Qwen3 Tts Mlx

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

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:

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:

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:

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 |

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

| 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 |