Reference
Commands
Section titled “Commands”| Command | Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|---|
Voice Soundboard: Speak Text... | — | Enter text to speak |
Voice Soundboard: Speak Selection | Ctrl+Shift+S | Speak selected editor text |
Voice Soundboard: Stop Speaking | — | Stop current playback |
Voice Soundboard: Change Voice | — | Quick-pick voice selector |
Voice Soundboard: Toggle Soundboard Panel | — | Show/hide sidebar |
Voice Soundboard: Export Dialogue as WebVTT | — | Export dialogue script as .vtt subtitle file |
Voices
Section titled “Voices”48 voices across 8 languages:
| Language | Voices |
|---|---|
| English (US) | 12 voices (6 male, 6 female) |
| English (UK) | 4 voices |
| Japanese | 6 voices |
| Mandarin | 6 voices |
| Spanish | 4 voices |
| French | 4 voices |
| Hindi | 4 voices |
| Italian | 4 voices |
| Portuguese | 4 voices |
Each voice has a unique ID (e.g., bm_george, af_sarah) used in settings and dialogue scripts.
Voice browsing
Section titled “Voice browsing”The Voices tab in the sidebar provides search and filtering:
- Search — type part of a voice name or ID to filter the list
- Filter chips — quick toggles for American, British, Japanese, Male, and Female
- Preview — each voice card has a Preview button that plays a short sample
You can also change the active voice from the Command Palette with Voice Soundboard: Change Voice, which opens a quick-pick list showing every voice with its accent, gender, and style.
Multi-speaker dialogue
Section titled “Multi-speaker dialogue”The Dialogue tab lets you write multi-speaker scripts:
- Write lines in
Speaker: Textformat (e.g.,Alice: Hello there!) - Assign a voice to each speaker using the cast panel that appears below the script
- Click Play All to hear the full dialogue sequentially
- Click Export VTT to synthesize all lines and save as a WebVTT subtitle file
WebVTT export
Section titled “WebVTT export”The exported .vtt file includes:
- Cumulative timecodes calculated from audio durations
- Voice tags (
<v Speaker>) for each line - Standard WebVTT format compatible with video players, subtitle editors, and accessibility tools
Settings
Section titled “Settings”| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
voiceSoundboard.defaultVoice | bm_george | Default voice ID |
voiceSoundboard.speed | 1.0 | Speech speed (0.5 to 2.0) |
voiceSoundboard.backend | python | TTS backend (python, http, or mock) |
voiceSoundboard.autoStart | true | Auto-start server on activation |
voiceSoundboard.format | wav | Audio output format (wav, mp3, or ogg) |
voiceSoundboard.openaiApiKey | "" | OpenAI API key for cloud TTS (http backend) |
voiceSoundboard.pythonPath | "" | Path to Python executable (auto-detected if empty) |
Backends
Section titled “Backends”| Backend | How it works | Network |
|---|---|---|
python (default) | Kokoro TTS via Python subprocess | No network — fully local |
http | Connects to user-configured TTS API (OpenAI, ElevenLabs) | Requires API key, sends text to cloud |
mock | Returns silence — for testing | No network |
Security and data scope
Section titled “Security and data scope”- Local backend (default): Kokoro TTS runs entirely on your machine — no network egress
- Cloud backend (optional): sends text to user-configured TTS API — requires explicit API key setup
- Audio playback: uses
spawnwith args array, not shell execution - No telemetry is collected or sent