Custom TTS PAD Page Workflow for Partially Sighted DJ

[J Huijgens]

Hello everyone,

I am experimenting with the VirtualDJ Accessibility Extension in a somewhat different way than its original purpose, and I hope someone from the accessibility or scripting community can help me understand the correct syntax and workflow.

I am visually impaired, but not fully blind.
I use VirtualDJ with:

• a customized multitouch VDJ skin
• VDJ build 9295
• a Denon MC7000 controller

Most important browser information such as BPM, track titles and some larger UI elements are still visible enough for me. However, during live performances I currently spend too much time looking at the screen instead of reading the crowd and focusing on the mix itself.

My goal is therefore not a full accessibility workflow, but rather a lightweight “audio assist layer”:

• custom TTS feedback in headphones
• on-demand information
• minimal speech
• performance-oriented feedback

Examples:

• read cuepoint names
• read next cue name
• read the loaded FX slots (partially working now) 
• read saved loops
• read keys in Camelot notation

I would like to work with a dedicated custom PAD page where I can manually request the information I need during mixing.

At the moment I am also struggling to fully disable some of the default accessibility speech output and announcements. Is there a quick/easy way to disable most automatic announcements while keeping the speech engine active for custom scripts?

I have been trying to figure this out myself together with ChatGPT and some “vibe coding”, but I have not yet managed to get the custom speech output working to my liking. 

1. Is there a correct/recommended way to make the accessibility engine speak arbitrary VDJ query output?
2. Is there a dedicated speech verb or command for custom text output?
3. Are the @fx11@ style commands accessibility-specific macros/tokens?
4. Is there a recommended way to build custom TTS-driven pad pages for partially sighted DJs?

My intention is to build VDJ scripts and map these to pad page and some buttons that i rarely use on my controller. 

Is there anyone who could help me better understand how to approach this?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[Zenek]

Welcome to the blind DJ community. Forget about GPT, he's too stupid for the genius of the Mallmuzik creator :D
First, check all the message switches on this page and if you don't need something, turn off the messages:
https://virtualdjaccessibility.com/accesskeys.php#winkeys
Secondly, if you want to adapt the speech to a shorter form, or don't want to disable the entire speech but only hear the value of a specific element, use the file below.
Paste it to the location

appdata/local/virtualdj/mallmuzik
and then run the mallmuzik software.
From now on, this file will be used as the speech message generator.
If you want a line to be spoken in its original form, remove the entire line from the speech.mallmuzik file.
If you want something to be spoken shorter, enter your content between quotation marks.
If you want something to be replaced with silence instead of a shortened speech, and instead of the original speech, enter "!!" between quotation marks instead.

Try disabling unnecessary speeches with the switches first, then just paste the speech.mallmuzik file and test how it works,

since this file is already modified for shorter speeches.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1G_ZeXfIN_I9CCjiH9u-ahD8ZL-IHFvr5&usp=drive_fs
Best regards and good luck, Zenek

[J Huijgens]

Hi Zenek, 

Thank you for you're prompt reply. Been playing with the swtiches and everything is off. Still the software keeps announcing broser information and almost every button i push gives audible feedback. 

I haven't figured out how to mute these. 
Writing the !! in the speechfile in the places i would imagine where linked to browser information didn't do anything notible. 

Is there such a thing as making a custom pad page with TTS commands that i was talking about?

I've found the padpages supplied with the sofware, however i'm really at a total loss right now. Drowning in txt notepad documents that i can't figure out what they actually mean and what my changes mean. 

Hoping for help on how to use VDJ scripts with the software so i can eventually build the padpages i would need. 

Op zaterdag 9 mei 2026 om 21:08:52 UTC+2 schreef Zenek:

[Zenek]

You can't completely turn off speech and use the pads to listen to a few messages, so that's not the way to go.
You'd probably have to enter !! in every line of the file I sent to mute 99% of the messages and leave only the 1% you need to be talking.
I reread your first message and now I understand that you don't want to hear tempo, BPM, key, or duration.
You can disable these elements through the mallmuzik/tools/track info menu. Press F1 there to learn how to add, remove, or move elements. Best regards.

[Peter Mallard]

that browser announcement editor could be a sort of workaround for you, if your songs have any blank fields such as track number or album name, you could just have the announcement to use only a field that is empty then it wont speak anything when browsing songs.

and yes Zenek is correct about settings those lines in that file to just have 2 quotes, this will stop those items from speaking.

I will look into implementing a speak on demand setting in the future, to turn off all automatic speech output, but hopefully the workarounds mentioned in this thread will help in the mean time.

Pete

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[Zenek]

A workaround for on-demand speech is to turn it on and off with the Escape key twice quickly, or Shift+Escape, so there's practically no need to create a new function.
Sorry, Pete, I should have written that you need to type two exclamation points between quotation marks to silence a certain line. Since NVDA doesn't recognize double exclamation marks, you might have understood from reading my message that you need to type only the quotation marks, without any content.
For me, empty quotation marks caused the string to be read from the original language instead of the modified language.
Best regards.