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GoogleTrans TTS

GoogleTrans provides free text-to-speech capabilities through Google Translate's speech synthesis. It's useful for basic TTS needs without requiring API keys or authentication.

Platform Support​

GoogleTrans works on all platforms with internet connectivity:

from tts_wrapper import GoogleTransClient

# Initialize client (no credentials needed)
tts = GoogleTransClient()

Features​

Language Selection​

Select from available languages:

# Set language
tts.set_voice("en", "en")  # Language code for English

# Different languages
tts.set_voice("fr", "fr")  # French
tts.set_voice("es", "es")  # Spanish
tts.set_voice("de", "de")  # German

Basic Synthesis​

Simple text-to-speech conversion:

# Basic speech synthesis
tts.speak("Hello, this is a test of Google Translate TTS")

# Different languages
tts.set_voice("fr", "fr")
tts.speak("Bonjour, ceci est un test")

File Output​

Save synthesized speech to file:

# Save as MP3
tts.synth_to_file("Hello world", "output.mp3", "mp3")

# Save as WAV
tts.synth_to_file("Hello world", "output.wav", "wav")

Word Timing Callbacks​

GoogleTrans supports estimated word timing callbacks:

# Define a callback function for word events
def word_callback(word, start_time, end_time):
    print(f"Word: {word}, Time: {start_time:.2f}s - {end_time:.2f}s")

# Use word timing callbacks
tts.start_playback_with_callbacks("Hello world test", callback=word_callback)

Note: Word timings are estimated based on text length and average speaking rate, not precise timing from the TTS engine.

Best Practices​

  1. Usage Guidelines

    • Respect Google's terms of service
    • Use for personal/testing purposes only
    • Consider commercial TTS services for production use
    • Keep requests reasonable in frequency

  2. Performance

    • Reuse client instances
    • Consider caching frequently used phrases
    • Handle network connectivity issues

  3. Error Handling

    try:
        tts.speak("Hello, world!")
    except Exception as e:
        if "Connection" in str(e):
            print("Check internet connection")
        else:
            print(f"Error: {e}")

Limitations​

  • Requires internet connection
  • No SSML support
  • No voice selection (language-based only)
  • Word timing support is estimated (not precise)
  • Limited control over voice properties
  • Rate limits may apply
  • Not recommended for commercial use
  • Quality may vary by language

Audio Settings​

Audio Format​

  • Format: MP3 (converted to WAV for playback)
  • Sample Rate: 22050 Hz
  • Channels: Mono (1 channel)
  • Sample Width: 16-bit
print(f"Audio rate: {tts.audio_rate}")    # 22050
print(f"Channels: {tts.channels}")        # 1
print(f"Sample width: {tts.sample_width}") # 2 (16-bit)

Language Support​

GoogleTrans supports multiple languages:

# Common language codes
LANGUAGES = {
    "English": "en",
    "French": "fr",
    "Spanish": "es",
    "German": "de",
    "Italian": "it",
    "Japanese": "ja",
    "Korean": "ko",
    "Chinese": "zh",
    "Russian": "ru"
}

# Set language
for name, code in LANGUAGES.items():
    tts.set_voice(code, code)
    tts.speak(f"This is a test in {name}")

Use Cases​

Language Learning​

# Practice pronunciation in different languages
phrases = {
    "fr": "Bonjour, comment allez-vous?",
    "es": "¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás?",
    "de": "Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen?"
}

for lang, phrase in phrases.items():
    tts.set_voice(lang, lang)
    tts.speak(phrase)

Quick Testing​

# Quick TTS testing without API setup
tts.set_voice("en", "en")
tts.speak("This is a quick test of text-to-speech")

Additional Resources​

Next Steps​