Please, sir, I am begging you to check out some of the resources for audio drama and fiction podcast creators, like The Fiction Podcast Weekly newsletter (full disclosure: I edit and send this newsletter out for The Podcast Host), the Audio Drama Hub on Facebook, the Audio Drama Gazette on Substack, and the vast array of Discord servers for voice actors. Casting Call Club is another option. I hope more voice actors will post resources for you. I know if you post on the Audio Drama Hub on Facebook, "Hey, I'm a small-budget audio drama podcast creator with a big dream, how can I find living human voice actors?" the world will provide more information and resources than you can shake a stick at.
Just as human writers are unique and irreplaceable, so are human voices.
I have several contacts who are professional voice actors, but they're all union members and I can't afford their rates. (And I won't even consider asking them to work for free!) Right now, my aim is just to try things out and see how they sound - I'm a long way from actually having anything to record and put out there.
I'm thinking of voice AI as the equivalent of using a keyboard with synthesized sounds to compose orchestral music: you can get a good idea of how the piece going to sound before you even think about spending the money to hire an orchestra. It's a drafting tool, not a substitute for a production tool.
I think your best bet if you can’t afford the real thing is kits.ai where you can voice the dialogue as you want it and then substitute the voice model of your choice to be the character. Requires you to be the actor and do the editing work but you can certainly achieve a reasonable result.
Tim Child (the producer of the Knightmare TV series) was working on an "emotional markup language" for automated text-to-speech about twenty years ago. The logical extension of Pinter's pauses, perhaps!
Please, sir, I am begging you to check out some of the resources for audio drama and fiction podcast creators, like The Fiction Podcast Weekly newsletter (full disclosure: I edit and send this newsletter out for The Podcast Host), the Audio Drama Hub on Facebook, the Audio Drama Gazette on Substack, and the vast array of Discord servers for voice actors. Casting Call Club is another option. I hope more voice actors will post resources for you. I know if you post on the Audio Drama Hub on Facebook, "Hey, I'm a small-budget audio drama podcast creator with a big dream, how can I find living human voice actors?" the world will provide more information and resources than you can shake a stick at.
Just as human writers are unique and irreplaceable, so are human voices.
Thank you - I will do! Though right now, I'm a no-budget writer. 😉
We all are. :)
I have several contacts who are professional voice actors, but they're all union members and I can't afford their rates. (And I won't even consider asking them to work for free!) Right now, my aim is just to try things out and see how they sound - I'm a long way from actually having anything to record and put out there.
I'm thinking of voice AI as the equivalent of using a keyboard with synthesized sounds to compose orchestral music: you can get a good idea of how the piece going to sound before you even think about spending the money to hire an orchestra. It's a drafting tool, not a substitute for a production tool.
I think your best bet if you can’t afford the real thing is kits.ai where you can voice the dialogue as you want it and then substitute the voice model of your choice to be the character. Requires you to be the actor and do the editing work but you can certainly achieve a reasonable result.
Tim Child (the producer of the Knightmare TV series) was working on an "emotional markup language" for automated text-to-speech about twenty years ago. The logical extension of Pinter's pauses, perhaps!