Every new Voice Avatar release at WellSaid labs is a carefully crafted response to the needs of our customers and their listeners. New accents, new styles, more representation, the Voice Avatar library in Studio is an ever-evolving reflection of the listening audience.
While that is true of every Voice Avatar release, this one is unique. Not simply reflecting the sounds of different English language accents, this group of Avatars addresses even more subtle representations.
Let’s go through each of the four new avatars. We will listen to samples of their voices and discuss possible uses for them.
Paula R, Our First Mexican American English Voice Avatar
Every story deserves to be told, with the right voice. Our users, and our users’ listeners, come from a variety of backgrounds. To authentically tell stories by and for people who speak English as a Second Language, our users have been requesting Voice Avatars who are themselves ESL.
We are proud to introduce our first ESL Voice Avatar, Paula R., who comes from Mexico City.
Her narration style is warm and professional. Whether sharing public health information or corporate training, Paula has the ability to connect with a wide variety of listeners.
Her narration style is warm and professional. Whether sharing public health information or corporate training, Paula has the ability to connect with a wide variety of listeners.
Cameron S, Our First Non-Binary American English Voice Avatar
Our customers have a variety of reasons for choosing an Avatar that most interpret as male or female. Perhaps they are communicating with an audience that statistically responds better to information communicated from one gender or another. Sometimes, the subject matter is more approachable when presented by a particular gender.
But many times, our customers report that they need a non-gendered voice.
We created the Voice Avatar of Cameron to provide a non-binary voice option for our customers. Their narration style is a good option for when customers don’t want to communicate a gender at all. Some customers who requested this option have corporate personalities that have never had a gender. Others want to be inclusive of audiences that themselves identify as non-binary.
Whatever the reason for communicating with a non-binary voice, Cameron is a compelling choice.
Ben D, A New Male South African English Voice Avatar
Part of our mission to represent listeners to the best of our ability is accounting for regional needs. Simply expanding from American accents isn’t enough. When we added “British” accents, we made sure to differentiate Irish, Scottish, and English. We also have Australian and Canadian accents.
One of the newer English regional accents we have added is South African English. Audiences in South Africa may be accustomed to hearing British and American accents. However, the ability to hear an authentic South African Voice Avatar is a more engaging experience.
Ben’s friendly and engaging tones fit a variety of needs for this audience.
Michael V, A New Male Mountain West American English Voice Avatar
The United States is a large country, so providing an “American” accent isn’t really representative of different experiences. Earlier this summer, we added Donna, who is a Voice Avatar from the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountain area. She was our first voice that represented a specific regional U.S. accent.
Michael hails from the other side of the country and is a “Mountain West” Avatar, most representative of what you might hear in Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. He is another example of our commitment to reflect more parts of the country.
We think Michael’s approachable narration style is especially easy to listen to on long-form content, such as explainer videos or training modules.
New Styles for Bella and Marcus
Most of our voice actors start out with recording one speaking style (conversational, promo, or narration) for use in Studio. Over time, if they’d like to add another style, we can add that option to their voice avatar. This provides even more options for content creators, depending on the use case of the project.
Two of our favorite avatars get new speaking styles in this Voice Avatar Release. First, there is Bella, who now has a narration style. This version of her voice avatar is light and energetic enough to stay engaging for drier content, yet still professional and polished.
Marcus now has a conversational style in addition to his existing narration style. His deep voice sounds trustworthy and authoritative, great for informative voiceover.
Studio Voice Avatars Keep Evolving
The work of curating the enough voices to represent our audiences is never done. There is always another region or sound we can add. Hopefully, each Voice Avatar release gets us closer to providing what our customers need for their projects. As always, our goal is to give audiences the best listening experience possible.
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