I am often indifferent, , but I do find human narration especially valuable in books where the time period or character switches each chapter. Synthesizers just don't pause well enough for me to pick up that there is a shift. Books just as "Girl on the Train" and "All the Light We Cannot See" were the first books I bought from Audible specifically because they switched narrators when the characters changed and this helped me so much to really follow the story.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Robin Frost Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2019 2:27 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: A TTS Engine instead of a Human Voice for Reading a Novel? Maybe Hi, This is a very interesting topic indeed. Most of the time I'll default to a human voice as my preference. However I have had occasions when either I didn't like the narrator for the Audible version of a book so I then went with BookShare and one of the many voices available through VoiceDream Reader and I was surprised how pleasant the read was. Again it wouldn’t be my ultimate preference or default but the times I did use it I was glad to have the opportunity to do so to obtain access to a particular title. I won't stray off into which voices work best as that is very subjective and the topic of great debate. But I will only remark to say that some voices like Samantha and a few others included do lend themselves a bit better to being sped up without becoming distorted which does help in such situations. I'm just glad we now have as many choices as we do to potentially gain access to so many titles we could have only dreamed of or hoped for in prior decades. Happy reading one and all no matter which platform or voice you choose. Take good care. Robin -----Original Message----- From: M. Taylor Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2019 12:25 AM To: [email protected] Subject: A TTS Engine instead of a Human Voice for Reading a Novel? Maybe Hello Everyone, I love the iOS Kindle App because it works so well with my Focus 40 Blue Braille display. However, for whatever reason, until recently, I've never used the VoiceOver Samantha TTS engine to read an entire novel in the Kindle app. Not long ago, I was searching for a book in Audible, because it is not available on BARD or on Over Drive, and found it. The price of the audio book was $19, $17 in Apple books. Since the audio length of the book was just over 5 hours, I decided to see if a Kindle edition was available. Yes, it was and for a mere $1.99. So, I purchased the Kindle version and used my beloved Samantha TTS engine to read the novel. After I finished the Kindle version, a friend of mine purchased the audible version. So, I decided to give it a quick listen to see if I would like the book any better or less with a human narrator at the proverbial helm. You know what? I discovered that I actually preferred the Kindle version wit the TTS engine, better. The funny thing is, I am absolutely certain that I would have thoroughly enjoyed the human narrator edition had I not experienced the TTS engine rendition, first. Now I'm certainly not saying that a TTS engine is better than a human narrator but I am saying, that for me, at least, a TTS engine is definitely a viable option for reading novels, especially when it comes to saving a few dollars. Mark -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
