AI voice has been one of the most talked about things in the gen AI space for the longest time.
but there's a lot of fluff and noise. tools that don't actually work. platforms people are shilling that sound terrible.
as someone who has spent an enormous amount of time generating ai videos, images, and audio - i honestly believe i know which ai voice tools work best right now and what their actual use cases are.
so i decided to put together a full ai voice guide of all the tools you actually need to know.
this is the same knowledge i've packaged into my complete system at contentsystem.ai
but i wanted to share the core voice tools publicly because there's so much misinformation out there.
so starting off...
minimax: the easiest to use for good results
minimax is the most user-friendly option for realistic voices.
the free plan gives you decent credits, and honestly, it might be all you need. if you want more, the paid plan is only $5/month for 120 minutes. pretty hard to beat.
why minimax is great:
you don't need a complicated workflow. the default output is already really good.
the cadence is natural. the flow feels human. when you're doing b-rolls or you need an actor to keep talking, minimax gives you voices that sound like actual people talking in a real room, not some polished studio recording.
if you're doing content this is exactly a good starting option if you need voices that feel authentic..
how to use minimax
there are two main ways to use minimax, and both are pretty straightforward.
option 1: use pre-made voices
this is the simplest path. you log in with a free account, go to the text to speech section, pick from their library of voices, and generate. that's it. takes less than a minute.
option 2: create your own voice
this is where it gets more interesting.
you can use voice design to build a voice from scratch. open up claude or chatgpt and create a custom prompt describing exactly what you want. feed that to minimax and it'll generate your custom voice.
or you can use voice clone. upload a 10-second audio clip of any voice you want to replicate. minimax takes that audio and recreates the voice using their tech. now you can use that voice for all your text-to-speech.
pro tip: you can upload any voice audio and isolate the background noise before training. this gives you cleaner samples and better results.
what minimax voices actually sound like:
the voice is very realistic. it feels like it's in a room talking, not coming through a studio mic with perfect acoustics.
when voices are too polished, they don't feel realistic anymore. that's the difference we're going for here.
minimax is the easiest way to get great ai voices without needing complex workflows or advanced technical knowledge.
elevenlabs v3: the best quality when done correctly (but you need the right system)
here's the thing about elevenlabs...
when used correctly with their v3 model, it's actually better than minimax.
the realism is superior. the quality is unmatched. you can hear the difference immediately.
but there's a catch. it's more expensive, and you need to know exactly how to use it.
most people don't, which is why they get terrible results and assume elevenlabs doesn't work.
the right way to use elevenlabs
first, let me be clear about what not to do.
the pre-made voices in elevenlabs don't work for realistic audio. they sound too generic, too polished. skip them entirely.
and never use elevenlabs for speech-to-speech or voice changing. it will completely ruin your voice quality. seriously, don't touch those features.
elevenlabs only works for text-to-speech. and only when you create custom voices the right way
the elevenlabs workflow
there are two ways to get realistic elevenlabs voices, and both require some setup.
option 1: voice design using my gemini + elevenlabs system
this is the best method, but your prompt matters a lot if you want a good voice.
here's how it works. you upload a photo of your ai character to gemini. then you use my voice design gem to generate the perfect prompt. the gem creates a prompt that's specifically optimized for elevenlabs v3.
you take that prompt and paste it into elevenlabs voice design. elevenlabs will generate 3 different voice options for you. usually at least 1 or 2 of them are high quality. you pick the best one.
the critical part is making sure the prompt includes instructions to make the voice sound like it's "in the actual room " and suits the person. We don't want podcast quality or polished studio sound. that kills realism instantly.
option 2: instant voice clone
the other way to get realistic elevenlabs voices is to upload an audio clip from a video you already have.
find a video with the exact voice quality you want. extract a 10-30 second audio clip from it. upload that clip to elevenlabs instant voice clone.
elevenlabs will analyze the audio and create a custom voice based on it. now you can use that voice for text-to-speech and it'll sound like the original.
