Is it possible to change the voice of the "say" command?

Question

Is it possible to change the voice that Mac OS X uses for the say command? How?

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 28 '10 at 04:14

19

By default it uses the System Voice set in the Text to Speech page of the Speech panel of System Preferences. Otherwise, you can use the -v option with one of the named voices:

say -v Zarvox "found it in the man page"
say -v Agnes "found it in the man page"

answered Dec 28 '10 at 04:14

Ken

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To get a list of the named voices type `say -v ?`. – Gregory Arenius Nov 06 '16 at 22:46
1

`say -v` not working – Jas Nov 02 '21 at 06:36
4

With zsh (which is the default OS X shell), you need to escape the question mark: `say -v \?`. Or you can run it within single quotes: `say -v '?'` – carbocation Sep 05 '22 at 06:15

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 28 '10 at 04:11

4

man say yields this

  -v voice, --voice=voice
       Specify the voice to be used. Default is the voice selected in
       System Preferences.

answered Dec 28 '10 at 04:11

Chris Nava

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 09 '16 at 18:10

2

You can permanently change the voice by changing the System Voice in System Preferences -> Dictation & Speech -> Text to Speech

answered Feb 09 '16 at 18:10

ClintM

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In macOS Ventura, it’s found in Accessibility → Spoken Content. – Tom Söderlund Feb 02 '23 at 21:04

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 30 '21 at 09:50

2

You can view/customize different voices on Mac from

System Preferences --> Accessibility --> Speech

answered Sep 30 '21 at 09:50

Rayiez

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Is it possible to change the voice of the "say" command?

4 Answers4