Wine: How to use SAPI 5 voices for TTS application “Balabolka”?

Solution 1:

I did not find any way (currently) to make the program work with SAPI 4/5 voices, but you can work with some of Microsoft Speech Platform voices.

1. Create 32-bit Wine Prefix:

   WINEPREFIX="$HOME/prefix32" WINEARCH=win32 wine wineboot
   

2. Install Balabolka:

   cd "$HOME/prefix32/drive_c/Program Files/"
   wget http://balabolka.site/balabolka_portable.zip
   unzip balabolka_portable.zip
   

3. Test if program works:

   WINEPREFIX="$HOME/prefix32" wine "$HOME/prefix32/drive_c/Program Files/Balabolka/balabolka.exe"
   

4. Install Microsoft Speech Platform voice files (specifically x86 Package and Runtime Languages), I will choose ZiraPro, however you can install other voice files:

   wget https://download.microsoft.com/download/A/6/4/A64012D6-D56F-4E58-85E3-531E56ABC0E6/x86_SpeechPlatformRuntime/SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi
   WINEPREFIX="$HOME/prefix32" wine msiexec /i SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi
   
   wget https://download.microsoft.com/download/4/0/D/40D6347A-AFA5-417D-A9BB-173D937BEED4/MSSpeech_TTS_en-US_ZiraPro.msi
   WINEPREFIX="$HOME/prefix32" wine msiexec /i MSSpeech_TTS_en-US_ZiraPro.msi
   

5. Install winetricks:

   sudo apt install winetricks
   

6. Install msxml6:

   WINEPREFIX="$HOME/prefix32" winetricks msxml6
   

7. Check if this program works. (Repeat step 3 and choose Microsoft Speech Platform Tab in the program)

Hope this helps...

P.S. To install other voice files, go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224, download and then install with:

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/prefix32" wine msiexec /i <filename of the downloaded package>

Source:

How do I create a 32-bit WINE prefix?

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=34389

Solution 2:

I followed this github guide sapi5_on_linux and got it to work. The most important and relevant line is the following:

WINEPREFIX=~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/tts winetricks speechsdk

You need to use winetricks to install speechsdk.