What are people reading, what speed?

[jnuttallphd]

Hello TextAloud users:

Just interested in what people are reading and at what speed.
1) I read NY Times on line @ 170 wpm /voice Mike
2) News on internet website MSNNews, BBC, ect @ 170 wpm / vloice Mike
3) Scientific American e-text version @ 145 wpm /voice Mike Crystal mp3
4) Fiction lately "Time Machine" @ 145 wpm /voices round robin ATT mp3

Jim N

[BJ]

I'm trying out different voices at different speeds, but seem to be leaning towards using the default speeds for AT&T's Mike and Crystal. I'm holding off buying more voices until I learn more about the how-to's of making the best quality audio file in Mp3 that I can. Currently I trying to turn a number of articles from old radio magazines such as "Tune-In" and "Radio TV Mirror" into Mp3 files.

I'd love to find magazines, books, etc. already in text form or even in audio form. Can anyone recommend such sites?

Thanks,
B.J.

[kraeder]

I've been using both Mike and Crystal, ATT default voices, at speed 6. This is a bit faster than normal speaking speed; so I can read more in less time. I don't know what the words per minute are. I've tried slowing them down, and it does sound a bit better, but I get impatient waiting to hear what comes next and will inevitably turn the speed back up to six.

I'm still scoping for quality free reading material online. I've got the NY times, the Boston Globe (I'm from Boston), Time Magazine, and the Atlantic Monthly so far. I use the IRC to get novels in txt format. There's a great selection to be found there.

[BJ]

Could we create a list of web sites that have eBooks and eTexts? Kraemder mentioned The Online Book Page at digital.library.upenn.edu/books. A couple others are Project Gutenberg www.promo.net/pg/ and the Electronic Text Center etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/

I'd love to find more, especially online magazine and newspapers without all the pop-ups, and advertisements (they are a pain to get rid of when trying to convert to mp3).

B.J.

[Jim B.]

I’ve subscribed to several news services with daily reports, and my Inbox fills up fast.

To work through the enormous amount of reading material I receive I had to force myself to listen faster and faster and faster. Ken White, at NextUp, knows I’ve been working at this for a few years now and I am truly grateful for all the impeccable support he and his team have provided me.

I now comfortably listen to the AT&T Crystal voice set at 10, that’s about 425 words per minute. My goal is to work up to the 500 wpm range by next summer. I have listened to Crystal set at 14 and I can understand most of what she is saying.

For those of you using desktop speakers and wondering how that is possible let me share with you the trick to listening faster, you need good comfortable headphones.

Jim B.

[jnuttallphd]

Hello JB:

Interesting your experience with fast reading. I have low vision and dyslexia. As I mentioned that when I went through school, I would read audiotapes speed up to Mickey Mouse voices in order to get through the material. Are you just reading news service type material? Are these materials for work? I'll try a little speed reading myself to see how it goes.

Jim

[Jim B.]

I do read/listen to a lot of news service material. I usually start my day by reading the “Opinion Journal” articles. http://www.opinionjournal.com This is a free service. I then rummage around Townhall.com for additional thought provoking insights. http://www.townhall.com While I’m filling my head with the opinions of many well respected talking heads I’m also getting my brain up to speed for fast listening. I usually set the voice a few notches higher then my comfort zone so that when I do start reading work related materials and online tech manuals with Crystal set at 10 it sounds normal and yes I can understand every word at that speed.


I also really enjoy listening to the free books at Project Gutenberg. http://promo.net/pg/ This web site is a virtual gold mine. I think they have almost 10,000 books available for free.

Jim B.

[jnuttallphd]

Hello JB:


Glad your experience with Gutenberg is a good one.

I generally like to read/listen to current popular science. So I convert Scientific American to MP3 or a scan the book using FineReader Pro scanning software and then I take the text and make an e-book. It is nicer when you can find text that you don't have to fiddle with. But generally science stuff requires some working around to get it into a text file.

Jim -- Michigan

[Jim B.]

Then you may enjoy these sites, if you don’t have links to them already.

World of Science - www.scienceworld.com

ScientificAmerican.com - www.sciam.com

NewScientist.com - www.newscientist.com

Enjoy.
Jim B.

[Guest]

How do you get these publications in a manner that TextAloud likes?
Do you have to go to each article and copy and paste?
Thanks

I'm still scoping for quality free reading material online. I've got the NY times, the Boston Globe (I'm from Boston), Time Magazine, and the Atlantic Monthly so far. I use the IRC to get novels in txt format. There's a great selection to be found there.

