Text to Speech and audio books - speed?

moz · 05-30-2008, 05:45 AM

I work with a blind guy who has shown me the merits of playing back at twice the normal speed (his screen reader is set phenominally fast and he listens to books not much slower... still much, much slower than I read, however). One joy for him is unprotected ebooks... text-to-speech on DRM'd books is generally impossible, although it is legal here for what little that is worth.

So now I'm starting to listen to books and using www.foobar2000.org and the soundtouch plugin. It's also fun to vary pitch and speed independently

I'm finding that lifting the pitch a little helps, but doubling the speed makes the books much more ... um... listenable?

DDHarriman · 05-30-2008, 08:57 AM

I do not know - never tried that.

One software that I do advise is Textaloud (http://www.textaloud.com), it let’s you control speed, pitch, save the reading etc…
They sell outstanding good voices.

DaleDe · 05-30-2008, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moz

I work with a blind guy who has shown me the merits of playing back at twice the normal speed (his screen reader is set phenominally fast and he listens to books not much slower... still much, much slower than I read, however). One joy for him is unprotected ebooks... text-to-speech on DRM'd books is generally impossible, although it is legal here for what little that is worth.

So now I'm starting to listen to books and using www.foobar2000.org and the soundtouch plugin. It's also fun to vary pitch and speed independently

I'm finding that lifting the pitch a little helps, but doubling the speed makes the books much more ... um... listenable?

I didn't see any TTS capability in this product. Can you provide a link or information on the TTS capability?

Dale

GeoffC · 05-30-2008, 02:02 PM

Now what would be a great idea is if someone could come up with a hand-held speech to text viewer...
DragonSpeech software is good, but needs a PC, and is then limited in an environment where there is background noise...

05-30-2008, 05:45 AM	#1
moz Addict Posts: 370 Karma: 1553 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbun Device: Kobo H2O	Text to Speech and audio books - speed? I work with a blind guy who has shown me the merits of playing back at twice the normal speed (his screen reader is set phenominally fast and he listens to books not much slower... still much, much slower than I read, however). One joy for him is unprotected ebooks... text-to-speech on DRM'd books is generally impossible, although it is legal here for what little that is worth. So now I'm starting to listen to books and using www.foobar2000.org and the soundtouch plugin. It's also fun to vary pitch and speed independently I'm finding that lifting the pitch a little helps, but doubling the speed makes the books much more ... um... listenable?

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
K2 Text to Speech	SarahW	Amazon Kindle	5	04-23-2010 10:18 PM
will kindle text 2 speech work on any .mobi books?	neoromance	Kindle Formats	1	01-31-2010 06:12 PM
Facebook Group Dedicated to Enabling Text-to-Speech on Kindle Books	bhartman36	Amazon Kindle	0	12-11-2009 11:47 AM
No more text to speech???	pippin65	Amazon Kindle	22	11-16-2009 04:27 PM
Text to speech	Chelley	Introduce Yourself	5	03-09-2009 12:33 PM

05-30-2008, 08:57 AM	#2
DDHarriman Guru Posts: 860 Karma: 4380 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Almada, Portugal Device: Cybook Gen3, Sony PRS 505, Kindle DXG and Samsung Galaxy Note	I do not know - never tried that. One software that I do advise is Textaloud (http://www.textaloud.com), it let’s you control speed, pitch, save the reading etc… They sell outstanding good voices.

05-30-2008, 02:02 PM	#4
GeoffC Chocolate Grasshopper ... Posts: 27,600 Karma: 20821184 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Scotland Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW	Now what would be a great idea is if someone could come up with a hand-held speech to text viewer... DragonSpeech software is good, but needs a PC, and is then limited in an environment where there is background noise...

Advert