Descript's ElevenLabs voice library vs Sume TTS voices
Descript's voice picker now uses the ElevenLabs voice library. Sume text-to-speech uses its own voices, and blocks a voice-language mismatch with a 409.
Descript's 2026-09-17 changelog says its voice picker moved to the ElevenLabs voice library. If you want a script-driven voice instead, Sume's text-to-speech takes a Sume voice from its own library, and the route guards against choosing a voice in the wrong language: a known mismatch returns HTTP 409 tts_voice_language_mismatch before any job or charge.
Voices and language
Each voice stores a primary language. The request sets the target language with language on REST or payload.language on the MCP tool tts_create. Regional tags compare by primary language. Over MCP the mismatch arrives as a warning result with confirmation_required: true; retry with confirm_language_mismatch: true after asking the user. If the library has no metadata for a raw voice id, nothing blocks the request.
| Question | Descript picker | Sume text to speech |
|---|---|---|
| Voice source | ElevenLabs voice library | Sume voice library |
| Where you use it | Descript editor | REST or MCP tool |
| Language guard | Not described in the changelog | 409 before any charge |
| Result | Audio in the project | Job with an audio artifact |
Why the guard matters
A batch job that pairs a French voice with Korean text would otherwise waste credit. Failing before billing makes a bulk script safe to retry: use the same Idempotency-Key for the retry.
Honest limits
- Sume's voices are not ElevenLabs voices, and this post does not compare quality.
- The language check does not test pronunciation.
- Descript's changelog does not give voice counts or limits.
Sources
Related posts
More in Media tools
- Descript scrubbing 2-5x faster vs a video-frames contact sheet
Descript's 2026-09-17 update speeds scrubbing with pre-computed video chunks. For a quick look at a file, Sume video-frames returns 1 to 24 stills.
- Dim bright footage before burning Reel captions: video filter 0.45
A dim op multiplies luma by an amount between 0 and 1 for $0.02, and the check call is free. Use it to keep captions legible on bright clips, then caption.
- Does Recast change the background? Check frames with video inspect
Docs say Recast keeps motion, camera, cuts and sound, not props. Compare matching stills from source and output with POST /v1/video-inspect.
- Dream Track prompt limit: 50 characters, and a longer brief on Sume
Dream Track takes a 50-character prompt in the YouTube app and 85 in YouTube Create. Who can use it, what you can't download, and a longer prompt on Sume.
Written by Sume