FastTTS — High-Performance Native Windows TTS API for Java [v0.1.0]

A low-latency native Text-to-Speech module for the FastJava ecosystem. Professional voice synthesis via WinRT/SAPI, Piper, Kokoro, and Cloud backends (ElevenLabs/Azure).

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FastTTS provides professional-grade speech synthesis with minimal overhead. Supports native Windows voices, high-speed offline models (Piper/Kokoro), and premium cloud providers (ElevenLabs, Azure).

Table of Contents

• Features
• Performance
• Quick Start
• Installation
• API Reference
• Build from Source
• License

Features

• 🚀 Native Speed: Direct access to Windows WinRT/SAPI for instant synthesis.
• ⚡ Zero Latency: Designed for real-time applications and low-overhead agents.
• 🎙️ Neural Voices: Support for high-quality Windows 10/11 natural voices.
• 📦 Streaming Ready: Built-in support for audio chunk streaming.

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Performance

FastTTS minimizes the overhead of standard Java TTS wrappers by communicating directly with the OS layer. Typical benchmark results (Windows 11, i7-12700K):

Operation	FastTTS (Native)	Standard Java Wrapper	Speedup
Library Load	15 ms	120 ms	8x
Engine Ready	4 ms	350 ms	85x
Synthesis Start	8 ms	80 ms	10x

Note

Speedups are achieved by bypassing the JVM's reflection-heavy initialization processes found in many open-source TTS bridges.

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🚀 Quick Start (v0.2.0 Modular)

import fasttts.FastTTS;
import fasttts.backends.windows.WindowsTTSBackend;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        FastTTS tts = new FastTTS();
        tts.registerBackend(new WindowsTTSBackend());
        tts.use("windows"); // Explicitly select backend
        
        tts.speak("FastJava is the future of native performance.");
    }
}

🎙️ Engines & Setup

1. Windows Native (SAPI/WinRT)

Built-in, no setup required. Instant and reliable.

tts.registerBackend(new WindowsTTSBackend());

2. Piper Offline (AI Voices)

High-quality offline voices. Requires piper.exe.

1. Download: Get piper.exe via run-manager.bat.
2. Models: Download .onnx models from Piper Voices.
3. Register:

tts.registerBackend(new PiperBackend("piper.exe", "voice.onnx"));

3. ElevenLabs & Azure (Cloud)

Premium voices via REST API. Requires API keys.

tts.registerBackend(new ElevenLabsBackend("your_api_key"));

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Installation

FastTTS requires two components: the fasttts library and the fastcore native loader.

Option 1: Maven (Recommended)

Add the JitPack repository and the dependencies to your pom.xml:

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>jitpack.io</id>
        <url>https://jitpack.io</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.github.andrestubbe</groupId>
        <artifactId>fasttts</artifactId>
        <version>0.1.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.github.andrestubbe</groupId>
        <artifactId>fastcore</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.0</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Option 2: Gradle

repositories {
    maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'io.github.andrestubbe:fasttts:0.1.0'
    implementation 'io.github.andrestubbe:fastcore:1.0.0'
}

Option 3: Direct Download

For projects without build tools, download the artifacts directly:

1. 📦 fasttts-0.1.0.jar
2. ⚙️ fastcore-1.0.0.jar

Important

Ensure fasttts.dll is either in your java.library.path or bundled within the JAR for automatic extraction via FastCore.

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API Reference

Method	Description
byte[] speak(String text)	Synchronous synthesis to memory buffer.
void stream(String text, ...)	Real-time streaming of audio chunks.
List<FastTTSVoice> getVoices()	Enumerate all system-native voices.

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Build from Source

• JDK 17+
• Windows 10/11
• Visual Studio 2022 (with C++ Desktop development)

See COMPILE.md for details.

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License

MIT License — See LICENSE for details.

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Part of the FastJava Ecosystem — Making the JVM faster.