Riban: Initial TTS guide

2026-04-24T06:10:30Z

Initial TTS guide

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==Introduction==

Zynthian has a rich, text-to-speech user interface called, "Narrator" that allows full control using the hardware buttons and knobs with audible cues for guidance. Navigation and operation is assisted by spoken announcements and tones. Narrator uses an extra audio interface or soundcard to provide an audio output separate to the main audio output to give a clean audio for production with Narrator announcements feeding the user's personal monitoring.

==Getting Started==

Add a soundcard for Narrator to use, e.g. plug in a USB soundcard. This does not need to be an expensive, hi-fidelity device. I have found a $2 device to be sufficient.

By default, Narrator is disabled but it is very simply enabled by pressing the F4 button for 1.5 seconds. (This button is at the bottom right of the 20 button keypad on the left side of a standard V5.) This action toggle Narrator between enabled and disabled. When you enable Narrator you should hear an announcement saying, "Narrator enabled". Similarly when you disable Narrator you should hear an announcement saying, "Narrator disabed".

When Narrator is enabled, you will hear announcements as you navigate the user interface and perform actions, for example as you enter a new view, its name will be announced so that you have an indication of where you are in the navigation tree. When you move through lists, each list item is announced.

There is a short delay of about 0.2 seconds before each announcement. Announcments may be queued if necessary but are mostly interrupted by the most recent announcent, for example: moving through a list may skip intermediate items.

The F4 button acts as the "Narrator" button. It may be used to stop the current (queue of) annoncements. If Narrator is silent, the Narrator button will trigger a context announcement. By default this is the name of the current view but may also include some context for that view, for example it may tell you the highlighted entry in a list.

As well as spoken announcements, Narrator will pulse a short tone or beep every second whilst the user interface is busy, for example when loading a snapshot. The end of the busy period is indicated with a higher pitched, longer tone.

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Riban: Initial TTS guide