Add Kokoro-82M as a new TTS engine — 82M params, CPU realtime, 8 languages,
Apache 2.0. Unlike cloning engines, Kokoro uses pre-built voice styles, which
required a new profile type system to support non-cloning engines cleanly.
Kokoro engine:
- New kokoro_backend.py implementing TTSBackend protocol
- 50 built-in voices across en/es/fr/hi/it/pt/ja/zh
- KPipeline API with language-aware G2P routing via misaki
- PyInstaller bundling for misaki, language_tags, espeakng_loader, en_core_web_sm
Voice profile type system:
- New voice_type column: 'cloned' | 'preset' | 'designed' (future)
- Preset profiles store engine + voice ID instead of audio samples
- default_engine field on profiles — auto-selects engine on profile pick
- Create Voice dialog: toggle between 'Clone from audio' and 'Built-in voice'
- Edit dialog shows preset voice info instead of sample list for preset profiles
- Engine selector locks to preset engine when preset profile is selected
- Profile grid filters by engine — shows Kokoro voices when Kokoro selected
- Custom empty state when no preset profiles exist for selected engine
Bug fixes:
- Fix relative audio paths in DB causing 404s in production builds
- config.set_data_dir() now resolves to absolute paths
- Startup migration converts existing relative paths to absolute
Also updates PROJECT_STATUS.md and tts-engines.mdx developer guide.
Integrates HumeAI's TADA (Text-Acoustic Dual Alignment) speech-language
model as a new TTS engine. TADA uses a novel 1:1 token-audio alignment
that produces coherent speech over long sequences (700s+).
Two model variants:
- tada-1b: English-only, ~4GB, built on Llama 3.2 1B
- tada-3b-ml: 10 languages, ~8GB, built on Llama 3.2 3B
Backend uses the Encoder for voice prompt encoding with caching, and
TadaForCausalLM with flow-matching diffusion for generation. Supports
bf16 inference on CUDA, forces CPU on macOS (MPS compatibility).
Installed with --no-deps due to torch>=2.7 pin conflict; descript-audio-codec
and torchaudio added as explicit sub-dependencies.
Critical:
- Remove dead backend.utils.validation PyInstaller hidden import
- Fix story_items table rebuild to preserve track/trim/version columns
- Guard cache migration against same source/destination path
- Fix regeneration audio overwrite (use random uuid suffix per take)
Major:
- Engine selector: validate language on Qwen switch, clear stale modelSize
- Sync language validation regex between profile create and generate (22 langs)
- Guard CUDA download against duplicate concurrent requests
- Only set model_size for engines that support multiple sizes
- Fix 404 swallowed by generic except in history export
- Validate audio_path before FileResponse in export-audio
- Transcription: stream uploads in 1MB chunks, use robust cache check,
call complete_download() on Whisper download success
- Set clean version as default when effects chain validation fails
- Return explicit error when Windows port occupied by non-voicebox process
- Story items can be pinned to a specific generation version via
toolbar dropdown (shows when clip is selected and has >1 version)
- version_id column on story_items with migration, validated against
the generation's versions before saving
- Split/duplicate preserve the source clip's pinned version
- Export and playback resolve version-specific audio paths
- Extracted _build_item_detail helper in stories.py (DRY cleanup)
- Story list restyled from rounded cards to flat rows with rounded
hover/active states, gradient header fade, and dynamic bottom
padding that accounts for track editor + generate box
- Add is_favorited column with toggle endpoint and star button on history
- Show sparkles icon on profile cards that have effects configured
- Gold ring on selected profile cards
- Smaller, gray action buttons with brighter hover
- Clamp player time to duration to prevent runaway playback
- Align profile card icon to top for wrapped names
- Flush bottom corners on history card when versions expanded
- Simplify .gitignore data/ rule
Adds a full effects pipeline powered by Spotify's pedalboard library,
enabling users to apply professional DSP effects (flanger, reverb, delay,
compressor, pitch shift, filters, gain) to generated audio.
