---
title: "Introduction"
description: "Voicebox is a local-first voice cloning studio -- a free and open-source alternative to ElevenLabs."
---

## What is Voicebox?

Voicebox is a **local-first voice cloning studio** -- a free and open-source alternative to ElevenLabs. Clone voices from a few seconds of audio, generate speech in 23 languages across 4 TTS engines, apply post-processing effects, and compose multi-voice projects with a timeline editor.

- **Complete privacy** -- models and voice data stay on your machine
- **4 TTS engines** -- Qwen3-TTS, LuxTTS, Chatterbox Multilingual, and Chatterbox Turbo
- **23 languages** -- from English to Arabic, Japanese, Hindi, Swahili, and more
- **Post-processing effects** -- pitch shift, reverb, delay, chorus, compression, and filters
- **Expressive speech** -- paralinguistic tags like `[laugh]`, `[sigh]`, `[gasp]` via Chatterbox Turbo
- **Unlimited length** -- auto-chunking with crossfade for scripts, articles, and chapters
- **Stories editor** -- multi-track timeline for conversations, podcasts, and narratives
- **API-first** -- REST API for integrating voice synthesis into your own projects
- **Native performance** -- built with Tauri (Rust), not Electron
- **Runs everywhere** -- macOS (MLX/Metal), Windows (CUDA), Linux, AMD ROCm, Intel Arc, Docker

## TTS Engines

Four engines with different strengths, switchable per-generation:

| Engine | Languages | Strengths |
|--------|-----------|-----------|
| **Qwen3-TTS** (0.6B / 1.7B) | 10 | High-quality multilingual cloning, delivery instructions |
| **LuxTTS** | English | Lightweight (~1GB VRAM), 48kHz output, 150x realtime on CPU |
| **Chatterbox Multilingual** | 23 | Broadest language coverage |
| **Chatterbox Turbo** | English | Fast 350M model with paralinguistic emotion/sound tags |

## GPU Support

| Platform | Backend | Notes |
|----------|---------|-------|
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | MLX (Metal) | 4-5x faster via Neural Engine |
| Windows / Linux (NVIDIA) | PyTorch (CUDA) | Auto-downloads CUDA binary from within the app |
| Linux (AMD) | PyTorch (ROCm) | Auto-configures HSA_OVERRIDE_GFX_VERSION |
| Windows (any GPU) | DirectML | Universal Windows GPU support |
| Intel Arc | IPEX/XPU | Intel discrete GPU acceleration |
| Any | CPU | Works everywhere, just slower |

## Use Cases

- **Game development** -- generate dynamic dialogue for characters
- **Content creation** -- produce podcasts and video voiceovers
- **Accessibility** -- build text-to-speech tools for users who need them
- **Voice assistants** -- create custom voice interfaces
- **Production pipelines** -- automate voiceover workflows via the REST API

## Tech Stack

| Layer | Technology |
|-------|------------|
| Desktop App | Tauri (Rust) |
| Frontend | React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS |
| State | Zustand, React Query |
| Backend | FastAPI (Python) |
| TTS Engines | Qwen3-TTS, LuxTTS, Chatterbox, Chatterbox Turbo |
| Effects | Pedalboard (Spotify) |
| Transcription | Whisper / Whisper Turbo (PyTorch or MLX) |
| Inference | MLX (Apple Silicon) / PyTorch (CUDA/ROCm/XPU/CPU) |
| Database | SQLite |
| Audio | WaveSurfer.js, librosa |
