sound effects
3 TopicsI Can See You!
Hello! For this week's challenge, I used a masked shape to create a 'spyhole'. It appears that we are watching the character through the eyes of a portrait on the wall. Fun fact: it's possible to add motion paths and emphasis animations to your mask shape, timed to the events in the video beneath. A combination of shrink, grow, and teeter effects give this a real sense of action. I created most of the videos in Google Flow, but the speaking part at the end was built using Articulate's AI Avatar maker. The new audio tags feature is really impressive. This one's a little early for Halloween, DavidAnderson , sorry-not-sorry. Try it out here: https://bit.ly/elhc571AI Assistant: Producing Highly Realistic Audio
As a course author, you want to do more than just present information—you want to create multi-sensory e-learning experiences that resonate with learners. Using sound creatively can help you get there. AI Assistant’s text-to-speech and sound effects features let you create highly realistic AI-generated voices and sound effects for more immersive and accessible content. Originally, both of these features could only be accessed in Storyline 360. However, as of the July 2025 update, AI Assistant in Rise 360 can generate text-to-speech narration. Visit this user guide to get started creating AI-generated narrations in Rise 360. In Storyline 360, these features can be accessed from the Insert Audio dropdown in the AI Assistant menu within the ribbon. Find them under the Home or Insert tab when you’re in slide view or chat with AI Assistant in the side panel for added convenience. Bring Narration to Life with AI-generated Voices If you’ve ever used classic text-to-speech, you probably wished the voices sounded less, well, robotic. AI Assistant’s text-to-speech brings narration to life with contextually aware AI-generated voices that sound more natural—and human! Check out the difference in quality between a standard voice, neural voice, and AI-generated voice by playing the text-to-speech examples below. Standard Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. Neural Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. AI-generated Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. To get started in Storyline 360, click the Insert Audio icon in the AI Assistant menu to open the Generate AI Audio dialog box. A library of AI-generated voices—which you can filter by Gender, Age, and Accent—displays under the Voices tab. The voices also have descriptions like “deep,” “confident,” “crisp,” “intense,” and “soothing” and categories that can help you determine their ideal use cases, from news broadcasts to meditation, or even ASMR. Find these qualities under the voice’s name, and use the play button to preview the voice. Toggle the View option to Favorites to find all your favorite voices, or In project to see voices used in the current project. Once you’ve decided on a voice, click the button labeled Use to switch to the Text-to-Speech tab. Your chosen voice is already pre-selected. Next, enter your script in the text box provided or click the add from slide notes link to copy notes from your slide. For accessibility, leave the Generate closed captions box checked—AI Assistant will generate closed captions automatically. You can instantly determine if your text-to-speech narration has closed captions by the CC label that appears next to each output. In Rise 360, insert an AI Audio block to open the Course media window. Under Voice in the AI audio tab, click the drop-down menu and select a voice from the Recommended list. Click the View all voices link right underneath to explore more voices in the voice library. Once you’ve selected a voice, enter your script in the text box or click insert block text if you’re adding audio to an existing block with text. Currently in both apps, there are 52 pre-made voices to choose from—as listed in the table below—and you can mark your favorites by clicking the heart icon. This way, you can easily access your preferred voices without having to scroll through the list. Note that voices labeled as ”Legacy” won’t be updated when future AI models improve. In Rise 360, pre-made voices can be identified by the absence of the open book icon on their voice cards. Pre-made voices (non-legacy) Pre-made voices (legacy) Alice Bill Brian Callum Charlie Chris Clyde Daniel Eric George Harry Jessica Laura Liam Lily Matilda Rachel River Roger Sarah Thomas Will Adam Antoni Aria Arnold Charlotte Dave Domi Dorothy Drew Elli Emily Ethan Fin Freya Gigi Giovanni Glinda Grace James Jeremy Jessie Joseph Josh Michael Mimi Nicole Patrick Paul Sam Serena Find More Voices in the Voice Library In addition to the pre-made voices, you also have access to an extended voice library with thousands of ultrarealistic, AI-generated voices that can be filtered by age, gender, and use case. Discover the right voice for your content in the voice library by checking out the following user guides. Voice library in Rise 360 Voice library in Storyline 360 Voice Removal Notice Period A voice may have a notice period, which specifies how long you’ll be able to access the voice if its creator decides to remove it from the voice library. When that happens, the removed voice will no longer be available from the library. If you’ve previously added it to My Voices in Storyline 360 or Favorites in Rise 360, the removed voice will still appear on your list and can be used to generate new content, but you’ll see a warning and the date when it’s no longer available. Once the notice period expires, the voice will display an error, and it can no longer be previewed or used to generate new content. Most voices have notice periods, but some don’t. Voices without a notice