Many people miss the TTS feature of Ventrilo, as it allowed you to keep up-to-date with what's happening in the chat without having to constantly look at the chat window. mIRC doesn't have this feature, however it is possible to get it working. Below is a guide on how to install and get running your TTS agent.

1. If you are using a Windows 95 or Windows 98 operating system, download this to install the agents core components. Windows ME, 2K and XP users DO NOT need to do this, as these components are already on your computer.
   
   
2. Now, everyone needs to download this file in order to get voices to work properly. Install it once it's downloaded.
   
   
3. Next, click here to go to the Microsoft Agent Download page. Choose any one of these agents (Genie, Merlin, Peedy, Robby), download and install it.
   
   
4. Under the text-to-speech engines section of that page, choose a language you wish to use (American or British English). Download and install that.

That’s all the downloading done. Now, onto the setting up of your TTS agent.

1. Load up mIRC, and go into the options menus. Select Sound > Agents, and choose your agent from the drop-down list (merlin.asc for example). In the Agent Options box, uncheck all the options.
   
   
2. Then, hit the Events button. It is largely up to you what you want to have selected here and what you don't But I'd recommend a setup like below...
   
   
   
   ...so that certain unwanted text isn't read out (such as server notices). Once done, hit OK.
   
   
3. Now hit the Speech button. Again, it's up to you exactly what options you put in here. Some things you should consider changing are:
   
   Speed: How fast your agent says a sentence. Mine is set to 220 for the British English voice.
   Pitch: The tone of your agent's voice. The higher this setting, the higher their voice. The lower it is, the deeper their voice.
   Change the Increase Speed options to whatever you want.
   
   When you're done, hit OK.
   
   
4. (Optional) Lastly, hit Lexicon if you want to apply an auto-change filter on some words. For example, you could change thx (pronounced T-H-X) to thanks, so that your agent say the proper word. You can also use this to filter swear words if you wish.

You should now have a working TTS. You may have to restart mIRC to make it work.

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