In all fairness, the price of the Icon and the Braille Plus is too
high for a lot of people, especially when a Netbook can be bought for
under $400.00.
The pronunciation errors of Paul and Kate can be annoying, but if you
really get caught up in a book, you tend to ignore them. That being
said, I also prefer human narration. I just wish we could have the
male voice of NOAA Weather radio as a TTS option.
At 08:33 AM 5/2/2010 -0700, you wrote:
Well, there is an option for those of you who want Eloquence. It's
called the Icon or Braille plus.
----- Original Message ----- From: "EVAN REESE" <[email protected]>
To: "GW-micro" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2010 8:26 AM
Subject: Re: [GW-Booksense] new voices for the booksense?
Well, that just goes to show that people have different
preferences, and that's fine. My girlfriend started out reading
books from Bookshare on her Book Sense, first with Kate, then with
Paul. But she quit after a few books, saying that if she was going
to listen to audio books with synthesised speech, she would rather
listen to her JAWS with Eloquence instead of Kate or Paul. She does
a lot of proofreading for Bookshare on her PC, so she has
definitely gotten accustomed to, and even to like, Eloquence and
doesn't read anything nonhuman-read on her Book Sense anymore.
By the way, I misspoke earlier: I should have said that the pitch
of the Book Sense jumps around even within individual syllables,
not within individual words. It's natural for pitch to jump around
within words. The description I was looking for last night of how
Paul sounds to me came to me after I posted my last message. He
reminds me of a tape with a good deal of wow and flutter in it.
That makes him harder to understand at higher rates of speech where
the smoother Eloquence is still intelligible.
As to resources, I thought the Kate and Paul voices were more
resource intensive than Eloquence, although I may be misremembering
something here.
Evan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Missy Hoppe" <[email protected]>
To: "Booksense Support" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2010 7:20 AM
Subject: Re: [GW-Booksense] new voices for the booksense?
very well said. The speech on the Booksense is about as pleasant
as a tts voice can be, but I'm still one of those who, given the
choice, prefers human narrators whenever possible. I don't
understand all the praise for eloquence, though. I use it on my
computer due to high speeds and being responsive, but for a
reading device like the booksense, it definitely wouldn't be my
first choice. As great as it is, it just sounds to mechanical for
pleasure reading. Still, for my main computer, it's the only
realistic option for daily use, and since I've been reading a lot
of fan fiction lately, I've somewhat gotten used to the way
eloquence reads, but I'd still never want it for the booksense.
Just my opinion, of course.
Missy
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dianne B. Phelps"
<[email protected]>
To: "'EVAN REESE'" <[email protected]>; "'GW-micro'"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2010 12:33 AM
Subject: RE: [GW-Booksense] new voices for the booksense?
I think the reason we don't see something like Elliquence is that there is
only so much memory to hold what is necessary to generate speech and sounds
on a divice the size of the Book Sense. After my disappointment with the
Victor Reader stream, I am amazed the Book Sense is as good as it is.
Having said that, there are people among us who simply are not comfortable
reading with the speech synthesizer. Two of my friends, people I have known
for many years, simply won't tolerate anything that isn't human narrated,
and that's ok. Reading needs to be something comfortable and as long as
there are choices, there is certainly nothing wrong with opting for
digitally recorded material rather than speech synthesis.
Dianne
-----Original Message-----
From: EVAN REESE [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 6:22 PM
To: GW-micro
Subject: Re: [GW-Booksense] new voices for the booksense?
True, human readers mispronounce things, but my Window Eyes with Eloquence
mispronounces a lot less than the voice on my Book Sense. I wish they would
have just installed Eloquence on the Book Sense. It's very understandable at
high rates of speech and it has substantially better pronunciation than
what's in there now.
Evan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Terri Pannett" <[email protected]>
To: "Dianne B. Phelps" <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 7:48 PM
Subject: Re: [GW-Booksense] new voices for the booksense?
Don't change the voices! They're great!
They mispronounce words, but so do human readers! A human reader should
know better, but some people never learned phoenics.
Terri Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA.
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please consider sending your message to [email protected]
so the entire list will receive it.
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andyour message is related to GW Micro or the BookSense, then
please consider sending your message to [email protected] so
the entire list will receive it.
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Sandy Licht
Turn right, then go straight!
Jeremiah 29:11-14 (Amplified Bible)
11For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the
Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to
give you hope in your final outcome.
12Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me,
and I will hear and heed you.
13Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital
necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.(A)
14I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will release you
from captivity and gather you from all the nations and all the places
to which I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back
to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.
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If your reply would benefit others on the list andyour message is related to GW
Micro or the BookSense, then please consider sending your message to
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