d7fc0236bc
Specification change. Two different rules, and they need different
mechanisms.
Narrator: accent = translation language. Its reference was generated by
VoiceDesign from a description that hardcoded '{accent} English', baking an
American-English timbre into the WAV; cloning that into German gives German
phonology from an American voice. Ten per-language references now exist
(narrator_EN.wav ... narrator_ZH.wav), each designed from the narrator's
timbre plus 'Speaking {language} as a native {language} speaker'.
Characters: keep the accent on the speaker page. Their accents were already
encoded in their existing refs - what destroyed them was the language
parameter forced onto every utterance, which made every voice adopt the
target language's prosody. That is why Deal Hunter came out French-native.
Phonology and accent are now separate controls: language carries phonology,
an explicit voice_description carries accent character. Deal Hunter gets
'with a strong Australian accent' in every language.
Measured A/B, French line from Deal Hunter: with and without the Australian
instruction the waveforms differ by 152% of signal amplitude and duration
moves 4.24s -> 4.08s, so the instruction is reaching the model. Whether it is
convincingly Australian is an ear test, not something measurable here.
Re-rendered all 120 clips under the new spec, 0 failures. The previous
render is kept in Lang_test_preSpec for A/B. 24 speakers carry a non-default
accent; the narrator is deliberately excluded from that set.
Suite: 721 passed, 8 pre-existing.
3.9 KiB
Accent and voice specification for translated books
Status: specification, agreed 2026-10-13. Implemented by
scripts/generate_narrator_refs.py + scripts/render_lang_test.py.
The rule
Two rules, and they are different:
-
The narrator speaks with the accent of the translation language. An Italian book is narrated by an Italian-sounding narrator. A German book by a German one. Not an American reading Italian.
-
Every other character keeps the accent defined on the speaker page. Deal Hunter stays Australian. Duchess Victoria stays Canadian. Xu Ming stays Hong Kong. This holds in every target language.
The asymmetry is deliberate. The narrator is a narrator in each language and is heard far more than any single character, so a foreign accent on the narrating voice is the thing listeners notice. Characters are defined individually on the speaker page, and that definition is the contract.
Why this needed two different mechanisms
The narrator needed a new reference voice per language. Its reference was
generated by the VoiceDesign model from a description that hardcoded
"{accent} English", which baked an American-English timbre into the WAV.
Cloning that into German gives German phonology from an American voice. Passing
the target language fixes phonology but not identity.
So the narrator now has one reference per language, generated by VoiceDesign from
the narrator's timbre plus "Speaking {language} as a native {language} speaker".
narrator_EN.wav … narrator_ZH.wav, ten in all, in
<project>/.umbra/voices/.
Characters needed no new references. Their accents are already encoded in
their existing reference WAVs. What was destroying them was the language
parameter: forced onto every utterance, it made every voice adopt the target
language's prosody, which is why Deal Hunter came out French-native.
Phonology and accent are separate controls, and the fix uses them separately:
| language parameter | accent carried by | |
|---|---|---|
| Narrator | target language | its per-language reference |
| Characters | target language | existing reference + explicit accent instruction |
The accent instruction is derived from the speaker page (accent_for() in the
renderer) and passed as voice_description alongside the clone. Measured A/B on
one French line from Deal Hunter: with and without her Australian instruction,
waveforms differ by 152% of signal amplitude and duration moves 4.24s -> 4.08s.
Deal Hunter's current accents
24 speakers have a non-default accent. The narrator is deliberately not in this list — its accent is the translation language.
australian Deal Hunter (strong) canadian 17 speakers incl.
nigerian Adonai Maul, Dealer Kainda, Nanny,
indian Alec, Interrogator Duchess Victoria
kenyan Warbots hong_kong Trader Wakam, Xu Ming
Any character whose accent is none simply gets no instruction and speaks the
target language plainly.
What this does not fix
- The ICL prompt path is still unusable. One
prompt_slugrequest takes the server from 5.4 GB to 19.1 GB and never returns. The render path usesx_vector_only_mode=True, which is stable. Cached prompts are effectively bypassed. - Accent is verified by measurement, not by ear. The instruction demonstrably changes the output. Whether "strong Australian" is convincingly Australian in French is a listening test for the reviewer, not something measurable here.
- One pass per language. Languages are rendered sequentially so the system can reset between them; not all fifteen at once.
Division of labour with the translation node
The translation node produces the text and the print paperback, including the
full analysis needed for correct translation. This system turns that text into
audio and knows nothing about translation. The renderer consumes
(index, speaker, text) per utterance and emits WAV.