This is a completely optional setup for people who want to be able to create Anki cards nearly instantaneously, and without a working internet connection.
Warning: I did NOT make these plugins, and cannot provide detailed support for when things go wrong. Credits are given in the respective folders, and at the bottom of this guide.
Advantages and Disadvantages of using this setup (click here)
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Advantages:
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Most audio is gotten in less than a second. Without the local audio server, fetching the audio can take anywhere from three seconds to a full minute (on particularly bad days).
Most of the delay from Yomichan when creating cards is from fetching the audio. In other words, getting the audio is the main bottleneck of when creating Anki cards. This setup removes this bottleneck, and allows you to make cards nearly instaneously.
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If you do not have internet access, you can still add audio to your cards.
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Disadvantages:
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This setup requires a little over 5GB of free space.
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This setup is only available for PC. However, a WIP PR is currently live on AnkiConnectAndroid, which means it will be available on Android in the future!
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It only has the coverage of JPod, NHK16 and select audio from Forvo (which is still about 99% coverage, from personal experience). To increase audio coverage, it would be ideal to also include an extra Forvo audio source.
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Notes on Forvo Audio Sourcing (click here)
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The following is a slightly edited quote from person who got the Forvo audio:
The files for now only includes audio files with an exact 1:1 mapping of a dictionary/Marv's JPDB frequency list term to the name of the file the user uploaded. Just because you don't get audio for an user it does not mean the user has no audio on Forvo. Just because you get audio it does not mean it actually matches the current word/reading. It is also not uncommon that people pronounce multiple readings in the same file.
The full quote can be found at the bottom of the page, under "Original Message for v09".
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There are two main versions of the add-on. Download one of the two.
- Option 1: SQL-based (highly recommended, but requires Anki 2.1.50+)
- Option 2: Memory-based
If you are interested, here are the differences between the two versions:
Comparing Memory-based VS SQL-based versions (click here)
The SQL-based version stores the map in a local database file on your computer. This version queries this database when fetching the audio.
The memory-based version generates and caches the map in memory. This is the original version of the add-on. The SQL-based version is a patch on-top of this version.
Advantages and disadvantages of each version:
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The SQL-based version only works on Anki versions 2.1.50 and above.
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The SQL database only has to be generated once, as this database is stored on the disk.
The memory-based version must regenerated its cache every time you re-open Anki. This indeed has noticable effects; the cache is only regenerated when audio is fetched, so the first card added after every Anki restart will take noticably longer than normal.
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The memory-based version hogs about ~250MB of memory, which is a problem on slow computers. The SQL-based version does not hog memory.
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The memory-based version is slightly faster than the SQL-based version, outside of the first card of each session.
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Install the add-on by heading over to:
(Anki) →
Tools→Add-ons→Install from file... -
Download all the required audio files. They can be found at this torrent link.
Magnet link (click here)
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:15f4557bc3e5464609bc1f9ac444db3611b97541&dn=Yomichan%20Japanese%20Local%20Audio%20-%20JapanesePod101%20%28JPod%29%2C%20NHK%2C%20Forvo%20Select%20Users&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fnyaa.tracker.wf%3A7777%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.stealth.si%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.opentrackr.org%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.torrent.eu.org%3A451%2Fannounce -
Place the audio files under
Anki2/addons21/955441350/user_files. See Anki's documentation on instructions to find yourAnki2folder.Additionally, if you are using the memory-based version, place the
forvo.dbfile underAnki2/addons21/955441350(NOT under theuser_filesfolder).Expected file structure (click here)
955441350 ├── forvo.db └── user_files ├── forvo_files │ ├── akitomo │ │ └── 目的.mp3 │ ├── kaoring │ │ └── ... │ └── ... ├── jpod_alternate_files │ ├── よむ - 読む.mp3 │ └── ... ├── jpod_files │ ├── よむ - 読む.mp3 │ └── ... └── nhk16_files ├── audio │ ├── 20170616125910.aac │ └── ... └── entries.json -
In Yomichan Settings, go to:
Audio→Configure audio playback sources.Click
Add, and set the source to beAdd Custom URL (JSON).Set the
URLfield to:http://localhost:5050/?sources=jpod,jpod_alternate,nhk16,forvo&term={term}&reading={reading} -
Restart Anki.
If you are using the SQL-based version, restarting Anki will generate the database file. Expect this to take a while.
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Ensure that everything works. To do this, play some audio from Yomichan. You should notice two things:
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The audio should be played almost immediately after clicking the play button. Note that if you're using the memory based version, the first audio play will take a while to load as mentioned above (in the comparison).
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After playing the audio, you should be able to see the available sources by right-clicking on the play button.
Here is an example for 読む:
Play all the sources from the above (読む) to ensure the sound is properly fetched.
Note: If some sources don't work (and you are using the sql version), try deleting the
entries.dbfile (underAnki2/addons21/955441350/), restarting Anki, and playing the audio again. -
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The local audio server only works when Anki is open. Of course, it can be running minimized in the background.