Key features:
- Effects chain editor with drag-and-drop reordering (dnd-kit)
- Generation versions: clean copy always saved, processed versions created on top
- Built-in presets (Robotic, Radio, Echo Chamber, Deep Voice) + custom user presets
- Per-profile default effects chain (auto-applied to new generations)
- Per-generation effects override from the generation form
- Apply effects to existing generations from history (creates new version)
- Ephemeral preview endpoint for auditioning effects without persisting
- Dedicated Effects sidebar tab with preset management and live preview
- Version switcher in history cards with expandable panel
- Backward-compatible: existing generations backfilled as clean versions
Generations now return immediately with a 'generating' status and appear
in history right away. TTS runs in a serial background queue to avoid
GPU contention. Users can kick off multiple generations without blocking.
- Async POST /generate creates DB record immediately, queues TTS work
- Serial generation queue prevents concurrent GPU access (Metal/CUDA/CPU)
- SSE endpoint GET /generate/{id}/status for real-time completion tracking
- Retry endpoint POST /generate/{id}/retry for failed generations
- Store engine and model_size on generation records for retry support
- History cards show animated loader (react-loaders) for generating/playing
- Failed generations show retry button instead of actions menu
- Model downloads happen inline in the queue instead of rejecting with 202
- Stale 'generating' records marked as failed on server startup
- Autoplay on generate setting (default: on)
- Show engine name on generation cards
- Remove sidebar generation spinner
- Checkbox alignment fix in settings
- Add model folder migration with byte-level progress tracking (backend + UI)
- Custom models directory support via VOICEBOX_MODELS_DIR env var passed to sidecar
- Hardcoded model descriptions displayed in model detail cards
- Open model folder button in storage location row
- Remove 'not downloaded' badge from model cards
- Fix server settings scroll offset for audio player
- Fix shell open permission to allow file paths
- Add normalize toggle to generation settings
Text exceeding max_chunk_chars (default 800) is automatically split at
sentence boundaries, generated per-chunk, and concatenated with a 50ms
crossfade. Works with all engines (Qwen, LuxTTS, Chatterbox, Turbo).
- Abbreviation-aware sentence splitter (Dr., Mr., e.g., decimals)
- CJK sentence-ending punctuation support
- Paralinguistic tag preservation ([laugh], [cough], etc.)
- Per-chunk seed variation to avoid correlated RNG artefacts
- Per-chunk Chatterbox trim (catches hallucination at each boundary)
- max_chunk_chars exposed as per-request param on GenerationRequest
- Text max_length raised to 50,000 characters
Closes#99
- save_audio() now writes to .tmp then os.replace() for atomic writes
- /generate endpoint catches OSError with specific messages for ENOENT, EACCES, ENOSPC, and BrokenPipeError
- New /health/filesystem endpoint checks directory existence, write permissions, and disk space
- New DirectoryCheck and FilesystemHealthResponse models
Cherry-picked and expanded from #178 (@Vaibhavee89)
- New ChatterboxTurboTTSBackend wrapping ChatterboxTurboTTS (ResembleAI/chatterbox-turbo)
- English-only 350M model with paralinguistic tag support ([laugh], [cough], [chuckle])
- Bypasses upstream token=True bug by calling snapshot_download(token=None) + from_local()
- Same CPU-on-macOS forcing and torch.load monkey-patching as multilingual backend
- Full engine integration: generate, stream, model status/download/delete endpoints
- Language dropdown now shows only languages supported by the selected engine
- Per-engine language maps: Qwen (10), LuxTTS (en), Chatterbox (23), Turbo (en)
- Auto-switches to English when selecting English-only engines
- Backend language regex expanded to accept all 23 Chatterbox languages
- Add HFProgressTracker to LuxTTS and Chatterbox backends so tqdm-based
file-level download progress reaches the frontend (previously only Qwen
had this, LuxTTS/Chatterbox showed a static spinner)
- Add progress/current/total/filename fields to ActiveDownloadTask so the
/tasks/active polling endpoint carries progress data
- Show inline progress bar + bytes in the model list and detail modal,
poll at 1s during active downloads (5s otherwise)
- Fix GpuAcceleration crash: cudaStatusLoading was referenced before
initialization in its own useQuery declaration
- New ChatterboxTTSBackend wrapping ChatterboxMultilingualTTS (ResembleAI/chatterbox)
- Supports 23 languages including Hebrew, forces CPU on macOS (MPS issue)
- Monkey-patches torch.load for CPU loading, forces eager attention for compatibility
- trim_tts_output utility cuts trailing silence/hallucination from Chatterbox output
- Full engine integration: /generate, /generate/stream, model status/download/delete
- Hebrew (he) added to supported languages in frontend and backend validation
- Single flat model dropdown extended with Chatterbox option in both generation UIs
- ModelManagement UI groups LuxTTS and Chatterbox under 'Other Voice Models' section
Introduce LuxTTS (ZipVoice) alongside Qwen TTS, enabling users to choose
between engines at generation time. LuxTTS offers fast, English-focused
voice cloning at 48kHz with ~1GB VRAM.
