Adding the sound of breathing - Amazon Polly
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Adding the sound of breathing

<amazon:breath> and <amazon:auto-breaths>

This tag is supported only by the standard TTS format.

Natural-sounding speech includes both correctly spoken words and breathing sounds. By adding breathing sounds to synthesized speech, you can make it sound more natural. The <amazon:breath> and <amazon:auto-breaths> tags provide breaths. You have the following options:

  • Manual mode: you set the location, length, and volume of a breath sound within the text

  • Automated mode: Amazon Polly automatically inserts breathing sounds into the speech output

  • Mixed mode: both you and Amazon Polly add breathing sounds

Manual Mode

In manual mode, you place the <amazon:breath/> tag in the input text where you want to locate a breath. You can customize the length and volume of breaths with the duration and volume attributes, respectively:

  • duration: Controls the length of the breath. Valid values are: default, x-short, short, medium, long, x-long. The default value is medium.

  • volume: Controls how loud breathing sounds. Valid values are: default, x-soft, soft, medium, loud, x-loud. The default value is medium.

Note

The exact length and volume of each attribute value is dependent on the specific Amazon Polly voice used.

To set a breath sound using the defaults, use <amazon:breath/> without attributes.

For example, to use attributes to set the duration and volume for a breath to medium, you would set the attributes as follows: 

<speak>
     Sometimes you want to insert only <amazon:breath duration="medium" volume="x-loud"/>a single breath.
</speak>

To use the defaults, you would just use the tag:

<speak>
     Sometimes you need <amazon:breath/>to insert one or more average breaths <amazon:breath/> so that the 
     text sounds correct.
</speak>

You can add individual breathing sounds within a passage, as follows: 

<speak>
     <amazon:breath duration="long" volume="x-loud"/> <prosody rate="120%"> <prosody volume="loud"> 
     Wow! <amazon:breath duration="long" volume="loud"/> </prosody> That was quite fast. <amazon:breath 
     duration="medium" volume="x-loud"/> I almost beat my personal best time on this track. </prosody>
</speak>
Automated Mode

In automated mode, you use the <amazon:auto-breaths> tag to tell Amazon Polly to automatically create breathing noises at appropriate intervals. You can set the frequency of the intervals, their volume, and their duration. Place the </amazon:auto-breaths> tag at the beginning of the text that you want to apply automated breathing to and then close the tag at the end.

Note

Unlike the manual mode tag, <amazon:breath/>, the <amazon:auto-breaths> tag requires a closing tag (</amazon:auto-breaths>).

You can use the following optional attributes with the <amazon:auto-breaths> tag:

  • volume: Controls how loud the breathing sounds. Valid values are: default, x-soft, soft, medium, loud, x-loud. The default value is medium.

  • frequency: Controls how often breathing sounds occur in the text. Valid values are: default, x-low, low, medium, high, x-high. The default value is medium.

  • duration: Controls the length of the breath. Valid values are: default, x-short, short, medium, long, x-long. The default value is medium.

By default, the frequency of breathing sounds depends on the input text. However, breathing sounds often occur after commas and periods.

The following examples show how to use the <amazon:auto-breaths> tag. To decide which options to use for your content, copy the applicable examples to the Amazon Polly console and listen to the differences.

  • Using automated mode without optional parameters. 

    <speak>
     <amazon:auto-breaths>Amazon Polly is a service that turns text into lifelike speech, 
     allowing you to create applications that talk and build entirely new categories of speech-
     enabled products. Amazon Polly is a text-to-speech service that uses advanced deep learning 
     technologies to synthesize speech that sounds like a human voice. With dozens of lifelike 
     voices across a variety of languages, you can select the ideal voice and build speech-
     enabled applications that work in many different countries.</amazon:auto-breaths>
</speak>

  • Using automated mode with volume control. The unspecified parameters (duration and frequency) are set to the default values (medium). 

    <speak>
     <amazon:auto-breaths volume="x-soft">Amazon Polly is a service that turns text into lifelike 
     speech, allowing you to create applications that talk and build entirely new categories of 
     speech-enabled products. Amazon Polly is a text-to-speech service, that uses advanced deep 
     learning technologies to synthesize speech that sounds like a human voice. With dozens of 
     lifelike voices across a variety of languages, you can select the ideal voice and build speech-
     enabled applications that work in many different countries.</amazon:auto-breaths>
</speak>

  • Using automated mode with frequency control. The unspecified parameters (duration and volume) are set to the default values (medium).

    <speak>
     <amazon:auto-breaths frequency="x-low">Amazon Polly is a service that turns text into lifelike 
     speech, allowing you to create applications that talk and build entirely new categories of 
     speech-enabled products. Amazon Polly is a text-to-speech service, that uses advanced deep 
     learning technologies to synthesize speech that sounds like a human voice. With dozens of 
     lifelike voices across a variety of languages, you can select the ideal voice and build speech-
     enabled applications that work in many different countries.</amazon:auto-breaths>
</speak>

  • Using automated mode with multiple parameters. For the unspecified Duration parameter, Amazon Polly uses the default value (medium).

    <speak>
     <amazon:auto-breaths volume="x-loud" frequency="x-low">Amazon Polly is a service that turns 
     text into lifelike speech, allowing you to create applications that talk and build entirely new 
     categories of speech-enabled products. Amazon Polly is a text-to-speech service, that uses 
     advanced deep learning technologies to synthesize speech that sounds like a human voice. With 
     dozens of lifelike voices across a variety of languages, you can select the ideal voice and build 
     speech-enabled applications that work in many different countries.</amazon:auto-breaths>
</speak>