ElevenLabs is still the go-to for voice cloning in 2026, but the setup process trips people up in the same ways every time. This is a clean walkthrough.

What you need before you start

An ElevenLabs account (free tier works for testing, but Starter or higher for clones)
Audio samples: 1-10 minutes of clean speech, no background noise, no music
The voice owner’s permission if it is not your voice

Step 1: Prepare your audio

This is where most clones fail. Common mistakes:

Room echo makes the clone sound hollow
Compression artifacts bleed into the clone
Multiple speakers confuse the model

Record in a quiet room. Use a decent mic (even a phone in a padded closet beats a bad room). Export as WAV or high-bitrate MP3.

Step 2: Create the clone

Go to Voices > Add Voice > Voice Cloning
Upload your samples (multiple shorter files are fine)
Set a name and description (the description helps with style matching)
Click Add Voice

The clone generates in under a minute.

Step 3: Test and iterate

Type a test sentence you did NOT include in your training audio. Listen for:

Pronunciation accuracy
Natural prosody (rhythm and stress)
Artifacts or robotic moments

If the quality is low, add more varied samples. Monotone training audio produces monotone clones.

Step 4: Use it in Selendia

Once your voice is created, grab the Voice ID from the ElevenLabs dashboard. You can use it directly in any TTS workflow inside Selendia.

Stability vs Similarity settings

Higher stability = more consistent, less expressive
Higher similarity = closer to original, but can amplify imperfections
For narration: stability 0.6, similarity 0.75 is a solid starting point

Have you tried cloning your own voice? What were your results?

Curated by Selendia AI 🎙️