Now if only we could get LLMs to this sort of size! I don't know much about how TTS works under the hood, why is it so much easier?
Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
361–370 of 383 posts
Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a false analogy. It's quite straightforward. Running bash (via exec()/fork()/spawn()/etc) isn't the same as (statically or dynamically) linking with its codebase. If your MIT-licensed one-liner links to code that's GPL licensed, then it gets infected by the GPL license.
I've seen people use IPC to workaround the GPL, but I've also seen the FSF interpretations claiming that is still a derived work. I don't know if this has ever been tested in court.
My interpretation of their FAQ[1] on it is that shelling out and IPC are fine, while linking is not. As you say, it's ultimately up to the courts to decide on.
[1]: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation
Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does anybody find it funny that sci-fi movies have to heavily distort "robot voices" to make them sound "convincingly robotic"? A robotic, explicitly non-natural voice would be perfectly acceptable, and even desirable, in many situations. I don't expect a smart toaster to talk like a BBC host; it'd be enough is the speech if easy to recognize.
This one is at least an interesting idea: https://genderlessvoice.com/
Thanks, I hate it.
Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#364Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#365Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tried that on 26 beta, and the default voice sounds a lot smoother than it used it. Running `man say` reveals that "this tool uses the Speech Synthesis manager", so I'm guessing the Apple Intelligence stuff is kicking in.
Nothing to do with Apple Intelligence. The speech synthesiser manager (the term manager was used for OS components in Classic Mac OS) has been around since the mid 90s or so. The change you’re hearing is probably a new/modified default voice.
> Nothing to do with Apple Intelligence
Sorry, the clarify - I mean in macOS beta 26, the `say` command's output matches the settings set in the System Settings -> Apple Intelligence & Siri -> Voice > Select... menu.
> speech synthesiser manager (the term manager was used for OS components in Classic Mac OS)
Especially fun to play with on the rainbow iMacs back then, too.
Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#366I have tested its speed on CPU and compared it with Piper, kokoro, and matcha. See https://github.com/KittenML/KittenTTS/issues/40
Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple's hardware is notoriously overpriced, so I don't think they're envisioning that at all.
Is it? The base $600 Mac and $150 Apple TV are easily two of the best deals in their market
I'm still betting on a future AppleTV model being a full-on local LLM machine.
This way they could offload as much of the "LLM" work on a device that lives in the home, all family linked phones and devices could use it for local inference.
It's way overpowered as is anyway, why not use it for something useful.
Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#368Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#369Re: Show HN: Kitten TTS – 25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model
#370The headline feature isn’t the 25 MB footprint alone. It’s that KittenTTS is Apache-2.0. That combo means you can embed a fully offline voice in Pi Zero-class hardware or even battery-powered toys without worrying about GPUs, cloud calls, or restrictive licenses. In one stroke it turns voice everywhere from a hardware/licensing problem into a packaging problem. Quality tweaks can come later; unlocking that deployment…
But Pi Zero has a GPU, so why not make use of it?
Because then you're stuck on that device only.