Here's the thing about single-speaker podcasts—they're dead simple. One voice, one script, done. Multi-speaker formats? That's where it gets interesting. Interviews, co-hosted shows, panels—they all demand something different. You've got to make the conversation actually sound like a conversation, not just people taking turns reading lines.
The challenge isn't picking voices. It's making them work together. The speakers need to feel like real people in a real discussion, with distinct personalities listeners can instantly recognize. Your dialogue needs natural rhythm. The timing between speakers matters—a lot. Get it right, and you've got something that feels authentic. Get it wrong, and it sounds robotic.
Let's walk through how to actually pull this off.
Choosing Voices That Work Together
Before you write a single line of script, you need voices that complement each other. Not in a musical sense—I mean voices so different that listeners never get confused about who's talking.
Think about contrast in multiple dimensions. A deep male voice paired with a high female voice? That works. A fast-talking host with a measured, deliberate guest? That works too. American English contrasted with British? You're in good shape. The worst scenario is picking two similar voices and hoping audiences can tell them apart. They won't.
When you're testing voice combinations, actually generate a quick dialogue sample. Don't guess. Sit down, listen to maybe 30 seconds of them having a back-and-forth, and ask yourself: would I know who's talking if I weren't reading along? If you hesitate, pick different voices.
Here's a workflow that actually works: Start with your host voice. You probably want someone engaging and question-focused. Then grab a guest voice that stands out from your host. If your host is energetic and conversational, maybe your guest is more thoughtful and measured. If your host is warm and friendly, your guest could be authoritative or playful. Just make sure the gap between them is obvious.
Once you've locked in your voice choices, stick with them. Listeners build mental connections between voices and characters. Switching voices mid-series confuses people and breaks the illusion you're creating.
Structuring Your Script for Dialogue
Now you've got your voices. The next piece is your script—specifically how you mark it up so the software knows who's speaking when.
This part is straightforward but important. Use clear speaker tags at the start of each line:
[HOST]: Welcome back to the show. Today we're talking about why voice generation actually works.
[GUEST]: Thanks for having me. I've been thinking about this topic for years.
[HOST]: So let's start with the basics. What's the biggest misconception people have about AI voices?
[GUEST]: I think most people assume they all sound like robots. But we're way past that now.
The software automatically picks up these tags and assigns the voices you've configured. This is table stakes—without clear speaker marking, you'll spend forever manually stitching audio together.
But here's where script becomes an art instead of just mechanics. Real conversations don't ping-pong. People don't take turns with exact, measured alternation. Sometimes someone answers with a single sentence. Other times they go on for three minutes. Someone might interrupt with a quick "yeah, exactly" before the other person's done talking.
Think about how you actually talk. You ask a question, and maybe your friend responds with just "I know, right?" Then you ask another question, and they give you a 90-second answer. That's natural. Forcing every exchange into balanced back-and-forth? That's not.
So when you write your script, vary the response lengths. Let your host ask a quick question and get a short acknowledgment. Then have them ask something bigger and let the guest expand. Break up the predictability.
One more thing—include the small conversational moments that make dialogue feel real. A host might say "Mm-hmm" while listening. A guest might throw in "Well, I hadn't thought about it that way" as a reaction. These aren't information. They're humanity. They're the texture that makes spoken word feel like a conversation instead of a reading.
Getting the Timing and Pacing Right
You could have the perfect voices and the perfect script, but if your timing is off, the whole thing falls apart.
The pauses between speakers matter more than you'd think. Too short and everything sounds rushed and anxious. Too long and you lose momentum—the conversation feels like people texting each other with long delays between messages. Right in the middle? That's usually somewhere around three to five tenths of a second. Short enough to feel natural. Long enough to breathe.
But you don't want that gap to be identical every time. Vary it based on context. If someone's responding quickly to a direct question, tighten that gap. If they're thinking before answering something complex, add a tiny bit more space. The variation is what makes it feel human.
Beyond gaps, consider how individual speakers deliver their lines. An expert guest might speak more deliberately—slower, more measured. An excited host might move faster, with energy. A cautious guest might include more pauses within their own speech, not just between turns. These variations in pacing create personality independent of the voice itself.
