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Voice Options

Overview

iReporter can speak a message aloud when a button is pressed. Voice is configured globally in the Voice Options section and then controlled per-button using a Speak Text field on each button.

Enable Voice

Tick Enable Voice in the top bar to activate voice output. When enabled, the Voice Options and Push to Talk panels expand, and a Speak Text field appears on every button.

Voice Engine

Use the Voice Engine dropdown at the top of the Voice Options panel to choose between two speech engines:

EngineDescription
Microsoft VoiceUses the built-in Windows Text-to-Speech engine (SAPI). No internet connection required. Voice quality depends on your installed Windows voices - additional voices can be installed via Windows Settings > Time & Language > Speech.
Eleven LabsHigh-quality cloud voice synthesis from ElevenLabs. Requires an API key and an internet connection. Produces significantly more natural-sounding speech than Windows TTS. See ElevenLabs Configuration for setup instructions.

Selecting an engine shows only the configuration relevant to that engine.

Microsoft Voice Configuration

When Microsoft Voice is selected, a Windows Voice dropdown appears. Select any installed Windows SAPI voice. The default option uses whichever voice Windows has set as the system default.

ElevenLabs Configuration

When Eleven Labs is selected, the ElevenLabs configuration panel appears. See the ElevenLabs Configuration page for full setup instructions including how to obtain an API key.

Key fields:

  • API Key - your ElevenLabs account API key
  • Voice - click Load Voices to fetch available voices from your account, then select one
  • Voice Output Device - the audio device used for speech output. Set to VB-Audio CABLE Input if you want voice routed through a virtual microphone into iRacing
  • Switch to Microsoft Voice - clears ElevenLabs settings and switches back to Microsoft Voice

No Car Detected

The No Car Detected text box in the Voice Options panel sets the phrase spoken when a button that uses crash or incident variables is pressed but no car has been captured yet.

Normally, if a crash or incident button is pressed before any car data has been detected, the voice message would be spoken with blank or placeholder values for variables like {CRASHCAR} or {INCIDENTDRIVER}. With the No Car Detected text set, iReporter speaks this phrase instead of the N/A-filled message, making the output much cleaner and more informative.

This text also serves as the global fallback value for all variable substitutions - both in text messages and in voice output. Whenever a message variable has no current value (for example, {CRASHCAR} when no crash has been detected), the No Car Detected text is substituted in place of the default N/A. This applies to all button types and all variable fields across the entire plugin.

Output Volume

The Output Volume dropdown controls the playback volume of speech output. This applies to both Microsoft Voice and ElevenLabs. Available settings are 50%, 75%, 100%, 125%, 150%, 175%, and 200%.

100% is the default (no amplification). If competitors report that your radio voice is too quiet, increase this to 150% or 175%. Values above 100% digitally amplify the audio samples - very loud settings may introduce clipping on some voice clips.

Push to Talk

The Push to Talk box (inside the Voice Options panel) lets you configure a key that iReporter holds down for the full duration of each spoken message. This activates your in-sim radio PTT so the voice is transmitted to other drivers.

Use the PTT Key dropdown to select from:

  • F1 - F12 - a plain function key
  • Ctrl+F1 - Ctrl+F12 - Control + function key combination
  • Shift+F1 - Shift+F12 - Shift + function key combination
  • (None) - no PTT key (voice plays without pressing any key)

Set the same key as your iRacing radio PTT binding. iReporter injects the keypress at the hardware scan-code level, which behaves identically to a physical key press and is reliably detected by iRacing.

See Push to Talk Setup for full configuration instructions.

Pauses in Spoken Text

You can insert pauses into any Speak Text field using the {PAUSE} or {PAUSE:N} variable, where N is the pause duration in milliseconds.

  • {PAUSE} - inserts a 500 ms pause
  • {PAUSE:1000} - inserts a 1000 ms (1 second) pause

Example: Crash detected. {PAUSE:500} Car {CRASHCAR} at turn three.

During a pause, iReporter transmits silence PCM audio to keep the radio channel open. This prevents iRacing from dropping the PTT transmission mid-message.

Per-Button Voice Control

When voice is globally enabled, a Speak Text box appears on each button. Enter the text to be spoken when that button is pressed. Message variables such as {DRIVER} and {CAR#} are supported and substituted with live data at press time.

The Disable Voice for this button checkbox (shown in the options row below the Button Mode dropdown) suppresses voice output for that specific button while keeping the speak text saved for future use.

Voice is always spoken before the text messages are sent to the iRacing chat box. This ensures PTT is fully released before the chat key (T) is pressed, which would otherwise interrupt the radio transmission.

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