Why would you want to use Microsoft Edge Read Aloud to record audio, you may ask? Well it’s is a decent browser, as of recently. It added Bing ChatGPT, and for a while it also had Read Aloud, a built-in screen reader for reading stuff inside the browser. But did you know that Read Aloud comes with so many natural sounding voices, which you can record audio with?
Now here’s the thing: You want to make a Youtube video, but because you are too busy managing another channel, or maybe because your audio equipment sucks, you try to use an computer-generated voice. Now this isn’t uncommon territory, in fact I know some large channels who make videos with only AI voices (and they are not Shorts). You see Microsoft Edge has a ton of male and female voices – and even the TikTok voice – so you decide: “Why don’t I use that?”
Well first of all, Microsoft isn’t just going to let you download the voice like that. No, that’s not how it works. But what if I told you there was a workaround?
You see, you have to hear the voice you’re listening to, in order for Read Aloud to be effective. Therefore, why don’t you simple record the audio from the speakers?
Record Audio With Microsoft Edge Read Aloud: The Steps
There are a few steps to this playbook, which was lifted from Softwarert. First of all, you need to have Windows 10 or 11 and Microsoft Edge (obviously). Second, you need audio recording software. Third, if you don’t want to mute everything else on your machine, you also need a hypervisor like Virtualbox to run this set-up in.
Let’s see how easy this can be!
Install Microsoft Edge
Now first of all, if you’re reading this, you have to use Windows. Mac and Linux will not work here. If you are stuck with those OS’es, then just install a Windows virtual machine. Nothing to stress about here.
Now you also need to install Microsoft Edge if you don’t already have it. Edge is preinstalled with most Windows PCs, so not having it already will come as a bit of a shocker to me. But at any rate, you can simply download Edge from Microsoft’s website if you don’t already have it.
Choose a voice
Next, you need to figure out which voice you want to use. Microsoft Edge comes with a ridiculously large number of voices. It is not like the Windows operating system where they only give you 2 or 3 voices. It is an extreme number of voices.
In order to activate the Read Aloud mode, you need to be on a webpage that has text on it (duh). It is best to try the voices out with your own text first. So either you can open a Notepad, save it, and open it in Edge, or you can go to one of our tools that lets you input text, like this one. Then type the text you want Edge to pronounce over there.
Install And Configure An Audio Recorder
While there are extensions for Microsoft Edge that can save the recorded audio from the Edge browser, they can be removed at any time. Therefore you should use an independent software to record Microsoft Edge audio. In this tutorial, we will use Audacity which is a free and open-source soundtrack editor.
After you download and install Audacity for Windows, you need to configure Audacity so that it records input from the speakers. Fortunately, it is easy to do. Just go to Audio Setup in the toolbar, click on Host, and then select WASAPI. Then, go back to Audio Setup, select Recording Device, and then select the speaker that has (loopback) at the end of it.
Note: In older versions of Audacity, you can configure the host, playback and recording directly from the toolbar, where there is no Audio Setup button.
Start Recording Audio From Read Aloud
Once you have finished installing and configuring Audacity, it is time to record your audio. Simple press the record button in Audacity. Then, quickly go to your Microsoft Edge tab, select the word you want Edge to start reading, and open Read Aloud. After you hit the play button, Microsoft Edge will start narrating the text with the voice you chose. While it’s narrating, Audacity will record it.
Microsoft Edge will read the entire text area, so you should make sure you select the text you want to read. Otherwise, it will also read a bunch of other stuff, which will leak into your recording. You don’t want to be doing unnecessary audio cleanups.
Once Edge has finished narrating, head over to Audacity and hit the Stop button. Now you can split the audio as necessary, and export it to your video editor.
