Mimic 3 TTS Models Failing to Load with INVALID_PROTOBUF Error

Plugins & Skills
1

I am encountering an issue with Mimic3 TTS models failing to load with the error “INVALID_PROTOBUF”. Despite following the installation steps and ensuring the correct setup, the models are not loading correctly and the error persists.

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Download and install the Mimic3 TTS models using the provided commands.
  2. Attempt to use the Mimic3 TTS models with the following command:Preformatted text
mimic3 --voice en_US/ljspeech_low "This is a test of the ljspeech voice model." > test_output_ljspeech.wav

Observe the error message: "Load model from /home/user/.local/share/mycroft/mimic3/voices/en_US/ljspeech_low/generator.onnx failed: Protobuf parsing failed."

The expected behavior is for the TTS model to load successfully and generate the audio output without errors.

Here are the relevant log files and error messages:

[ONNXRuntimeError] : 7 : INVALID_PROTOBUF : Load model from /home/user/.local/share/mycroft/mimic3/voices/en_US/ljspeech_low/generator.onnx failed: Protobuf parsing failed.

Environment:

  • Device type: Desktop
  • OS: Ubuntu 20.04
  • Mycroft-core version: N/A (using Mimic3 standalone)
  • Other versions: Mimic3 TTS version 0.2.5, Python 3.10

Additional context:

I have tried downloading and using multiple voice models (en_US/ljspeech_low, en_US/cmu-arctic_low, en_US/vctk_low) and encountered the same error with each. I followed the installation and usage instructions carefully but have not been able to resolve the issue. Any guidance or suggestions to resolve this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your assistance.

2

I also have this same error. If I find the solution I will post it.

1 Like
3

i think i have to train my english a bit more, i missunderstand your message

4

The pip package downloads pointer files instead of real models, you have to manually download the real files from here: mukowaty/mimic3-voices · Hugging Face

I had to put it in ~/.local/share/mycroft/mimic3

Got the same error from just pip3 install mycroft-mimic3-tts[all] ala GitHub - MycroftAI/mimic3: A fast local neural text to speech engine for Mycroft from a recommendation from Reddit LocalLLaMA/comments/16jrcek/best_text_to_speech_out_there/

5

I don’t think anyone has a resolve for this issue. I have installed Mimic3 standalone on 3 different machine, spent a week utilizing AI assistance and got NOWHERE. I wonder if support on Mycroft will respond, if they have a support team. Today is March 2, 2025 1:00 pm.

6

Hi there, Mycroft went out of business a couple years ago, so there’s no support team. Mimic3 is effectively abandonware but you might want to try Piper. Same author, same voices, regular feature updates.

1 Like
7

No active maintenance, according to a post somewhere in GitHub discussions preparing for a piper2/mimic4, so while piper is the recommended replacement I suspect it won’t be around for long.

But at least piper has eyes on it, mimic3 is complete abandonware. There’s also sherpaonnx that supports mimic3 models if for some reason you really want a mimic3 voice

8

THANKS. Wasn’t aware of that. Off to the Piper store!