An audio model selection checklist for speech projects

Choose a speech model around the intended workflow. A transcription service, a narrated video, and an interactive voice assistant need different inputs, outputs, and tests.

Write the minimum requirements

Record the task, required languages, input and output formats, voice controls if relevant, expected clip length, and delivery environment. State whether streaming is a requirement or simply a preference.

Prepare representative examples

For recognition, include the accents, noise, specialist vocabulary, and speaking styles that matter to the application. For synthesis, include names, numbers, abbreviations, punctuation, and long passages. Keep the same evaluation set across candidates and avoid selecting examples after hearing the outputs.

Define each measurement

Separate time to first usable audio from total generation time. Record hardware or service conditions and concurrency. Evaluate intelligibility and pronunciation separately from naturalness or similarity to a reference voice.

Only use reference recordings that you have permission to use. Save the provenance and purpose with the evaluation record.

Record a defensible choice

Summarize which requirements were met, which failures remain, and which conditions were untested. An attractive demo is evidence about that example, not a guarantee across your workload.

Use the general selection framework for the decision record. This page is a proposed checklist and reports no benchmark results.