MS SAPI 5.1 issue with C++

Question

I am using MS Speech API 5.1 with mingw compiler. I don't have VS hence but I was able to compile the code with c::b. The code snippet is below:

#include <sapi.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    ISpVoice * pVoice = NULL;

    if (FAILED(::CoInitialize(NULL)))
        return FALSE;

    HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_SpVoice, NULL, CLSCTX_ALL, IID_ISpVoice, (void **)&pVoice);
    if( SUCCEEDED( hr ) )
    {
        hr = pVoice->Speak(L"Hello world", 0, NULL);
        pVoice->Release();
        pVoice = NULL;
    }

    ::CoUninitialize();
    return TRUE;
}

When I execute I found

hr = pVoice->Speak(L"Hello world", 0, NULL);

returning NULL. After looking around for a while, I ran the example TTSApp.exe from the MS SAPI folder. By default the voice was selected as "Microsoft Marry". When I type a text and click Start, no speech sound is produce and I got "Speak error". When I changed the voice to "Microsoft Anna - English (United States)", it worked.

I do not know if I am thinking correct, but is the code of mine also failing because of a wrong/default voice selection ("Microsoft Marry")? Is there any way I can change the voice to "Microsoft Anna - English (United States)" for testing?

I need you help here. Can you help me get the SAPI working fro the above code?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Since this is a microsoft specific question. I use some vb mixed within some system() calls it results in much simpler code. I haven't cleaned it up, but it works well

int say(std::string s)
{

string part1content;
string part2content;
string word,complete;
const char * temp2="WScript.exe Scrpt.vbs";
const char * temp="Scrpt.vbs";

string pat1=(
"\'By Timbo\n\n\
Const SVSFlagsAsync = 1\n\
const SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak =2\n\n\
Dim Speech\n\
Dim FSO\n\n\
CreateObjects\n\
Main\n\
DestroyObjects\n\
Quit\n\n\
Sub Main\n\
        Dim sText\n\n\
        sText = (\""
             );
string pat2=
(
"\")\n\
    Speech.rate = 0.05\n\
        If sText <> \"\" Then\n\
                SpeakText sText\n\n\
        End If\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub SpeakText(sText)\n\
        On Error Resume Next\n\
        Speech.Speak sText, SVSFlagsAsync + SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak\n\
        Do\n\
                Sleep 200\n\
        Loop Until Speech.WaitUntilDone(10)\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub StopSpeaking()\n\
        On Error Resume Next\n\
        Speech.Speak vbNullString, SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak\n\
        Set Speech = Nothing\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub CreateObjects\n\
        Set Speech = CreateObject(\"SAPI.SpVoice\")\n\
        Set FSO = CreateObject(\"Scripting.FileSystemObject\")\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub DestroyObjects\n\
        Set Speech = Nothing\n\
        Set FSO = Nothing\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub Sleep(nTimeout)\n\
        WScript.Sleep nTimeout\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub Quit\n\
        WScript.Quit\n\
End Sub\n\n\
"

);

    /*Will say string s*/

    complete=pat1+s+pat2;

    ofstream myfile;
    myfile.open (temp);
    myfile << complete;
    myfile.close();
    system(temp2);
    complete.clear();
    s.clear();
}

For different voice Change pat2 with

string pat2=
(
"\")\n\
    Speech.rate = 0.05\n\
        If sText <> \"\" Then\n\
                SpeakText sText\n\n\
        End If\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub SpeakText(sText)\n\
        On Error Resume Next\n\
        Speech.Speak sText, SVSFlagsAsync + SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak\n\
        Do\n\
                Sleep 200\n\
        Loop Until Speech.WaitUntilDone(10)\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub StopSpeaking()\n\
        On Error Resume Next\n\
        Speech.Speak vbNullString, SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak\n\
        Set Speech = Nothing\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub CreateObjects\n\
        Set Speech = CreateObject(\"SAPI.SpVoice\")\n\
        with Speech \n\
            Set .voice = .getvoices.item(1)\n\
            .Volume = 100\n\
            .Rate = 4\n\
        end with\n\
        Set FSO = CreateObject(\"Scripting.FileSystemObject\")\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub DestroyObjects\n\
        Set Speech = Nothing\n\
        Set FSO = Nothing\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub Sleep(nTimeout)\n\
        WScript.Sleep nTimeout\n\
End Sub\n\n\
Sub Quit\n\
        WScript.Quit\n\
End Sub\n\n\
"
);

Then you can just use it simply by calling say("This is a test");

For more control you can use pipes instead of sytem() , this will enable you to kill the vbscript process if you want to stop it.