While building a business, including audio and video marketing is an excellent way to ensure user engagement and more lead generation. There are two approaches for producing audio for marketing: AI voice generator and human voice over.
As its name suggests, the AI voice generator produces a digital voice by using technologies like machine learning and natural language processing. On the other hand, human voice-over is the technique in which voice artists give their voices to the person narrating or speaking on television, radio, theater, presentations, filmmaking, etc. The artists simply read the script and narrate accordingly.
Both are excellent technologies, and their applications are increasing day by day. For instance, e-learning is an example of a human voice-over. The e-learning market is estimated to grow by up to $200 million by 2024. whereas, as per the report by Wyzowl, around 33% of business marketers obtain animation marketing that uses AI voice generators. The statistics show that both voices over areas are prospering.
Let us see when and how each type of voice started.
A Brief History
Over the past few years, AI has led to massive advancements in voice technology. But voice generators have existed in the world since 200 years ago. The very first machine featuring a voice-over was discovered by a Russian citizen, Kratzenstein. The machine was able to produce vowel sounds. Now we are at a stage where AI is not only able to understand human speech but also brings emotional elements to the voice.
Folklore, camp stories, and ancient shadow puppets were made using voice-over. Voice-over resides in human culture. The first human voice-over was recorded by Reginald Fessenden, as per consensus, in around 1860. Afterwards, Fessenden did the weather forecast in 1906 using voice-over. Since Walt Disney used voiceovers in an episode of Mickey Mouse, voiceovers have started taking place in movies, television, then videos, presentations, etc.
Now that we know the origin, let us compare the current versions of human and AI voices, and find out which technology has an upper edge in various industries.
Comparison of features
AI Voice generator
Advantages
- Budget: AI voice generators are budget friendly. You can create a lot of audio content with a minimum expenditure as it does not require human effort.
- Time: Voice generators are fast, and in a span of minutes, text can be converted to audio.
- Logistics: Logistical requirements are negligible.
- Edits: While creating audio by any other means may make you repeat a lot of work for making changes but, TTS can provide easy edits with no complexity.
- Versatility: An efficient voice generator has hundreds of accents and more than 20 languages available. Moreover, you also get features like a grammar assistant to optimize the content.
Drawbacks
AI voice generators have still not made an exact replica of human voices. Compared to the past, they are much better at making AI voices sound more human, but there’s still work to be done.
Voice Over
Advantages
- One of the biggest advantages of the human voice is the ability to produce emotion. Since voice actors are able to use their own inflections and phrasing, they can make a script sound natural while still conveying the emotion intended by the writer. This is important in dubbing large movie productions, which require actors who can re-create the tone, emotion, and intent of the original actor who was filmed for a different language.
- Voice-over is also used in things like audiobooks, which require a human touch so that people can relate and connect with what they’re hearing on an emotional level—something AI doesn’t offer yet!
Drawbacks
- It’s expensive. It’s more expensive than just typing a message, which means it takes more time to set up and will cost more money to do.Though it can be worth every penny, human voiceover is usually simply too expensive for smaller businesses or those with limited resources.
- It requires a logistical and scheduling commitment. If you want quality work from quality professionals, you’ll need to be prepared to put in more work than you would with free text-to-speech or previously recorded material. You may need to schedule recording sessions, hire an audio engineer, and take on other tasks that require more forethought and planning.
- You can’t easily edit human voice over like you can do with text-to-speech devices or voice generators.
- Every single word must be recorded and pieced together. It takes time to create a human voiceover.
Pricing structure
Subscriptions are usually the basis of pricing for AI voice generators. A decent subscription to a voice generator can be purchased for around Rs. 1000-1500 per month.
Human voice-over expenses depend upon the success of an artist’s career. Some voice-over artists who usually work in local theaters, dramas, and local shows have very low incomes, whereas artists working in cinemas and big theaters are paid higher. For instance, some corporate films usually have their starting rates at around Rs.8000 per 5 minutes of recorded audio. TV series usually fix their voice-over costs at around Rs. 1,50,000-1,80,000 weekly.
Uses
There are plenty of fields where both AI and human voices can replace each other. For example, in an educational setting, an AI voice might be used to read out textbook assignments to students. However, this may not be the best option if the material contains complex language or requires a lot of nuances. In these cases, a human voice can provide more context and help students understand difficult concepts.There are many fields in which both can be used.
The AI voice generator is used most commonly in the following fields:
- Advertisements
- IVR agents
- AI devices like Siri
- Advertising and marketing:
- Conferences and lectures
- Video games, TV shows, movies, and other media
- Education
Human Voice over is widely used in the following fields:
- Animation
- Commercial
- Narration
- Audiobooks
- Video Games
- E-learning
- Corporate
- Trailers and promos
- Announcements
Which one should you use?
When you’re looking to make a decision between a Voice Generator and a human voiceover, there are a few things to think about.
If you’re looking for efficiency or want to save money, then AI voiceover is probably the way to go. Many companies use AI for their voiceovers because it can be created on a much larger scale and with little cost. But if you’re looking for something more personal and want your audience to feel like they’re actually listening to someone speak directly to them, voiceover artists are the way to go. They’re great when you need that human touch in order to get your point across effectively.
For example, if you’re looking at marketing copy (such as commercials), then an AI voice will do a good job of conveying emotion and personality without sounding too robotic or stiff.
If the script is for something like video game dialogue, however, then you’ll need someone who can adapt their performance based on what’s happening within the context of each scene–so perhaps hiring one person per character might be best here (unless it’s just one character throughout all scenes).
Similarly, a podcast that discusses emotional issues can be more effective when done by a human voice. An AI voiceover might not be able to convey the emotion that is needed for a topic like this. But, a blog on fashion can use an AI voiceover because it’s not necessary for it to have emotion in order to get the point across.
The future
As per the growth of artificial intelligence, AI voice-overs are more likely to dominate because of discoveries. Researchers are continuously working on installing more values and expressions in AI tools. Upcoming web design 3.0 is the best example of updated AI. But there’s still a lot that AI is missing when it comes to human connection. And if you ask someone who works with AI all day, they’ll probably tell you that this is an area where humans are still the experts. AI voice generators need human voices to create their accents and speech. What we do know is that the feelings and emotions brought by the human voice are unmatchable. The AI will process the human voice and create the audio output. But we do need the sample voice.