Voice for audio Book of Mormon

Does anyone know how to switch back to the male voice for audio reading of the Book of Mormon? The new female voice is too much like Siri for me.... too robotic.

If you select the three dots on the right side of the media player you can select male voice. Though it is still not the same as it used to be. I'm not liking it so much myself.

Hope that helps!

Thanks! Yeah it is a little bit better. I ended up downloading the MP3 version from the main site. I will probably use that while driving.

Thanks for your help!

I kept listening to the female voice to try to determine if it WAS done by a program like Siri. Truly awful. Thanks for helping me turn it to the male voice. He's slightly better but still a bit robotic. I never realized how brilliant the old narration was until they changed it . I don't think I'll be listening to the scriptures as much anymore. I'll stick to conference talks.

I really hope the tech people read these posts...PLEASE give us access to the previous reader!!! He really was quite good. The new ones have no emotion.

I agree! The previous reader was much more interesting to listen to! I don't like the new male or female voices nearly as much. It would be great if we could have access to the old audio.

One of the reasons for the change is that the old recordings were done before the 2013 edition of the scriptures, so they didn't match the newest text. However, there are some issues with the new recordings (both the audio quality and the voices themselves) that need to be addressed.

I think the developers should publicize this reason for changing the voices more. A lot of the reviewers on the App Store would probably have been less critical if they were made aware that the change was necessary because of the new edition.

I agree, the old voice was much better. I would most certainly think that the new voice is not a real person sentences run right into one another with no breath and no emotion. The biggest disappointment for me is that the spirit of the reading is no longer there. The man had a truly inspiring voice and have felt his spirit and his emotion while he read. If they keep this voice I will unfortunately not be listening to it nearly as much as I used to. It's lacking the human element. If possible please take it back to the old male reader.

I don't see the 3 dots on the media player to change the voice. When I open up the Gospel Library app I don't even see a media player on my iPad 2.

tmduffy wrote:I don't see the 3 dots on the media player to change the voice. When I open up the Gospel Library app I don't even see a media player on my iPad 2.

To open the audio player, scroll to the top of a chapter/article, and if that chapter has audio, you'll see a headphones icon appear at the bottom of the screen (It only shows up if you're scrolled to the top of the chapter, and if there's audio available. Scriptures, General Conference, and several other items do have audio available, so it should show up there.) After clicking the headphones icon, the audio player will pop up from the bottom.

Thank you for the quick response. I am trying to change the female voice for the Priesthood manual, Gordon B. Hinckley. I got the headphones and the dots, but the only choices are playback speed and continuous play. Does this mean there is no option to change the voices?

tmduffy wrote:Thank you for the quick response. I am trying to change the female voice for the Priesthood manual, Gordon B. Hinckley. I got the headphones and the dots, but the only choices are playback speed and continuous play. Does this mean there is no option to change the voices?

You're welcome! Yes, only the scriptures (and only the English scriptures) have two recordings.

I listened to the whole book of mormon last year in about four months. It was awesome hearing the narrators emotion. They told a story for each chapter. Tonight I decided to start it again with my whole family to enjoy. Unfortunately, The voices had changed and we were very disappointed. It is something we probably won't continue. These new narrators are hard to listen to. Please allow the option to listen to the old narrators. They were excellent.

For what it's worth, in the few times I have listened, I think the lady does a better job than the man.

Are there plans to redo the audio for the scriptures since there is such a problem with the new voice?

samuelbw wrote:Are there plans to redo the audio for the scriptures since there is such a problem with the new voice?

I have no idea, but I would doubt that there would be another redo in the near future; that is a major undertaking.

Personally, I think the new narrators do a fine job -- I'm having a hard time understanding why there are so many complaints. And no one needs to try to explain to me again what they see as the problems -- this is a matter of opinion, and I'm simply offering my opinion that the new voices work well for me.

For those who are trying to find the Book Of Morman audio "old voice" try the following: http://www.learnoutloud.com/podcaststre ... itle=45992

Ok, I'm glad I'm not alone. I wasn't sure if they had actually changed, or if I was just mistaken. The new narrating puts me to sleep! I hope they change it back. I do feel like the female is a bit better, but I miss the previous male voice!

I haven't listened to the female voice, though I really like the new male voice. The voice is smooth and the cadence is excellent. Sometimes having something new just takes a little getting used to.

