Unlike Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), where a small number of highly accurate engines can effectively serve global needs, Text-to-Speech (TTS) is inherently human-facing and experience-driven. TTS output is not just “understood” by machines—it is heard, felt, and experienced by people.

If every application, device, and service across the world were to speak using the same handful of voices from a few global providers, the experience would quickly become monotonous and impersonal. Just as brands differentiate themselves through visual identity, voice has emerged as a powerful dimension of brand expression.

Enterprises, governments, and digital platforms increasingly seek distinct, culturally resonant, and language-specific voices that reflect their identity and connect authentically with their audience. This creates a natural and healthy ecosystem where multiple high-quality TTS voices are not only desirable but essential.

By creating over 100 unique TTS voices across 22 Indian languages, Bhashini.ai enables rich diversity, inclusivity, and personalization—ensuring that human–AI interactions sound natural, engaging, and truly representative of India’s linguistic and cultural plurality. 

The first step in creating high-quality TTS voices is the careful identification of professional voice artists who demonstrate both excellent vocal characteristics and strong proficiency in their native language. To enable a fair, consistent, and scalable selection process, Bhashini.ai uses a structured, multi-stage approach.

Collection of Raw Voice Samples Using the Purpose-built “Vaak Sangraahak” Mobile App

To ensure an unbiased evaluation of voice talent, Bhashini.ai developed a custom mobile application called “Vaak Sangraahak” for direct collection of raw, unedited voice samples from artists. For each language, a curated set of 50 phonetically rich sentences—covering multiple speaking styles such as conversational, news-style, storytelling, and emotional tones—are uploaded to the application’s backend system.

Prospective voice artists install the Vaak Sangraahak app from the Google Play Store and register by providing basic details such as name, contact information, native language, and prior voice-over experience. After selecting the language for which they wish to submit samples, artists are guided through a simple recording workflow. The app displays one sentence at a time and allows the artist to record the sentence in a quiet environment. Each recording is saved locally, after which the next sentence is presented. Artists may re-record any sentence if required, ensuring accuracy and clarity. Once all 50 sentences are recorded, the artist uploads the recordings and profile details to the backend system for review.

Review and Assessment of Voice Samples

The submitted voice samples are reviewed by the Bhashini.ai team to shortlist artists who meet the required professional voice quality standards. Shortlisted candidates then undergo a reading proficiency assessment, conducted online, in which they are asked to read impromptu sentences aloud. This assessment evaluates their ability to read accurately and fluently in the first attempt. Artists are scored on a scale of 1 to 10, and only those achieving a minimum threshold proceed further. In addition, candidates are interviewed to assess their experience with long-duration voice-over work and their commitment to their native language.

Final Selection and Consent

For artists who successfully clear both the voice quality review and reading proficiency assessment, a senior leadership review is conducted. A Director at Bhashini.ai evaluates the submitted recordings and assessment videos to finalize the top voice artists for each language and gender. Selected artists are personally contacted, their queries are addressed, and they are formally onboarded through the signing of a Speech Recording Consent Agreement, along with a mutually agreed recording schedule.

All speech recordings are carried out in Bhashini.ai’s professional recording studio, designed to meet the stringent quality requirements of large-scale Text-to-Speech model training. The studio comprises a dedicated voice booth and a separate control room, both treated with state-of-the-art acoustic materials to ensure effective soundproofing and to eliminate unwanted reverberation and echo.

To preserve signal integrity and minimize interference, the voice booth contains no electrical equipment, with the exception of essential audio hardware. Speech is captured using a professional-grade analog cardioid condenser microphone (Neumann TLM-103), connected via high-quality audio cabling to a high-fidelity audio interface (UAD Apollo Twin X) located in the control room. Voice artists listen to the instructions from the sound engineer through studio-grade headphones (Audio Technica ATH-M50X), also connected to the control room’s audio interface.

Recording scripts are provided as printed material, enabling artists to focus fully on performance while also marking any minor textual issues, which are later reviewed and corrected by the validation team. For consistency across sessions, the optimal microphone position for each voice artist is identified, marked, and reproduced whenever the artist returns for subsequent recordings.

The audio interface is connected to a high-end workstation (Mac) to ensure stable, glitch-free recording at professional sampling rates. At the start of each session, the sound engineer calibrates input levels to prevent signal clipping and to ensure clean, high-dynamic-range audio capture.