Here's a trick that works surprisingly well: occasionally let one speaker jump in before the other one's completely finished. Not full interruption—just the impression of one. Start a response immediately, maybe even cut off the previous speaker's last word by one or two syllables. It sounds natural. It sounds like actual people talking.
A Real Example: Setting Up an Interview
Let me walk you through an actual interview setup so you can see how all this comes together.
Say you're doing a 30-minute interview with an expert on podcasting. Your host is warm and conversational. You pick the voice af_nova—upbeat, approachable. Your guest is more authoritative, so you go with bm_daniel—steady, confident, British-inflected English. Instant contrast. Easy to tell apart.
You write your script with clear speaker tags for each person. Your host opens with a welcome and then asks a broad question. Your guest gives a substantive three-sentence answer. Your host jumps in with a quick "That's interesting" followed by a follow-up. Your guest expands for another minute. See the pattern? You're not alternating evenly. You're varying the flow.
Now you drop the script into your timeline. You generate audio for each speaker's lines separately. This is important—you generate each voice independently, so you can adjust the speed or regenerate if something doesn't sound right.
Once you've got the audio, you place it in sequence on your timeline. Here's where the pacing work happens. Between each speaker change, you tweak the gap. Most places get that standard 0.4 second pause. But where you want energy—a quick back-and-forth about something exciting—you tighten it to 0.2 seconds. Where your guest is thinking through something complex, you stretch it to 0.6 seconds.
Then you listen to the whole thing as if you've never heard it. Are the voices clearly different? Can you follow who's talking without reading along? Does the conversation rhythm feel natural or does something feel forced? Most times you'll identify maybe one or two spots to adjust. Tweak them and listen again.
This is the honest truth: it takes more work than solo podcasting. But the result is something that actually sounds like two people in conversation, not a voice talent doing different character voices. That authenticity is worth the time.
When Things Go Wrong
You will hit problems. Everyone does. Here are the ones that show up most often.
Listeners can't tell who's talking. This usually means your voices aren't different enough. Don't assume the voices you picked initially will work—test them. Generate a quick dialogue and listen with fresh ears. If you're still struggling to differentiate, swap one of the voices for something with more contrast.
Everything sounds mechanical. Like two people reciting lines instead of actually talking. This almost always means your script is too balanced. You're alternating perfectly. Real conversations don't do that. Go back and make your response lengths more varied. Throw in some short acknowledgments. Add reactions that don't advance the plot—they're just human moments.
The pace drags or feels rushed. You're probably using the same inter-speaker gap everywhere. Vary it. Speed up the places that should feel energetic. Slow down the places where someone's thinking or delivering something important.
Your speakers sound inconsistent. Like the same voice sounds different in different parts of the episode. This is usually because you regenerated lines with different settings. Lock your voice settings and generate in batches. Don't tweak speeds or tone between segments.
Format-Specific Tips
Different podcast formats ask different things of you.
For interviews, you've got a clear structure. Host and guest. The host's job is to ask questions and react. The guest's job is to share expertise. Pick voices that reflect these roles—an engaging host voice and a more authoritative guest voice. Make sure your host's questions are genuinely questions, not statements. Vary your guest's answer lengths so some questions get short responses and others get deep dives.
Co-hosted shows are different. You're not doing interview back-and-forth. You're two people collaborating, sometimes agreeing, sometimes pushing back. This usually works better with more balanced voices—voices that feel like peers. Include more natural interruptions. Let one person jump in with "right, exactly" mid-thought. Build in more moments where the energy bounces between speakers equally.
Panel discussions are the trickiest because you've got multiple voices. You need three to four voices that are all clearly distinct from each other. Include a moderator voice—someone who structures and guides. Be deliberate about who speaks when. Don't make someone wait too long to talk again or listeners will forget who they are. Bring them back in before they fade into the background.
Multi-speaker podcasting isn't harder than solo production—it's just different. You've got more moving parts. But the payoff is real conversation instead of a single voice talking at people. And that connection? That's what builds an audience.