Qwen3-TTS for Mac - Run AI Text-to-Speech Locally on Apple Silicon

Run Qwen3-TTS text-to-speech AI locally on your MacBook with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4). No cloud, no API keys, completely offline.

Keywords: Qwen TTS Mac, Qwen3 TTS Apple Silicon, MLX text to speech, local TTS Mac, voice cloning Mac, AI voice generator MacBook

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Features

• Voice Cloning - Clone any voice from a 5-second audio sample
• Voice Design - Create new voices by describing them ("deep narrator", "excited child")
• Custom Voices - 9 built-in voices with emotion and speed control
• 100% Local - Runs entirely on your Mac, no internet required
• Optimized for M-Series - Uses Apple's MLX framework for fast GPU inference

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Why MLX Models?

MLX models are specifically optimized for Apple Silicon. Compared to running standard PyTorch models:

Metric	Standard Model	MLX Model
RAM Usage	10+ GB	2-3 GB
CPU Temperature	80-90°C	40-50°C

Tested on M4 MacBook Air (fanless) with 1.7B models

MLX runs natively on the Apple Neural Engine and GPU, meaning better performance with less heat and battery drain.

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Quick Start (5 Minutes)

1. Clone and setup

git clone https://github.com/kapi2800/qwen3-tts-apple-silicon.git
cd qwen3-tts-apple-silicon
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
brew install ffmpeg

2. Download models

Pick the models you need from the table below. Click the link, then click "Download" on HuggingFace.

Pro Models (1.7B) - Best Quality

Model	Use Case	Download
CustomVoice	Preset voices + emotion control	Download
VoiceDesign	Create voices from text description	Download
Base	Voice cloning from audio	Download

Lite Models (0.6B) - Faster, Less RAM

Model	Use Case	Download
CustomVoice	Preset voices + emotion control	Download
VoiceDesign	Create voices from text description	Download
Base	Voice cloning from audio	Download

Put downloaded folders in models/:

models/
├── Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-1.7B-CustomVoice-8bit/
├── Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-1.7B-VoiceDesign-8bit/
└── Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-1.7B-Base-8bit/

3. Run

source .venv/bin/activate
python main.py

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Usage

========================================
 Qwen3-TTS Manager
========================================

  Pro Models (1.7B - Best Quality)
  ---------------------------------
  1. Custom Voice
  2. Voice Design
  3. Voice Cloning

  Lite Models (0.6B - Faster)
  ---------------------------
  4. Custom Voice
  5. Voice Design
  6. Voice Cloning

  q. Exit

Select: 

• Custom Voice: Pick from preset speakers, set emotion and speed
• Voice Design: Describe a voice (e.g., "calm British narrator")
• Voice Cloning: Provide a reference audio clip to clone

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Tips

• Drag .txt files directly into the terminal for long text
• Voice cloning works best with clean 5-10 second audio clips
• Speed options: Normal (1.0x), Fast (1.3x), Slow (0.8x)
• Type q or exit anytime to go back

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Requirements

• macOS with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)
• Python 3.10+
• RAM: ~3GB for Lite models, ~6GB for Pro models

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Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
mlx_audio not found	Run source .venv/bin/activate first
Model not found	Check model folder names match exactly
Audio won't play	Check macOS sound output settings

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Star History

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Related Projects

• Qwen3-TTS - Original Qwen3-TTS by Alibaba
• MLX Audio - MLX framework for audio models
• MLX Community - Pre-converted MLX models

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