thanks!! Sampling rate actually shouldn't affect talking speed - you can adjust the voice speed with this parameter[0] :)
[0] https://github.com/vocodedev/vocode-python/blob/main/vocode/...
[0] https://github.com/vocodedev/vocode-python/blob/main/vocode/...
You're right sampling rate doesn't change speed, whoops. But on that page you have to change / set the "Set Output Sampling Rate" to slow down the default voice speed.