diff --git a/TTS/tts/models/base_tacotron.py b/TTS/tts/models/base_tacotron.py
index a537afd6..8cfd750d 100644
--- a/TTS/tts/models/base_tacotron.py
+++ b/TTS/tts/models/base_tacotron.py
@@ -115,11 +115,16 @@ class BaseTacotron(BaseTTS):
     ):  # pylint: disable=unused-argument, redefined-builtin
         state = load_fsspec(checkpoint_path, map_location=torch.device("cpu"))
         self.load_state_dict(state["model"])
+        # TODO: set r in run-time by taking it from the new config
         if "r" in state:
+            # set r from the state (for compatibility with older checkpoints)
             self.decoder.set_r(state["r"])
-        else:
-            # set the reduction rate from the config values embedded in the checkpoint
+        elif "config" in state:
+            # set r from config used at training time (for inference)
             self.decoder.set_r(state["config"]["r"])
+        else:
+            # set r from the new config (for new-models)
+            self.decoder.set_r(config.r)
         if eval:
             self.eval()
             print(f" > Model's reduction rate `r` is set to: {self.decoder.r}")