# How to describe a voice for AI voice design, with examples

What to put in a voice description, weak and stronger examples, how to describe a Thai or Mandarin voice, and how to change a voice in words once you hear it.

Published 2026-10-23. Paxa Labs.

A voice design tool turns a sentence about a voice into the voice. The sentence is the whole brief. What it says and what it leaves out decide what you hear back.

The examples here were written for [Voice design](https://paxalabs.com/app/voice-design) in the Paxa console, where each design or change costs 5 credits. Advice from other vendors links their own pages, as we read them in October 2026.

## What to put in a description

Most descriptions that work cover four things: who is speaking, how the voice sounds, how the person speaks, and where the words will be heard. Name a language too when the voice should speak one other than the language you write in.

| Part | Words that carry it |
| --- | --- |
| Who is speaking | Age, gender, and role, such as a pharmacist in her thirties, a teenage gamer, or a retired sea captain |
| How the voice sounds | Pitch and texture, such as low, bright, husky, breathy, clear, or gravelly |
| How they speak | Pace, energy, and manner, such as slow and unhurried, quick and excited, or calm enough to settle a nervous passenger |
| Where it will be heard | A late night audiobook, a game lobby, a store announcement, a bedtime story |
| Language | English, Thai, or Mandarin, named outright |

One or two sentences is enough. [Google's voice design guide](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/voice-design) asks for one to two clear sentences, and [the ElevenLabs guide](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/creative-platform/voices/voice-design) opens its template on the language before anything else. Paxa takes up to 1,000 characters, but a short description that names the parts above does more than a long one that circles them.

## Weak and stronger descriptions

A weak description names a category. A stronger one names a person in a moment, and the voice follows the person.

| Weak | Stronger |
| --- | --- |
| A female voice | A woman in her thirties who hosts a cooking show, warm and lively, and laughs easily. |
| A scary voice | A villain who speaks slowly and quietly, almost a whisper, and sounds pleased when the listener is afraid. |
| A news voice | An evening news anchor in her forties, clear, formal, and steady, who reads each headline at an even pace. |
| An excited voice | A football commentator in his thirties, fast and loud, who gets more excited with every attack. |

[The voice design page](https://paxalabs.com/voice-design) plays descriptions like these beside the voices they made, each with the line the voice spoke first.

## Describing a Thai or Mandarin voice

Name the language the voice should speak. A description can be written in English, Thai, or Chinese. The voice speaks the language the description names. An English description of a Bangkok tour guide who speaks Thai gets a Thai voice. A description that names no language gets a voice in the language it is written in.

A setting then does the work a list of traits would. A vendor at a Bangkok night market, a kindergarten teacher reading to her class, and a morning market briefing each tell the voice how to speak in a few words. These three were written in Thai and Chinese:

- แม่ค้าส้มตำหน้าตลาด วัยสี่สิบกว่า เสียงดัง อารมณ์ดี ทักลูกค้าเป็นกันเอง (a som tam vendor in her forties, loud and cheerful, greeting customers like friends)
- ผู้ชายวัยสามสิบ อ่านสรุปข่าวตลาดหุ้นตอนเช้าเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ ชัด กระชับ ฟังสบาย (a man in his thirties reading the morning market summary in English, clear, brief, and easy to hear)
- 幼儿园女老师，用普通话给孩子们读绘本，温柔又有耐心。 (a kindergarten teacher reading a picture book in Mandarin, gentle and patient)

## What to leave out

- Sound effects and recording conditions. [ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/creative-platform/voices/voice-design) lists words such as reverb and phone among its pitfalls. Add effects in your editor after the voice is made.
- A real person's name. [OpenAI's custom voice guide](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/custom-voices) keeps named people out of voice prompts. In Paxa, a description that names someone gets an original voice under a name the tool makes up. Describe the qualities you want instead.
- Traits that pull against each other, such as calm and frantic at once. Pick the one the script needs most.
- Instructions about what the voice should say. [OpenAI's guide](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/custom-voices) keeps behavior rules out of the voice prompt. The script decides the words; the description decides the voice.

## Change a voice in words

The first voice is a draft. Listen to its line, then type one change, such as warmer, a little older, or slower, and hear the next version. [OpenAI's guide](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/custom-voices) also recommends refining one quality at a time against the same passage, which keeps it clear what each change did.

In Paxa, each change keeps the rest of the voice as it was. Save the version you want, and it joins the Speech tool under Your voices with an id for the API. Speech in a saved voice costs 1.25 times the rate of a catalog voice.

## Common questions

### How long should a voice description be?

One or two sentences that name who is speaking and how they sound. Paxa accepts up to 1,000 characters.

### Can I describe a voice in Thai?

Yes. Write the description in English, Thai, or Chinese. The voice speaks the language the description names, or the one it is written in when it names none.

### What does a design cost?

5 credits for each design or change, its first line included. A new account's free credits cover several, with no card.

### Can I describe a voice like a celebrity's?

Describe the qualities you want to hear. A description that names a real person gets an original voice built from what the name suggests, under a made-up name.