ToneBoardDocumentation
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Getting Started

From an empty organization to your first saved line, step by step

How ToneBoard Fits Together

Five objects make up almost everything you do in ToneBoard:

ObjectWhat it is
ProjectA workspace that groups related work — a game, a show, a product. Voices, characters, and saved lines belong to projects.
VoiceA way of speaking. Either internal (designed or cloned in Voice Studio) or external (from your ElevenLabs, OpenAI, or Google account).
CharacterA persona that binds one voice to tone instructions. All speech generation goes through a character.
Saved ContentYour library of finished audio — lines and sound effects, with version history.
Live EndpointA stored, cached TTS configuration that external apps fetch by ID through the Public TTS API.

The flow is always the same: project → voice → character → generate → save. New organizations start with 1,000 tokens, so you can try everything below without buying anything.

Step 1 — Create a Project

  1. 1Go to Projects and choose New Project.
  2. 2Name it after the thing you're making ("Dungeon Crawler", "Podcast Promos").
  3. 3Optionally set a default voice sample text — the sentence used when auditioning voices in this project.

Everything else you create will hang off this project.

Step 2 — Get a Voice

Pick whichever path fits:

Option A: Design an internal voice (no external account needed)

  1. 1Open Voice Studio → New Voice.
  2. 2Describe the voice ("a bright, fast-talking radio host"), generate previews, and listen.
  3. 3Save the preview you like. That's your internal voice. (25 tokens to design + 25 to save.)

Option B: Connect an external provider

  1. 1In Voice Providers, add your ElevenLabs, OpenAI, or Google API key.
  2. 2In External Voices, choose New Voice, pick your project and provider, browse the available voices, and adopt one.

Details for both paths: Voice Studio · External Voices.

Step 3 — Create a Character

  1. 1Go to Characters → New Character.
  2. 2Pick the project and the voice from step 2.
  3. 3Write a character definition — who this persona is and how they speak. This powers tone enhancement later.

Why characters?

Generation always goes through a character, not a raw voice. That keeps delivery consistent — the same persona, tone rules, and voice settings everywhere the character speaks. See the Characters guide.

Step 4 — Generate Speech

  1. 1On the Dashboard, pick your project and character in the TTS form.
  2. 2Type a line and generate. External voices cost 5 tokens per generation, internal voices 10.
  3. 3Listen, tweak the text or settings, and regenerate until it's right.

Step 5 — Save the Line

Click Save Line next to the audio player. Choose Save as New and name it. The line lands in Saved Content — searchable, downloadable, and versioned: saving an improved take later as an Update Existing adds version 2, which becomes the active one automatically.

Where to Go Next