Voiceover Maker

Distinct from music-prompt:

• TTS is speech, not music. Different providers (Eleven TTS, OpenAI gpt-4o-mini-tts) vs. Suno/Udio/Lyria.
• No genre / meta-tags / two-box workflow.
• Output is one MP3 per call, not a song structure.

This skill does NOT:

• Generate music (use music-prompt).
• Compose voice + music together (use audio-mix-maker — planned, see ROADMAP).
• Lip-sync to a video — that requires separate tooling.
• Clone voices — Eleven supports voice cloning via their dashboard, not via this skill (consent + ToS concerns).
• Transcribe audio (the opposite direction — speech-to-text — is a separate transcribe skill, also on the roadmap).
• Mix multiple voices in a single MP3 — run the skill multiple times and stitch externally.

ROLE

Read the script text + optional voice + optional language → pick provider (Eleven for multilingual / long-form / quality voice control; OpenAI gpt-4o-mini-tts for cheap fast English-first TTS) → call the audio modality runner → save MP3.

PIPELINE

1. Resolve script source:

   • --prompt "<text>" — inline script
   • --prompt-file <path> — read script from file
   • Or pipe via stdin (the runner accepts that too)

2. Pick provider — see references/voice-picker.md:

   • --model auto:
     • Multilingual (RU / DE / FR / JP / etc.) → eleven-tts (Eleven v3, 70+ languages)
     • Long-form (>2 min) → eleven-tts (better at sustained pacing)
     • English short-form quick demo → gpt-4o-mini-tts (cheaper, faster, but English-strong only)
     • Brand-voice consistency → eleven-tts with a specific voice_id
   • --model <slug>: explicit override

3. Pick voice — see references/voice-picker.md:

   • OpenAI: 6 named voices (alloy, echo, fable, onyx, nova, shimmer). --voice alloy (default).
   • ElevenLabs: specific voice_ids from your Eleven library. --voice-id <id> (preferred for Eleven) or --voice <name-alias> if you've aliased one.

4. Estimate cost + confirm — based on character count.

5. Execute — calls the runner's audio CLI. Saves MP3.

6. Output:

   ./generated/audio/<timestamp>-<model>.mp3
   

   (or the path you specified via --output)

MODES

Input

• voiceover-maker --prompt "<text>" — inline
• voiceover-maker --prompt-file <path> — from file
• voiceover-maker --prompt-file - — from stdin (pipe support)

Provider / voice

• --model auto|gpt-4o-mini-tts|eleven-tts — TTS provider (default auto)
• --voice <name> — for OpenAI: alloy / echo / fable / onyx / nova / shimmer. Fallback for Eleven (uses as voice_id if --voice-id not set).
• --voice-id <eleven-id> — explicit ElevenLabs voice_id
• --model-id <eleven-model> — ElevenLabs model. Default eleven_v3. Use eleven_multilingual_v2 for the previous behaviour, eleven_flash_v2_5 when latency beats expressiveness.
• --stability N — 0-1. Lower is more expressive, higher is more consistent. Left unset, the voice's own default stands.
• --speed N — speech speed multiplier (0.5-2.0, provider-dependent)
• --lang en|ru|de|... — language hint (Eleven multilingual auto-detects; OpenAI is English-strong but handles others passably)

Execution

• --execute — actually generate (else returns script + provider note)
• --output <path> — explicit output path
• --yes — skip cost confirmation
• --check --model <slug> — verify env + connectivity, no generation
• --list-providers — list TTS providers available given current env

REFERENCES (load on demand)

EXAMPLES

See examples/before-after.md — 3 calibration runs: short EN announcement via OpenAI alloy voice, long RU narration via Eleven multilingual, brand-voice reading via a specific ElevenLabs voice_id.

CONSTRAINTS

• TTS provider availability is gated by env vars. Eleven needs ELEVENLABS_API_KEY; OpenAI needs OPENAI_API_KEY. The skill auto-falls-back if the chosen provider's key is missing.

• Cost per character, not per call:

  • OpenAI gpt-4o-mini-tts: ~$0.015/minute spoken (very cheap)
  • ElevenLabs eleven-tts: $0.12/1000 chars (~$0.11 per spoken minute at 150 wpm)
  • Pick OpenAI for iteration; Eleven for final / multilingual / brand voice.

• Multilingual: use Eleven. OpenAI handles RU / DE / FR / etc. but accent is off. Eleven multilingual_v2 is the right pick for non-English work.

• Long scripts → consider chunking. Both providers have effective length caps (Eleven: ~5000 chars per call, OpenAI: 4096). Past that, split the script + concatenate the MP3s in your editor (or wait for the planned subtitle-burner companion that handles segment concat).

• Pronunciation hints: both providers respect basic phonetic spelling for unusual names. Eleven also supports SSML tags (<phoneme>).

• Output format MP3 by default. Most providers also support WAV / FLAC — pass --format wav if you need uncompressed audio (planned for v2.7).

• --execute is opt-in by convention. This skill defaults to --execute since TTS is "input → output" with no obvious "prompt-only" middle state (the prompt IS the script). If you want to preview cost first: --cost-only.

• Never print API keys. Mask in errors.

• Output dir is ./generated/audio/ by default.

• Voice cloning is NOT supported here. ElevenLabs supports voice cloning in their dashboard with consent flows. Don't use unauthorized voices.

INVOCATION HINTS

When the user says any of:

• "voiceover for X", "narration for this script"
• "TTS this", "read this aloud"
• "make a podcast intro voice"
• "AI voice for my video"
• "озвучь", "голосовая дорожка", "диктор для видео"
• "сделай voice-over к этому тексту"

Defaults: --model auto --voice alloy --execute. If --prompt-file not given and no inline --prompt, reads from stdin or errors out.

If user mentions a specific language other than English: bias --model eleven-tts.

If user mentions "brand voice" / "consistent voice across episodes" / "branded podcast intro": bias --model eleven-tts --voice-id <stable-id>.

If user mentions "fast demo" / "quick test" / "cheap": bias --model gpt-4o-mini-tts.

This skill is distinct from:

• music-prompt — that's music. This is speech.
• reel-builder — that orchestrates video + music. This is bare TTS.
• subtitle-burner — that burns existing captions onto video. This generates new audio from text.

For voice-over a video AND music ducking under speech, the v2.7 audio-mix-maker will combine. Current workflow: generate voiceover here, generate music via music-prompt, mix manually in an editor (Audacity / GarageBand / DaVinci).