Looking for a cheap AI voice over while expecting quality above that of a human?
If you search on Google, Quora, or Reddit, people ask a lot of questions about “free AI voice over”, “free AI voice text to speech”, and “free voice over software”. Using something for free when you know nothing about it sounds fair because at least a consumer deserves to know what he or she’s going to spend something on.
Even when buying a small thing, people read other people’s reviews and see the price tags on various online websites. There’s nothing wrong with trying something for free before you buy it, but I’ll be honest with you.
The higher the expectations, the more a user will be disappointed by the AI voice as well.
Don’t think it’s a cliché, and scroll down if you’re serious about choosing the right AI voice service.
Here’s why
1. Voice quality is not good
The AI voice is perfect, but not perfect at the same time. When a real human speaker records something, they usually sound so good at first because their voice is in good condition before they get tired. On the other hand, AI voices sometimes don’t express emotions or feelings very well and ignore the direction the user is giving. When I was satisfied with the use case and the sample voice and actually purchased a 1-month membership to one of the most popular AI voice over websites, I was disappointed. It just doesn’t follow me as it did for its creator. How did they make this great sample with this kind of voice? I wanted to cry and blamed myself for trusting the AI too much.
2. Too expensive
If you’re looking for AI voice over with emotion and lots of language/voice options, you’ll usually have to pay between $15 and $20. Some expensive providers cost more, and if your voice content is for commercial purposes, the price goes up. Netflix costs about $14, and you watch it almost every day or weekend in series. But if you don’t use AI voice every day like you watch Netflix almost every day, then it’s definitely a bit too expensive.
3. There is no voice to match my content
Advertisements claim that there are over 100 voices, so you may think that there must be a voice that you can use for your content. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee of that. Even if you walk into a bookstore with every possible genre of book on the shelf, you’ll end up empty-handed because you cannot find the right book to capture your attention. Why do you think voices are different?
Use it or not? AI voice vs Human voice?
I’m not comparing the recording process or fair price. Instead, let’s talk about how to get the best result if you’re still unsure whether to use an AI voice or a human voice.
Please DON’T
If your content requires a lot of extreme emotion like screaming, crying, and sobbing and needs to sound super natural, like in a horror movie, to immerse your audience in the content, then you should use your own voice or the service of another human voice actor.
Please DO
Know exactly what voice you need? Make sure you figure out why you need AI voices before you buy them. If you know what kind of voice you need, then find the right voice and use AI voice. Let’s say I’m making a short video about an event that happened in my family. I need a normal or ordinary voice as a narrator and funny voices of different people to produce a video. Then AI voice is perfect for my content. I can hire different voices in a place where I sit and just need a short conversation.
How often will you use AI voice?
If you plan to create content at least twice a week, $15 is not too much. If you plan to create content once a month? Then you may need to think about whether or not you should spend $15. As I mentioned earlier, something you use daily or regularly needs to be purchased. Do not be stingy with it. Of course, it also depends on the length of your content, but unless you are using an AI voice to introduce every topic at your work, content will be sweeter and easier if it’s short.
