Pick character voices and change how a line sounds

Each speaker in your video has its own voice: the narrator and every character. You can choose these voices before you make the video, and change them after. This guide also shows what you can do about how a line sounds.

Choose the narrator voice

1. Open Video Story.
2. In the Voiceover step, find Narrator voice and select Change. The row says Choose voice until you pick one.
3. Play a voice to hear it, then select it. While no voice is chosen, you can select Keep Auto to let the app pick.

The narrator voice is for this video. If your video has no narrator, it is not used. To have no narrator, see Who speaks in your video.

Choose a voice for each character

Voices belong to your saved characters. A character keeps its voice in every video you make with it.

Before you make the video:

1. In Video Story, select your characters.
2. Under Character voices, each character shows its voice, or Auto.
3. Select a character. A window titled Voice for and the character's name opens.
4. Play a voice to hear it, then select it. Select AI chooses (Auto) to let the app pick when the video is made.

From the character page:

1. Open the character in Characters.
2. In the Voice box, select Change voice.
3. In Choose character voice, select a voice or AI chooses (Auto).

Good to know:

• The change saves on the character right away. Videos you already made keep their voices.
• With a script, the script decides who speaks. Give each speaker their own handle, such as @Mira. Write narration as @Narrator: "Mira has one minute.". Text with no speaker describes the picture, and no voice reads it. See the script guide.
• A character has no accent setting. To get an accent, type it in the search box of the voice window, for example American, and choose a voice that has it.
• To see the voices of one language, open the All languages menu in the voice window. The app's tip is that voices sound most natural in their native language. See Make a video in another language.
• If your plan cannot choose voices, the app shows Upgrade to Choose a Narrator Voice or Upgrade to Choose a Character Voice. On those plans, voices stay on Auto.
• To add a voice from outside the list, see Add your own voice.

Change a voice after the video is made

1. Open the video in the editor.
2. Select Project settings, then Change Voices.
3. Choose the speaker. The narrator is in the list too.
4. Play voices to hear them, then choose one.
5. Select Change voice. The cost shows on the button. Choosing a speaker or a voice costs nothing.

• Every line of that speaker gets the new voice.
• The lip sync and the timing of these lines can change. You cannot undo a voice change.
• If a new line is too long for its time, the app asks what to do with each such line. You can shorten its text, select Make room, or select Cancel the change.
• If your plan cannot change voices, the window shows Upgrade to change character voices.

This changes only this video. To use the new voice in later videos, change it on the character too. To change, add, or delete a spoken line of one card, use the card's Voiceover tab. See Change words, captions, and voices after generation.

If a voice changes from line to line

Some shots make the voice together with the picture. With Original, these shots play that voice, and the other lines play the voice you chose. To hear the voices you chose on every line, open Project settings, select Voice, then select Dub. See Lip sync: when mouths move with the words.

Change how a line sounds

The app has no setting for the tone or emotion of one line. The voice reads only the words and punctuation inside the quotes of a spoken line.

What you can do:

• Change the words. Rewrite the line so it says what you want. Before you make the video, edit your script. After, edit the line in the editor. See Change words, captions, and voices after generation.
• Add a pause. Put a break tag inside the quotes: @Mira: "Wait. <break time="0.5s"/> There it is."
• Choose another voice. Voices differ in style. Play a few before you choose.

Keep notes such as (angry) or [whispers] out of the quotes. The voice can read them out loud. Write actions beside the line instead: @Mira: "Stop!" @Mira shouts at the door. This text describes what the viewer sees.

Fix how a name or word is said

1. In the editor, change the word in the spoken line to a spelling that sounds right, such as Shiv-awn for Siobhan.
2. Listen to the new line.
3. Then edit the caption of that line back to the correct spelling. Do this after the line change, because a new line resets its caption.

See Change words, captions, and voices after generation for the line and caption buttons.