THE BLACKCAT Voice Studio

# THE BLACKCAT Voice Studio

## Purpose

Generate speech from text: voiceover for deliverables and character/UGC
voices. Paste text, pick a voice, press one button, get an MP3.

> Not to be confused with **Voice Extractor Studio**, which does the opposite
> (separates an existing voice from music). This one generates new speech.

## Providers

- **edge-tts (free, default)**: ~90 curated neural voices (strong Spanish and
  Latino coverage, Argentine voices first). No key, works out of the box.
- **ElevenLabs (optional)**: connect an API key to unlock the ElevenLabs
  catalog and voice cloning (your voice, a client's voice, custom characters).
  The key is read from `ELEVENLABS_API_KEY` or a local git-ignored file
  (`studios/voice-studio/.elevenlabs-key`), validated before saving, and never
  committed. Connect it from the Studio (Avanzado -> pegar API key).

## Launch

```bash
scripts/open-voice-studio.command
```

Then open `http://127.0.0.1:8776`.

## Usage

1. Paste the script/text.
2. Search and pick a voice (filter by "argentina", "mujer", "ingles", a name).
3. Press **"Generar voz"**. Listen inline, download the MP3, or open the folder.

## Notes

- Generated audio lives in `output/` (git-ignored, local only).
- Cloning and commercial use require a paid ElevenLabs plan.
- Recipe from the field: to clone a natural-sounding voice, record a raw phone
  sample without editing (keep filler words and breaths).