# Octave: The First Text-to-Speech Model that Understands What It's Saying

Hume’s speech-language model, Octave, deeply models language and speech patterns to generate voice. While Octave supports [voice design](https://dev.hume.ai/docs/voice/voice-design) from natural language descriptions, it can also create voices from audio samples, reflecting the speaker’s tone, accent, cadence, and vocal identity.

**Voice cloning availability depends on your subscription tier.** Check your access and usage limits on the [billing](https://app.hume.ai/billing) page.

## Create a voice clone

You can create a voice clone using one of two supported methods:

1. **Record your voice** using your microphone in a guided session.
2. **Upload an audio file** containing a speech sample from a consenting speaker.

To create a voice clone, start from the Platform’s [Voice Library](https://app.hume.ai/voices) page. Click **Voice Cloning** to open the cloning menu.

The sections below walk through each method step by step.

### Record your voice

Follow the steps below to record a speech sample for voice cloning.

#### Start recording setup

Click **RECORD AUDIO** to begin the recording session flow.

#### Name your voice clone

Input a name for your voice, and click **CONTINUE**.

#### Select a microphone

Select your microphone from the dropdown menu.

If you’re using an external microphone and don’t see it listed, ensure it’s properly connected. Click **START** to begin recording.

#### Record your voice

During the session, text prompts are streamed one line at a time for you to read aloud.

The full session typically takes less than 30 seconds.

#### Save the voice clone

After the recording session is complete, the recorded audio is uploaded and your voice clone is created.

Click **SAVE VOICE** to complete the flow and be redirected to the [My Voices](https://app.hume.ai/voices?category=my-voices) page.

### Upload an audio file

Follow the steps below to upload a pre-recorded audio file and create a voice clone.

**Upload only voice samples for which you have the necessary rights or consent to clone.** Users must comply with Hume’s [Terms of Use](/content/terms-of-use/index.html), [Ethical Guidelines](https://thehumeinitiative.org/guidelines/), [Privacy Policy](/content/privacy-policy/index.html), and applicable laws.

#### Upload an audio file

Click **BROWSE FILES** to select a file to upload.

#### Create voice clone

Input a name for the voice and fill out the legal agreements, confirming you have the necessary rights or consents to upload and clone the provided voice sample.

Click **CREATE VOICE** to complete the flow and be redirected to the [My Voices](https://app.hume.ai/voices?category=my-voices) page.

## Use your voice clone

**You can use your voice clones in Hume products that support speech synthesis.** Reference them by name or ID in [TTS](https://dev.hume.ai/docs/text-to-speech-tts/overview) requests, or configure [EVI](https://dev.hume.ai/docs/speech-to-speech-evi/overview) to use the voice.

Use the playgrounds to preview how your cloned voice sounds in different scenarios:

[EVI Playground - Chat with an assistant configured with your voice clone, to see how it sounds in conversation.](https://app.hume.ai/evi/playground)  
[TTS Playground - See how your voice clone sounds with specific text input, or when given acting instructions.](https://app.hume.ai/tts/playground)

See guides below for details on how to use your voice clone in your project or integration.

[Empathic Voice Interface (EVI) - Configure EVI to use your voice clone.](https://dev.hume.ai/docs/speech-to-speech-evi/configuration/voices)  
[Text-to-Speech (TTS) - Specify your voice clone in TTS requests.](https://dev.hume.ai/docs/text-to-speech-tts/voices)

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