<div dir="ltr">you don't need the keynote voice anymore. just use the bestSpeech NVDA addon. it is on github. <div><br></div><div><a href="https://github.com/samtupy/b32tts_wrapper">https://github.com/samtupy/b32tts_wrapper</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Oct 27, 2025 at 2:04 PM Blake Roberts via Dectalk <<a href="mailto:dectalk@bluegrasspals.com">dectalk@bluegrasspals.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div>
<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>Although this thread is not about DECTalk, the focus of my
message is a speech synthesis project. Starting in 2024, I have
been using an add-on for the nVDA screen reader called Sonata.
Sonata was previously known as Piper until a project name change.
The add-on uses voices powered by AI to provide text-to-speech for
the NVDA screen reader in real-time. Here is a link to the Sonata
NVDA add-on page at GitHub:</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/mush42/sonata-nvda/releases" target="_blank">Releases
· mush42/sonata-nvda</a></p>
<p>I genuinely appreciate that earlier this year, the NVDA add-on
developer created a version of the add-on which is compatible with
2025 releases of NVDA. I am someone who enthusiastically uses AI
tools, such as Sonata, when I have a purpose for using them.
Unfortunately, I experience a consistent voice installation
problem. I'm writing to ascertain if any members of the DECTalk
listserv can offer a solution to the difficulty I encounter.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p> Description of Problem: I'm running Windows 10 Home and NVDA
version 2025.2. The most recent version of the publicly available
Sonata NVDA add-on, 3.1.0, is installed. <font size="2" style="font-size:11pt">The
voices made available through the Sonata Voice Manager in NVDA
menu, accessible through the
"download" tab, consistently fail
to install after download using the current Sonata release dated
June
23, 2025. After the download of various voices in Sonata Voice
Manager reaches 100%, I am told: "download failed". My Internet
connection functions properly. Additionally, the "refresh
voices" button also does not
work.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt">In June of this year, I
informed the Sonata NVDA add-on developer about these Sonata
Voice Manager issues through email, and received no response. an
updated version of Sonata NVDA add-on is not currently
available. The previous version of the Sonata NVDA add-on from
2024 functioned without download issues. To my knowledge, the
older version is unavailable. Even if I could download the 2024
release on GitHub, it would probably be incompatible with 2025
releases of NVDA. NVDA 2025.1 was a compatibility-breaking
release, meaning incompatible add-ons cannot be installed.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt">Blake's Question: Is it
possible to manually download Sonata-provided voices from a
website, for installation using the "install from local file"
item under the "installed voices" tab of Sonata Voice Manager? I
know that installing Sonata voices as downloadable tar.gz files
works because I installed Tamas's KeyNote Gold voice yesterday
evening, which he created using AI. I downloaded Keynote Gold
speech synthesizer for the Sonata NVDA add-on here:</font></p>
<p><a href="https://eurpod.com/piper-voices-of-retro-speech-synthesizers/" target="_blank">Piper
voices, and other retro NVDA speech synthesizers</a></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt">The Keynote Gold voice
file archive for manual installation into Sonata NVDA add-on is
available under the "Voices List" heading at the link I
provided above. I appreciate all of Tamas's hard work to make
this. Although I notice this emulated Keynote Gold voice
sometimes cuts off the beginning of words, some voices offered
by the Sonata NVDA add-on project do the same thing. I know from
experience that some newer Sonata voices are less prone to start
of word cut-off.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt">Final Thoughts: I am
interested in also using voices provided by Sonata in the Sonata
NVDA add-on. Being unable to download voices directly in the
Sonata Voice Manager is, from my perspective, a problem. Any
resolution suggestions which the DECTalk list members can
provide would be helpful. Thank you for reading.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="2" style="font-size:11pt">Blake</font></p>
</div>
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</blockquote></div>