Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#1

Post by tiburon » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 2:56 AM UTC

Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio
websitevoice.com

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#2

Post by baroffoos » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 4:40 AM UTC

Don't have time to test it now. How does it sound? Is it better than the robotic text to speech voice we all know? Wonder if you can run this offline so you can save the files when you build your static site and no scripts are required on the frontend.

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#3

Post by tiburon » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 4:45 AM UTC

We created this free web app to convert articles to high-quality audio. Our mission is to help people with learning disabilities, those who prefer listening over reading, and who are always on the go to enjoy consuming your content online. Please give it a try and let us now what you think. Your feedback is highly appreciated :)

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#4

Post by tiburon » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 4:48 AM UTC

baroffoos wrote: post #2

Don't have time to test it now. How does it sound? Is it better than the robotic text to speech voice we all know? Wonder if you can run this offline so you can save the files when you build your static site and no scripts are required on the frontend.

It's certainly better than most TTS out there. We are developing AI in-house to make it as humanly sound as possible. There's always improvement need to be made, but we're getting there :) Your latter suggestion is definitely worth something to look at. Let me know once you've tested it out. We highly appreciate any feedback. Cheers!

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#5

Post by txtme » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:16 AM UTC

baroffoos wrote: post #2

Don't have time to test it now. How does it sound? Is it better than the robotic text to speech voice we all know? Wonder if you can run this offline so you can save the files when you build your static site and no scripts are required on the frontend.

The actual text to voice synthesis isn't acutally bad, but the audio quality is terrible. The audio artifacts are so bad I could barely listen to the demo snippets. It's too bad they ruined a quite good product by skimping on the most important quality, audio quality.

I wonder how OP missed this? Audio quality has to be flawless when using headphones for extended times. It's not like you need a lot of bits for audio, so it's not something you save on.

Please fix!

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#6

Post by txtme » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:18 AM UTC

tiburon wrote: post #3

We created this free web app to convert articles to high-quality audio. Our mission is to help people with learning disabilities, those who prefer listening over reading, and who are always on the go to enjoy consuming your content online. Please give it a try and let us now what you think. Your feedback is highly appreciated :)

The audio is anything but high quality!

Please use better compression settings.

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#7

Post by txtme » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:26 AM UTC

You should showcase your product better.

Add a text input box so that prospective users can try it themselves.

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#8

Post by mholt » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:30 AM UTC

txtme wrote: post #5

baroffoos wrote: post #2

Don't have time to test it now. How does it sound? Is it better than the robotic text to speech voice we all know? Wonder if you can run this offline so you can save the files when you build your static site and no scripts are required on the frontend.

The actual text to voice synthesis isn't acutally bad, but the audio quality is terrible. The audio artifacts are so bad I could barely listen to the demo snippets. It's too bad they ruined a quite good product by skimping on the most important quality, audio quality. I wonder how OP missed this? Audio quality has to be flawless when using headphones for extended times. It's not like you need a lot of bits for audio,…

Sounds good on my speakers

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#9

Post by txtme » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:34 AM UTC

mholt wrote: post #8

txtme wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual text to voice synthesis isn't acutally bad, but the audio quality is terrible. The audio artifacts are so bad I could barely listen to the demo snippets. It's too bad they ruined a quite good product by skimping on the most important quality, audio quality. I wonder how OP missed this? Audio quality has to be flawless when using headphones for extended times. It's not like you need a lot of bits for audio,…

Sounds good on my speakers

Headphones.

Re: Show HN: Convert blog articles to high-quality audio

#10

Post by philtar » Mon, Jan 07, 2019, 5:53 AM UTC

txtme wrote: post #5

baroffoos wrote: post #2

Don't have time to test it now. How does it sound? Is it better than the robotic text to speech voice we all know? Wonder if you can run this offline so you can save the files when you build your static site and no scripts are required on the frontend.

The actual text to voice synthesis isn't acutally bad, but the audio quality is terrible. The audio artifacts are so bad I could barely listen to the demo snippets. It's too bad they ruined a quite good product by skimping on the most important quality, audio quality. I wonder how OP missed this? Audio quality has to be flawless when using headphones for extended times. It's not like you need a lot of bits for audio,…

It's fine on my phone and laptop. I think you are the one with the issue.

I would delete my comments if I were you because you look like a jerk mentioning it 3 times in a post with 8 comments total. And it's not even true.