[jnuttallphd]

In order to read with TextAloud you cut/past or use a designated keyboard command which you can set up inside TextAloud to start the reading (miscellaneous tab > hot keys). I like the hotkey method.
Otherwise, you create text files so that TextAloud can read the file or make an MP3 of the file.
Jim -- Michigan

[paulwalth]

I'm very impressed with your speed listening. I've found my upper limits to vary from the low 300's to the mid 300's (SAPI4), depending on the topic and writing style of what I'm reading. How long did it take you to get up to that speed? Do you watch the computer highlight each word as you read or is that not necessary? I know that not every word is pronounced correctly when the computer reads stuff back to me, sometimes even for words it shouldn't make mistakes with (although this is rare.) However, I would think that this mispronounciation would effectively lower the ceiling of what you can really listen to and hear every word from what it might othewise be.

I usually set the voice a few notches higher then my comfort zone so that when I do start reading work related materials and online tech manuals with Crystal set at 10 it sounds normal and yes I can understand every word at that speed.


Jim B.

[Jim B.]

I think I am well into my fourth year of using TextAloud. On average I would say I use TextAloud at least two hours a day, some times a lot more. I do read a lot with the highlighted curser but I also listen to material I have recorded with TextAloud on my MP3 player while commuting back and forth to work. This usually beats listening to the Radio. Using the Pronunciation Editor I have entered almost 1500 words and acronyms. Listening at 6 to 8 words per second, ciphering acronyms can be very distracting. Crystal can read a lot faster then I can so I am willing to cut her some slack on a few mispronounced words.

Jim B.

[jnuttallphd]

Hello there:

I generally spend most of my time reading science articles and technical materials. I like to listen with my MP3 player. So I generally listen at about 160 wpm for this kind of material.

Jim -- Michigan

[Guest]

For these websites - do you actually go into every article link and then select/hotkey each article individually? I find that very time consuming, if I'm trying to grab stuff before going to work in the morning!

Hello TextAloud users:

Just interested in what people are reading and at what speed.
1) I read NY Times on line @ 170 wpm /voice Mike
2) News on internet website MSNNews, BBC, ect @ 170 wpm / vloice Mike
3) Scientific American e-text version @ 145 wpm /voice Mike Crystal mp3
4) Fiction lately "Time Machine" @ 145 wpm /voices round robin ATT mp3

Jim N

[jnuttallphd]

Jim B. mentions that he subscribes to some news services would send information to his e-mail. I personally lookup web pages and simply read what I like. But if you're looking to convert to MP3 I would get some kind of news service/summary. Post as a new posting asking for information on news services.
Jim -- Michigan

[entryreqrd]

I downloaded the TextAloud software for evaluation in the evening of 2/13/04, Since then using mostly Guttenberg ebooks I have read Melville's "Moby Dick" & "Beneto Cerono", Kipling's "The Man who would be King" & "Kim", "ANCIENT ROME FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES DOWN TO 476 A.D." BY ROBERT F. PENNELL, Henry James' Daisy Miller, THE AMERICAN NATION: A HISTORY vol I, EDWARD POTTS CHEYNEY, A M., a few Jack London Short Stories, and have used TextAloud to read some of my Daily News Emails which number between 400-600 per day from Reuters, AP, CNN, & Fox, and I am currently reading Outline of Universal History, George Park Fisher and Tolstoy's War & Peace. I am fairly impressed with the application, for the cost you can't go wrong with it. I have seen areas where the product can be improved, and as you have stated, voice speed is something that can be looked into further. Being limited to voices in the Eval. I only really have Mary with any speed to it. Mary goes up to 510 wpm, which for reading works of fiction, this rate can be increased greatly for my reading speed of works of fiction. Realizing that there is a practical limit to how fast a voice can be produced and still be intelligible, I have inquired about the possibility of having just the function of the cursor following the text without any voice. The ability to go through the text without losing your place utilizing the cursor alone is very valuable. I believe there is a much greater comprehension and retention of data when the text is read, as opposed to being heard, how ever I also believe that utilizing multiple senses, with the incorporation of voice invigorates your mind and provides an even greater potential for learning. I use the Round Robin function, but for now limited as I have not gone to Natural Voices, I think it is good to use to shake things up, to keep things stimulating. More senses going the more you learn.

