Retro Text-to-Speech
Retro Text-to-Speech turns anything you type into the thin, robotic voice of SAM, the 1982 Software Automatic Mouth program. Set the pitch, speed, mouth, and throat, press Play, and the speech is generated right here in your browser. Nothing you type leaves the page.
Voice presets
Voice knobs
Audio plays after you press Play. Browsers block sound until you interact with the page, so the first tap both starts the voice and unlocks the speaker. Everything runs in your browser; no text leaves this page.
SAM
pitch 64speed 72mouth 128throat 128Classic SAM voice presets
These are the original SAM voices from the 1982 manual. Each one is just a set of four numbers. Load a preset, then move the sliders to build your own.
| Voice | Pitch | Speed | Mouth | Throat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam | 64 | 72 | 128 | 128 |
| Elf | 64 | 72 | 160 | 110 |
| Little Robot | 60 | 92 | 190 | 190 |
| Stuffy Guy | 72 | 82 | 105 | 110 |
| Little Old Lady | 32 | 82 | 145 | 145 |
| Extra-Terrestrial | 64 | 100 | 200 | 150 |
Common questions
What is SAM (Software Automatic Mouth)?
SAM is a text-to-speech program from 1982, first sold for the Commodore 64 and Atari computers by Don’t Ask Software. It reads English text and speaks it in a thin, robotic voice that became a signature sound of early home computers. This tool runs a faithful JavaScript port of SAM entirely in your browser.
Do pitch, speed, mouth, and throat change the voice?
Yes. Pitch sets how deep or squeaky the voice is, speed controls how fast it talks, and the mouth and throat values reshape the vowels and resonance. Lower speed plays faster. Start from a preset like Elf or Little Robot, then nudge each knob to taste.
Why do I have to press Play before I hear anything?
Browsers block audio that starts on its own, so no sound can play until you interact with the page. Pressing Play counts as that interaction: it both unlocks the speaker and renders your text. There is nothing to install and no permission to grant.
Does my text get sent anywhere?
No. The whole SAM engine is bundled into the page and runs on your device. Your text is turned into audio locally, so nothing you type leaves your browser. You can even download the result as a .wav file.
What is phonetic mode?
By default SAM guesses pronunciation from normal English spelling. Phonetic mode tells it you are typing SAM’s own phoneme codes instead, like /HHEHLOW for "hello", which lets you fix any word SAM reads wrong and fine-tune the delivery.