Qwen3-TTS MLX

Run Qwen3-TTS locally on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) using MLX. Supports 11 languages, 9 built-in voices, voice cloning, and voice design from text descriptions.

When to Use

• Generate speech fully offline on a Mac
• Produce narration, audiobooks, podcasts, or video voiceovers
• Create multilingual TTS with controllable style and emotion
• Clone any voice from a short audio sample
• Design custom voices from text descriptions

Quick Start

Install

pip install mlx-audio
brew install ffmpeg

Basic Usage

python scripts/run_tts.py custom-voice \
  --text "Hello, welcome to local text to speech." \
  --voice Ryan \
  --output output.wav

With Style Control

python scripts/run_tts.py custom-voice \
  --text "Breaking news: local AI model achieves human-level speech." \
  --voice Uncle_Fu \
  --instruct "news anchor tone, calm and authoritative" \
  --output news.wav

Model Variants

Variant	Model	Size	Memory	Use Case
CustomVoice	mlx-community/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-0.6B-CustomVoice-4bit	~1GB	~4GB	Built-in voices + style control (recommended)
VoiceDesign	mlx-community/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-1.7B-VoiceDesign-5bit	~2GB	~5GB	Create voices from text descriptions
Base	mlx-community/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-0.6B-Base-4bit	~1GB	~4GB	Voice cloning from reference audio

Supported Languages

Language	Code	Notes
Auto-detect	auto	Default, detects from text
Chinese	Chinese	Mandarin
English	English
Japanese	Japanese
Korean	Korean
French	French
German	German
Spanish	Spanish
Portuguese	Portuguese
Italian	Italian
Russian	Russian

Built-in Voices

Voice	Language	Character
Vivian	Chinese	Female, bright, young
Serena	Chinese	Female, gentle, soft
Uncle_Fu	Chinese	Male, authoritative, news anchor
Dylan	Chinese	Male, Beijing dialect
Eric	Chinese	Male, Sichuan dialect
Ryan	English	Male, energetic
Aiden	English	Male, clear, neutral
Ono_Anna	Japanese	Female
Sohee	Korean	Female

Voice Selection Guide:

Scenario	Recommended Voice
Chinese news/narration	Uncle_Fu
Chinese casual/lively	Eric
Chinese female, professional	Vivian
Chinese female, storytelling	Serena
English energetic content	Ryan
English neutral/educational	Aiden
Japanese content	Ono_Anna
Korean content	Sohee

Modes

1) CustomVoice

Use built-in voices with optional emotion/style control via --instruct.

python scripts/run_tts.py custom-voice \
  --text "This is amazing news!" \
  --voice Vivian \
  --instruct "excited and happy" \
  --output excited.wav

Style instruction examples:

• "calm and warm" - Soft, friendly delivery
• "news anchor, authoritative" - Professional broadcast style
• "excited and energetic" - High energy, enthusiastic
• "sad and melancholic" - Emotional, somber tone
• "whispering, intimate" - Quiet, close-mic feel

2) VoiceDesign

Create a completely new voice by describing it in natural language.

python scripts/run_tts.py voice-design \
  --text "Welcome to our podcast." \
  --instruct "warm, mature male narrator with low pitch and gentle tone" \
  --output podcast_intro.wav

Voice description examples:

• "young cheerful female with high pitch"
• "elderly wise male with deep resonant voice"
• "professional female news anchor, clear articulation"
• "friendly young male, casual and relaxed"

3) VoiceClone

Clone any voice from a reference audio sample (5-10 seconds recommended).

python scripts/run_tts.py voice-clone \
  --text "This is my cloned voice speaking new content." \
  --ref_audio reference.wav \
  --ref_text "The exact transcript of the reference audio" \
  --output cloned.wav

Tips for voice cloning:

• Use clean audio without background noise
• 5-10 seconds of speech works best
• Provide accurate transcript of the reference
• Reference and output language should match

CLI Parameters

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
--text	Yes	-	Text to synthesize
--voice	No	Vivian	Built-in voice (CustomVoice only)
--lang_code	No	auto	Language code
--instruct	No	-	Style control or voice description
--speed	No	1.0	Speech speed multiplier
--temperature	No	0.7	Sampling temperature (higher = more variation)
--model	No	(per mode)	Override default model
--output	No	-	Output file path
--out-dir	No	./outputs	Output directory when --output not set
--ref_audio	VoiceClone	-	Reference audio file
--ref_text	VoiceClone	-	Reference audio transcript

Python API

Using generate_audio (recommended)

from mlx_audio.tts.generate import generate_audio

# CustomVoice with style control
generate_audio(
    text="Hello from Qwen3-TTS!",
    model="mlx-community/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-0.6B-CustomVoice-4bit",
    voice="Ryan",
    lang_code="english",
    instruct="friendly and warm",
    output_path=".",
    file_prefix="hello",
    audio_format="wav",
    join_audio=True,
    verbose=True,
)

Using Model directly

from mlx_audio.tts.utils import load
import soundfile as sf
import numpy as np

# Load model
model = load("mlx-community/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-0.6B-CustomVoice-4bit")

# Generate audio (returns a generator)
audio_chunks = []
for chunk in model.generate_custom_voice(
    text="Hello from Qwen3-TTS.",
    speaker="Ryan",
    language="english",
    instruct="clear, steady delivery"
):
    if hasattr(chunk, 'audio') and chunk.audio is not None:
        audio_chunks.append(chunk.audio)

# Combine and save
audio = np.concatenate(audio_chunks)
sf.write("output.wav", audio, 24000)

VoiceDesign

from mlx_audio.tts.generate import generate_audio

generate_audio(
    text="Welcome to the show.",
    model="mlx-community/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-1.7B-VoiceDesign-5bit",
    instruct="warm, friendly female narrator with medium pitch",
    lang_code="english",
    output_path=".",
    file_prefix="voice_design",
    join_audio=True,
)

VoiceClone

from mlx_audio.tts.generate import generate_audio

generate_audio(
    text="New content in the cloned voice.",
    model="mlx-community/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-0.6B-Base-4bit",
    ref_audio="reference.wav",
    ref_text="Transcript of the reference audio",
    output_path=".",
    file_prefix="cloned",
    join_audio=True,
)

Batch Processing

Use scripts/batch_dubbing.py for processing multiple lines:

python scripts/batch_dubbing.py \
  --input dubbing.json \
  --out-dir outputs

See references/dubbing_format.md for the JSON format.

Performance

Metric	Value
Sample rate	24,000 Hz
Real-time factor	~0.7x (faster than real-time)
Peak memory	~4-6 GB
First run	Downloads model (~1-2GB)

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Slow generation	Use 4-bit CustomVoice model
Unnatural pauses	Add punctuation, keep sentences short
Wrong language detected	Specify --lang_code explicitly
Voice cloning quality	Use cleaner reference audio, accurate transcript
Tokenizer warnings	Harmless, can be ignored
Out of memory	Close other apps, use 4-bit model