Are TurboMultilingualNeural voices production ready?

Question

Hi Microsofties,

A conflict in voice status.

These voices are listed as "public preview" in web documentation

en-US-AlloyTurboMultilingualNeural

en-US-EchoTurboMultilingualNeural

en-US-FableTurboMultilingualNeural

en-US-OnyxTurboMultilingualNeural

en-US-ShimmerMultilingualNeuralH

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/speech-service/language-support?tabs=tts

"1 The neural voice is available in public preview. Voices and styles in public preview are only available in these service regions: East US, Southeast Asia, and West Europe."

In the API these voices return GA - General availability

For example en-US-AlloyTurboMultilingualNeural Status: 'GA'

{
    Name: 'Microsoft Server Speech Text to Speech Voice (en-US, AlloyTurboMultilingualNeural)',
    DisplayName: 'Alloy Turbo Multilingual',
    LocalName: 'Alloy Turbo Multilingual',
    ShortName: 'en-US-AlloyTurboMultilingualNeural',
    Gender: 'Male',
    Locale: 'en-US',
    LocaleName: 'English (United States)',
    SecondaryLocaleList: […],
    SampleRateHertz: '48000',
    VoiceType: 'Neural',
    Status: 'GA',
    VoiceTag: { TailoredScenarios: [Array], VoicePersonalities: [Array] }
  }

I'd like to understand the reason for the difference.

Please advise. Thank you team!

Answer 1

Hello @STStreamZ,

Greetings and Welcome to Microsoft Q&A! Thanks for posting the question.

The TurboMultilingualNeural voices, such as en-US-AlloyTurboMultilingualNeural, are listed as being in public preview according to the documentation, while the API reports them as GA (General Availability).

This discrepancy could be due to documentation lag, where the official documentation has not yet been updated to reflect the latest status changes in the API. However, you can keep an eye on the Azure AI Service release notes for updates on what's new in Azure Speech Services page will be updated accordingly with more details.

When a voice is in public preview, it typically means it is still undergoing testing and may not yet be fully production-ready, even though it is available for use. On the other hand, the GA status in the API could indicate that the voice has reached a stable phase for production deployment. The difference might also be due to regional availability, where some Azure regions still consider the voices in preview while others have moved them to GA.

I Hope this helps. Do let me know if you have any further queries.

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If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful.

Thank you!

Answer 2

This discrepancy could be due to documentation lag, where the official documentation has not yet been updated to reflect the latest status changes in the API.

Thank you for your answer. You may note the TTS release notes are sometimes not updated on a regular schedule. It is not unusual to see a two month break in those. For example:

• October 2024 release / January 2025 release