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Let me set the stage: |
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A year ago, I’m working on this explainer animation for school kids – clean visuals, great characters, smooth motion, cute transitions. It’s vibing. |
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Then came the voiceover segment… Cue the anxiety. |
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In some of my earlier projects, I hired professional voice actors — the real-deal kind. Takes three days and costs more than the software I animated with. |
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I try to record myself. Too cringe. |
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I spent countless nights experimenting with various tools, evaluating different voices, and adjusting sliders that I did not completely comprehend. My inbox? A cemetery of free trial confirmations and notifications stating “Your 7-day access is about to expire.” |
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Then I met ElevenLabs. |
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And honestly, it felt like finally finding a voice that actually gets it. |
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Think ElevenLabs is just text-to-speech? |
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Here’s what you can actually do: |
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Done. You’re now an audio powerhouse. |
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When I first started using it, the voices were already impressive — but with the release of v3, the jump in quality is hard to ignore. The improvements in intonation, clarity, and emotional nuance are massive, and it’s clear the team is pushing constant updates. It’s rare to see a tool develop this fast and this well — and it still feels like it’s only getting started. |
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Final Thought |
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I’ve been using ElevenLabs for over a year now and have clocked more than 80 hours of audio — mostly in English and German. And honestly? Those languages sound uncannily real. Sure, you might need to rework a line or two to get the intonation just right, but the overall quality is seriously impressive. |
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I’ve tested it in other languages too, and even there it performs better than most AI voiceover tools I’ve come across. That said, it sometimes slips up with stress placement on certain words — especially in more niche or complex languages. But the beauty is: you can train it, tweak it, and it just keeps getting better. The team is constantly improving it, and it really shows.I would give it a 4.7/5 on the LMAI scale. |
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Let’s cut to the chase, you could have the greatest script ever… but if your audio sounds like a robot or low-budget dubbing, you’re losing trust. |
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Audio isn’t just sound—it’s trust, emotion, and impact. |
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—IC |
About the Author
