5.7 – Change NotebookLM Podcast Voices: ElevenLabs Lesson

Lesson Overview

This lesson focuses on improving the sound and variety of AI-generated podcasts created with Google NotebookLM by using the ElevenLabs audio platform. While NotebookLM is efficient for generating podcasts from documents, it currently only provides two default voices—limiting flexibility and creative control. If you want to make your podcast more engaging or assign distinct voices to multiple hosts and speakers, these default settings fall short.

ElevenLabs steps in as a powerful solution, offering thousands of high-quality AI voices and advanced speech customization. By converting your NotebookLM podcast transcript (often using a tool like Descript for transcription and export), you can upload your script directly to ElevenLabs. From there, it’s possible to select unique voices for different roles, match tone and style to your content, and create podcasts that sound professional and fresh.

This lesson is especially useful for podcast creators, marketers, or educators producing audio content for broader audiences. In practical terms, the ability to tweak podcast voices supports brand identity, language accessibility, and creative audio projects. The lesson builds directly on earlier workflows and sets you up for more advanced audio and video production in future lessons.

Who This Is For

If you need more control over your podcast or AI-generated audio content, this lesson is especially useful. You’ll find it valuable if you’re:

• Content creators producing branded or multi-speaker podcasts
• Marketers needing customized audio for campaigns and promotions
• Educators making clear, engaging e-learning narration
• Teams translating podcasts for multilingual audiences
• Anyone who feels limited by NotebookLM’s built-in voice options

Where This Fits in a Workflow

Changing podcast voices with ElevenLabs comes after you’ve generated and edited your initial podcast audio with NotebookLM. Typically, you first transcribe the podcast (for example, using Descript), export the transcript as a document, and then upload it to ElevenLabs for further voice customization.

For instance, after creating a podcast on NotebookLM summarizing a recent industry trend, you might want to assign a different voice to each expert quoted, making the conversation sound more natural. In a marketing workflow, you might use this process to ensure your brand’s podcast or ad campaign features a signature voice. This method bridges the gap between quick AI generation and truly tailored, production-ready audio.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

Using ElevenLabs to change NotebookLM podcast voices brings notable improvements over relying solely on NotebookLM’s defaults. With NotebookLM, your audio is limited to two static voices—there’s no option for character, tone, or language variation, and post-processing to manually change voices can be slow and error-prone.

By introducing ElevenLabs into the process, you unlock a vast library of realistic voices with customizable pitch, tone, and emotional delivery. This makes it possible to assign distinct voices to different speakers and fine-tune your audio’s character—resulting in more engaging and professional-sounding podcasts. For teams working on multilingual content, ElevenLabs can auto-detect language and provide appropriate voices. In both business and creative settings, this method saves time while raising the production quality of your audio projects.

Practice Exercise

Take an existing podcast episode generated with NotebookLM—pick one where more than one host or speaker appears. Follow these simple steps:

1. Transcribe your NotebookLM podcast audio (using a tool like Descript), and export the transcript as a Word document.
2. Upload your transcript to ElevenLabs Studio using the podcast creation or voiceover features.
   - Assign different voices to each host or speaker.
   - Use the voice library to select voices that match your desired character or style.
3. Generate the new audio and listen to the result.

After listening, compare the ElevenLabs version to the original NotebookLM version. Did the customized voices make the conversation clearer or more engaging? Which workflow felt faster or more intuitive?

Course Context Recap

This lesson follows your introduction to customizing AI-generated podcast audio from NotebookLM. Previously, you learned how to create the initial podcast transcript and prepare it for editing. Here, you expanded your workflow with ElevenLabs, opening up new voice options and control.

Next, you’ll move from advanced audio editing to creating AI-powered avatar videos using Heygen, adding another layer of engagement to your content. Continue exploring the Google NotebookLM Complete Course for more tips on producing and enhancing your AI-generated media.