test: mp3

Use standard in to create an mp3 file and play it. On mac use afplay on linux user aplay

echo lets test yakyak | yakyak -o test.mp3 -f mp3
afplay test.mp3

How to use YakYak from the command line

As with many Linux applications, YakYak supports standard in, and standard out. It also supports file input with the -i command and -o for file output. For a complete set of commands type yakyak --help.

yakyak --help

Create an mp3 file with "Hello world"

echo Hello world | yakyak -f mp3 -o hello_world.mp3

If you are on Linux and have aplay installed, you can do this:

echo Hello world | yakyak | aplay This assumes that Docker is running on the same machine.

If Docker is running on a different machine on your network, you can do this:

echo Hello world | yakyak --host a_different_machine.local | aplay

How to use YakYak from Python

Create the file test_yakyak.py with the following content:

from yakyak import is_server_online, piper_tts_server

print(f"{is_server_online(
        'localhost', 
        10200, 
        )=}")

print(f"{piper_tts_server(
        'localhost', 
        10200, 
        'Hello World',
        'hello_world.mp3',
        'mp3',
        'en_US-amy-medium'
        )=}")

python3 test_yakyak.py
Observe that the server is online and a file hello_world.mp3 is created. Play the mp3 and you will hear "Hello world".

Python run.py Test

From the command line type python3 run.py will produce the following when successful:

python3 run.py

run.py 
check_ffmpeg_version()='ffmpeg version 6.0 Copyright (c) 2000-2023 the FFmpeg developers'
is_server_online(
        'localhost', 
        10200, 
        )=True
INFO:root:Server localhost:10200 is online
run_test(
        'localhost', 
        10200, 
        'mp3',
        )=(True, 'Success, test: mp3')
INFO:root:Success, test: mp3
await piper_tts_server(
            'localhost', 
            10200, 
            'Hello World',
            'run_test.mp3',
            'mp3',
            'en_US-amy-medium'
            )=None

Process finished with exit code 0