Automatic reader

Tburger · Aug 11, 2008

This is a cool site. You load the text of your story and a computer generated voice reads it back to you. Not perfect (it sounds like a computer) but it really helps highlight those troublesome spots in a story.

http://www.readthewords.com/

Haggis · Aug 11, 2008

Tburger said:
This is a cool site. You load the text of your story and a computer generated voice reads it back to you. Not perfect (it sounds like a computer) but it really helps highlight those troublesome spots in a story.

http://www.readthewords.com/

Pretty neat, T. Thanks for the link.

NeuroFizz · Aug 11, 2008

Oooooooh. Time to write some first person erotica...

Haggis · Aug 11, 2008

NeuroFizz said:
Oooooooh. Time to write some first person erotica...

*alerts the media*

crimsonlaw · Aug 11, 2008

NeuroFizz said:
Oooooooh. Time to write some first person erotica...

Wow. I'm so jealous of your genius!

David McAfee · Aug 11, 2008

NeuroFizz said:
Oooooooh. Time to write some first person erotica...

*points out the "sounds like a computer" part of T's original post"

Hmmm...first person erotica in a computer voice? You...uh...got a hankerin' for some hard metallic love, Fizz?

emeraldcite · Aug 11, 2008

Tburger said:
This is a cool site. You load the text of your story and a computer generated voice reads it back to you. Not perfect (it sounds like a computer) but it really helps highlight those troublesome spots in a story.

http://www.readthewords.com/

Thanks. Now, off I go to waste some hours instead of writing...

emeraldcite · Aug 11, 2008

okay, that's cool. it's like a stephen hawking auido book with a plot instead of physics!

and it actually sparked a cool idea.

Tburger · Aug 11, 2008

You guys are sick. Oh, except for emerald and Haggis. You're welcome!

emeraldcite · Aug 11, 2008

Oh, i'm sick.

I had the british woman say antidisestablishmentarianism, a long string of consonants and vowels, followed by a very select line from nine inch nail's "closer"...

It was, um, interesting.

stormie · Aug 11, 2008

I tried it on a synopsis I wrote. Not bad. In fact, it helped me pick out where I could improve.

Thanks for the link, Tburger

Tburger · Aug 11, 2008

emeraldcite said:
Oh, i'm sick.

I had the british woman say antidisestablishmentarianism, a long string of consonants and vowels, followed by a very select line from nine inch nail's "closer"...

It was, um, interesting.

LMAO!

Tburger · Aug 11, 2008

For some reason, I think Emily sounds the best. I tried the UK guy and the word snopak (military word for a type of boot) came through snot-pak. Then again, maybe I should have my characters wear snot-paks on their feet?

stormie · Aug 11, 2008

Yes, I tried a few of them and settled on Emily (US).

emeraldcite · Aug 11, 2008

Tburger said:
For some reason, I think Emily sounds the best. I tried the UK guy and the word snopak (military word for a type of boot) came through snot-pak. Then again, maybe I should have my characters wear snot-paks on their feet?

did you try sno packs? it might pronounce it better.

i think the site is neat and if i ever put anything up, i'd work it so it actually sounded natural. At least, as natural as a computer voice can sound. I have to admit that i was pleasantly surprised by the quality.

some of it sounded really good, some of it not so great...

although we haven't seen haggis around for a bit, so who knows what naughty things he's making that english minx say...

Tburger · Aug 11, 2008

Haggis is probably going to be there all day now!! Yeah, it depends heavily on puctuation, etc., and I noticed that for my stories where I use a thick southern/redneck accent it's hopeless. And you're right, with some work you can get it to sound OK.

Jcomp · Aug 11, 2008

David McAfee said:
You...uh...got a hankerin' for some hard metallic love, Fizz?

I just put that sentence into the reader. It takes on a whole, horrible new meaning...

CACTUSWENDY · Aug 11, 2008

I have used one of these for a couple of years now. It is fun. Sometimes I let the guy talk....sometimes the gal.

Never gave it a thought about doing something sexy........(will get back to you on that.)

David McAfee · Aug 11, 2008

Jcomp said:
I just put that sentence into the reader. It takes on a whole, horrible new meaning...

emeraldcite · Aug 11, 2008

we could all be writing right now....

http://www.readthewords.com/work/output/13121_text20226PM.txt.mp3

But there's something special about her, you know?

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 11, 2008

Dangit! Foiled!

I thought I'd be funny, and since they had a female speaker, I typed in the sampler. "Hi. I think you're an attractive hunk of man."

And then they switched it to a male voice!

Oh, I see now where you can change it.

HoraceJames · Aug 11, 2008

I've been using this one for a while, has four voices and you can control the speed. Also, you can change the voices mid-read so you can actually cast your dialog. Free download.

http://readplease.com/

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 11, 2008

Hey, that is pretty cool. I loaded chapter one of my novel. Dang, hearing it read, despite the word truncating and strange emphasis, it's pretty well written -- if I do say so myself.

Reminds me of chapter a day on NPR.

JoNightshade · Aug 11, 2008

Ha! This is so cool. I put the first page or two of my novel in. Hearing it read, sitting here in my room by myself, I actually found myself all red-faced and embarrassed. But it sounds pretty darn good!

Cranky · Aug 11, 2008

Huh, weird. I could barely get it to say a full sentence. The last bit of it got all scrambled up, too.

I'm a techno-looser, I think.

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