2018-06-21 09:14:35

Hey everyone, I thought I heard somewhere quite a while back that you could use the voice of Cortana with nvda. Is this actually possible? If so, could anyone write up some instructions to help me do this? Thanks a lot.

2018-06-21 09:26:27

it defenately is, how ever please be aware that i've only seen this working in windows10 sixty 4 bit, do not risk running it on 32 since i've not tested it.
link to the reg file is.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r639qq1jikxxa … e.zip?dl=1

this will download a zip file to your pc, extract it, then hit enter on that reg file. remember you need to be pc admin.
this file will enable the microsoft eva mobile voice to be used with screen readers such as nvda.
warning
this works o my systems, using this at your own risk, always please remember to either back up your data or create a restore point just in cace something goes wonkey.
have fun and enjoy cortana

There's a place for me in this universe.

2018-06-21 15:41:41

It should be noted that this is a rather old registry hack. The voice will work just fine but internally, they no longer have the name "Mobile" in the title. It won't cause problems but it may feel a bit inconsistent.

Oh no! Somebody released the h key! Everybody run and hide!

2018-06-21 17:44:50

Thanks a lot for that. I’ll work on that sometime today. I do have windows 10 64 bit.

2018-06-21 18:17:46

This will make it work with sapi, which is laggy, if you're OK with the sapi lag, then its good for you. Also, remember that if this is the reg hack I think it is, it will be using the mobile voices which do not have the same quality that you get with cortana. It sounds like cortana, just compacted, similar to how some other voices offer enhanced or premium high and normal or compact.

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2018-06-21 20:19:48

Unfortunately, neither this nor the other registry tweeks I've tried (though I can't confirm  if they're actually just the same one from diffferent sources) have been able to get Eva working on my system. Its reachable via narrator, but not nvda or other sapi-based programs.

2018-06-21 22:54:45 (edited by Slender 2018-06-21 22:55:16)

@John Yeah, you need to import them in to the 32 bit registry for NVDA to see it, since NVDA's SAPI implementation is 32 bit. You can access this at c:\windows\syswow64\regedit.exe, or if you like the command line, you can also import them by typing "reg import filename.reg /reg:32" from an elevated command prompt. to make this easier, I created a registry hack that allows you to import a registry entry in to the 32 bit registry from the context menu for reg files. Note that it requires nircmd to be in the windows folder to work properly, I tried to use the graphical 32 bit registry and it broke every time a path included spaces, and nircmd is required because I couldn't find any other way to elevate the reg command so it can modify the registry. You can download the hack here. @ironcross32, I believe the higher quality Cortana voice is a cloud product, possibly because it might be using a neural network that's CPU intensive.

Oh no! Somebody released the h key! Everybody run and hide!

2018-06-23 18:09:40

yeah i'm pretty sure that the hq one using spliced samples of her is cloud based. I tried registering these voices under the speech_OneCore sect to see if I could get it with the OneCore driver but for some reason they don't show up.
If you like the mobile voices you can try this package. It's got a pretty large load of mobile voices, multiple languages, make sure you read the readme befre applying the hack!

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An anomaly in the matrix. An error in existence. A being who cannot get inside the goddamn box! A.K.A. Me.

2018-06-23 19:32:41

The only reason I ever did it was because of the god awful breakage that I wanted to play with. It isn't really viable using it as a screen reader voice. It's gonna be laggy with how all SAPI voices are, and the quality is low, so even if you used it as something for reading long articles or texts, there are far better options out there. Now if there was a way to get it inside one core, then the lag would be mostly mitigated, and maybe the drop in quality due to the mobile voice would be worth it. I just want Takitron 2 as a TTS voice damn it!

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