🧪 The test
I wanted to give everyone the same starting point to make the comparison fair.
🔊 Voice training
I then needed a script for my voice clones to read out loud.
Suddenly, the sky pixelated. Colors drained. A low hum rose from the earth. Fluffy didn’t panic—he remembered this feeling. The pull, the erasure, the end. Somewhere far away, a child clicked “Generate New Story,” and everything Fluffy loved began to dissolve.
（The audio and script are obtained from online sources.）
That’ll be the passage I ask our voice cloning sites to reproduce.
For comparison, here’s how I sound saying it:
Now, let’s hear which AI voice cloning result sounds the most like my real voice.👇
🗣️ The results
My main focus is on how closely the cloned AI voice resembles mine.
But I’m also interested in things like how natural the reading feels (pacing, tone, etc.), audio quality, and so on.
Get ready to listen to a bunch of fake AI voice.
1. MiniMax
You might remember MiniMax from its impressive Hailuo AI video model that landed near the top in my image-to-video test.
But it also has a speech model called speech-02-hd and a standalone audio platform for text-to-speech generation. How does it handle cloning my voice?
Oh wow, that’s surprisingly good!
Clean, crisp audio, natural pacing, and a voice that isn’t quite me but by far the closest we’ve heard so far.
Where to try: www.minimax.io/audio
2. A2E
In addition to AI voice cloning, A2E offers image generation using models.
I enjoyed its clean interface for managing cloned voices with a “Ground Truth Audio” reference. But how does the clone voice?
Not bad at all. That does sound like me! Also, the pacing and narration come off as rather natural.
Where to try: video.a2e.ai/voice_clone
3. Descript
Descript is a popular video creation and editing platform that now also offers voice cloning. Is it any good?
Clean, loud audio. Rather natural reading, although I wish the narrator took a breath between sentences every once in a while.
Unfortunately, the voice is only somewhat Daniel-adjacent. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t fool anyone who knows me.
And just as with Colossyan, you have to create a video project, even if you only want the text-to-speech aspect. The free plan is quite generous, though, and lets you generate hours of audio and have multiple clones.
Where to try: www.descript.com
4. Mango AI
Mango AI has a just-for-fun focus with features like talking animals, singing videos, face swap, cartoons, etc.
How’s its voice cloning?
Mango AI nails the pacing, but that’s where the positives stop.
The quality isn’t great, like “AI Daniel” is talking on a badly damaged telephone line through a breathing mask. The clone doesn’t sound like me and gives off a robotic vibe with lapses in pronunciation.
Where to try: mangoanimate.com
5. PlayHT
Oddly enough, despite advertising voice cloning and having a “Your Voices” section in the dashboard, PlayHT doesn’t provide the option to clone a new voice for free accounts.
But there’s a “Speech Editor” that lets you upload an audio sample and then edit the transcript to change what the voice says. So I used that as a workaround:
While the voice is vaguely Original-ish, the narrator sounds like he was told to finish his lines before a bomb goes off.
There’s a good chance that using proper voice cloning instead of the “Speech Editor” workaround would lead to better results. But as it stands, this isn’t good at all.
Where to try: play.ht