MS SAPI 5.1 issue with C++

Question

I am using MS Speech API 5.1 with mingw compiler. I don't have VS hence but I was able to compile the code with c::b. The code snippet is below:

#include <sapi.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    ISpVoice * pVoice = NULL;

    if (FAILED(::CoInitialize(NULL)))
        return FALSE;

    HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_SpVoice, NULL, CLSCTX_ALL, IID_ISpVoice, (void **)&pVoice);
    if( SUCCEEDED( hr ) )
    {
        hr = pVoice->Speak(L"Hello world", 0, NULL);
        pVoice->Release();
        pVoice = NULL;
    }

    ::CoUninitialize();
    return TRUE;
}

When I execute I found

hr = pVoice->Speak(L"Hello world", 0, NULL);

returning NULL. After looking around for a while, I ran the example TTSApp.exe from the MS SAPI folder. By default the voice was selected as "Microsoft Marry". When I type a text and click Start, no speech sound is produce and I got "Speak error". When I changed the voice to "Microsoft Anna - English (United States)", it worked.

I do not know if I am thinking correct, but is the code of mine also failing because of a wrong/default voice selection ("Microsoft Marry")? Is there any way I can change the voice to "Microsoft Anna - English (United States)" for testing?

I need you help here. Can you help me get the SAPI working fro the above code?

Thanks!

@AlexK. Thanks. Can you give me an example code showing how to use it? Not just display the voice but also to change the voice. Also do you think the above issue could be due to voice selection? Thanks. — programmer

Aiden Aiden · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-05T10:56:58

Since this is a microsoft specific question. I use some vb mixed within some system() calls it results in much simpler code. I haven't cleaned it up, but it works well

int say(std::string s)
{

string part1content;
string part2content;
string word,complete;
const char * temp2="WScript.exe Scrpt.vbs";
const char * temp="Scrpt.vbs";

string pat1=(
"\'By Timbo\n\n\
Const SVSFlagsAsync = 1\n\
const SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak =2\n\n\
Dim Speech\n\
Dim FSO\n\n\
CreateObjects\n\
Main\n\
DestroyObjects\n\
Quit\n\n\
Sub Main\n\
        Dim sText\n\n\
        sText = (\""
             );
string pat2=
(
"\")\n\
    Speech.rate = 0.05\n\
        If sText <> \"\" Then\n\
                SpeakText sText\n\n\
        End If\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub SpeakText(sText)\n\
        On Error Resume Next\n\
        Speech.Speak sText, SVSFlagsAsync + SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak\n\
        Do\n\
                Sleep 200\n\
        Loop Until Speech.WaitUntilDone(10)\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub StopSpeaking()\n\
        On Error Resume Next\n\
        Speech.Speak vbNullString, SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak\n\
        Set Speech = Nothing\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub CreateObjects\n\
        Set Speech = CreateObject(\"SAPI.SpVoice\")\n\
        Set FSO = CreateObject(\"Scripting.FileSystemObject\")\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub DestroyObjects\n\
        Set Speech = Nothing\n\
        Set FSO = Nothing\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub Sleep(nTimeout)\n\
        WScript.Sleep nTimeout\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub Quit\n\
        WScript.Quit\n\
End Sub\n\n\
"

);

    /*Will say string s*/

    complete=pat1+s+pat2;

    ofstream myfile;
    myfile.open (temp);
    myfile << complete;
    myfile.close();
    system(temp2);
    complete.clear();
    s.clear();
}

For different voice Change pat2 with

string pat2=
(
"\")\n\
    Speech.rate = 0.05\n\
        If sText <> \"\" Then\n\
                SpeakText sText\n\n\
        End If\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub SpeakText(sText)\n\
        On Error Resume Next\n\
        Speech.Speak sText, SVSFlagsAsync + SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak\n\
        Do\n\
                Sleep 200\n\
        Loop Until Speech.WaitUntilDone(10)\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub StopSpeaking()\n\
        On Error Resume Next\n\
        Speech.Speak vbNullString, SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak\n\
        Set Speech = Nothing\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub CreateObjects\n\
        Set Speech = CreateObject(\"SAPI.SpVoice\")\n\
        with Speech \n\
            Set .voice = .getvoices.item(1)\n\
            .Volume = 100\n\
            .Rate = 4\n\
        end with\n\
        Set FSO = CreateObject(\"Scripting.FileSystemObject\")\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub DestroyObjects\n\
        Set Speech = Nothing\n\
        Set FSO = Nothing\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub Sleep(nTimeout)\n\
        WScript.Sleep nTimeout\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub Quit\n\
        WScript.Quit\n\
End Sub\n\n\
"
);

Then you can just use it simply by calling say("This is a test");

For more control you can use pipes instead of sytem() , this will enable you to kill the vbscript process if you want to stop it.

MS SAPI 5.1 issue with C++

1 Answers