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Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

claudio.uk

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Re: Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

#21

Post by laserbeam »

On the one hand, this is very convenient. Probably cool for some non-fiction.

On the other, some of my favorite audio books all stood out because the narrator was interpreting the text really well, for example by changing the pacing during chaotic moments. Or those audiobooks with multiple narrators and different voices for each character. Not to mention that sometimes the only cue you get for who's speaking during dialogue is how the voice actor changes their tone. I have mixed feelings about using this and losing some of that quality.

I would totally use this over amateur ebooks or public domain audiobooks like the ones on project guttenberg. As cool as it is/was for someone to contribute to free books... as a listener it was always jarring to switch to a new chapter and hear a completely different voice and microphone quality for no reason.

Re: Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

#22

Post by benatkin »

vinni2 wrote: post #11
qurashee wrote: post #4

This looks incredible! I’ve had an idea simmering in the back of my mind for a while now: creating an audiobook from an ebook for my commute using the voice of a specific audiobook narrator I really enjoy. The concept struck me after coming across the Infinite Conversation project here on HN. Unfortunately, I just haven’t found the time to bring it to life yet. :(

What about the copyright issue? You can’t mimic the voice of a narrator without their consent. OpenAI landed in trouble after using Scarlett Johansson’s voice in a demo. https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24161253/scarlett-johanss...

She only won in that OpenAI decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

Re: Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

#23

Post by amrrs »

vinni2 wrote: post #11
qurashee wrote: post #4

This looks incredible! I’ve had an idea simmering in the back of my mind for a while now: creating an audiobook from an ebook for my commute using the voice of a specific audiobook narrator I really enjoy. The concept struck me after coming across the Infinite Conversation project here on HN. Unfortunately, I just haven’t found the time to bring it to life yet. :(

What about the copyright issue? You can’t mimic the voice of a narrator without their consent. OpenAI landed in trouble after using Scarlett Johansson’s voice in a demo. https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24161253/scarlett-johanss...

Kokoro really mentions that they used only permissive licensed voice

Re: Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

#26

Post by ahoka »

laserbeam wrote: post #21

On the one hand, this is very convenient. Probably cool for some non-fiction. On the other, some of my favorite audio books all stood out because the narrator was interpreting the text really well, for example by changing the pacing during chaotic moments. Or those audiobooks with multiple narrators and different voices for each character. Not to mention that sometimes the only cue you get for who's speaking during d…

I guess this is still very useful if you are blind.

Re: Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

#27

Post by loktarogar »

ahoka wrote: post #26
laserbeam wrote: post #21

On the one hand, this is very convenient. Probably cool for some non-fiction. On the other, some of my favorite audio books all stood out because the narrator was interpreting the text really well, for example by changing the pacing during chaotic moments. Or those audiobooks with multiple narrators and different voices for each character. Not to mention that sometimes the only cue you get for who's speaking during d…

I guess this is still very useful if you are blind.

Yeah, for accessibility purposes on things that aren't already narrated, this is kind of thing is huge.

Re: Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

#28

Post by qurashee »

notachatbot123 wrote: post #14
vinni2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the copyright issue? You can’t mimic the voice of a narrator without their consent. OpenAI landed in trouble after using Scarlett Johansson’s voice in a demo. https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24161253/scarlett-johanss...

No limitations on this kind of thing if you are in private use.

Indeed I was thinking about private use only.

Re: Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

#29

Post by calgoo »

cess11 wrote: post #6

I would for sure not want this for fiction, it's too obvious that the voice has no understanding whatsoever of the text, but it's probably pretty nice for converting short news texts or notifications to audio.

Audible has thousands of books available "for free" with their membership that are all AI generated. I was the same in the start, but after listening to a few, it really comes down to the voice used. I spent 8h on a plane listening to 1 book, and there was maybe 5 occasions where i had an issue with the voice; and i think all where just "AI weirdness", similar to chat LLMs messing up simple sentence structure or image generating LLMs adding an extra finger.

Re: Generate audiobooks from E-books with Kokoro-82M

#30

Post by InsideOutSanta »

pprotas wrote: post #25

I would love to have an e-reader that allows me to switch between text and audio at the press of a button. Imagine reading your book on the couch and then switching into audio mode while doing the dishes seamlessly, by connecting bluetooth headphones.

Kindles used to provide this feature, but publishers and/or the Authors Guild stopped it, because audio rights and text rights are handled differently. In other words, when Amazon sells you a text book, it does not have the right to then also do TTS on that text and let you listen to it.

There's some contemporary discussion of what happened here: https://tidbits.com/2009/03/02/why-the-kindle-2-should-speak...

I think there is still integration with Audible, though. If you buy a book on the Kindle and on Audible, the position will sync, and you can switch between listening and reading without losing your place in the book.

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