I'm not sure if this is what people are complaining about, because I never listened to the scriptures on a smart device until now...
But if you're using text-to-speech, it sounds robotic because it IS robotic. That option generates the voice using software created by either google or apple, and has not been specially adapted for the scriptures in any way. I don't know how I did it, but I messed with options until I was able to get the significantly-less-robotic-sounding male voice.
There are three dots in the top right of both the main screen and the audio control bar along the bottom. Try messing with the audio control one, and perhaps the "enable obsolete content" of the main settings. I don't know exactly what it does, but it may be that it enables the older voice... ?? maybe?

Gospel Library for iOS doesn't currently have complete text-to-speech integration like Gospel Library for Android does. In Gospel Library for Android, you can choose "Text-to-speech" as your preferred voice under audio settings (Male / Female / Text-to-speech). Gospel Library for Android will also fall back on text-to-speech automatically if:
1) The content you're viewing doesn't have an audio recording (a few places in English, like Handbook 1 or brand-new content, but more common in other languages),
2) You have "Limit Mobile Network Use" turned on in settings, you're using cellular data, and you don't have the recordings pre-downloaded, or
3) You're completely offline (no Wi-Fi or cellular data) and you don't have the recordings pre-downloaded.

In Gospel Library for iOS, you can get a more limited version of text-to-speech by turning on "Speak Selection" in iOS accessibility settings, then selecting text in Gospel Library and pressing "Speak" (it's not set up for reading a full chapter and doesn't go through the regular audio controls).

Enable/Show Obsolete Content has to do with showing manuals in the library that aren't part of the current year's curriculum, and won't affect audio playback.

I thought the previous female voice, that was used only to narrate the chapter introductions, was the nicest, most listenable female speaking voice I've ever heard anywhere. I've often wished they would let this voice actress narrate the actual scriptures so we could choose. When I saw in the new version that we could choose the female voice, I was very psyched - until I heard it and quickly realized that it's not the same voice actress. To me, it's terrible to listen to - she even speaks with a lisp - and listening to it is like hearing nails on a chalkboard. What I wonder is, who made the decision to go from a wonderful, soothing female voice to a voice that is so incredibly annoying that it's all I can do to get through a chapter? Is it one of the employees who wants to break into voice acting, or maybe someone's aunt? The difference between the previous voice that was so beautiful and the current one could not be more stark, and I'm very disappointed.

Please change voice for IOS! Please change back to previous voice options. The older people in my ward with hearing and sight issues, who have listened to the older version voices will NOT listen to these robotic voices!!!

Ear

The old recordings are still available for download at MediaLibrary.LDS.org. However, they will be going away eventually, as they were recorded using an older edition of the scriptures.

It's bad. When we have the resources to provide every main spoken language a decent audio version we should. This shouldn't be about saving time or money it should be about providing members with an audio verision of The Book of Mormon that will encourage study and won't distract from the Spirit. I personally can't listen to the new audio versions male or female so ultimately I am spending less time with the book which is a shame.

There was a talk given recently, I believe maybe in the April 2017 General Conference, where the speaker said something to the effect of, "Let your children hear you reading from The Book Of Mormon." Does anyone remember hearing this, and who it was? One of my kids mentioned it while we were reading scriptures a couple months ago, and it got me to thinking. I'd like to record myself reading The Book of Mormon for them, so that they will have it even after I'm long gone. I got a late start, so doubt I'll have it completed by Christmas, but I think I'll give them what I have done at that time and let them know the rest is yet to come.

I'm so glad I'm not alone. The new voice sounds like he's taking while yawning the whole time and he puts me to sleep. I've literally stopped listing to the scriptures since they changed it like 12 months ago. Recently I downloaded a new app simply called" The Book of Mormon" with the dark blue cover page as their image, which has the two old guy voices. Finally, the scriptures sound comforting and with "emotion" again. Like Grandpa is reading me a story that I just can't wait to hear what happens next, even though I've heard it a dozen times.

sbradshaw wrote:The old recordings are still available for download at MediaLibrary.LDS.org. However, they will be going away eventually, as they were recorded using an older edition of the scriptures.

This is what I use. I prefer them split by book (1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, Jacob, etc.) over chapter or in two parts (1 Nephi to Mosiah, Alma to Moroni). By chapter there are simply too many files to manage, and the much larger two part version doesn't work well with my older iPods, which I use from time to time.

