Using Text-To-Speech Software To Create Audio Books From Public Domain Content?
Hi,
Thanks for a great package (Public Domain Treasure Hunter’s Kit). I am very impressed with the whole public domain concept but I am particularly interested in using it to create audio products.
The thing is, I don’t have a particularly good sounding voice for recording my own audio, and I imagine it would be very expensive for someone just starting out to hire a professional voice over expert.
So I was wondering what your opinion is on using ‘text to speech’ software. I bought some of this software a couple of years back but never got around to using it. The voices you got with it were very ‘robotic’ but I paid extra for higher quality voices which are quite good but still a little monotonous. Do you have any experience using such software and would you recommend it. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Paul
Hi Paul,
It’s great to hear from you, we should talk more often.
Thanks for the great question too.
I know what you mean about your own voice, I’m not a big fan of mine either ~ every time I hear a recording played back of me talking, it still makes me cringe. But, I had to get over that really quick.
I’d bet your voice doesn’t sound as bad as you may think.
Audio products are a great way to go and you’re on the right track.
As far as text-to-speech, I’m only aware of two that even come close…
Cepstral is the best of two and the voices are very impressive. Neither require a huge investment to get started with them.
Personally, I feel that while the synthesized voices are really slick and they can be perfectly suitable for some applications, I don’t feel that they work well with audio books simply because very few people want to be read to by a robot. And no matter how these things have advanced, you still know with certainty that the voice is being generated by a machine.
Many human audio book narrators lose their audience because they’re so dry that they’re only about one notch above a mechanical voice. People want to be read to by a human being, with emotion and warmth ~ someone they can connect with.
In fact, the true mark of a really great narrator is when the listener gets lost in the story and forgets that they’re being read too. Sort of like good actors make you forget that they’re acting ~ yet the really bad actors keep you painfully aware of the fact!
Keep the voice human, your customers will be happier with the end product (and become repeat customers).
If you need an outside perspective regarding your own voice – record something and send it to me. I’ll be happy to give it a listen and let you know what I think. I promise, I’ll give you an honest opinion ~ you never know, you might just be one of the greatest narrators ever!
If you are certain you would not want to attempt it on your own there are lots of inexpensive options that will keep you from having to resort to professional voice-over talent.
There are options for pro voice work of course, like voiceovers.com (Bill is a Georgia boy too just like me!).
Or you could hire it out very cost effectively at freelance sites like elance.com.
Do you have a spouse, family member, or close friend that would do some voice work for you?
I have a friend (ironically, his name is Paul too) in Spain that has built a nice children’s audio book business (among other things) and his wife provides all of the narration. She just reads public domain books into a microphone, they capture the audio on his computer, they add some simple sound effects, and the results are spectacular.
You could even hire a student with a nice voice, or anyone with a nice voice that could use a few extra bucks ~ a little creativity and open-mindedness will produce all sorts of possibilities!
That’s just a few things to think about.
Hope that helps.
Thanks Paul!
http://www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com
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Hi, I have been thinking about the same thing myself, I have a few books that I think will be great as audio books but not if they are read by me
I had approached a few people, friends and family, to do it for me but didn’t get any positive results. I was going to give up on the idea as I don’t have the spare funds at the moment to pay a proffessional. The one last option I will try before shelving the project for now is to talk to the students at the local college that are studying media and that sort of class to see if any of them would be interested, I will also be talking to the members of a few local drama groups. I’m sure I’ll be able to get someone to do it for me at a reasonable price.
Good Luck
Jim
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Logan Reply:
July 28th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Hi Jim ~ thanks for that, good ideas. P.S. – I like your site, looks great!
[Reply]
hi
I think I’m following Debra on Tweeter–tried to send her a message–you site is interesting–my ebook is published by Synergebooks–it’s called “New And Easy Poems To Promote Your Health And Safety.”
let me know if you’d like to review it.
JB
[Reply]
Logan Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Hi John, thanks for this. Congratulations on the Eppie 2009 Finalist award and the publication of your book!
[Reply]