Audio Recording of James Allen's Book "As a Man Thinketh" using Synthetic Speech

Audio Recording of James Allen's Book "As A Man Thinketh" using Synthetic Speech

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I have come across a software program that does a better than average job of converting text into speech. If you want to hear a short example lasting about a minute, go to http://www.poweraffirmations.com/audio/example.mp3.

Using this program, I have created an audio copy of James Allen's classic "As a Man Thinketh" (which is in the public domain). Click on the link to download the zipped m4b file (a compressed format similar to mp3, but which has a floating bookmark so that you don't lose your place). FYI, the file is about 14.4 megabytes, so depending on your connection, the download could take a while. If you need to download a player that will play this type of format, you can download Apple's ITunes at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.

You can certainly tell that the speech is synthetic. Here is a short summary of both disadvantages and advantages to the program:

First the disadvantages:

The biggest disadvantage is legal rather than technical. If you want to create files for others to hear using the best voices, you have to pay a substantial additional license fee. After shopping around, I picked the best voice I could find that was also affordable so I can use the technique to create files I can offer to others.
Even with the best voices, the speech can be a little choppy at times. Some of the words are occasionally mispronounced.
As you can imagine, the recording is not as expressive as it would be if the text were read by a human being.
If you use the software for affirmations, which are repeated several times, every sentence comes out exactly the same. So, it can get a little stale--especially for short affirmations.

Now the great news!:

Even though the voices still sound synthetic (dare I say, electronic), it's much easier to get used to them than I thought it would be.

If you want to use the software and voices for personal use (without any distribution of the recordings to others), even the best voices available are very affordable. This means you can transform any written text you want--such as personal affirmations that you have written, notes from books, etc. into recorded speech without the expense or hassle of going to a recording studio. They have made the process of creating the recordings incredibly easy.

For older works that are in the public domain, it is one way to make recordings of classics that are currently unavailable any other way. Maybe it's just me, but I find that I learn and absorb material much faster by listening to recordings than by reading alone. This software means I'll be able to listen to more new material than ever before for very little additional cost.
If you use it for affirmations, it works better for longer affirmations than shorter ones.
You can save the audio as an MP3 file that can be loaded on your IPod or other MP3 player for portable listening. Once you have the file as an MP3, it is easy to convert it to other formats using software readily available. The point is, it is easy to make the audio content mobile.

In short, even given the current disadvantages, this is a GREAT tool for creating customized personal audio content for very little money, in very little time. You avoid having to go to a studio or having to deal with background noise if you record at home. No retakes. Any editing is done using a simple word processor. And, the technology is only bound to get better.

Using this tool, it is my intention to begin creating a large number of audio files of articles that I have written plus classic positive thinking literature that is in the public domain (where I can find them). If you have any interest in ordering the software so you can create your own audio for your personal use (with better voices), send me an email and I will let you know how to get it. You can get virtually everything you need for a little over $50.

I actually spent much more than this as I downloaded multiple voices for testing. I will be putting together a web page in the near future to outline my recommendations for the best current text-to-speech solution I was able to find.

Let's fill the world with positive thought.