YakYak
YakYak is a utility for the generation of synthetic voice through use of Wyoming-Piper.
YakYak can be used from the command line or called from python. It opens a TCP socket to Wyoming-Piper running in Docker anywhere on your local area network. It scales to run efficiently on large multi-core computers or small single board computers.
Install YakYak
To install YakYak, python virtual environment is recommended.
Create a python virtual environment and activate it
cd some_directory
sudo apt install python3.12-venv
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
Install the yakyak package and dependencies
pip install yakyak
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/b202i/yakyak/refs/heads/master/requirements.txt
pip install -r requirements.txt
Setup wyoming-piper in docker, on your local area network.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/b202i/yakyak/refs/heads/master/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d
Install ffmpeg for mac or Ubuntu
brew install ffmpeg
sudo apt install ffmpeg
Test YakYak, Wyoming-Piper and FFMPEG installation
It will take a little longer the first time running YakYak, the Wyoming-Piper app needs time to download voice files.
yakyak --host localhost -t mp3
Observe successful test results:
INFO:root:Server localhost:10200 is online
INFO:root:Success, test: mp3
How to use YakYak from the command line
As with many Linux applications, YakYak supports standard in, and standard out. It also supports file input with the -i command and -o for file output. For a complete set of commands type yakyak --help.
yakyak --help
Create an mp3 file with “Hello world”
> echo Hello world | yakyak -f mp3 -o hello_world.mp3
If you are on Linux and have aplay installed, you can do this:
> echo Hello world | yakyak | aplay
This assumes that Docker is running on the same machine. If Docker is running on a different machine on your network, you can do this:
> echo Hello world | yakyak --host a_different_machine.local | aplay
How to use YakYak from Python
Create the file test_yakyak.py with the following content:
from yakyak import is_server_online, piper_tts_server
print(f"{is_server_online(
'localhost',
10200,
)=}")
print(f"{piper_tts_server(
'localhost',
10200,
'Hello World',
'hello_world.mp3',
'mp3',
'en_US-amy-medium'
)=}")
python3 test_yakyak.py
Observe that the server is online and a file hello_world.mp3 is created. Play the mp3 and you will hear “Hello world”.