MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo

MiniMax Speech 2.8 Turbo turns text into natural, expressive speech. The model has consistently ranked at the top of text-to-speech quality benchmarks, including the Artificial Analysis Speech Arena and Hugging Face TTS Arena leaderboards.

Built on an autoregressive Transformer architecture with a learnable speaker encoder, this model can clone voices from short audio samples and generate speech that sounds authentically human. A hybrid Flow-VAE decoder enhances audio quality and naturalness, making it suitable for professional content production.

What can it do?

The model supports over 40 languages and offers precise control over voice characteristics, emotional expression, and audio parameters. You can generate speech with under 250 milliseconds of latency, making it work well for real-time applications like voice agents and interactive experiences.

Voice options

Choose from 17 built-in voices spanning different genders, ages, and speaking styles:

• Authority figures: Deep_Voice_Man, Imposing_Manner, Elegant_Man
• Friendly voices: Casual_Guy, Friendly_Person, Decent_Boy, Lively_Girl
• Energetic options: Exuberant_Girl, Inspirational_girl
• Character voices: Young_Knight, Abbess, Wise_Woman

You can also use custom voice models trained through MiniMax Voice Clone for personalized results.

Human-like sounds

Add natural interjections directly in your text for more lifelike delivery. The model recognizes over 20 sounds including:

(laughs), (chuckle), (sighs), (coughs), (gasps), (humming), (whistles), (crying), (breath), (pant), (sneezes), and more.

Fine-tuned control

Adjust speech parameters to match your needs:

• Speed: Control pacing from 0.5x to 2x normal speed
• Volume: Set levels from 0 to 10 for broadcast standards
• Pitch: Shift pitch up or down by 12 semitones
• Emotion: Choose from neutral, happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, or surprised

Custom pronunciations

Define how the model should pronounce brand names, acronyms, or specialized terms using the pronunciation dictionary. This helps with consistent handling of words that standard text-to-speech systems often get wrong.

Audio quality settings

Configure output format, sample rate, bitrate, and channel settings to match your production requirements.

What’s it good for?

Audiobook production

Convert written manuscripts into natural-sounding narration without studio recording sessions. The model handles long-form content and maintains emotional consistency across extended passages.

Video voiceovers

Generate professional narration for videos, advertisements, explainer content, and corporate presentations. Match voice personality to your brand by selecting the appropriate preset voice.

Accessibility

Make content more accessible by converting text to audio for visually impaired users or anyone who prefers listening to reading. The model’s natural sound and accurate text handling improve the listening experience.

Interactive applications

Power voice agents, customer service bots, and conversational AI with low-latency speech generation. The model’s speed makes it suitable for applications where voice happens on demand.

Content localization

Produce voiceovers in 40 languages with native pronunciation quality. The model’s multilingual support helps reach global audiences without hiring separate voice talent for each language.

Gaming and entertainment

Create distinct character voices for games, interactive fiction, and virtual companions by combining different voice presets with emotion settings.

Tips for best results

Write out numbers and dates fully for more natural speech. For example, use “March fifteenth, twenty twenty-four” instead of “3/15/2024”.

For dialogue with multiple characters, use different voice IDs and emotion settings to create distinct personalities. Adjust speed and pitch settings to further differentiate characters.

If speech sounds unnatural, try simplifying complex sentences, checking punctuation, or experimenting with different voice IDs.

Learn more

For complete documentation on the MiniMax Speech models, visit the MiniMax API documentation.

You can try this model on the Replicate Playground.