--- title: "merlin" type: "tool" slug: "cstr-edinburgh-merlin" canonical_url: "https://www.graphcanon.com/tools/cstr-edinburgh-merlin" github_url: "https://github.com/CSTR-Edinburgh/merlin" homepage_url: "http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/merlin/" stars: 1319 forks: 431 primary_language: "Python" license: "Apache-2.0" archived: false categories: ["model-training", "developer-tools", "speech-audio"] tags: ["deep-learning", "text-to-speech", "python", "keras", "merlin", "theano", "speech-synthesis", "tensorflow"] updated_at: "2026-07-11T12:12:34.603385+00:00" --- # merlin > This is now the official location of the Merlin project. This is now the official location of the Merlin project. ## Facts - Repository: https://github.com/CSTR-Edinburgh/merlin - Homepage: http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/merlin/ - Stars: 1,319 · Forks: 431 · Open issues: 207 · Watchers: 99 - Primary language: Python - License: Apache-2.0 - Last pushed: 2020-03-03T10:46:34+00:00 ## Trust & health _Signals computed from public GitHub metadata. Not a security guarantee._ - Maintenance: Dormant (computed 2026-07-11T12:12:19.401Z) - Security scan: Findings present (0 critical, 0 high, 0 medium, 594 low) · last scan 2026-07-11T12:12:26.861Z - Full report: [trust report](/tools/cstr-edinburgh-merlin/trust.md) · [JSON](https://www.graphcanon.com/api/graphcanon/tools/cstr-edinburgh-merlin/trust) ## Categories - [Model Training](/categories/model-training.md) - [Developer Tools](/categories/developer-tools.md) - [Speech & Audio](/categories/speech-audio.md) ## Tags deep-learning, text-to-speech, python, keras, merlin, theano, speech-synthesis, tensorflow ## Category neighbours (exploratory) _Same-category tools for discovery only - not curated alternatives. 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Merlin is a toolkit for building Deep Neural Network models for statistical parametric speech synthesis. It must be used in combination with a front-end text processor (e.g., Festival) and a vocoder (e.g., STRAIGHT or WORLD). The system is written in Python and relies on the Theano numerical computation library. Merlin comes with recipes (in the spirit of the [Kaldi](https://github.com/kaldi-asr/kaldi) automatic speech recognition toolkit) to show you how to build state-of-the art systems. Merlin is free software, distributed under an Apache License Version 2.0, allowing unrestricted commercial and non-commercial use alike. Read the documentation at [cstr-edinburgh.github.io/merlin](https://cstr-edinburgh.github.io/merlin/). Merlin is compatible with: __Python 2.7-3.6__. Installation ------------ Merlin uses the following dependencies: - numpy, scipy - matplotlib - bandmat - theano - tensorflow (optional, required if you use tensorflow models) - sklearn, keras, h5py (optional, required if you use keras models) To install Merlin, `cd` merlin and run the below steps: - Install some basic tools in Merlin ```sh bash tools/compile_tools.sh ``` - Install python dependencies ```sh pip install -r requirements.txt ``` For detailed instructions, to build the toolkit: see [INSTALL](https://github.com/CSTR-Edinburgh/merlin/blob/master/INSTALL.md) and [CSTR blog post](https://cstr-edinburgh.github.io/install-merlin/). These instructions are valid for UNIX systems including various flavors of Linux; Getting started with Merlin --------------------------- To run the example system builds, see `egs/README.txt` As a first demo, please follow the scripts in `egs/slt_arctic` Now, you can also follow Josh Meyer's [blog post](http://jrmeyer.github.io/tts/2017/02/14/Installing-Merlin.html) for detailed instructions
on how to install Merlin and build SLT demo voice. For a more in-depth tutorial about building voices with Merlin, you can check out: - [Deep Learning for Text-to-Speech Synthesis, using the Merlin toolkit (Interspeech 2017 tutorial)](http://www.speech.zone/courses/one-off/merlin-interspeech2017) - [Arctic voices](https://cstr-edinburgh.github.io/merlin/getting-started/slt-arctic-voice) - [Build your own voice](https://cstr-edinburgh.github.io/merlin/getting-started/build-own-voice) Synthetic speech samples ------------------------ Listen to [synthetic speech samples](https://cstr-edinburgh.github.io/merlin/demo.html) from our SLT arctic voice. Development pattern for contributors ------------------------------------ 1. [Create a personal fork](https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/) of the [main Merlin repository](https://github.com/CSTR-Edinburgh/merlin) in GitHub. 2. Make your changes in a named branch different from `master`, e.g. you create a branch `my-new-feature`. 3. [Generate a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request/) through the Web interface of GitHub. Contact Us ---------- Post your questions, suggestions, and discussions to [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/CSTR-Edinburgh/merlin/issues). Citation -------- If you publish work based on Merlin, please cite: Zhizheng Wu, Oliver Watts, Simon King, "[Merlin: An Open Source Neural Network Speech Synthesis System](https://isca-speech.org/archive/SSW_2016/pdfs/ssw9_PS2-13_Wu.pdf)" in Proc. 9th ISCA Speech Synthesis Workshop (SSW9), September 2016, Sunnyvale, CA, USA. ```` --- **Machine-readable endpoints** - JSON: [`/api/graphcanon/tools/cstr-edinburgh-merlin`](/api/graphcanon/tools/cstr-edinburgh-merlin) - LLM index: [/llms.txt](/llms.txt) - Full corpus: [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt) _GraphCanon - The knowledge graph for AI development. https://www.graphcanon.com/_