Emotion Tags

Overview

Write a tag in square brackets and the voice changes how it speaks from that point on. Add a sound tag and the voice laughs, sighs or pauses right there.

[apologetic] I'm really sorry about the delay. [calm] Let me check your order right now. [happy] Good news, it's already out for delivery!

Tags are never read aloud. A tag that is not on the lists below is silently dropped, so a typo never gets spoken, but it does nothing either.

Tags work on POST /tts-synthesize and in the Text to Speech page of the dashboard. They are not applied by POST /tts-stream.

Two kinds of tags

Emotion tags

Change how the following sentences sound. The emotion stays on until the next emotion tag. [neutral] switches it off.

Sound tags

Insert a non-verbal sound at that spot, such as a laugh or a sigh. They do not change the current emotion.

Tags are case-insensitive: [Happy], [HAPPY] and [happy] are the same. Text with no tags is still read with natural emotion; explicit tags always win.

Emotion tags

Tuned for Hindi, Indian English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi and Odia. Emotions sound best when the text language matches the voice’s language.

Tag	Use it for
`[happy]`	Good news, thanks, warm greetings
`[excited]`	Big news, offers, celebrations
`[calm]`	Explanations, instructions, reassurance
`[empathetic]`	Listening to a problem, showing you care
`[apologetic]`	Apologies, delays, mistakes
`[sad]`	Bad news, loss, disappointment
`[serious]`	Important or urgent information, warnings
`[emphasize]`	Key points, firm statements
`[curious]`	Questions, showing interest
`[surprised]`	Unexpected information
`[playful]`	Light jokes, teasing, casual chat
`[sarcastic]`	Dry irony, mock enthusiasm (playful contexts only; runs at reduced strength so the voice stays the same speaker)
`[nervous]`	Hesitation, uncertainty, awkward moments
`[frustrated]`	Mild annoyance
`[angry]`	Strong displeasure (use rarely in customer-facing speech)
`[tired]`	Late-night, worn-out, bored tone
`[whisper]`	Secrets, quiet asides
`[laughing]`	Speaking while laughing (the words are said through laughter)
`[crying]`	Speaking through tears
`[neutral]`	Back to the normal voice

Sound tags

Tag	Sound
`[laugh]`	A short laugh
`[sigh]`	A sigh
`[gasp]`	A sharp, surprised breath, about 0.5 s
`[mm-hmm]`	Agreeing “mm-hmm”
`[hmm?]`	Questioning “hmm?”
`[hmph]`	Unimpressed “hmph”
`[oh]`	Sudden realisation “oh!”
`[wow]`	Impressed “wow!”
`[clears throat]`	Throat clear
`[breath]`	Audible breath
`[hum]`	Thinking hum
`[cough]`	A cough
`[sniff]`	A sniff
`[yawn]`	A yawn
`[pause]`	Silence, 350 ms
`[pause 500ms]`, `[pause 1s]`	Silence of a set length, from 80 ms to 5 s

Combining tags

Blend two emotions in one tag, separated by a comma: [sad, calm]. The first emotion sets the speaking speed. Keep blends to two emotions; more gets muddy.
Good blends: [empathetic, calm], [apologetic, calm], [happy, excited], [serious, calm], [curious, playful], [surprised, happy].
Avoid opposites such as [happy, sad] or [angry, calm]. They cancel each other out.
Never put an emotion and a sound in one bracket. In [laugh, happy] the emotion is ignored. Write two tags: [happy] [laugh] That's great!

Placement rules

Put every tag at the start of a sentence

[happy] Your refund has been approved! Change emotion at sentence boundaries, not mid-sentence.

Sound tags go before the words

[laugh] That's a good one! Don’t put a sound tag in the middle of a sentence.

Go easy on sounds

At most one sound tag per sentence, and about one per two or three sentences.

Leave a space after a tag

[happy] Hello, not [happy]Hello. Anything inside [...] is removed from the speech, so never put words you want spoken inside brackets.

Using tags through the API

Put the tags straight in text:

cURL
JavaScript

curl -X POST https://api.60db.ai/tts-synthesize \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "voice_id": "YOUR_VOICE_ID",
    "text": "[apologetic] I am sorry for the wait. [calm] Your ticket is now resolved. [happy] [laugh] Have a great day!"
  }'

const res = await fetch('https://api.60db.ai/tts-synthesize', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.SIXTYDB_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    voice_id: 'YOUR_VOICE_ID',
    text: '[apologetic] I am sorry for the wait. [calm] Your ticket is now resolved. [happy] [laugh] Have a great day!',
  }),
});

Tags count toward the 5,000-character text limit.

Enhance: let AI place the tags

Don’t want to place tags by hand? Enhance reads your text and inserts emotion and sound tags where they fit. It only adds tags: your words, spelling, numbers, names, punctuation, spacing and language stay exactly as you wrote them. Sentences you already tagged are left alone.

Your text	After Enhance
`Your order is delayed. We will deliver it tomorrow.`	`[apologetic] Your order is delayed. [calm] We will deliver it tomorrow.`

In the dashboard, click Enhance above the text box. Review the result, edit it freely, use Undo enhance to go back, or Remove tags to take every tag out again. To add a single tag by hand, click Add emotion. Enhance is also available as an endpoint: see Enhance Text.

Enhance never runs automatically and never charges credits. Only the speech you generate afterwards does.

Tips

Tone for customer service

Prefer calm, empathetic, apologetic, happy and serious. Save angry, crying, frustrated, tired, whisper and sarcastic for text that clearly calls for them, and never use sarcastic toward a customer’s complaint.

Too many tags sound unnatural

Two to four emotion changes is plenty for a short script. If an enhanced script has a tag on every sentence, delete some or use Remove tags and add a few back.

Enhance never edits your wording

Enhance can’t change, add or remove a word, so names, amounts and dates are safe. It only chooses where tags go, so read the result before generating and delete any tag you don’t want.

Get Started

SDKs

Core Features

Emotion Tags

Overview

Two kinds of tags

Emotion tags

Sound tags

Emotion tags

Sound tags

Combining tags

Placement rules

Using tags through the API

Enhance: let AI place the tags

Tips

​Overview

​Two kinds of tags

Emotion tags

Sound tags

​Emotion tags

​Sound tags

​Combining tags

​Placement rules

​Using tags through the API

​Enhance: let AI place the tags

​Tips

Overview

Two kinds of tags

Emotion tags

Sound tags

Combining tags

Placement rules

Using tags through the API

Enhance: let AI place the tags

Tips