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WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

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Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#71

Post by supermdguy »

DanAndersen wrote: post #18

I'm most interested in its potential for audiobooks, especially of the vast array of old and less-common books that don't have human-made audiobook equivalents. I find myself constrained by the limits of audiobook choices, which tends toward best-sellers lists or pop-sci. Current attempts to use text-to-speech to generate audiobooks results in something that's frankly unlistenable. If TTS could get to a "good enough"…

For old books, I've liked https://www.librivox.org/, which has free recordings of public domain books read by volunteers.

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#72

Post by mtgx »

exhilaration wrote: post #19
DanAndersen wrote: post #18

I'm most interested in its potential for audiobooks, especially of the vast array of old and less-common books that don't have human-made audiobook equivalents. I find myself constrained by the limits of audiobook choices, which tends toward best-sellers lists or pop-sci. Current attempts to use text-to-speech to generate audiobooks results in something that's frankly unlistenable. If TTS could get to a "good enough"…

One of my co-workers told me in 2012 that he was doing exactly this. He used an ebook reader to download free ebooks from Gutenberg and then the IVONA text to speech engine for Android to listen to them on his drives. He had already finished a few classics like Treasure Island this way. I'm sure things have improved significantly since 2012 so what you're looking for is probably easily done.

Google's "cloud-based" TTS (not the local one, which was terrible) on the Play Books app was pretty good even years ago.

However, it was unusable because it would stop as soon as the screen would turn-off. Other ebook readers' read-aloud features worked with the screen off. So thanks for nothing Google!

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#73

Post by eginhard »

epmaybe wrote: post #37
tymekpavel wrote: post #27

I've always wondered why companies don't just take all the close-captioned TV streams and use that as training data for their voice models. Seems like it would create a much more natural sounding voice model (at least as far as humans are accustomed to).

What happens if the CC isn't entirely in sync with the video or audio?

Recordings are force-aligned to the transcriptions anyway (using essentially a speech recognition system) to obtain phone-level alignments. You don't need explicit timing information beforehand.

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#74

Post by Tade0 »

spuz wrote: post #59
Tade0 wrote: post #10

I hope somebody uses this to immortalize Sir David Attenborough or the sadly departed Don LaFontaine.

Oh man, I can already see the court cases of a certain robot's voice sounding a little too similar to a deceased human's that it should make royalty payments.

Heh, in my original post I wanted to follow up that paragraph with a question: Is someone's voice their IP?

Would e.g. Don LaFontaine's family go all J.R.R. Tolkien and forbid the use of his voice in certain contexts?

Then again, for now, it seems that it's easy to get away with synthesizing voices of popular characters as long as you don't use copyrighted names:

https://acapela-box.com/AcaBox/index.php

(choose English(USA) - "Little Creature". Borked on Firefox but works in Chrome)

"Little Creature" my ass.

Apparently, names are IP, voices not so much. But we can't have nice things because like you said - eventually, someone's going to figure out how to file an effective lawsuit.

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#75

Post by devindotcom »

DanAndersen wrote: post #18

I'm most interested in its potential for audiobooks, especially of the vast array of old and less-common books that don't have human-made audiobook equivalents. I find myself constrained by the limits of audiobook choices, which tends toward best-sellers lists or pop-sci. Current attempts to use text-to-speech to generate audiobooks results in something that's frankly unlistenable. If TTS could get to a "good enough"…

Yeah, I was thinking about exactly this. I'm actually going to try to reach out to the team to see if they're going to be looking into this. Google Books on the rise! Hopefully!

Also music generation - the original post (September of last year) had some really interesting music created by training the system on Chopin or something.

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#76

Post by anakron »

spuz wrote: post #56
Yhippa wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The improved voices sound exactly like the audio from CBT's I've taken in the past. Could possibly have fooled me.

What is CBT?

CBT is commonly understood to mean Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but in this case I believe OP means computer based training(s?)

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#77

Post by [deleted] »

supermdguy wrote: post #71
DanAndersen wrote: post #18

I'm most interested in its potential for audiobooks, especially of the vast array of old and less-common books that don't have human-made audiobook equivalents. I find myself constrained by the limits of audiobook choices, which tends toward best-sellers lists or pop-sci. Current attempts to use text-to-speech to generate audiobooks results in something that's frankly unlistenable. If TTS could get to a "good enough"…

For old books, I've liked https://www.librivox.org/ , which has free recordings of public domain books read by volunteers.

[deleted]

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#78

Post by justonepost »

DanAndersen wrote: post #18

I'm most interested in its potential for audiobooks, especially of the vast array of old and less-common books that don't have human-made audiobook equivalents. I find myself constrained by the limits of audiobook choices, which tends toward best-sellers lists or pop-sci. Current attempts to use text-to-speech to generate audiobooks results in something that's frankly unlistenable. If TTS could get to a "good enough"…

Love this for company documents as well on my commute.

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#79

Post by samstave »

Beuatiful, but for certain voices.. seems very close to how computerized it sounds.... except Japanese....

I'd like to be able to record my voice - and have it translated to text, then compare how it sounds via both engines vs my voice/cadence.

Re: WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

#80

Post by icebraining »

StavrosK wrote: post #57

I would love something like this for computer notifications, or any sort of automated system notification. For a concrete example, my RC controller has the ability to do voice prompts (e.g. "landing gear down"), and it would be great if I could get a high-quality voice to speak all this. Hell, I'd settle for an API where I could send text and get high-quality voice back. Maybe I can somehow hack the Google Assistant…

If the texts are fixed, why not just pay someone to record them? You can get 100 words for $5.
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