Free public domain audiobooks
librivox.org
Free public domain audiobooks
1–10 of 67 posts
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#2I listened to Treasure Island[0] on librivox and was impressed with the quality of the voice actor (Adrian Praetzellis). Beware though, some books are fragmented and performed by N different voice actors/actresses which can be jarring.
[0] https://librivox.org/treasure-island-by-robert-louis-stevens...
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#3It's been a while since I've listened to something on librivox. When I did, it was hit or miss in terms of narrator quality (as you'd expect from a volunteer-led initiative). If you have access to something like Overdrive or Libby through your public library, I'd check there first. You'll probably be more satisfied with a professionally recorded audiobook.
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#4As a learner of French, I absolutely love Librivox. Science fiction (Jules Verne), fairy tales (Charles Perrault), poetry (Charles Baudelaire), novels (Victor Hugo) -- there is so much really good source material in French. However, as one would expect from a free/public domain resource, classics over 100 years old are well covered... But for anything newer, you'll probably need Audible*...
*edit: Or check out audiobooks from your local library!
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#5For a technical audience, I would look at some TTS (text to speech) programs especially by google and IBM.
It's definitely robotic and nothing like a nice narrator but audiobooks are amazing regardless. And your mind actually starts filling in the emotional blanks. It can also be really cool to use like internet archive's scanned book's OCR -> TTS and make an audiobook from a cool old book that would never be professionally narrated
And for anyone who listens to a lot of audio, I'd look into using an audio equalizer. Pulling down the high frequencies (especially for some woman narrators) makes it more comfortable after many hours of listening. On android the "Smart audiobook" app has this and it's really nice. Maybe some headphones/android phones can do this globally
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#6I am very thankful for librivox. I have listened to "Heretics", "Orthodoxy", and "Against Eugenics and Other Evils" by G.K. Chesterton. I've also listened to some works of St. Patrick read by librivox contributors, quality has been very high (exceptional when you consider that it was all for free).
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#7For a technical audience, I would look at some TTS (text to speech) programs especially by google and IBM. It's definitely robotic and nothing like a nice narrator but audiobooks are amazing regardless. And your mind actually starts filling in the emotional blanks. It can also be really cool to use like internet archive's scanned book's OCR -> TTS and make an audiobook from a cool old book that would never be profess…
highly recommend @Voice Aloud Reader (TTS Reader) on Android too
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#8For a technical audience, I would look at some TTS (text to speech) programs especially by google and IBM. It's definitely robotic and nothing like a nice narrator but audiobooks are amazing regardless. And your mind actually starts filling in the emotional blanks. It can also be really cool to use like internet archive's scanned book's OCR -> TTS and make an audiobook from a cool old book that would never be profess…
iPhone users can enable Spoken Content.
Open an ebook. Swipe down with two fingers. Instant audio book.
Also, you can select the Voices option (under Spoken Content) to download high quality Siri voices.
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#9I've downloaded these audiobooks for my grandad (in german). He really enjoyed listening to the stories. Thanks to all the volunteers for their hard work !
Re: Free public domain audiobooks
#10Any Android app recommendations that let me access LibriVox contents?