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The sources can be rearranged to give priority to a different source. For example, if you want Forvo to have the highest priority, use
sources=forvo,jpod,jpod_alternate,nhk16(under the Custom URL step). -
For Forvo audio specifically, you can modify the priority of users by using
&user=.For example, the following will get forvo audio in the priority of strawberrybrown, then akitomo. All other users will not be included in the search.
http://localhost:5050/?sources=jpod,jpod_alternate,nhk16,forvo&term={term}&reading={reading}&user=strawberrybrown,akitomo
Zetta#3033: Creator of the original addonkezi#0001: Getting NHK16 audio(anonymous): Adding SQL + NHK16 audio supportRenji-xD#8182: Getting Forvo audio, adding Forvo audio supportMarv#5144: Creating and maintaining the torrentshoui 🐈#0520: Maintaining and popularizing the original set of instructions that these instructions were initially based off ofAquafina water bottle#3026: Combining the Forvo + SQL versions, maintaining these instructions
Original Message for v01 (click here)
Original discord message, on TMW serverZetta — 16/02/2022
Yomichan Local Audio Server Anki Plugin V0.1 (probably buggy) This plugin acts similar to the Forvo Audio Server plugin but runs off the downloaded JapanesePod audio files. The purpose is to provide offline access and faster look ups for audio that exists in the dump.Any audio files with the format of
<reading> - <term>.mp3under the pluginsuser_filesdirectory will be used. Folder structure underuser_filesdoesn’t matter. For exampleよむ - 読む.mp3it will try to match the yomichan entry to both reading and term and show up asLocal (Exact)Failing that, it will just usereadingand show up asLocal (Reading)in the yomichan audio dropdown.How to use:
- Install the attached addon like any other local addon.
- Restart Anki
- Allow network connections (required since this is a local server)
- In yomichan settings, go to Audio > Configure Audio Playback Sources > Custom Audio Source
- Select Type as JSON and set URL to
http://localhost:5050/?term={term}&reading={reading}- Download the JapansePod Audio dump from here https://discord.com/channels/617136488840429598/778430038159655012/943679275884740608 and unzip all archives it in your Anki2 folder under
addons21/955441350/user_files- (You may need to Restart Anki again if it doesn’t start working.)
Bugfix for multiple files named the same in different directories under user_files. https://discord.com/channels/617136488840429598/778430038159655012/943876430746513429
Credit: Much of the code was ripped from https://github.com/jamesnicolas/yomichan-forvo-server
Original Message for v09 (click here)
Original discord message, on TMW server猫です — 01/12/2023
experimental extension of the local yomichan server with forvo users akitomo, kaoring, poyotan, skent, strawberrybrown (only tested for couple of minutes on a windows machine so lets hope for the best)https://mega.nz/folder/1XgGgSBZ#_rQZLbxS5EcEv68S9I_WAw
Follow https://github.com/Aquafina-water-bottle/jmdict-english-yomichan/tree/master/local_audio#steps to install option 1 of the local audio addon in anki. Extract localaudio_v09.zip into the main addon folder of anki (you can rename the init.py file in case you want a backup, otherwise just overwrite) Extract contents of forvo_files_v09.zip to user_files/forvo_files (so that you have 5 folders named after the mentioned users) Restart and reopen Anki
Add forvo as value to the source parameter for the playback source in yomichan: e. g.
http://localhost:5050/?sources=forvo,jpod,jpod_alternate,nhk16&term={term}&reading={reading}You can add an user parameter to modify the sort order/which users should be displayed/used (nothing found means nothing displayed for forvo): e. g.
http://localhost:5050/?sources=forvo,jpod,jpod_alternate,nhk16&term={term}&reading={reading}&user=strawberrybrown,akitomo(in case there is no audio for strawberrybrown/akitomo but poyotan have one still nothing would be displayed)Note: maybe you saw the discussion - the files for now only includes audio files with an exact 1:1 mapping of a dictionary/marvs jpdb frequency list term to the name of the file the user uploaded. Just because you don't get audio for an user it does not mean the user has no audio on forvo. Just because you get audio it does not mean it actually matches the current word/reading (also not uncommon that people pronounce multiple readings in the same file). Maybe one day me or someone find a nice way to normalize the filenames and is in the mood to extend the script/files for better results/accuracy but for now you need to live with what you get : >
Original message for vsql_09 hotfix (2023_01_15 -> 2023_01_24) (click here)
Original discord message, on TMW serverAquafina water bottle — 01/24/2023
Out of pure stupidity, the jpod_alternate audio files aren't actually found in thesql_09version. If you already have it installed, here's how to hotfix it:
- Download the new
__init__.pyfile. You can find it in the zip below or at this link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Aquafina-water-bottle/jmdict-english-yomichan/master/local_audio/sql_09/__init__.py- Navigate to
Anki2/addons21/955441350- Replace the
__init__.pyfile with the one downloaded from step 1.- Remove the
entries.dbfile entirely.- Restart Anki. You should now be able to see 読む from all 4 sources. It should look like step 7 from the standard setup instructions: https://github.com/Aquafina-water-bottle/jmdict-english-yomichan/tree/master/local_audio
Worst case scenario, if the hotfix doesn't work, it's likely best to just re-do the setup process from scratch by deleting the addon and following the steps in the README. Make sure you save the
user_filesfolder so you don't have to re-download any audio files.