Backend:
- Add LuxTTSBackend with encode_prompt/generate_speech integration
- Multi-engine registry (get_tts_backend_for_engine) replacing singleton
- Engine-prefixed voice prompt cache keys to avoid collisions
- Engine field on GenerationRequest (default 'qwen' for backward compat)
- Engine dispatch in /generate and /generate/stream endpoints
- LuxTTS in model status, download, and delete maps
Frontend:
- TTS Engine selector dropdown in GenerationForm (Qwen TTS / LuxTTS)
- Conditionally hide Model Size and Delivery Instructions for LuxTTS
- Engine field added to TypeScript types and Zod schema
- LuxTTS section in Model Management page
Add the ability to download a CUDA-enabled backend binary (~2.4 GB) and
swap it in via a backend-only restart, solving the #1 user pain point
(19 open 'GPU not detected' issues caused by GitHub's 2 GB asset limit).
Backend:
- cuda_download.py: download from R2 (primary) or GitHub split-parts
(fallback), SHA-256 verification, atomic writes, progress via SSE
- 4 new endpoints: GET/POST/DELETE /backend/cuda-*, GET cuda-progress
- server.py: --version flag, auto-detect variant from binary name
- build_binary.py: --cuda flag for CUDA PyInstaller builds
- split_binary.py: split large binaries into <2GB GitHub Release assets
- CI workflow for building CUDA binary
Tauri:
- restart_server command (stop -> wait -> start)
- start_server prefers CUDA binary from {data_dir}/backends/ if present
- Version mismatch check: runs --version before launching CUDA binary
Frontend:
- GpuAcceleration component: download, progress, restart, switch, delete
- API client + types for CUDA status and management
- Platform lifecycle: restartServer() on Tauri/Web
- Aggressive 1s health polling during restart for fast reconnection
- Add cancel (X) button on downloading and errored model items
- Add collapsible Problems panel (VS Code-style) showing error details
- Add "Clear All" button to reset all stale download/error state
- Add POST /models/download/cancel endpoint to dismiss individual downloads
- Add POST /tasks/clear endpoint to reset all task and progress state
- Include error messages in /tasks/active response for visibility
- Capture SSE error messages client-side for immediate display
- Fix whisper-large using wrong HF repo (openai/whisper-large → openai/whisper-large-v3)
- Fix Whisper HF repo mapping in both PyTorch and MLX backends
- Shorten error toast to point users to Problems panel instead of wall of text
- Rearranged imports for consistency across components.
- Enhanced the ModelManagement component to include detailed logging for download actions and errors.
- Updated the ModelProgress component to connect to SSE only when actively downloading, preventing connection exhaustion.
- Added a downloading state to the model status to indicate ongoing downloads.
- Improved toast notifications for model downloads with completion and error callbacks.
- Refactored the useModelDownloadToast hook to support new callbacks for download completion and error handling.
- Updated backend model status to reflect downloading state during active downloads.
- Added support for MLX backend on Apple Silicon, enabling optimized performance for TTS and STT tasks.
