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The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

marhamilresearch4.blob.core.windows.net

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Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#81

Post by jmspring »

hedora wrote: post #74

If you are looking for short stories, I strongly recommend audio fiction podcasts. Escape Artists is one of my favorite production houses. The recordings are creative commons licensed, and the authors (and other artists) get paid professional rates: https://escapeartists.net/ Other sites to check out (all are donation-supported and pay authors): https://www.drabblecast.org/ https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/podcasti…

For horror short stories - I'm a fan of the "Horrorbabble" podcast - https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=horrorb...

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#83

Post by mathgeek »

OfSanguineFire wrote: post #78
ecshafer wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like Louis CK said: "Everything is amazing and no one is happy." Everything is not amazing. Sure things are amazing from a technical perspective. But most tech advancements I think have been harmful to society in the last 30 years or so. Its awesome that computers are so powerful and we have awesome video and photos and can share things so easily. But technology should better lives, and not cheapen it, which it oft…

> it will never replace sitting next to someone and them showing you photos It definitely does replace that. It sucks so much to be trapped next to someone showing you their photo album or vacation slides, when you don’t really care, that this became a stock scene in 20th-century comedy TV series and films. Nowadays when people are sharing their photos online, that gives their peers the choice of whether to look or w…

You’re talking about _being shown_ photos you don’t care about, while GP is talking about showing your own photos to someone. I agree with the example you’re discussing, though.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#84

Post by DanielleMolloy »

yorwba wrote: post #5
didntcheck wrote: post #4

See also: Librivox [1], for public-domain audio books read by actual humans [1] https://librivox.org/

Most likely the AI was actually trained on LibriVox, potentially even on largely the same books... EDIT: The first book on the list https://marhamilresearch4.blob.core.windows.net/gutenberg-pu... is "100%: the Story of a Patriot" and the LibriVox version is at https://librivox.org/100-the-story-of-a-patriot-by-upton-sin...

Not a good idea then. The librivox experience turned me away from professionally read audiobooks for far too long.

Amateur readers are hit & miss. A lot of professional readers are actors or have a lot of experience. There is a reason people do pay for professionally read books instead of electronic reading or librivox only.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#85

Post by hedora »

low_tech_love wrote: post #13
pjmlp wrote: post #6

Yet another example on how jobs will go away, goodbye voice actors.

I am an avid consumer of audiobooks and I will never pay/listen to anything AI-generated. Maybe it's just me, I don't know, but just because they have shown that it is technically feasible, that doesn't mean that there is a market for it. I am skeptical. Listening to audiobooks is already a compromise over reading the book, listening to an AI-generated audiobook sounds to me like a bit too much. But let's see.

Check out audio fiction podcasts. Some do full productions of short stories. Depending on the work, reading the text is a compromise over listening to the reading. For instance, music is extremely important to these two stories by Aliya Whiteley:

https://www.drabblecast.org/2007/12/20/drabblecast-43-jelly-...

Warning: the above has mild language and adult themes.

https://www.drabblecast.org/2010/07/27/drabblecast-173-go-be...

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#87

Post by ecshafer »

OfSanguineFire wrote: post #78
ecshafer wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like Louis CK said: "Everything is amazing and no one is happy." Everything is not amazing. Sure things are amazing from a technical perspective. But most tech advancements I think have been harmful to society in the last 30 years or so. Its awesome that computers are so powerful and we have awesome video and photos and can share things so easily. But technology should better lives, and not cheapen it, which it oft…

> it will never replace sitting next to someone and them showing you photos It definitely does replace that. It sucks so much to be trapped next to someone showing you their photo album or vacation slides, when you don’t really care, that this became a stock scene in 20th-century comedy TV series and films. Nowadays when people are sharing their photos online, that gives their peers the choice of whether to look or w…

The photo slide show of someone's vacation was a stock scene in comedies. But have you never sat down with family and went through old photos? Having conversations about where was that? who was this? who was this as a baby? Its a very different and much more personal experience than flipping through facebook.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#88

Post by prepend »

low_tech_love wrote: post #41
prepend wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But, we should ask if you would want to hang out with the voice actor at a party. I think the question is really “Will I be able to enjoy great books I otherwise would not have experienced?” For me, it’s not that these are superior or equivalent books to parents reading to their kid or voice actors; it’s whether I’ll listen to a book for free that I wouldn’t be able to afford $10-30.

Audible is $7.95 a month and you can listen to whatever book you want (like Spotify). If you’re not willing to go even with that in order to listen to an actual human, then maybe yeah, you can try AI.

Audible is $15/month and you get to choose one title.

I think you’re confusing audible today with audible of 20 years ago.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#89

Post by falcolas »

crop_rotation wrote: post #80
hedora wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI might dominate, but it would be a loss. Here’s a tutorial explaining modern audio fiction: https://www.drabblecast.org/2018/07/30/inside-drabblecast-au... (In audio format, of course; roughly 1.5 hours) ———— This episode takes you inside Drabblecast audio production. Ever wonder how we produce an episode of the Drabblecast? Wonder no more! We dig into all the technical aspects like voice acting, sound editing and…

It might be worse than human narration, but at some point the economics becomes so loopsided that it's dominance is inevitable. One good thing I can see coming out of that will be an abundance of audiobooks of copyright expired books.

Are the economics actually better, or do they look better due to a lack of quality control? Because no TTS - even the most current AI ones - are perfect. They need corrections, which involves a human's time. And it's time that dictates prices, not skill (which largely reduces time).

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#90

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

ecshafer wrote: post #87
OfSanguineFire wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it will never replace sitting next to someone and them showing you photos It definitely does replace that. It sucks so much to be trapped next to someone showing you their photo album or vacation slides, when you don’t really care, that this became a stock scene in 20th-century comedy TV series and films. Nowadays when people are sharing their photos online, that gives their peers the choice of whether to look or w…

The photo slide show of someone's vacation was a stock scene in comedies. But have you never sat down with family and went through old photos? Having conversations about where was that? who was this? who was this as a baby? Its a very different and much more personal experience than flipping through facebook.

He cherry-picked one of the three examples in your post and attacked it. He won't choose the other two because he has no argument for them. Ignore.
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