Hey Travis,
You're view is respected here as are all of our views. Maybe Apple will make
this a feature that you can turn on and off.
Take care
James
----- Original Message -----
From: "Travis Siegel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 10:55 PM
Subject: Re: New voice alex (was VO Leopard features)
Even if they do have other plans for Alex, and I'm sure they do, I can
tell you nothing irritates me more when listening to a book than to hear
the narrator breathing. This includes the quick breaths between
sentences. The really good ones don't do this, and in my opinion, it
makes the listening experience worlds better. I actually had to can one
book because the reader not only kept taking breaths, but was talking
with so much breath, it sounded like they were trying to seduce you with
every line of dialog, and it wasn't a romance book. While I don't like
the breathing, it is possible to ignore it to a point, but after a while
if it continues, it just becomes too irritating for me. I much prefer
the readers who work breathing into the pauses between sentences and
paragraphs such that I can't hear them, or perhaps the microphone doesn't
pick them up. This for me is by far more preferrable.
But again, I understand why they're including that, to make it sound more
natural, but as I said, in my opinion, it's distracting and wholely
unnecessary.
So, there's my two cents worth, for what it's worth to anyone who cares.
Just figured I'd toss out my take on the matter, since I've been
listening to recorded books for more than 30 years. Again, not that that
means anything, only my personal view.
