Hello everyone, I am a novice with Audacity and I would like to use it to create an audiobook for a story that I have written. The challenge is creating the voices for the different characters, especially the female ones since I am male. I’m not sure if this topic has been discussed before, but it would be great if there were some simple-to-use, preset plugins available that could produce a variety of voices and tones. Thank you for welcoming me into your community.
How did you do it in the book? How do you tell me, the reader which character is speaking?
Do you own any audiobooks? You can get them from the public library at a total cost of $0.00.
Audiobooks are not theatrical scripts. They are someone reading the exact words you wrote. It’s going to sound silly when “Aunt Sally Said…” is presented in Aunt Sally’s voice. I’ll bet a lot of chocolate that ACX will not let you re-write the words to suit a script. Only relatively recently did ACX allow multiple voices anyway.
I don’t know of any good, simple changing tools. “Make Me Sound Like” is a frequent forum request that frequently fails.
Are you published? ACX needs you to be reading a published work. Are you planning on ACX? We have some nice tools for audiobook production.
Koz
Do Not buy anything until you settle on exactly how you’re going to do the production. The microphone makers love to push how successful you’re going to be if you only buy their microphone, read books, and become famous.
It’s a little more complicated than that.
Koz
Are you planning on making the script?
AUNT SALLY
Hi, John, How are you?
JOHN
Just ducky, Sally. Have you seen Joseph?
If you’re planning on making a podcast or simple sound presentation and not an audiobook, then, yes, that’s a pretty normal thing. But again, there is no simple voice changing. Pitch shifting seems to be a natural, but it has its limits. If a large man and a tiny woman whispered at you, you might not be able to tell who was who, but the instant they spoke, the difference would be obvious. Pitch shifters change everything. They can sound like you’re playing the voice at the wrong speed or dragging your finger on the record.
Don’t discount the value of acting. I’m a man with a deep voice. I once played both me and a woman through acting and shifting microphone spacing.
The other forum elves may know of add-on software that can deal with this.
Koz
Trebor came up with this a while ago.
Koz
Thank you for your responses.
I have explored other Speech to Speech software like ElevenLabs, which allow voice changes. However, I’ve noticed that the original nationality’s accent often remains noticeable. Being Italian and having written the novel in Italian, this is an issue for me.
Regarding Audacity, I read that it’s possible to change a male voice to a female one by increasing the pitch by about 20% and adjusting the frequencies around 200-300 Hz, reducing those below 100 Hz. I attempted this technique, but the outcome was not satisfactory.
I was also advised to alter the semitones, increasing them by 2-3. Unfortunately, this method also produced an unnatural, caricature-like effect. I greatly appreciate the support and numerous responses provided by the community.
A.P.
That’s the “acting” thing. Actors are noted for how well they can sound with different accents.
That lets you out of using ACX. I think they limit to the US.
How are you going to resolve the “He Said,” “She Said” text? That’s going to sound odd in his and her voice, unless you write the theatrical script from the book.
There is one left. AI reading. The free ones can sound just OK and they get better and better as the price goes up.
Koz
This topic was automatically closed after 30 days. New replies are no longer allowed.