Articles on: Playback Mode

How do I use premium AI Voices for Playback?

In Scriptation 6.0, Playback supports two voice types: basic voices (your device's built-in system voices, available offline) and AI voices (a curated set of natural-sounding personas). This article covers signing up for AI access, setting voices per character (including the Narrator), saving voices for reuse on future scripts, and what happens when you're offline.


📝 NOTE: AI Voices is an AI Voices subscription, separate from Industry Pro.


  • Personal and Team subscribers can sign up for AI access directly;
  • Team Studio and Enterprise members don't currently have AI Voices access — please see your production administrator for more information.


Signing Up for AI Access


  1. Touch or click the Playback icon on the Top Toolbar to open the Playback panel;
  2. On the playback controls, touch the blue waveform icon to open the Voices panel;



  1. Touch the Try AI Voices button. The AI Voices Preview page opens;
  2. Touch Sign up for AI access to open the AI subscription screen;
  3. Complete your purchase through the App Store. If you aren't already signed in to your Scriptation account, you'll be prompted to sign in after the purchase completes.


📝 NOTE: AI Voices starts with a 3-day trial and 30 free minutes, then continues on a monthly minute allowance with five tiers. For details on the trial, tiers, usage tracking, billing cycles, and how to change tiers, see How does my AI Voices subscription work?.


Setting Voices for Your Characters


When you open the Voices panel, you'll see every character in your script listed under Characters, with their currently assigned voice on the right. The Narrator has its own entry at the top under Script — see Setting the Narrator Voice below for the extra control it includes.



  1. At the top of the Voices panel, confirm Default Voice Quality is set to AI;
  2. Touch or click the character you'd like to set up;
  3. Under Language & Dialect, choose the language and regional accent;



💡 TIP: Set Language & Dialect before choosing an AI voice on a character's page — switching the dialect afterward can reset your voice selection.


  1. Under Premium AI Voices, touch an avatar to preview and assign that voice;
  2. Touch the back caret (<) in the top-left to confirm your selection;
  3. Repeat for each character;
  4. When you're done, touch anywhere outside the Voices panel to dismiss it.


📝 NOTE: Your selections save automatically — there's no Save button to tap. After changing AI voices, Scriptation needs a moment to load the new audio. You'll see a brief "Please Wait — Loading audio" indicator the next time you press Play.


✅ TIP: You can preview voices freely — nothing locks in until you tap the back caret to leave the character page. Just remember that switching the Language & Dialect will reset your voice selection.


📝 NOTE: If a voice you set keeps reverting to a default accent, you likely picked the voice before setting the dialect. Always set Language & Dialect first, then choose the voice — doing it in the other order resets the voice selection.


Setting the Narrator Voice


The Narrator sits at the top of the Voices panel under Script. Setting the Narrator works the same way as setting a character voice, with one additional control:


  1. From the Voices panel, touch Narrator;



  1. Toggle Narrator reads everything on or off, depending on how much of the script you'd like the narrator to read aloud;
  2. Set Language & Dialect;
  3. Choose a voice under Premium AI Voices;
  4. Touch the back caret to confirm.


Fine-Tuning Speaking Rate and Volume


To adjust how fast or loud a specific character speaks, open that character's page and touch the gear icon in the top-right corner. The Advanced settings let you set Speaking Rate and Volume for just that character.


📝 NOTE: This gear icon adjusts settings for just this character. To open the main Playback Settings (with global preferences and Saved Voices), use the gear icon in the top-right of the Playback window instead — not the one inside a character's voice page.




Saving Voices for Recurring Characters


If you work on the same show or with recurring characters across multiple scripts, you can save your voice assignments and pull them into future scripts. Your character voice selections save automatically to the script you're working on — no separate save step needed there. To reuse a voice across different scripts, go to the Voices page, tap the three-dot menu (⋯) next to the voice, and choose to save it. See How do I save and reuse character voices across scripts? for the full walkthrough.


📝 NOTE: Saved Voices is an Industry Pro feature.


Working Offline


AI voices require an internet connection. If you lose connection mid-playback, Scriptation falls back to your basic voices automatically — playback won't be interrupted. The Voices panel will show Offline under AI Voices subscription until your connection returns.



✅ TIP: For better-sounding basic voices, see Are there better Playback voices available?.


✅ TIP: Voices are just one piece of Playback. For more on the different preset reading modes, see What are Playback Presets?.


Troubleshooting Purchase and Connection Issues


If you've already purchased AI Voices but the app keeps prompting you to buy it again, this is usually a sync issue where the app hasn't pulled in your access right away. To fix it:


  1. Fully quit Scriptation (close the app completely, not just the window) and reopen it;
  2. Check your internet connection — Scriptation needs to reach our Voices server to load your access. If you're on a studio, office, or production network with a firewall, try another connection (even a phone hotspot) and reopen the app.


Restrictive networks (studio or production Wi-Fi with firewalls) can also block the connection entirely, causing errors like "unable to connect to the Internet" or AI Voices failing to activate even though basic playback works fine. If this happens, try a different network, or sign out of your Scriptation account and back in once you're on a network that works — this can clear a bad connection state that otherwise carries over.


If you're still being asked to purchase after trying the above, contact support — we can verify your purchase and restore access manually.



What's Next


How does my AI Voices subscription work?
How do I save and reuse character voices across scripts?
What is Playback Mode?
What is Rehearse Mode?
Are there better Playback voices available?

Updated on: 12/08/2026

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