A person's eyes should never leave the screen and should always push forward past the cursor and the voice. This is especially important, as the voice software cannot handle biographical, geographical, historic and foreign words. A reader left to the mercy of the voice server without the corrective aide of reading the actual words on the screen can become hopelessly lost. But I think we can read much faster then words can be understood at the same rate.

[Jim B.]

Dear entryreqrd,

Welcome to the club. For the first couple of years I used TextAloud I used the default Mary voice to read my stuff. About two years ago I took the dive and purchased a few AT&T voices and have not looked back since. I now use the Crystal voice about 95% of the time. Crystal’s voice quality and speaking ability are a huge leap forward compared to the default Mary voice. Honestly, I don’t even use Mary’s voice any more.

Rating the other AT&T voices in the family. As a benchmark, I think Crystal is the best of the bunch. Lauren and Julia’s speaking ability are nearly equal to each other and are almost as good as Crystals. Their voice pitch is different enough to provide character separation while using voice-switching tags. I often refer to Lauren and Julia’s voices as Crystal’s slightly younger sisters. Audrey is on par with Crystal’s speaking qualities. I refer to Audrey as Crystal’s slightly older cousin from the UK. The AT&T Ray and Mike voices are the male equivalent to Lauren and Julia. Rich’s voice quality is also inline with Ray and Mikes. I like to use Rich’s voice to read email from my Boss because Rich’s voice inflections are the closest to that of a Black Male’s voice.

That pretty much emptied out my Piggy bank at the time, so I can’t tell you much about the remaining available voices. In closing, if you are hooked on TextAloud, do your self a favor and get at least one of the AT&T voices I described above. It’s the Next best $30 you’ll be glad you spent.

Jim B.

[Okay]

Dear entryreqrd,

Welcome to the club. For the first couple of years I used TextAloud I used the default Mary voice to read my stuff. About two years ago I took the dive and purchased a few AT&T voices and have not looked back since. I now use the Crystal voice about 95% of the time. Crystal’s voice quality and speaking ability are a huge leap forward compared to the default Mary voice. Honestly, I don’t even use Mary’s voice any more.

Rating the other AT&T voices in the family. As a benchmark, I think Crystal is the best of the bunch. Lauren and Julia’s speaking ability are nearly equal to each other and are almost as good as Crystals. Their voice pitch is different enough to provide character separation while using voice-switching tags. I often refer to Lauren and Julia’s voices as Crystal’s slightly younger sisters. Audrey is on par with Crystal’s speaking qualities. I refer to Audrey as Crystal’s slightly older cousin from the UK. The AT&T Ray and Mike voices are the male equivalent to Lauren and Julia. Rich’s voice quality is also inline with Ray and Mikes. I like to use Rich’s voice to read email from my Boss because Rich’s voice inflections are the closest to that of a Black Male’s voice.

That pretty much emptied out my Piggy bank at the time, so I can’t tell you much about the remaining available voices. In closing, if you are hooked on TextAloud, do your self a favor and get at least one of the AT&T voices I described above. It’s the Next best $30 you’ll be glad you spent.

Jim B. 8)

[Okay]

Dear entryreqrd,

Welcome to the club. For the first couple of years I used TextAloud I used the default Mary voice to read my stuff. About two years ago I took the dive and purchased a few AT&T voices and have not looked back since. I now use the Crystal voice about 95% of the time. Crystal’s voice quality and speaking ability are a huge leap forward compared to the default Mary voice. Honestly, I don’t even use Mary’s voice any more.

Rating the other AT&T voices in the family. As a benchmark, I think Crystal is the best of the bunch. Lauren and Julia’s speaking ability are nearly equal to each other and are almost as good as Crystals. Their voice pitch is different enough to provide character separation while using voice-switching tags. I often refer to Lauren and Julia’s voices as Crystal’s slightly younger sisters. Audrey is on par with Crystal’s speaking qualities. I refer to Audrey as Crystal’s slightly older cousin from the UK. The AT&T Ray and Mike voices are the male equivalent to Lauren and Julia. Rich’s voice quality is also inline with Ray and Mikes. I like to use Rich’s voice to read email from my Boss because Rich’s voice inflections are the closest to that of a Black Male’s voice.

That pretty much emptied out my Piggy bank at the time, so I can’t tell you much about the remaining available voices. In closing, if you are hooked on TextAloud, do your self a favor and get at least one of the AT&T voices I described above. It’s the Next best $30 you’ll be glad you spent.

Jim B. 8)