IIRC, SAM uses formant synthesis combined with filters to simulate speech. The formants basically emulate vocal chords, while the filters simulate how the mouth shapes sounds. Iโ€™ve also looked into this before, but I didnโ€™t get very far. Answer from GearBent on reddit.com
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SAM
discordier.github.io โ€บ sam
SAM: Software Automatic Mouth
Sam is a very small Text-To-Speech (TTS) program written in Javascript, that runs on most popular platforms. It is an adaption to Javascript of the speech software SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) for the Commodore C64 published in the year 1982 by Don't Ask Software (now SoftVoice, Inc.).
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BetterSAM
imrane03.github.io โ€บ better-sam
BetterSAM: Software Automatic Mouth
Pitch: Speed: Mouth: Throat: Preview Download ยท GitHub Code.
Discussions

software automatic mouth 1982 sam for android
So, in other words, you want us to have the worse sounding Windows XP Sam voice from Windows Narrator of that era ยท So, if you like that kind of sound, doesnโ€™t the eSpeak which sounds a tat better than that suffices for you More on groups.io
๐ŸŒ groups.io
February 9, 2023
How Software Automatic Mouth (SAM) worked?
IIRC, SAM uses formant synthesis combined with filters to simulate speech. The formants basically emulate vocal chords, while the filters simulate how the mouth shapes sounds. Iโ€™ve also looked into this before, but I didnโ€™t get very far. More on reddit.com
๐ŸŒ r/DSP
5
6
July 22, 2019
I just ported SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) to pure go. It worked!
It worked on my (linux) system for basic test cases, outputting direct to the audio card. I tried to feed it the lyrics to Stay Alive and I got a panic. But it does work. And man does it sound 8-bit. If nothing else this would make a good thing to mix into some chip tunes. More on reddit.com
๐ŸŒ r/golang
14
65
September 20, 2017
Anyone remember SAM. The software automated mouth?
Thanks for your post! Please make sure you've read our rules post , and check out our FAQ for common issues. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns. More on reddit.com
๐ŸŒ r/c64
55
85
July 4, 2024
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Pokitto
talk.pokitto.com โ€บ t โ€บ sam-software-automatic-mouth โ€บ 564
SAM - Software Automatic Mouth - talk.pokitto.com
October 22, 2017 - Hi everyone. I thought it would be a good idea to port a speech synthesizer to Pokitto. At one point I have this partly working in the simulator, but I can't get it working on Pokitto. My guess is not enough RAM perhaps?โ€ฆ
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Groups.io
groups.io โ€บ g โ€บ blindandroidusers โ€บ topic โ€บ software_automatic_mouth_1982 โ€บ 96632622
[email protected] | software automatic mouth 1982 sam for android
February 9, 2023 - So, in other words, you want us to have the worse sounding Windows XP Sam voice from Windows Narrator of that era ยท So, if you like that kind of sound, doesnโ€™t the eSpeak which sounds a tat better than that suffices for you
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GitHub
github.com โ€บ rtpkgs โ€บ sam
GitHub - rtpkgs/sam: Software Automatic Mouth - Tiny Speech Synthesizer for RT-Thread
Software Automatic Mouth - Tiny Speech Synthesizer ยท Sam is a very small Text-To-Speech (TTS) program written in C, that runs on most popular platforms. It is an adaption to C of the speech software SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) for the Commodore ...
Author ย  rtpkgs
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Speechify
speechify.com โ€บ blog โ€บ text-to-speech-sam
Text to Speech SAM: Exploring the World of Digital Voices | Speechify
November 14, 2023 - The Text to Speech program known as SAM, or Software Automatic Mouth, was an early speech synthesizer designed for personal computers, introducing many to the concept of text-to-speech technology.
Find elsewhere
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Reddit
reddit.com โ€บ r/dsp โ€บ how software automatic mouth (sam) worked?
r/DSP on Reddit: How Software Automatic Mouth (SAM) worked?
July 22, 2019 -

Does anyone know how the text-to-speech used on the Commodore, i.e. Software Automatic Mouth, or SAM, actually synthesized the voice? Did it have any sort of recorded sample data? Did it just use additive synthesis? Or formant synthesis?

There's a github of someone's port of it to C here, although many of the variables, functions, and labels are just named based on their location in memory, not their function, so it still appears a black box.

