# MeloTTS — High-Quality Multilingual Text-to-Speech by MyShell

> A high-quality multilingual text-to-speech library by MyShell.ai that supports English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and more languages with natural-sounding output and fast CPU-compatible inference.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# MeloTTS — High-Quality Multilingual Text-to-Speech by MyShell

## Quick Use
```bash
pip install melotts
from melo.api import TTS
model = TTS(language="EN")
model.tts_to_file("Hello, welcome to MeloTTS!", speaker_id=0, output_path="output.wav")
```

## Introduction
MeloTTS is a multilingual text-to-speech library developed by MyShell.ai that delivers high-quality speech synthesis across multiple languages. It is designed for both research and production use, with a focus on natural-sounding output, fast inference that works on CPU, and straightforward integration via a simple Python API.

## What MeloTTS Does
- Synthesizes natural-sounding speech from text in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, and Spanish
- Runs efficiently on both CPU and GPU for flexible deployment
- Provides multiple speaker voices per language with distinct characteristics
- Supports mixed-language text handling within a single utterance
- Offers a simple Python API and CLI for quick integration

## Architecture Overview
MeloTTS builds on a VITS-based architecture with language-specific text frontends for phoneme conversion and prosody prediction. Each language module handles text normalization, grapheme-to-phoneme conversion, and duration prediction tailored to that language's characteristics. The shared acoustic model and HiFi-GAN vocoder generate waveforms from the predicted mel spectrograms. The compact model size enables real-time inference on modern CPUs.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Install via pip with minimal dependencies
- Models download automatically on first use for each language
- Configure language and speaker ID via the Python API or CLI arguments
- Supports batch processing for converting large text documents to audio
- Deploy behind a FastAPI or Flask server for production TTS service

## Key Features
- Covers six major languages in a single lightweight package
- CPU-friendly inference running faster than real-time without GPU
- Multiple speaker voices per language for diverse applications
- Clean Python API with just a few lines needed for basic synthesis
- Open-source MIT license allowing unrestricted commercial and research use

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **Piper** — Extremely fast and supports 30+ languages, but MeloTTS offers higher naturalness for its supported languages
- **Coqui TTS** — Broader model zoo and customization, while MeloTTS prioritizes ease of use and out-of-the-box quality
- **Bark** — Generates expressive audio with effects, while MeloTTS focuses on clean multilingual speech synthesis
- **Kokoro** — Similar lightweight approach, but MeloTTS covers more languages natively

## FAQ
**Q: Which languages are supported?**
A: English, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean, French, and Spanish, with community efforts adding more.

**Q: Can it run without a GPU?**
A: Yes, MeloTTS is optimized for CPU inference and achieves faster-than-real-time speeds on modern processors.

**Q: How do I switch between speakers?**
A: Pass a different speaker_id to the tts_to_file method. Each language provides multiple built-in speaker options.

**Q: Is commercial use permitted?**
A: Yes, MeloTTS is released under the MIT license, allowing commercial use without restrictions.

## Sources
- https://github.com/myshell-ai/MeloTTS
- https://melo.myshell.ai/

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/asset-00027d4c
Author: AI Open Source