# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Other Discussion and Support > Assistive Technology & Accessibility >  Using Mbrola with Espeak

## go_beep_yourself

I've been trying multiple ways of example commands I find on the internet to use espeak with mbrola, none of which have worked.


 $ espeak -v mb-en1 "some text" | mbrola -e /usr/share/espeak-data/voices/mb/mb-en1 - - | aplay -r16000 -fS16
Binary number format error
You are probably using a version of /usr/share/espeak-data/voices/mb/mb-en1 incompatible
with your machine architecture.
Get the right one from the MBROLA project homepage :
http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis
aplay: playback:2297: read error


 I am trying to develop my software to use mbrola voices and epeak because it gives better command line options, but if I can't make this work from the command line, I am unable to further my software. I've started a google code project, but I want it to be decent before I release it out to the public. Would someone help me understand how all this works? BTW, I am using 64-bit Ubuntu, and it gave me an error about about machine architecture.

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## Sef

$


> espeak -v mb-en1 "some text" | mbrola -e  /usr/share/espeak-data/voices/mb/mb-en1 - - | aplay -r16000 -fS16
> Binary number format error
> You are probably using a version of  /usr/share/espeak-data/voices/mb/mb-en1 incompatible
> with your machine architecture.
> Get the right one from the MBROLA project homepage :
> http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis
> aplay: playback:2297: read error


See Question 2 of their FAQs.

Question 2 answer:




> You are not providing a MBROLA database to the software. Many possible  causes: either you got quite an old MBROLA database, so fetch a new one *here**  ,* or you gave a wrong file. A typical error is to type _"mbrola  fr1 bonjour.pho test.wav"_   instead of _"mbrola fr1/fr1  bonjour.pho test.wav"._ Another common problem is to FTP your  database across your local net, and forget to use the BINARY mode while  transferring.

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## go_beep_yourself

So could you show me an example of how to use mbrola voices with espeak properly?

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## go_beep_yourself

bump!

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## Sef

> So could you show me an example of how to use mbrola voices with  espeak properly?


Have you tried the 3 solutions to solve your problem?  If you have and still have problems, I would write to espeak and ask them for help.

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## go_beep_yourself

I found the answers I need in /usr/share/doc.

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## Sef

> I found the  answers I need in /usr/share/doc.


Could you please explain what you did to resolve your problem, so that others may benefit from your experience.  Thank you.

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## go_beep_yourself

> Could you please explain what you did to resolve your problem, so that others may benefit from your experience. Thank you.


Yes, to start, the /usr/share/doc directory is a great source of information. It should be bookmarked in nautilus, so that it shows up in the left pane and under "Places" on the Gnome Panel. Have a look at /usr/share/doc/espeak and /usr/share/doc/mbrola. There are some html files in there as well that will open in Firefox. Most of everything you have installed should have a directory under /usr/share/doc with documentation that can be read.

What I discovered is that none of the Ubuntu packages in Karmic contain the mbrola voices. They must be downloaded as described in /usr/share/espeak/mbrola.html

Also, what I said about Mbrola voices not being included in the repos applied to Karmic. Fred on the Ubuntu Mailing List confirmed that the voices are included in the repos for Lucid.

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## WitchCraft

I'm on Lucid, and for me, this works:



```
espeak -v mb-en1 "Hello World" | mbrola -e /usr/share/mbrola/voices/en1 - - | aplay -r16000 -fS16


Note:    /usr/share/mbrola/voices/en1
and not: /usr/share/espeak-data/voices/mb/mb-en1
```

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## WasMeHere

Thank you WitchCraft,

Your example helped me make the computer speak (in Lucid). I use the following one-line script files for Swedish.
'male'


```
espeak -v mb-sw1 "$*" 2>/dev/null | mbrola -e /usr/share/mbrola/voices/sw1 - - | aplay -r14000 -fS16 2>/dev/null
```

'female'


```
espeak -v mb-sw2 "$*" 2>/dev/null | mbrola -e /usr/share/mbrola/voices/sw2 - - | aplay -r14000 -fS16 2>/dev/null
```

But for many purposes the following simple aliases work well. They make clear voices, although with 'immigrant accents'.



```
alias säg='espeak -v sv -p 65 -s 120 -k10 -a 150 >/dev/null 2>/dev/null '
alias bas='espeak -v sv -p 45  -k10 -a 150 >/dev/null 2>/dev/null '
```

Have fun/Olle

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