Setting up an English voice
- Record or upload 5 to 15 seconds of the speaker, in the accent and tone you want every line to have.
- Leave the voice's Language on English, the default.
- Start with the Balanced style, and generate a few test lines.
Accents come from the sample
The model doesn't have a setting for "British" or "American": the accent is whatever the sample has. That means any
English accent your speaker has comes through, regional ones included. Spelling doesn't change it: colour
and color are read the same way, in the sample's accent. If a word that varies between accents comes out
in the wrong one (schedule, tomato, route), respell it the way your speaker says it:
shed-yool or sked-jool.
Fast draft: English only
Fast draft uses a separate, quicker model that speaks English only and needs a sample of at least 5 seconds. It's ideal for hearing a script's flow, timing an animatic or checking a draft. It sounds a little different from the main styles, and emotion intensity and guidance strength don't apply to it, so generate final takes in Balanced, Expressive or Calm.
Writing English for the voice
- Words with two pronunciations (read, lead, live, wind, tear, close, record): make the meaning clear from context, or rephrase. "She has read it" rather than "she read it".
- Acronyms: the voice reads in lower case, so capitals don't make a word spelled out. Write
F-B-Ifor letters, and check words like NASA on the first take. - Numbers, dates and money as words: "twenty twenty-six", "March third", "four ninety-nine". See numbers and abbreviations.
- Abbreviations: Dr. could be Doctor or Drive, St. Saint or Street. Write the word.
- Emphasis: capitals and italics are lost; put the important word at the end of the sentence.
- Names from other languages get an English reading. Respell them, or give that character a voice in their own language.
A passage to record
Every recording starts the same way: a quiet room, a glass of water, and a deep breath. Today I'm reading a few
lines, so you can hear my voice exactly the way it is.
More passages, for characters and narrators, are in how to record a voice sample.
English in multilingual projects
An English voice can sit in the same script as voices in any of the other 22 languages: each voice has its own Language setting. A voice cloned from an English sample can also speak another language, with some of its English accent carried over, which suits a character speaking a second language.