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Changing TTS providers

xRx supports multiple Text-to-Speech (TTS) providers, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your needs. This guide will walk you through the process of changing TTS providers in your xRx deployment.

Supported TTS Providers​

Currently, xRx supports the following TTS providers:

  1. Elevenlabs
  2. Deepgram
  3. OpenAI

Configuring the TTS Provider​

To change the TTS provider, you need to modify the environment variables in your .env file. Here's how to do it:

  1. Open your .env file located at the root of the xRx repository.

  2. Locate the TTS-related environment variables:

# === Text-to-speech options ===
# TTS provider. Choices are "elevenlabs", "deepgram", "openai", or "cartesia"
TTS_PROVIDER="elevenlabs"
TTS_SAMPLE_RATE="24000"

# Elevenlabs
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY="<Elevenlabs API key>"
ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID="<Elevenlabs Voice ID>"
...

# Deepgram
DG_API_KEY="<Deepgram API key>"
DG_TTS_MODEL_VOICE="aura-asteria-en"

# OpenAI
OPENAI_API_KEY="<OpenAI API key>"
OPENAI_TTS_MODEL="<OpenAI TTS model>"
OPENAI_TTS_VOICE="<OpenAI TTS voice>"

  1. Change the TTS_PROVIDER value to your desired provider:

    • For Elevenlabs: TTS_PROVIDER="elevenlabs"
    • For Deepgram: TTS_PROVIDER="deepgram"
    • For OpenAI: TTS_PROVIDER="openai"

  2. Provide the necessary API keys and configuration for your chosen provider.

Provider-Specific Configuration​

Elevenlabs​

For Elevenlabs, you need to set the following environment variables:

ELEVENLABS_API_KEY="<your Elevenlabs API key>"
ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID="<your chosen Voice ID>"
ELEVENLABS_MODEL_ID="eleven_turbo_v2.5"
ELEVENLABS_VOICE_STABILITY="0.9"
ELEVENLABS_VOICE_SIMILARITY="0.9"

You can sign up for an Elevenlabs account and obtain an API key at https://elevenlabs.io/app/sign-up.

Deepgram​

For Deepgram, you need to set the following environment variables:

DG_API_KEY="<your Deepgram API key>"
DG_TTS_MODEL_VOICE="aura-asteria-en"

You can sign up for a Deepgram account and obtain an API key at https://deepgram.com/.

OpenAI​

For OpenAI, you need to set the following environment variables:

OPENAI_API_KEY="<your OpenAI API key>"
OPENAI_TTS_MODEL="<your chosen TTS model>"
OPENAI_TTS_VOICE="<your chosen TTS voice>"

You can sign up for an OpenAI account and obtain an API key at https://platform.openai.com/signup.

Applying Changes​

After modifying the .env file:

  1. Save the changes to your .env file.
  2. Restart your xRx system for the changes to take effect:
docker-compose down
docker-compose up --build

Troubleshooting​

If you encounter issues after changing the TTS provider:

  1. Double-check your .env file to ensure all required variables are set correctly.
  2. Verify that you have the necessary API keys and they are valid.
  3. Check the logs of the TTS service for any error messages:
docker-compose logs xrx-tts
  1. Ensure that your chosen TTS provider is properly configured and accessible from your deployment environment.

Technical Notes​

  • The default sample rate for all models is 24000Hz. If a model uses a different sample rate, the .env variable TTS_SAMPLE_RATE should be changed to match the sample rate of the model.
  • There is a limit of 4000 characters for the maximum input length sent to the TTS API. This can be adjusted if the TTS API has smaller limits.
  • The TTS service implements a caching mechanism to improve performance. Synthesized audio is cached on disk in the cache directory.
  • Every TTS model is implemented with streaming capabilities for fast responses.

By following these steps, you can easily switch between different TTS providers in your xRx system, allowing you to choose the best option for your specific use case and requirements.