CallXML 2.0 Development Guide

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This documentation is for CallXML 2, which has been superceded by CallXML 3. The CallXML 2 language is not being updated any longer. CallXML 3, however, has many new features and is actively being enhanced. If you're writing a new CallXML application, you should use CallXML 3. Click here for the CallXML 3.0 documentation.

Rhetorical TTS Markup Guide

This document details the specifications and usage of the Rhetorical TTS engine to help you tune your synthesized speech output to sound flawless. Also covered in this document is information illustrating the differences between using Speechify and Rhetorical, along with useful pointers on using some of the advanced features of this new TTS offering.

Why Rhetorical?

A valid question. Is one better than the other? We leave that up to you to decide. We realize offering one engine for synthesized speech may not be to everyone's taste; moreover, some applications require TTS features not included in the standard Speechify engine. As such, we make the Rhetorical offering available for those who want a taste of something different. So what's so different about it anyhow? To start out with the basics, let's listen to some comparisons:

TTS Voices

Rhetorical offers both English-Female, English-Male, Spanish-Female, and Spanish-Male TTS voices. In order to enable these TTS personas, you will need to define the <say voice> attribute within your CallXML code. Note that there are two syntaxes that you can use to enable the desired Rhetorical voices; use either of the two, (but not both, okay?), to set the voice to your liking.

Below is an example listing of all TTS voices available on the Rhetorical engine, along with both versions of the syntax that you can use to enable them:





   <!-- ENGLISH FEMALE-->

    <text voice="English-Female3">here is the rhetorical english female voice</text>

    <wait value="3s"/>



    <text voice="en-US.F019">here is the rhetorical english female voice</text>

    <wait value="3s"/>





    <!-- ENGLISH MALE -->

    <text voice="English-Male3">here is the rhetorical english male voice</text>

    <wait value="3s"/>



    <text voice="en-US.M009">here is the rhetorical english male voice</text>

    <wait value="3s"/>





    <!-- SPANISH FEMALE -->

    <text voice="Spanish-Female3">aqui esta la voz femenina, espanola y retorica</text>

    <wait value="3s"/>



    <text voice="es-MX.F023">aqui esta la voz femenina, espanola y retorica</text>

    <wait value="3s"/>







    <!-- SPANISH MALE -->

    <text voice="Spanish-Male3">aqui esta la voz masculina, espanola y retorica</text>

    <wait value="3s"/>



    <text voice="es-MX.M022">aqui esta la voz masculina, espanola y retorica</text>

    <wait value="3s"/>

Exceptions to using Rhetorical TTS

Note that there is presently no way to change the TTS voice from the default when using the following CallXML 2.0 elements 'out of the box'. However, the CallXML3.0 elements will not be subject to this limitation:

<playaudio>
<playdate>
<playnumber>
<playmoney>
<inputaudio>
<inputdigits>
<playmenu>

Also be aware that any Speechify-centric markup (such as the '\!p300' tag used to indicate a pause in output), will need to be scrubbed from the VoiceXML code entirely. See the Speechify Markup Guide for details on these markup syntaxes.

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