do not use elevenlabs text-to-speech in any other way.
if you skip these workflows and just use generic voices or write random prompts without thinking, the output will sound terrible. then you'll assume elevenlabs doesn't work, when really you just didn't use it correctly.
elevenlabs v3 is the best for text-to-speech. but only when you use it correctly with proper systems.
so the decision is simple. if you don't want to deal with multiple workflows, use minimax. if you want the absolute best quality and you have the right systems in place, use elevenlabs v3.
resemble ai: for voice enhancement & changing
let's say you already have an ai video. maybe you generated it with veo 3 or sora 2 or kling. but the voice sounds robotic or too clean or just doesn't feel real.
that's where resemble ai comes in.
what makes resemble ai special:
it uses open-source models called chatterbox and chatterbox turbo. these models are significantly better than elevenlabs' speech-to-speech and voice changer features.
they also have their own text-to-speech model. it's decently realistic but I wouldn't use it over 11labs or minimax tbh..
how to use resemble ai
the main use case for resemble ai is the voice changer feature.
here's the scenario..
you already have a video from veo 3, sora 2, or any other ai video tool. the problem is those videos come with static, robotic ai voices that don't sound realistic. they're too clean. too artificial. people can tell immediately.
you can take that voice audio, extract it from the video, clean it up in adobe podcast enhacne then upload it to resemble ai. resemble will change the voice to a more enhanced, realistic version. it sounds much more natural.
the process is simple. you upload your existing ai video audio. you pick a target voice from their library that sounds more realistic. you hit generate.
the voice gets transformed into something that actually sounds human. the cadence improves. the tone feels more natural. it's not perfect, but it's way better than the original.
creating custom voices in resemble ai
you also have options to build your own custom voices if you don't want to use their library.
design a voice:
you can use a text prompt to describe exactly what you want. let the ai generate the voice based on your description. this works pretty well if you have a clear idea of what you're looking for.
clone a voice:
there are two methods for voice cloning in resemble ai.
the first is rapid voice clone. this is the method i recommend for most people. it's a fast model and the quality is basically identical to their professional clone option. in my testing, there's no real difference between the two.
the second option is professional voice clone. you upload 3 to 30 minutes of audio. it takes about an hour to process. the results are extremely accurate, but honestly, it's overkill for most use cases.
just stick with rapid voice clone. it's faster and the quality is the same, sometimes even better.
now for the next and newest model
qwen3-tts: the open-source option
alibaba cloud just released qwen3-tts and i've been playing around with it...
it's a new open-source model that you can download and run locally on your system. works on mac, pc, even raspberry pi with an external gpu.
how it works:
you need a recording of a voice and a transcript of what you want it to say. upload both, wait a couple minutes, and it generates the cloned voice.
my thoughts so far...
i'm still testing it, but it's actually a really solid option if you want something open-source.
the quality isn't quite at minimax or elevenlabs level. the intonation can be off. the vocal range doesn't match a real human perfectly.
but for short clips and quick tests, it's surprisingly good. especially considering it's completely free and runs offline.
if you're familiar with the original voice, you'll probably notice differences. but for most viewers who don't know what the person actually sounds like, it passes.
the big advantage:
it's free. it's private. you're not uploading your audio to someone else's servers.
you have full control over everything. no monthly fees. no usage limits.
]if you want to experiment with voice cloning without paying for cloud services its definetly a solid start...
since its so new i'm still figuring out the best workflows for these qwen, but so far it's way better than i expected for an open-source model.
that's everything you need to know about ai voice
i've tested dozens of voice tools over the last 18 months.
these are the ones that actually work. these are the ones that separate high quality AI content from obvious slop that people scroll past.
if you are looking to go deeper on ai content - not just voice, but the complete system for creating videos, building characters, and monetizing it all - i've packaged everything i've learned into one place.
that includes the full elevenlabs voice design system i mentioned earlier in this article.
contentsystem.ai
it's the full workflow. every tool. every technique. everything i actually use day-to-day to create ai content that converts.