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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org โ€บ wiki โ€บ Software_Automatic_Mouth
Software Automatic Mouth - Wikipedia
October 29, 2025 - Software Automatic Mouth, or S.A.M. (sometimes abbreviated as SAM), is a speech synthesis program developed by Mark Barton and sold by Don't Ask Software. The program was released for the Atari 8-bit computers, Apple II, and Commodore 64.
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SoundCloud
soundcloud.com โ€บ rodrigo-de-almeida-siqueira โ€บ sam-software-automatic-mouth
Stream SAM - Software Automatic Mouth - Text to speech for Apple II computer by Rodrigo-Siqueira | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Stream SAM - Software Automatic Mouth - Text to speech for Apple II computer by Rodrigo-Siqueira on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.
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Internet Archive
archive.org โ€บ software
Commodore 64: Software Automatic Mouth : Don't Ask Computer Software : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
September 7, 2023 - Software Automatic Mouth was published by Don't Ask Computer Software in 1982. ... NOTE: The emulator defaults to PAL and this may cause programs to run poorly. To run these programs properly you need to set the emulator to C64C NTSC. ... Type LOAD"HOW TO BOOT SAM",8 and press ENTER.
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Simulationcorner
simulationcorner.net โ€บ index.php
SAM: Software Automatic Mouth
Sam is a very small Text-To-Speech (TTS) program written in C, that runs on most popular platforms. It is an adaption to C of the speech software SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) for the Commodore C64 published in the year 1982 by Don't Ask Software (now SoftVoice, Inc.).
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Steam Community
steamcommunity.com โ€บ sharedfiles โ€บ filedetails
Steam Workshop::SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) Announcer
If you don't like default voice announcer. Use the SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) voice announcer in this game.
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Text To Speech Robot
texttospeechrobot.com โ€บ sam-text-to-speech-download โ€บ mp3
SAM Text To Speech Download mp3 | Free Online | Multilingual TTS for your Computer,Phone And Tablet.
This is a vanilla Javascript port of the Text-To-Speech (TTS) software SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) for the Commodore C64 published in the year 1982 by Don't Ask Software (now SoftVoice, Inc.).
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Tetyys
tetyys.com โ€บ SAPI4
Online Microsoft Sam TTS Generator
Online Microsoft SAM, SAPI4, Bonzi Buddy Text to speech generator
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Narkive
comp.sys.apple2.narkive.com โ€บ BfW2CwcA โ€บ software-automatic-mouth-s-a-m
Software Automatic Mouth (S.A.M.)
Post by Bobbi So it turns out the mystery card in my 'new' II+ is a clone of the Software Automatic Mouth (S.A.M.) card. This is an 8 bit DAC customarily placed in slot 5. While the original SAM has a speaker, mine has a 3.5mm jack audio output. I downloaded the S.A.M.
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101 Soundboards
101soundboards.com โ€บ tts โ€บ 74150-sam-software-automatic-mouth-tts-computer-ai-voice
โ˜Š SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) TTS Computer AI Voice Soundboard
December 11, 2022 - Type your text and hear it in the voice of SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) by sajattack. 1296 MP3 clips & quotes to play and download
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Text To Speech Robot
texttospeechrobot.com โ€บ text-to-speech-sam
Text To Speech SAM | Free Online | Multilingual TTS for your Computer,Phone And Tablet.
ONLINE SAM RECITER ROBOT is an Multi Language Text To Speech program that converts ordinary text into phonemes that S.A.M. can understand. You simply supply output strings of 256 characters or less to the program.
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SAM TTS
samtts.com โ€บ home โ€บ better sam tts - embedded software automatic mouth voice synthesizer
Better SAM TTS - Embedded Software Automatic Mouth Voice Synthesizer
January 1, 2024 - Click "Preview" to hear the speech ... This website only provides an embedded interface. The Software Automatic Mouth (SAM) is a speech synthesis program developed in the early 1980s....
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Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com โ€บ item
Just to clarify - this is SAM (Software Automatic Mouth), a vintage speech synth... | Hacker News
May 14, 2025 - For my own project, I've been recreating the formant synthesizer described in Dennis Klatt's influential 1980 paper. I've found that WebAudio Worklets provide an excellent framework for implementing this type of acoustic modeling in the browser