This is the OpenVoiceOS TTS plugin for S.A.M. (Software Automatic Mouth).
SAM is a small Text-To-Speech (TTS) program written in C. It runs on most popular platforms. It is a C port of the SAM speech software for the Commodore C64, published in 1982 by Don't Ask Software (now SoftVoice, Inc.).
You can find a description in the original manual or in the manual of the equivalent Apple II program.
pip install ovos-tts-plugin-SAM "tts": {
"module": "ovos-tts-plugin-SAM"
}The original manual lists these typical voice values:
DESCRIPTION SPEED PITCH THROAT MOUTH
Elf 72 64 110 160
Little Robot 92 60 190 190
Stuffy Guy 82 72 110 105
Little Old Lady 82 32 145 145
Extra-Terrestrial 100 64 150 200
SAM 72 64 128 128
"tts": {
"module": "ovos-tts-plugin-SAM",
"ovos-tts-plugin-SAM": {
"voice": "stuffy guy"
}
}The software is a reverse-engineered version of a commercial program published more than 30 years ago. The current copyright holder is SoftVoice, Inc. (www.text2speech.com).
Attempts to contact the company failed. The website was last updated in 2009. The status of the original software is therefore best described as Abandonware.
As long as this is the case, the code cannot carry a specific open source software license. Use it at your own risk.
SAM runs behind ovos-tts-server (an ElevenLabs-compatible API) on port 9666. The image is fully offline: the retro sam binary is built into it, and it has no cloud dependency and no model download.
Pull the prebuilt image:
docker run -p 9666:9666 ghcr.io/openvoiceos/ovos-tts-plugin-sam:dev...or build it locally:
docker build -t ovos-tts-plugin-sam .
docker run -p 9666:9666 ovos-tts-plugin-sam...or use docker compose up.
Synthesize speech: http://localhost:9666/synthesize/hello
The default voice is SAM. Pick another one at build time (SAM, elf, little robot, stuffy guy, little old lady, extra-terrestrial):
docker build --build-arg SAM_VOICE="stuffy guy" -t ovos-tts-plugin-sam .- ovos-tts-server — the ElevenLabs-compatible API server that serves this plugin over Docker.
- OpenVoiceOS/ovos-plugin-manager — loads and configures TTS plugins like this one.