period disappear immediately from the voice library if the voice creator decides to delete them. Generated content using a voice that’s been removed from the voice library will continue to function as a regular audio file. Adjust the Voice Settings Unlike classic text-to-speech, the AI-generated voices in AI Assistant’s text-to-speech can be customized for a tailored voice performance. The Model setting lets you choose from three different options: v3 (beta) - Most expressive, high emotional range, and contextual understanding in over 70 languages. Allows a maximum of 3,000 characters. Note that this model is actively being developed. Functionalities might change, or you might encounter unexpected behavior as we continue to improve it. For best results, check out some prompting techniques below. Multilingual v2 (default model) - Highly stable and exceptionally accurate lifelike speech with support for 29 languages. Allows a maximum of 10,000 characters. Flash v2.5 - Slightly less stable, but can generate faster with support for 32 languages. Allows a maximum of 40,000 characters. Pro tip: Some voices sound better with certain models, and some models perform better in specific languages. Experiment with different combinations to find what works best. For example, the Matilda voice sounds more natural in Spanish with the Multilingual v2 model than with v3. The setting for Stability controls the balance between the voice’s steadiness and randomness. The Similarity setting determines how closely the AI should adhere to the original voice when attempting to replicate it. The defaults are set to 0.50 for the stability slider and 0.75 for the similarity slider, but you can play around with these settings to find the right balance for your content. Additional settings include Style exaggeration, which amplifies the style of the original voice, and Speaker boost, which enhances the similarity between synthesized speech and the voice. Note that if either of those settings is adjusted, generating your speech will take longer. Note: Some voices in the Multilingual v2 model tend to have inconsistent volume—fading out toward the end—when generating lengthy clips. This is a known issue with the underlying model, and our AI subprocessor for text-to-speech is working to address it. In the meantime, we suggest the following workarounds: Use a different voice Switch to the Flash v2.5 model Increase the voice’s stability Manually break your text into smaller chunks to generate shorter clips Do I Need to Use SSML? AI Assistant has limited support for speech synthesis markup language (SSML) because AI-generated voices are designed to understand the relationship between words and adjust delivery accordingly. If you need to manually control pacing, you can add a pause. The most consistent way to do that is by inserting the syntax <break time="1.5s" /> into your script. This creates an exact and natural pause in the speech. For example: With their keen senses <break time="1.5s" /> cats are skilled hunters. Use seconds to describe a break of up to three seconds in length. You can try a simple dash - or em-dash — to insert a brief pause or multiple dashes for a longer pause. Ellipsis ... will also sometimes work to add a pause between words. However, these options may not work consistently, so we recommend using the syntax above for consistency. Just keep in mind that an excessive number of break tags can potentially cause instability. Prompting Techniques for v3 (beta) The v3 (beta) model introduces emotional control via audio tags, enabling voices to laugh, whisper, be sarcastic, or show curiosity, among other options. The following table lists various tags you can use to control vocal delivery and emotional expression, as well as to add background sounds and effects. It also includes some experimental tags for creative uses. Voice and emotion Sounds and effects Experimental [laughs], [laughs harder], [starts laughing], [wheezing] [whispers] [sighs], [exhales] [sarcastic], [curious], [excited], [crying], [snorts], [mischievously] Example: [whispers] Don’t look now, but I think they heard us. [gunshot], [applause], [clapping], [explosion] [swallows], [gulps] Example: [applause] Well, that went better than expected. [explosion] Never mind. [strong X accent] (replace X with desired accent) [sings], [woo] Example: [strong French accent] Zat is not what I ‘ad in mind, non non non. Aside from the audio tags, punctuation also impacts delivery. Ellipses (...) add pauses, capitalization emphasizes specific words or phrases, and standard punctuation mimics natural speech rhythm. For example: “It was VERY successful! … [starts laughing] Can you believe it?” Tips: Use audio tags that match the voice’s personality. A calm, meditative voice won’t shout, and a high-energy voice won’t whisper convincingly. Very short prompts can lead to inconsistent results. For more consistent, focused output, we suggest prompts over 250 characters. Some experimental tags may be less consistent across voices. Test thoroughly before use. Combine multiple tags for complex emotional delivery. Try different combinations to find what works best for your selected voice. The above list is simply a starting point; more effective tags may exist. Experiment with combining emotional states and actions to find what works best for your use case. Use natural speech, proper punctuation, and clear emotional cues to get the best results. Multilingual Voices Expand Your Reach Another compelling benefit of AI-generated text-to-speech is the ability to bridge language gaps, allowing you to connect with international audiences. With support for over 70 languages depending on the model—including some with multiple accents and dialects—AI Assistant’s text-to-speech