log:2026-04-01-piper-tts-workstation

Apr 1, 2026

Local TTS with Piper (workstation notes)

Quick log: wiring Piper for offline speech on Windows — paths, models, and why I stopped reaching for cloud TTS for small scripts.

  • #tts
  • #piper
  • #local

Installed Piper locally for scratch voice prompts and screen-reader experiments. Cloud APIs are fine, but I like knowing a script still works when the internet flakes.

Notes to future me:

  • Keep models in one directory and symlink from projects
  • Warm up the model once before benchmarking — first run lies

I will probably fold this into a longer guide later. For now it is a field note.

comments offline / planned

Visitor comments are planned for a future release. They will run on my own server (Cerb), not a third-party comment host.

Future embed target: https://comments.walkerjacob.com

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