Voice Banking, Message Banking, and Voice Cloning: A Comprehensive Guide

Preserving your voice is an essential step for individuals diagnosed with medical conditions like ALS or MND. Three technologies sit at the heart of this work: voice banking, message banking, and voice cloning. They sound similar; they are not the same.

Voice banking

Voice banking involves recording sentences that generate a customized synthesized voice. The synthesized voice reflects the quality of the recordings captured while speech is still clear, which makes early action critical. This is the standard path for someone whose AAC device should sound like them.

Message banking

Message banking lets individuals pre-record cherished phrases — "I love you," "I'm proud of you" — preserving the natural voice for future playback. It complements voice banking. The synthesized voice handles new sentences; the banked messages handle the words that matter most.

Voice cloning

Voice cloning is the AI-powered next step beyond traditional voice banking. AI replicates the unique characteristics of a voice — including emotional nuance — more accurately than older synthesis methods. Bridging Voice partners with ElevenLabs to provide free voice cloning for people with ALS and MND.

Resources and support

Team Gleason offers grants for voice preservation to ALS-diagnosed individuals in the USA. Bridging Voice partners with ElevenLabs for free voice cloning. iPhone users can use Apple's free Personal Voice feature. Speech-language pathologists can advise on the right path for your situation.

Where to start

Start recording immediately while vocal strength remains optimal. The basic equipment is modest: a computer, an internet connection, a quality headset or a smartphone with a recording app. The hardest part is showing up while the voice is still strong.