TL;DR: A new 23M-parameter English Text-to-Speech model, SteerTTS, offers real-time CPU performance and fine-grained control over speech characteristics via numerical z-scores.
Summary: SteerTTS is a novel 23M-parameter English TTS model, combining a 9.6M-param acoustic model (attention + bidirectional Mamba-3, FastPitch-style) with a Vocos vocoder. It provides 12 steerable controls, such as rate, loudness, and pitch, expressed as z-scores relative to a chosen voice's neutral speech. The model runs in real-time on CPU, with first audio streamed in ~0.5 seconds.
Why it matters: This offers indie developers a highly controllable and efficient TTS solution for interactive AI applications, especially where real-time CPU performance is critical. Experiment with its numerical steering capabilities to create dynamic and context-aware speech outputs.
Source: reddit