Wren latest version - 2025.4.10.0

[blue hell]

I've made fixes for eSpeak - it was not working at all anymore ... published as a new version 2025.4.10.0

for downloads: https://bluehell.nl/wren/
for info: https://bluehell.nl/blogje/

It, apart from that it is working now, has a lot more voice variations -and it will now automatically use all available voices and variations in the module - you will have to restart Wren after making changes to the eSpeak folder (and you may have to slightly change your patche settings for that).

I'll need to better document how eSpeak should be set up .. but there are some hints in the blog.

The wiki will also need some changes for the new way to deal with eSpeak.

[Le DJ Abstrait]

Thanks!
however, the link for the zip file does not work... (gives a 404 error)
Should I uninstall previous eSpeak?

Is that the new version playing now on the Noodle radio?

[blue hell]

Ok, link is fixed .. it had Install instead of install ...

eSpeak .. depends on what you have .. if you already have eSpeak NG then no need to do anything; if you have the older eSpeak without the NG ..you can uninstall or leave it in .. it won't bite each other.

eSpeak is installed in "Program Files (x86)\eSpeak\"
eSpeak NG is installed in "Program Files\eSpeak NG\"

So you can see what you have, also wren's log will show the version now, eSpeak NG latest version is 1.49.2 eSpeak was 1.48.something ...

And yes .. i have an eSpeak running currently on the noodle radio in en-dutch / whisperf - drowned in echoos and reverb - it will stay on for a bit .. patch is not finished yet :)

I do not know if eSpeak NG will work on win7 .. but saw suggestions in the links that I gave before that it may ... if done right .. YMMV :)

For me the eSpeak bit of the log now says :

[blue hell]

[Le DJ Abstrait]

well, no joy for me...
log says:
"FFTW dll not found in path
espeak installation not found in registry or dll not in path"
even though path of current is specified OK and dll s are present.
espeak NG present in program files folder.
and when I quit wren I'm greeted with a cascade of errors.

[blue hell]

I just tried in win7 myself ...

- had to manually add both the wren folder and the eSpeak NG folder to the user path .. or else FFTW and eSpeak would both not be found.

BUT: then got that xaudio2_8.dll error .. with a wren crash ... so do not yet add eSpeak NG to the path

On the eSpeak site it says that win8 is a minimum requierment .. so this is not really a surprise ... but let me look further.

[Le DJ Abstrait]

yes, I also read espeak ng was supposed to require windows 8 but I went ahead anyways: it installed without complaining. I pushed my luck and it slid off the cliff... looks like I'm doomed.

[blue hell]

Ok, the suggested solution is to download

libespeak-ngwo.dll

from : https://sourceforge.net/projects/mseuniverse/files/eSpeakNG/win64/

and to rename that to libespeak-ng.dll

This did not work for me.

I also tried libespeak-ngsync7.dll from there and also renamed to libespeak-ng.dll


This too did not work for me.

So, I'm affraid I can't get eSpeak going on windows 7.

For windows 7 I would remove espeak64.dll from the wren folder (or rename it) - to make sure wren will not crash on it .. even when eSpeak NG gets installed.

Anyway, then wren 2024.4.10.0 would work for me on windows 7 but it will not have eSpeak support of course - apparently as a minimum one really needs windows 8 - but I did not test that - as I do not have it - well actually I do have a CD of it .. but not going to fuzz with my old win 7 system too much.

And .. I give up now - but at least for me on win10 I have eSpeak working again

[blue hell]

Or maybe after a reboot it would work - but i do not want to reboot my win7 machine .. it is my streaming computer.

[Le DJ Abstrait]

well, not much of a loss for me: it never had it working anyways!

[Le DJ Abstrait]

I have been frobbing on this matter, and my main conclusion is as follows:

log says "espeak installation not found in registry, or the dll is not on the path"...

so 1) since espeak-ng IS installed in "program files" (does it work, I cannot tell), why doesn't it appear in the registry?

2) the path is well specified, but what's actually the name of the file that we're looking for?

[blue hell]

Ok, I'll try to explan it

======

>> The short version is :

yes you do have eSpeak installed, and yes it will most probably be in the registry and likely there is something wrong with your path settings (even when Wren says something else in it's log) and so the eSpeak API DLL (espeak-64.dll) wil not be found.

And when you fix that Wren will crash until you rename espeak-64.dll

Still you do want to have the path right or else FFTW will not work - and so when eSpeak is installed ... you should rename or remove that espeak DLL.

======

>> The long version is :

----

When you open a DOS box and then type path .. it will tell you what the search path is. Wren may say something else in it's log - ignore that.

You can open a dos box by pressing the windows_key+R, then type cmd and hit enter or press OK.

In the DOS box type path and then enter.

the folder where wren.exe is should be listed then.

You can then close the DOS box by hitting the X top right.

When the Wren executable path is not listed, not all DLL's will be found (even when the Wren log says otherwise) and then Wren will say :

espeak installation not found in registry, or the dll is not on the path

The mentioned DLL to be found resides in the Wren executable folder and is named : espeak-64.dll

----

eSpeak NG will most probably be in the registry ..

again type win_key+R and then use regedit enter and click away the windows remarks

in the registry editor make sure to go to the very beginning (here that is computer)

then search with ctrl+F then espeak ng (the search will not be case sensitive) - then enter and then hit the F3 key a couple of times until you see :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\eSpeak NG - in the top of the screen ...

Then on the right there will be an entry Path with a value something like C:\Program Files\eSpeak NG\

Wren wants to see that information or it will say

espeak installation not found in registry, or the dll is not on the path

----

Now when you are on windows 7 and you have got that all OK and then try run Wren .. it will crash because eSpeak needs XAudio2_8 and windows 7 does not have that.

Now the web sites I had mentioned earlier indicated that there might be a solution to this last issue .. however I've found them to be not working for me on windows 7

it would still complain about xaudio - although a reboot might have helped - but I'm not wanting to do a reboot as the computer is in permanent use.

----

Now when you get this XAudio error ... you can go into the Wren exe folder and remove espeak-64.dll or rename it ... Wren will run again, but eSpeak will not work .. but FFTW should.

======

[Le DJ Abstrait]

Good grief!