Ultimate guide to voice-over generators for podcasts

In case you’re looking to start a podcast but don’t feel confident about your voice, you can always use voice-over generators. Here’s how.

Podcasts are ruling over the internet right now. From those that deal with politics to others that venture into pop culture, you can hear all sorts of ideas and perspectives if you start listening to them. And with such high demand, it’s logical for supply to up its game. More and more people are venturing into podcast hosting. Nevertheless, not everyone is blessed with a pitch-perfect voice to suit every listener’s ears. But that’s not a reason to despair. You can always count on artificial intelligence (AI) voice actors to cover for you. In the following text, allow us to introduce you to voice-over generators—pieces of software that do the talking for you. We’ll cover everything. From what they are to how to use them to, most importantly, which one to pick for your future podcast episode.

Why use a voice-over generator for a podcast

There are a few reasons people use AI-generated voice-overs for their podcasts. The first that comes to mind is that they aren’t satisfied with their voice, so they replace it with a natural-sounding speech from text-to-speech software. All they do is write the script and then paste it into the app, and voilà. The voice-over for their latest episode is done. On the other hand, even those that are confident in how they sound use voice-over-generating apps. However, they use them for specific parts of the podcast, like intros, jingles, or some thematic parts. The technique behind it is the same as above. They copy-paste the script into the app and play the audio file during podcast recording.

Tips for using voice-over generators for podcasts

If you’re looking to incorporate a voice-over for your podcast, you should keep in mind a couple of things.

Choosing the right narrator

Although most text-to-speech apps offer tens of voices for users to choose from, not all of them sound podcast friendly. Hence, it’s essential to pick the one that will best suit your podcast’s style and topic. For example, if it’s a show about science, it might be best to use a British English narrator that resembles voice-overs from BBC documentaries. On the flip side, a pop-culture-themed show might work better with a Californian accent.

Reading speed

Most, if not all, text-to-speech apps allow their users to fiddle with numerous controls. One such is the narration speed. Therefore, you should select the appropriate one that allows your listeners to follow the topic but not get bored with it being too slow.

What are the best voice-over generators for podcasts?

Now that you know why and how people use voice-over generators for podcasts, we should list our top 5 TTS picks.

Speechify

Speechify is a high-quality text-to-speech tool that allows for text transcription with over 30 realistic voices in over 15 different languages. All the AI narrators sound incredible, and it might be hard for ordinary people to differentiate them from actual human voices. With Speechify, you can up the reading speed of your podcast’s AI narrator up to 900 wpm. Furthermore, it also allows you to snap photos of printed text or handwritten notes and scripts, and the app’s OCR advanced feature will turn it into speech. Speechify is available across all platforms and devices. You can use it on your iOS or Android device, as a standalone app on Mac computers, or as a web browser plug-in for Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari. The pricing of the premium version is 11.58 a month, with a free version also available.

Murf

Next up, we have Murf.ai. This is a rather useful voice-generating app, as it offers over 100 high-quality voices in 15 languages. It’s commonly used for creating voice-overs for social media, video games, and YouTube videos, but can still be useful for podcasts on Spotify and other streaming services. Besides different voice options, Murf allows its users to fiddle and fine-tune audio to make natural-sounding voices. Its voices also have various emotional tones, and you can use it as an all-in-one transcription app—importing text and speech to get audio or closed captions.

Lovo

Another great speech voice generator for those who don’t want to record their own voice is Lovo. It’s common for making e-learning material, TikTok videos, audiobooks, and most importantly in this case—podcasts. Lovo offers over 180 voices in more than 30 languages. You can also choose custom voice skins and include human emotions for every generated speech. Another feature of Lovo is real-time voice cloning, which is becoming more and more popular.

Play.ht

A list of AI voice generators wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Play.ht. It’s a popular app whose API generates human-like voices from Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft. Furthermore, it allows you to download the synthetic voice-over in various audio formats, including WAV and mp3. It has another feature that allows you to enhance your audio recording with SSML tags.

Resemble.ai

Lastly, we should mention Resemble.ai. This is a beginner and user-friendly voice generator that doesn’t need any step-by-step tutorials. It’s great for podcasts as well as narrating advertisements that you can include in your show. It has a large library of professional voices, includes language dubbing, and is certainly worth considering.

FAQs

Why do podcasters need a voice-over generator?

Some podcasters don’t feel comfortable with their own voice, so they use AI speech generators to cover up for them. On the other hand, they use these apps to create certain parts of their show, like jingles or intros.

What are tips for using a voice-over generator for a podcast?

Choose the appropriate AI voice (male or female voice, accent, language, etc.) and set the speed just right so that it’s not too fast or slow for your listeners.

How much does voice-generating software cost?

Some voice-generating apps have free plans, meaning anyone can use them. However, if you want advanced features and more realistic voices, you should expect a premium text-to-speech app to cost around $100 a year.