helps your content resonate with a global audience. All you have to do is type or paste your script in the supported language you want AI Assistant to use. (Even though the voice description notes a specific accent or language, AI Assistant will generate the narration in the language used in your script.) Note that some voices tend to work best with certain accents or languages, so feel free to experiment with different voices to find the best fit for your needs. The table below provides a quick rundown of supported languages. Available in v3 (beta), Multilingual v2, and Flash v2.5: Arabic (Saudi Arabia) Arabic (UAE) Bulgarian Chinese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English (Australia) English (Canada) English (UK) English (USA) Filipino Finnish French (Canada) French (France) German Greek Hindi Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Malay Polish Portuguese (Brazil) Portuguese (Portugal) Romanian Russian Slovak Spanish (Mexico) Spanish (Spain) Swedish Tamil Turkish Ukrainian Available in v3 (beta) and Flash v2.5: Hungarian Norwegian Vietnamese Available only in v3 (beta): Afrikaans (afr) Armenian (hye) Assamese (asm) Azerbaijani (aze) Belarusian (bel) Bengali (ben) Bosnian (bos) Catalan (cat) Cebuano (ceb) Chichewa (nya) Estonian (est) Galician (glg) Georgian (kat) Gujarati (guj) Hausa (hau) Hebrew (heb) Icelandic (isl) Irish (gle) Javanese (jav) Kannada (kan) Kazakh (kaz) Kirghiz (kir) Latvian (lav) Lingala (lin) Lithuanian (lit) Luxembourgish (ltz) Macedonian (mkd) Malayalam (mal) Mandarin Chinese (cmn) Marathi (mar) Nepali (nep) Pashto (pus) Persian (fas) Punjabi (pan) Serbian (srp) Sindhi (snd) Slovenian (slv) Somali (som) Swahili (swa) Telugu (tel) Thai (tha) Urdu (urd) Welsh (cym) Create Sound Effects Using Prompts Sound effects that align with your theme and content can highlight important actions or feedback, like clicking a button or choosing a correct answer, offering a more engaging and effective e-learning experience. With AI Assistant’s sound effects, you can now use prompts to easily create nearly any sound imaginable. No more wasting time scouring the web for pre-made sounds that may cost extra! Start creating high-quality sound effects by going to the AI Assistant menu in the ribbon under the Home or Insert tab. Then, click the lower half of the Insert Audio icon, and choose Sound Effects. (You can also access it from the Audio dropdown within the Insert tab. Simply select Sound Effects under the AI Audio option.) In the text box, describe the sound effect you want and choose a duration. You can adjust the Prompt influence slider to give AI Assistant more or less creative license in generating the sound. Since AI Assistant understands natural language, sound effects can be created using anything from a simple prompt like “a single mouse click” to a very complex one that describes multiple sounds or a sequence of sounds in a specific order. Just note you have a maximum of 450 characters to describe the sound you want to generate. Play the following audio samples to listen to sound effects created using a simple prompt and a complex one. Your browser does not support the audio element. Prompt: A single mouse click Your browser does not support the audio element. Prompt: Dogs barking, then lightning strikes You can also adjust the Duration—how long the sound effect plays—up to a maximum of 22 seconds. For example, if your prompt is “barking dog” and you set the duration to 10 seconds, you’ll get continuous barking, but a duration of two seconds is one quick bark. Adjusting the Prompt Influence slider to the right makes AI Assistant strictly adhere to your prompt, while sliding it to the left allows more free interpretation. Pro tip: You can instantly determine if your sound effect has closed captions by the CC label that appears next to each output. Some Pro Terms to Know Using audio terminology—specialized vocabulary that audio experts use in their work—can help improve your prompts and produce even more dynamic sound effects. Here are a few examples: Braam: A deep, resonant, and often distorted bass sound used in media, particularly in trailers, to create a sense of tension, power, or impending doom. Whoosh: A quick, swooshing sound often used to emphasize fast motion, transitions, or dramatic moments. Impact: A sharp, striking noise used to signify a collision, hit, or sudden forceful contact, often to highlight a moment of action or emphasis. Glitch: A short, jarring, and usually digital noise that mimics a malfunction or distortion, commonly used to convey errors. Foley: The process of recreating and recording everyday sound effects like movements and object sounds in sync with the visuals of a film, videos, or other media. Here’s something fun to try! Generate a 3-second sound effect using the prompt “studio quality, sound designed whoosh and braam impact.” Increasing the duration may produce better sound effects but will also create more dead air towards the end. Pro tip: Onomatopoeias—words like “buzz,” “boom,” “click,” and “pop” that imitate natural sounds—are also important sound effects terms. Use them in your prompts to create more realistic sound effects. Video Tutorials Want to learn more before getting started? Check out our video tutorials for additional guidance on using AI Assistant to generate text-to-speech and sound effects. Create AI-generated Text-to-Speech Create AI-generated Sound Effects Articulate 360 Training also has additional video tutorials on using other AI Assistant features. Use AI Assistant features in Rise 360 Use AI Assistant features in Storyline 360 You must be logged in to your Articulate 360 account to watch the videos. Don’t have an account yet? 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