Had to pick between two AI voice generators for a client's explainer video last month... went with the cheaper one and it sounded like a robot reading a dictionary.

3 comments

3 Comments

Honestly that cheap ElevenLabs tier saved my last project. The client's budget was tight, like $500 for the whole edit. I used the basic robotic voice for the first cut, and it actually helped. They focused on the script being wrong instead of the delivery, so we fixed the real problems fast. We just swapped in the good voice at the end and it sounded fine.

stellaa691mo ago

YES exactly! I did the same thing last month with a rough cut. The robot voice made the client actually LISTEN to the words instead of getting hung up on tone. We caught three weird sentences we all missed on paper. Swapping to the final voice took two minutes and the whole thing just clicked.

taraanderson25d ago

Hang on, you're kind of missing the point though. Clients pay for a human read, not a placeholder. If you present a robot voice from the start, you're basically telling them the whole project is a placeholder until you get the real performance in. That can make them question why they're paying for a voice actor at all. Plus, some clients get stuck on the robotic reading and can't imagine it sounding good no matter what you tell them. You might actually lose the deal before you ever get to show them the final version.