But what I do is load them on my listening device as audiobooks. Then, on my iPhone I can access them in my Books app as audiobooks. Then I can pop into Gospel Library to read along. I find that even in the older version, I tend to have the playback speed at 1.25× (or even 1.5× for the longer chapters) so the audio can keep up with my reading speed.
As for the old versus new, listen to chapters like Jacob 7 or Alma 30, and compare the reading of those. The newer recordings lack something that the older version has.

We liked Bruce Lindsay and the other guy better as well. The new voice Sounds like Lloyd K Newel in robotic form. I purchased a different APP, it is called LDScripture.com it has the old voices:)

I just pictured a robotic Lloyd D. Newell introducing an episode of Music & the Spoken Word. It made me chuckle.

I personally prefer the audio quality, character and emotion in the pre-2013 voice readings, as many of the other posters here have stated. I recently downloaded the newer versions, male and female, to give them a try, but ended up deleting them. They sound too compressed and mechanical, in a distracting way. I'll stick with my older MP3's for now. Just reviewed the official release of the listed changes to the 2013 edition, and as it says, "More than 99 percent of the corrections are in the study aids (chapter summaries, footnotes, Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, and triple combination index). I don't think I'll miss much listening to the old versions on my daily drive to work.

Any change on this? Would love to have the option to toggle between 2-3 voices. Not enough inflection and intonation in most of the new voices.

There is a way to get the old voices, it's easier on Android though. You can Google installing an old version of Gospel Library, some of the old version still work, you just have to pick an old version that still has the old voices, in this way I managed to get the old voices back. On an iPhone it would still be doable, but it's harder, it would require jailbreaking.

The new recording is really intolerable. I can't listen to it. It's very halted and processed. Each word has that robotic attack right before and after it. It's really painful. Darn it. I used to love listening, but I just can't anymore. I've tried listening to these. I finally had to see if there was a place to post some feedback. Here you go. Bruce Lindsay is still around, isn't he? He did the last ones. Why not just have him rerecord the updates? He was a mission president. I don't think he'd be uninterested.

I absolutely love the female reader, the one who reads the book of John, and also 3 Nephi. Whether she reads everything, I don’t know. I find her voice incredibly moving. I’m online trying to learn her name so I can thank her. She elevates the scriptures for me.

ok so I need a little help too, it loooks like this is a fix for mobile, but does anyone know how to change it on Desktop? I can't see how to...

Please change back from the Siri options. They are not better. In fact they are terrible. I love listening to the Book of Mormon on my commute to and from work but cannot stand these robotic voiceovers. Especially when what was there was great! Please fix soon.

Thank you!

As I look through this topic I'm hoping there is a way in the gospel library to select something other than the synthetic voice generators for listening to the Scriptures and Liahona. The computer generated voices don't work for me at all. Hoping for more options?

I get a recorded voice. But you have to have a network connection. If it's mobile data, you have to allow GL to use it in the settings.

Is there any way to download the recorded voices so that when we are out of Internet service we can still listen to the recorded voices?

davescott1 wrote: Sat Sep 25, 2021 12:15 pm As I look through this topic I'm hoping there is a way in the gospel library to select something other than the synthetic voice generators for listening to the Scriptures and Liahona. The computer generated voices don't work for me at all. Hoping for more options?

I'm on Android but assume the same option exists in iOS. Navigate to the Book of Mormon and select the 3-dots menu. Then select download audio. Be aware that the audio is a big file.

Perfect thank you!

I found a solution to not have to listen to that awful robo voice , just go to the app store and download just the BOM and you will get a very nice male voice , it's wonderful
...

As a visually challenged individual listening to the scriptures on regular speed play back increases my reading speed by 2 to 3 times. (According to my children and husband this is unusual in that for most people it decreases their reading speed.) Having the robotic read text is taking away my ability to concentrate on meaning and personal application. I am instead having to mentally correct the mispronunciation of individual words and names. These issues stop me from really being able to listen to the scriptures and truly feel the Spirit. I hope that there is in production a new audio version of at least the Book of Mormon. If not, please find a way to correct the pronunciation issues.

The 3-dot solution isn't permanent. The female voice always returns. I'd like to listen to the male voice reading scriptures, not the female voice. How do I make a permanent selection of the male voice?

ljlater wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 6:17 am The 3-dot solution isn't permanent. The female voice always returns. I'd like to listen to the male voice reading scriptures, not the female voice. How do I make a permanent selection of the male voice?

I suggest you provide feedback from within the app. That way it can be passed to the developers to investigate. Comments here may result in helpful workarounds, but likely won't make it to the developers.