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Audio Books

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Audio Books
Post by KaldaraFox   » Fri Oct 11, 2024 7:32 pm

KaldaraFox
Midshipman

Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2024 7:22 pm

I don't want to get in trouble here. I checked "Dead Horses" and I searched for "audiobook" and couldn't find anything.

I really want a audiobook of this series that doesn't make me cringe every time I hear the word "Manticoran" so monstrously mispronounced.

It's jarring. I rips me out of the joyful immersion that would otherwise be available to me if this weren't happening.

I know Mr. Weber fell on his sword in taking responsibility for the error, but no reasonable English speaker, certainly not one who does it for a living, should have asked if the correct pronunciation for that word was "man-TICK-or-an" in the first place.

I'd settle for a robot voice reading it if that's all the budget will allow, but as it is, it's just not listenable.

I'm old (64) and my ability to actually read is failing with vision issues that can't all be correct. I'd really like to be able to enjoy this once that process is complete, but I just can't.

If I could extract it from the Kindle files I'd run it through a voice generator on my own but there would be licensing issues with that even for personal use and I don't know how to jailbreak Kindle files anyway.

Anyway, I don't mean to stir a pot that may have already been stirred. My searches didn't find anything, but I could have missed a search key.

I love the series and the expansions to it.

I'd just like to go on loving it as I go blind.
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Re: Audio Books
Post by markusschaber   » Mon Oct 14, 2024 9:18 am

markusschaber
Lieutenant Commander

Posts: 149
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2022 3:37 pm

KaldaraFox wrote:If I could extract it from the Kindle files I'd run it through a voice generator on my own but there would be licensing issues with that even for personal use and I don't know how to jailbreak Kindle files anyway.


The ebooks bought directly from Baen Books are DRM free, and in several open formats. Thus, they could be fed to any TTS engine of your trust.

On the other hand, I don't know whether AI voices know how to pronounce "Manticoran" correctly, either.
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Re: Audio Books
Post by Theemile   » Mon Oct 14, 2024 10:43 am

Theemile
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 5241
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:50 pm
Location: All over the Place - Now Serving Dublin, OH

markusschaber wrote:
The ebooks bought directly from Baen Books are DRM free, and in several open formats. Thus, they could be fed to any TTS engine of your trust.

On the other hand, I don't know whether AI voices know how to pronounce "Manticoran" correctly, either.


Up through Mission of Honor, Hardcovers included a free CD with the entire Honorverse back catalogue and other intro books. you can still download those CDs here:

https://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/

the CDs include Html, RTF, Kindle, and Epub versions you can try to convert.
******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships."
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Re: Audio Books
Post by KaldaraFox   » Wed Oct 16, 2024 8:47 am

KaldaraFox
Midshipman

Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2024 7:22 pm

markusschaber wrote:
KaldaraFox wrote:If I could extract it from the Kindle files I'd run it through a voice generator on my own but there would be licensing issues with that even for personal use and I don't know how to jailbreak Kindle files anyway.


The ebooks bought directly from Baen Books are DRM free, and in several open formats. Thus, they could be fed to any TTS engine of your trust.

On the other hand, I don't know whether AI voices know how to pronounce "Manticoran" correctly, either.
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Re: Audio Books
Post by penny   » Wed Oct 16, 2024 10:39 am

penny
Rear Admiral

Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2023 11:55 am

KaldaraFox wrote:I don't want to get in trouble here. I checked "Dead Horses" and I searched for "audiobook" and couldn't find anything.

I really want a audiobook of this series that doesn't make me cringe every time I hear the word "Manticoran" so monstrously mispronounced.

It's jarring. I rips me out of the joyful immersion that would otherwise be available to me if this weren't happening.

I know Mr. Weber fell on his sword in taking responsibility for the error, but no reasonable English speaker, certainly not one who does it for a living, should have asked if the correct pronunciation for that word was "man-TICK-or-an" in the first place.

I'd settle for a robot voice reading it if that's all the budget will allow, but as it is, it's just not listenable.

I'm old (64) and my ability to actually read is failing with vision issues that can't all be correct. I'd really like to be able to enjoy this once that process is complete, but I just can't.

If I could extract it from the Kindle files I'd run it through a voice generator on my own but there would be licensing issues with that even for personal use and I don't know how to jailbreak Kindle files anyway.

