Voice Steering

Steering lets you direct how a line is performed — its emotion, pacing, volume, and delivery — using plain-English instructions written directly in your script. It's the fastest way to turn a flat read into a performance without switching voices.

Studio model only. Steering is fully supported on the VocalLab Studio model, which every plan includes — Free too — and which is selected by default. On VocalLab Studio Flash, Pro and Lite, steering instructions may be read aloud literally instead of performed — if you switched away, set the model back to VocalLab Studio in Voice settings → Model before using the instructions below. (Non-verbal tags like [laugh] also work on Studio Flash.)

How to write a steering instruction

Wrap your direction in square brackets and place it at the start of the line, before the text to be spoken. No special syntax or numbers — just describe the delivery in your own words.

[say quietly in a low tone with deliberate pauses] We need to talk about what happened last night.

Write the instruction in English even when the spoken text is in another language:

[speak warmly and slowly, like greeting an old friend] Bonjour, je suis ravi de vous rencontrer.

What you can control

You can combine several directions in one instruction:

[say sadly with deliberate pauses in a low voice and a hushed style] I got the call this morning. He's gone.

Non-verbal sounds

Drop these tags inline, exactly where the sound should happen:

[laugh] · [sigh] · [breathe] · [cough] · [yawn] · [clear throat]

That's the funniest thing I've heard all week [laugh] — okay, okay, let's get back to it.

Pauses

For a pause of an exact length, drop a <break /> tag inline, right where the silence should fall:

Let me think <break time="1.5s" /> Yes, I've thought about it.

• Give the time in seconds or milliseconds — <break time="1.5s" /> and <break time="1500ms" /> are identical.
• Up to 20 break tags per request, in every supported language.
• Tag names are case-insensitive, but keep the tag well-formed and self-closing: <break time="1s" />.
• On long scripts, prefer the millisecond form (1500ms) — it's the most robust.
• Break tags are silent markup: they never appear in your captions or SRT files.

For softer, natural pacing you often don't need a tag at all:

• Commas for short beats, periods for a full stop
• Em dashes (—) for a dramatic pause
• A blank line between paragraphs for a longer breath

Building long-form narration? The Audiobook editor also has dedicated pause blocks (0.5–10 seconds, in half-second steps) you can drop between lines.

Emphasis

To stress a specific word, capitalize just that word (not the whole sentence):

We NEED a real vacation.   — stresses “need”
We need a REAL vacation.   — stresses “real”

Best practices

• One instruction set per line, at the very start. Non-verbal tags are the exception — those go inline.
• Keep instructions lowercase and punctuation-free — write [say quietly in a low tone], not [Say Quietly, In A Low Tone!].
• Don't combine conflicting directions (e.g. [whisper] + [very loud]) — the result becomes unpredictable.
• Match the delivery to the words. A cheerful instruction on grim text fights the model and degrades quality.

Examples

[speak as if barely holding back rage, forcing every word through gritted teeth] I have told you. Repeatedly. And you STILL didn't listen.

[overwhelmed with excitement and barely able to contain yourself] We just hit a million users. I still can't believe it — we actually did it!

[articulate clearly at a steady pace] Each step must be followed in order. Do not skip ahead.