on a brand new linux PC, e.g. ubuntu 14.04 amd64
To hear voice
sudo apt-get install festival -y
then try to hear some thing from your PC
echo "I am your computer." | festival --tts
# or
echo "I am your computer." | festival --tts --pipe
you will hear something out.
Now replace the voice files, a better one.
Tutorial from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eJTDpAeBSk
To replace voice
commands including:
apt-get install festival
sudo su
cd /usr/share/festival/voices/english/
wget -c http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cmu_arctic/packed/cmu_us_clb_arctic-0.95-release.tar.bz2
tar jxf cmu_us_clb_arctic-0.95-release.tar.bz2
ln -s cmu_us_clb_arctic cmu_us_clb_arctic_clunits
echo "(set! voice_default 'voice_cmu_us_clb_arctic_clunits)" >> /etc/festival.scm
Then go to command line
$~ festival
festival> (SayText "Hello world")
You will hear something different, a female voice would come out.
To save wave files
echo "Hello I am Lily. " > /tmp/one.txt
text2wave < /tmp/one.txt > /tmp/voice.wav
mplayer /tmp/voice.wav
Your voice file has been saved.
Happy hacking!
* Updated in the morning 09:17 A.M.
To hear selected text in your PC
Now I am going to teach you how to make it in ubuntu 14.04 AMD64
sudo apt-get install xsel -y
sudo su
cat >> /usr/local/bin/xread <<EOF
# Then input
> #!/bin/bash
> xsel | festival --tts --pipe
> EOF
Then create a keyboard shortcut in your PC. KDE/Gnome/Xfce4/Cinnamon/Mate/LXDE or any kind of desktop environment which is based on Xorg services.
In this case, I map the keys <Meta> + <r> in ubuntu 14.04 AMD64. Actually the <Meta> key is the *windows* key which is useless in Linux. Here I just took good use of that. This shortcut will trigger the script "/usr/local/bin/xread" which uses tools "xsel" and "festival".
Use your cursor and select any text area in your PC, browser, console, text editor or anywhere and then press keys <Meta> + <r>. Then you will hear the text voice.
Happy hacking!