Anyway, I don't mean to stir a pot that may have already been stirred. My searches didn't find anything, but I could have missed a search key.

I love the series and the expansions to it.

I'd just like to go on loving it as I go blind.

I agree. That really is a horrible pronunciation. I've complained about it here and there teasingly. The worse part of it for me is that I heard the pronunciation before I heard David say it was a mistake. So, I was besides myself thinking the audio pronunciation was correct and that I had simply been pronouncing it incorrectly for years. Well, I was stubborn and refused to pronounce it any other way. At least I could breathe easier when David said it was a mistake.

But, if you get the rtf version of the story, you could do a search and replace for every instance of Manticoran and replace it with what works. Like Mantacoran. Or Mantycoran or whatever works.

BTW, WELCOME to the Forum.


I wonder if there is a high-end configurable audiobook reader.
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The artist formerly known as cthia.

Now I can talk in the third person.
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Re: Audio Books
Post by Brigade XO   » Thu Oct 24, 2024 6:43 pm

Brigade XO
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Posts: 3190
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2009 12:31 pm
Location: KY

It matters a great deal who you get to do the audio performance and their capabilities plus any little quirks of the performers, often actors who are quite good at what they do. But it gets iffy if the reader doesn't know how to pronounce something and or it just isn't something that slides off their tongue as being "different". Somebody- the director etc- should find out how something is supposed to sound if the Talent is having a problem.

There are two complete sets of the Harry Potter series I have listened to. The first one was done by Jim Dale who can consistently do the many characters with differnt voices in the books he works with That's voice as in personality "male or female", accents and cadence etc. He's an American if you haven't head any of his stuff.

Then there is Stephen Fry (who is British) and does a masterful job as well including very good using different voices (but not so much male or female just reading) but with fitting British pronunciation and cadence for the differnt characters so you also get the impression of what class they are in society etc- and there is a funny story that goes with his Potter series work.

As told in one article, he had been hired to do the series early in the writing sequence of the books to do the audio books but at the time he really wasn't familiar with J.K. Rowling and he had a problem saying "pocketted" as in "he pocketted the.....". When he did meet Rowling he asked her if she could not use that word and apparently that annoyed her- so she made it a point to use it at least once in every one of the following novels. And you can hear his struggle with that word each time.

I liked both but the later Fry series just sounds better. We use them on long road trips
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Re: Audio Books
Post by Theemile   » Fri Oct 25, 2024 8:17 am

Theemile
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 5241
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:50 pm
Location: All over the Place - Now Serving Dublin, OH

Brigade XO wrote:It matters a great deal who you get to do the audio performance and their capabilities plus any little quirks of the performers, often actors who are quite good at what they do. But it gets iffy if the reader doesn't know how to pronounce something and or it just isn't something that slides off their tongue as being "different". Somebody- the director etc- should find out how something is supposed to sound if the Talent is having a problem.

There are two complete sets of the Harry Potter series I have listened to. The first one was done by Jim Dale who can consistently do the many characters with differnt voices in the books he works with That's voice as in personality "male or female", accents and cadence etc. He's an American if you haven't head any of his stuff.

Then there is Stephen Fry (who is British) and does a masterful job as well including very good using different voices (but not so much male or female just reading) but with fitting British pronunciation and cadence for the differnt characters so you also get the impression of what class they are in society etc- and there is a funny story that goes with his Potter series work.

As told in one article, he had been hired to do the series early in the writing sequence of the books to do the audio books but at the time he really wasn't familiar with J.K. Rowling and he had a problem saying "pocketted" as in "he pocketted the.....". When he did meet Rowling he asked her if she could not use that word and apparently that annoyed her- so she made it a point to use it at least once in every one of the following novels. And you can hear his struggle with that word each time.

I liked both but the later Fry series just sounds better. We use them on long road trips


Benedict Cumberbatch voiced a nature documentary focused on the Antarctic a few years ago, and throughout the doc, he repeatedly pronounced "Penguins"... "Pen Wings". No one stopped him or corrected him through hundreds of references to the flightless birds. Later he was completely embarrassed by it and spoke of it on Graham Norton. He was just nervous, stressed, and "in the zone", not realizing what he was (and wasn't) saying.
******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships."
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