BrainMelter

A multi-voice audio mixer and streamer that takes speech input from IRC or local files and creates a surreal audio experience with parallel voices, effects, and harbors.

Overview

BrainMelter is a suite of tools for creating layered speech audio experiences. It combines:

• A Liquidsoap server for multi-channel audio mixing
• Text-to-speech synthesis (espeak and flite support)
• Audio effects (echo, reverb, pitch shifting, vocoder)
• IRC connectivity for remote control
• Multiple audio harbors for parallel audio streams

Setup

Prerequisites

• Liquidsoap (for audio mixing)
• espeak and/or flite (for text-to-speech)
• ffmpeg (for audio processing)
• netcat (for IRC connectivity)
• bc (for calculations)

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/brainmelter.git
cd brainmelter

2. Make scripts executable:

chmod +x *.sh

3. Start the Liquidsoap server:

liquidsoap brainmelter.liq

Usage

Basic Text-to-Speech

Send speech directly to BrainMelter:

./espeak-direct.sh "Your text here" --harbor main --effect none

IRC Connection

Connect to an IRC server and send messages to BrainMelter:

./irc-to-brainmelter.sh --server irc.example.com --channel "#mychannel"

Testing with Text Files

Process a text file with sample phrases:

./irc-to-brainmelter.sh --test-file test_phrases.txt --delay 3

Parallel Speech

Play multiple speech streams simultaneously:

./parallel-speech-irc.sh --local

Script Documentation

espeak-direct.sh

Direct streaming of text-to-speech to Liquidsoap:

./espeak-direct.sh "Text to speak" [--harbor HARBOR] [--voice VOICE] [--effect EFFECT] [--volume VOLUME]

irc-to-brainmelter.sh

Connect to IRC and stream messages to BrainMelter:

./irc-to-brainmelter.sh [--server HOST] [--port PORT] [--channel CHANNEL] [--nick NAME]

parallel-speech-irc.sh

Play multiple voices in parallel through different harbors:

./parallel-speech-irc.sh [--local] [--tts ENGINE] [--duration SECONDS]

Audio Harbors

BrainMelter uses multiple "harbors" for audio streams:

• main - Primary audio channel
• fx1 - Effects channel 1
• fx2 - Effects channel 2
• ambient - Background ambient sounds
• drums - Rhythmic sounds

Audio Effects

Available effects:

• none - No effect
• echo - Simple echo effect
• reverb - Reverberation effect
• pitch - Pitch shifting
• vocoder - Voice modulation effect

License

MIT License

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by kmein's brainmelter.nix from the niveum project