Irodori TTS showcase

[baggytea07]

I've been playing around with different TTS in LunaTranslator for learning/otome game purposes and set up Irodori TTS, specifically https://huggingface.co/Aratako/Irodori-TTS-v4.1-Small-Quantized. This model requires a Nvidia with CUDA support. It was a pain to set-up, but as demonstrated in the video on my RTX 3080 it loads fast. So far it's been fun to use, no idea if it's accurate with pronounciations.

Demonstration using a 9 second Kana Hanazawa reference clip while playing Blackish House Side A:

I don't really see many people talking about TTS, so does anyone have any other TTS recommendations? Also, do you think TTS is too much of a crutch when trying to learn Japanese?

 

[Tenya]

This is very interesting, actually! (๑•﹏•)
I haven't thought about using TTS, but I can see how it could be very helpful in getting better at pronunciation (which is, admittedly, a big part of studying Japanese and often neglected without dedicated listening/speaking practice) and particularly useful for not fumbling accent (which... yeah, LOL). Thank you for sharing! (ゝω･)v

 

[TeeService]

Wow I expected that to sound a lot different before clicking on the video tbh. I had no idea TTS was so advanced nowadays! As for if its a crutch, i guess it depends on your goals and what else you do to study besides playing VNs. I dont think its that big a deal if you still get regular reading practice with novels/manga/etc (If you care about pure unassisted reading anyway). Personally, I think Id just be a bit careful since i dont think Id be able to fully trust that the pronunciation and tone is always right.