I for one prefer TTS (at least with modern high quality voices) to human narration. Humans do not speak fast enough for my tastes. While there are tools that can do a certain amount of speed change without pitch change that is just too much work to be worth it for me. On 12/12/09, Valerie Maples <vlmaples@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I have to agree with Judy. As a matter of fact, Nichole would never listen > to a synthetic voice until the acapella voices that are now available on her > device. I don't know anyone who prefers TTS over audio books and most are > more than willing to pay for the alternative. The only people who learn to > accept TTS are those who need a wider range of books or budget constraints > make the other alternative unaffordable. Then there are people with auditory > processing disorders who do not even acknowledge TTS as speech as it is > processed slightly differently in the brain. > > In my opinion we need to constantly be exploring and expanding all mediums > all of text accessibility and in a cooperative effort like Bookshare, I > think that everyone comes out winners. I know that even though I have a > membership now I will probably almost exclusively be a volunteer due to time > constraints, but being a member will allow me to check how certain things > are handled in the final process or view how proofreaders have handled my > scans. > > Interesting dialogue everyone... > Valerie > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On >> Behalf Of Judy s. >> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 2:39 PM >> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Publishers and Bookshare As a Library >> >> I view the disabling of TTS as about as silly as the digital >> rights management. >> > <snip> >> I don't know a single sighted person, other than myself, who will >> willingly listen to listen to a book that they can read by >> listening to it in a synthetic voice. Me? I can't afford >> expensive audible downloads, and the NLS's offerings are very >> limited in my tastes, so listening to books via bookshare >> downloads using either DAISY or Text Aloud has become an acquired >> taste, one I've become used to and actually very much enjoy. >> >> If sighted readers were the least bit interested in hearing books >> read with a synthetic voice, I suspect the market would be >> flooded with that sort of book. Why? It is much cheaper for a >> book publisher to produce that en masse than it is to hire a >> professional reader and studio to produce the master for each and >> every book that becomes an audible book. >> >> I really doubt that sales of human-read audible books would waver >> one whit if ebooks had TTS enabled. It would expand the market of >> ebooks available to the sighted/disabled reader, but that's about it. >> >> Just my opinion. Grin. >> >> Judy s. > > > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of > available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. > > -- Soronel Haetir soronel.haetir@xxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.