Waiting on Microsft Azure Ashley to Unlock speaking styles

Question

Hello Microsoft Q&A community,

I have been trying to use the speaking style selection feature on Microsoft Azure's TTS service to make Ashley's TTS voice sound more human and emote. However, I have noticed that the speaking style is stuck on "general" and I am unable to change it.

I have searched for product and service-related keywords and have not been able to find a solution that has already been posted.

In an effort to troubleshoot the issue, I have tried using different scenarios and configurations, but to no avail. I have not encountered any error messages.

I would greatly appreciate any information on how certain TTS voices were able to get the speaking style selection feature or when all TTS voices on Azure will have this feature.

Answer 1

Hi Jacob,

It looks like at this time, Azure TTS (Ashley) on has General available to the voice:

Cited from https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/cognitive-services/text-to-speech/#features

This is a matter of what Microsoft has put out for availability and at this time the only Speaking style available for Ashley (Neural) is General.

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If this is helpful please accept answer.

Answer 2

You can find a list of voices supporting styles and roles from here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/speech-service/language-support?tabs=tts#voice-styles-and-roles

Microsoft is gradually adding more voices, but if you need a specific style for your project you should select a voice from that list. Ashley does not support any styles at this point.