- Updated release workflow to include MLX-specific dependencies and configurations for macOS platforms.
- Refactored backend code to dynamically select between MLX and PyTorch based on the runtime environment.
- Enhanced model loading and inference logic to accommodate backend-specific requirements, including updated model IDs and hidden imports.
- Improved health check and model status reporting to reflect the active backend type.
- Streamlined caching mechanisms to support both backend types, ensuring compatibility and performance.
- Added functionality to upload, delete, and retrieve avatar images for voice profiles.
- Introduced new API endpoints for avatar management, including upload and delete operations.
- Enhanced profile forms and components to support avatar image handling, including previews and error handling.
- Updated database schema to include avatar_path for profiles and added necessary migrations.
- Implemented image validation and processing utilities to ensure proper avatar uploads.
- Updated CONTRIBUTING.md to include instructions for building with a local Qwen3-TTS development version, facilitating easier testing and development.
- Refactored FloatingGenerateBox component to streamline the rendering of text and instruct fields, improving code readability and maintainability.
- Added functionality to handle auto-resizing of text areas based on content changes, enhancing user experience.
- Improved event handling for keyboard interactions in StoryTrackEditor, allowing for play/pause functionality with the spacebar.
- Introduced a MiniSamplePlayer component in SampleList for better audio playback control, including play, pause, and seek features.
- Implemented sample update functionality in the backend, allowing users to edit reference text for audio samples, with appropriate error handling and user feedback.
- Updated the health check endpoint to include the type of GPU available (CUDA or MPS).
- Modified the HealthResponse model to accommodate the new gpu_type field, enhancing the response with detailed GPU information.
- This change improves the clarity of system capabilities for users and developers.
- Updated StoryTrackEditor and StoryContent components to support trimming and splitting of story items.
- Introduced new API endpoints for trimming, splitting, and duplicating story items, enhancing item management capabilities.
- Refactored related hooks and state management to accommodate new functionalities.
- Improved data models to include trim start and end times for better audio playback control.
- Enhanced UI interactions for selecting and managing story items within the track editor.
- Introduced StoryTrackEditor component for managing story item positions and tracks.
- Updated StoriesTab to conditionally render the track editor based on selected story.
- Implemented moveStoryItem API endpoint to handle item repositioning and track changes.
- Enhanced story item data model to include track information.
- Improved audio playback management to support multiple tracks using Web Audio API.
- Added hooks for moving story items and managing playback timing.
- Introduced story management functionality, including creating, listing, and managing story items.
- Added new components for story display and interaction, including StoriesTab, StoryList, and StoryContent.
- Integrated drag-and-drop functionality for reordering story items using @dnd-kit.
- Updated dependencies for @dnd-kit packages to enhance drag-and-drop capabilities.
- Bumped version for @voicebox/app, @voicebox/landing, @voicebox/tauri, and @voicebox/web to 0.1.5.
- Enhanced audio playback features to support story mode with auto-play functionality.
- Improved error handling and user feedback through toast notifications in story-related actions.
- Added new components for managing audio channels, including creation, updating, and deletion of channels.
- Introduced a new AudioTab for channel management and integrated it into the main application layout.
- Updated the API client to support audio channel operations and added corresponding backend endpoints.
- Enhanced the player store to handle audio playback routing through assigned channels.
- Refactored existing components to accommodate the new audio channel functionality, including updates to the HistoryTable and GenerationForm for profile-channel associations.
- Improved sidebar navigation to include new tabs for Voices and Audio management.
- Added new Tauri plugins: @tauri-apps/plugin-process and @tauri-apps/plugin-updater to improve application capabilities.
- Introduced UpdateStatus component to display update information in the UI.
- Enhanced GenerationForm to include an optional instruct field for additional input.
- Refactored various components for improved styling and responsiveness, including Sidebar, AudioPlayer, and ProfileCard.
- Updated API models and schemas to accommodate new instruct parameter in generation requests and responses.
- Improved documentation for autoupdater setup and usage.
James Pine