SpVoice AudioOutputStream property (SAPI 5.4)

Article
08/26/2009

Microsoft Speech API 5.4

AudioOutputStream Property

The AudioOutputStream property gets and sets the current audio stream object used by the voice.

Setting the voice's AudioOutputStream property may cause its audio output format to be automatically changed to match the text-to-speech (TTS) engine's preferred audio output format. If the voice's AllowAudioOutputFormatChangesOnNextSet property is True, the format change takes place; if False, the format remains unchanged. In order to set the AudioOutputStream property of a voice to a specific format, its AllowOutputFormatChangesOnNextSet should be False.

Syntax

Set:	SpVoice.AudioOutputStream = ISpeechBaseStream
Get:	ISpeechBaseStream = SpVoice.AudioOutputStream

Parts

SpVoice
The owning object.
ISpeechBaseStream
Get: An ISpeechBaseStream object that gets the current audio output stream.
Set: An ISpeechBaseStream object that sets the audio output stream.

Remarks

Voice status and voice events are closely associated with the status of the audio output device. A voice speaking to a file stream produces no audio output, generates no events, and has no audio output status. As a result, the ISpeechVoiceStatus data returned by that voice will always indicate that it is inactive.

Example

The following Visual Basic form code demonstrates the use of the AudioOutputStream property. To run this code, create a form with the following controls:

A textbox called Text1
Two command buttons called Command1 and Command2

Paste this code into the Declarations section of the form.

The Command1_Click procedure sets the AudioOutputStream property of the voice to a file called AudioOutputStream.wav and speaks the contents of the text box into a wave file. It then sets the voice's AudioOutputStream property to Nothing, so that subsequent voice output will be directed to the audio system rather than to a file.

The Command2_Click procedure plays back the wave file that created by the Command1_Click procedure.

  
Option Explicit

Const strFName = "C:\AudioOutputStream.wav"
Dim objVOICE As SpeechLib.SpVoice
Dim objFSTRM As SpeechLib.SpFileStream

Private Sub Form_Load()
    On Error GoTo EH

    Set objVOICE = New SpVoice
    Set objFSTRM = New SpFileStream
    Command2.Enabled = False    'Force create file before playback
    Text1.Text = "The TTS voice will speak this text into a file."

EH:
    If Err.Number Then ShowErrMsg
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    On Error GoTo EH

    Const FName = "C:\ExCodeAudioOutputStream.wav"

    ' Build a local wav file path and open it as a stream.
    Call objFSTRM.Open(FName, SSFMCreateForWrite, False)

    ' Set voice AudioOutputStream to the stream and speak
    ' the contents of the text box into the new wave file:
    Set objVOICE.AudioOutputStream = objFSTRM
    objVOICE.Speak Text1.Text

    ' Close the stream and set voice back to speaking:
    Call objFSTRM.Close
    Set objVOICE.AudioOutputStream = Nothing

    Command2.Enabled = True

EH:
    If Err.Number Then ShowErrMsg
End Sub

Private Sub Command2_Click()
    On Error GoTo EH

    objVOICE.Speak Text1.Text, SVSFIsXML

EH:
    If Err.Number Then ShowErrMsg
End Sub

Private Sub ShowErrMsg()

    ' Declare identifiers:
    Dim T As String

    T = "Desc: " & Err.Description & vbNewLine
    T = T & "Err #: " & Err.Number
    MsgBox T, vbExclamation, "Run-Time Error"
    End

End Sub

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