voice-design

# ElevenLabs Voice Design Prompting

Expert guidance for creating AI-generated voices using ElevenLabs Voice Design.

## Quick Start Decision Tree

| Goal                 | Approach                                                  |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| Generic narrator     | Short prompt: "A calm male narrator"                      |
| Specific character   | Detailed prompt with age, accent, tone, pacing, emotion   |
| High audio quality   | Add "perfect audio quality" or "studio-quality recording" |
| Stylized/lo-fi audio | Add "low-fidelity audio" or "sounds like a voicemail"     |
| Strong accent        | Use "thick" (not "strong"): "thick French accent"         |
| Subtle accent        | Use "slight": "slight Southern drawl"                     |

## Prompt Structure Template

Build prompts by combining these elements:

```
[Audio Quality] + [Age] + [Gender] + [Accent] + [Tone/Timbre] + [Pacing] + [Character/Emotion]
```

**Example:**

> "Perfect audio quality. A man in his 40s with a thick British accent. His
> voice is deep and warm, speaking at a natural conversational pace. He sounds
> confident and approachable."

## Phrasing Experimentation

How you phrase descriptors matters. The same concept written differently can
produce noticeably different results:

| Phrasing A              | Phrasing B                     | Notes                                 |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------- |
| "Perfect audio quality" | "The audio quality is perfect" | May produce different tonal qualities |
| "Speaking quickly"      | "A fast pace"                  | Affects rhythm differently            |
| "Deep voice"            | "His voice is deep"            | Contextual vs standalone descriptor   |
| "Thick accent"          | "A very pronounced accent"     | Intensity perception varies           |

**Best Practice:** When iterating on a v