Storyteller makes 28-minute mystery radio dramas with ElevenLabs v4 voices, sound effects and music

What they did

Each episode is about 30,000 characters with a cast of 6 to 10 voices. Every line gets a short direction tag, like [voice breaking] or [cutting in, urgent]. They cap whispers at two per episode because v4 tends to whisper too much. They overlap 'cutting in' lines slightly in the mix so scenes don't sound like a read-through. Each take is checked with speech-to-text and re-rolled if the ending is cut off, and levels are matched across takes. Sound effects are generated per scene and kept in a library so they don't repeat. Music is used as 10 to 30 second bridges between scenes, described by sound rather than by franchise names, which the music tool rejects. A Claude-built script drives ffmpeg for the editing.

How it went

They pushed 40-plus episodes through v4 in four days and publish them on YouTube, labeled as AI-generated.

Worth knowing

• Keeping one voice consistent across 300-plus emotional lines and balancing dozens of sound effects were still unsolved for them. The automated editing script needs some coding help to set up.
• Price check: ElevenLabs: free plan; Starter: US$6/month, or US$5/month on a yearly plan (US$60/year) (checked Nov 1, 2026); Claude: free plan; Pro: US$20/month, or US$17/month on a yearly plan (US$200/year) (checked Nov 1, 2026).

Paying for Claude? See cheaper Claude alternatives.

Try it yourself

Paste this into a chatbot, then add your own details underneath.

Here is a scene from my audio drama script: [paste scene]. Add a short voice-direction tag in square brackets before every line (for example [quiet, hurt] or [cutting in, urgent]). Use whispers no more than twice. Mark where characters should interrupt each other, and suggest one 10 to 30 second music bridge for the end, described by instruments and mood only.

Original post

See u/MaTeZZ's original post on Reddit → (Oct 12, 2026)