I agree with Roger. While I definitely prefer human speech, I listen almost exclusively to synthetic speech. I download a lot of books from bookshare, although I also download from Bard. I like niospeech Kate on my book sense, although I'm hoping this latest firmware version that's coming out hopefully soon will address the words that aren't pronounced correctly, although I've gotten used to that too.
Julia----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Loran Bailey" <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 9:34 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Publishers and Bookshare As a Library
I can't say that I prefer them, but they are still just fine with me. I have gotten used to them. If I am listening to a book read by the Victor Stream's Samantha and concentrating on the content of the book itself I tend to forget that a synthetic voice is reading it. I almost may as well be reading it with my own eyes like I used to. "I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. AnthonyThe Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: http://www.pathfinderpress.com Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html----- Original Message ----- From: "Soronel Haetir" <soronel.haetir@xxxxxxxxx>To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 9:21 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Publishers and Bookshare As a LibraryI for one prefer TTS (at least with modern high quality voices) to human narration. Humans do not speak fast enough for my tastes. While there are tools that can do a certain amount of speed change without pitch change that is just too much work to be worth it for me. On 12/12/09, Valerie Maples <vlmaples@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:I have to agree with Judy. As a matter of fact, Nichole would never listen to a synthetic voice until the acapella voices that are now available on her device. I don't know anyone who prefers TTS over audio books and most are more than willing to pay for the alternative. The only people who learn to accept TTS are those who need a wider range of books or budget constraints make the other alternative unaffordable. Then there are people with auditoryprocessing disorders who do not even acknowledge TTS as speech as it is processed slightly differently in the brain.In my opinion we need to constantly be exploring and expanding all mediumsall of text accessibility and in a cooperative effort like Bookshare, I think that everyone comes out winners. I know that even though I have amembership now I will probably almost exclusively be a volunteer due to time constraints, but being a member will allow me to check how certain things are handled in the final process or view how proofreaders have handled myscans. Interesting dialogue everyone... Valerie-----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] OnBehalf Of Judy s. Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 2:39 PM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Publishers and Bookshare As a Library I view the disabling of TTS as about as silly as the digital rights management.<snip>I don't know a single sighted person, other than myself, who will willingly listen to listen to a book that they can read by listening to it in a synthetic voice. Me? I can't afford expensive audible downloads, and the NLS's offerings are very limited in my tastes, so listening to books via bookshare downloads using either DAISY or Text Aloud has become an acquired taste, one I've become used to and actually very much enjoy. If sighted readers were the least bit interested in hearing books read with a synthetic voice, I suspect the market would be flooded with that sort of book. Why? It is much cheaper for a book publisher to produce that en masse than it is to hire a professional reader and studio to produce the master for each and every book that becomes an audible book. I really doubt that sales of human-read audible books would waver one whit if ebooks had TTS enabled. It would expand the market of ebooks available to the sighted/disabled reader, but that's about it. Just my opinion. Grin. Judy s.To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list ofavailable commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.-- Soronel Haetir soronel.haetir@xxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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