Best AI Text-to-Speech to read back to you!

[Demesnedenoir]

I have no doubt the enterprise level is great, but the inflections miss here and there. It does a great job in general, and if/when it has ways to influence the inflections and pronunciation better than trial and error, it will be more impressive still. I took a sample in Adobe Audition and started playing with paragraph breaks, dramatic pauses, and slowing down some of the speech, and it sounded better and better, but there is one question inflection that is awkward as heck.

And IF it were totally free, it would be great to read your text back to you to catch errors and other oddities.

 

[R. R. Hunter]

I think AI already has a stigma in the writing and reading communities. Tor Publishing recently made a booboo when they announced and previewed the upcoming sci-fi novel Fractal Noise. It turns out that the front cover was generated by AI, which generated a lot of flak for the company. They said it was a mistake and they did not know.

This kind of stuff could certainly be used by indie writers looking to self-publish and advertise their works. Can it be used for a full audiobook? Maybe, but it would take a lot of effort to make it of decent quality. Can it be used to VO a short advertisement? Sure thing, no problem, my guy!

I haven't seen the full suite of tools that 11labs offers paid members, but if you can't change the way a specific voice sounds, then it will make listening to dialogue downright disgusting.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Spot on for the time being. The voice part is relatively easy, the acting part is not. However, some audiobooks I've sampled are so bad that the AI might be an improvement, LOL. The stigma will fade.

With AI Art what I could seriously see doing is coming up with some base images and then handing them off to a graphic artist. I mean really, it isn't much different than the manipulation of stock art that forms the basis of many indie covers, except it will be MORE original because so much stock art is used over and over again.

I'm one of those people who struggles to listen to audiobooks. I might be able to do a chapter a day before I can't stand it, so I'm not the best judge. I know some people really want performance, and others just want a straight read. Audio adds another layer of "you can't please everybody."

I think AI already has a stigma in the writing and reading communities. Tor Publishing recently made a booboo when they announced and previewed the upcoming sci-fi novel Fractal Noise. It turns out that the front cover was generated by AI, which generated a lot of flak for the company. They said it was a mistake and they did not know.

This kind of stuff could certainly be used by indie writers looking to self-publish and advertise their works. Can it be used for a full audiobook? Maybe, but it would take a lot of effort to make it of decent quality. Can it be used to VO a short advertisement? Sure thing, no problem, my guy!

I haven't seen the full suite of tools that 11labs offers paid members, but if you can't change the way a specific voice sounds, then it will make listening to dialogue downright disgusting.

 

[pmmg]

Well...we might be the buggy whip manufactures when the automobile came out. It may just be adapt or die.

I'll hold out, but I'll also be trying to understand it. If art becomes just 'look what I did with AI', I wont think much of it. I already think all the CGI in movies is far less cool than it is meant to be. Producers may be like Wow, look at all our flying objects and explosions, and I just think its boring. I call it CGI boring. I think I may start saying AI yawn.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

It's a shiny new toy right now, or as I said to a friend, it's like that an attractive person at the bar, in the dark, with flashing lights, and you've had a few drinks, but when you take a long sober look in the daylight, it isn't as beautiful as it seems, heh heh.

That said, I'd rather figure a way to harness the energy of a possible tsunami instead of waiting for it to wipe me out, even if I hope it doesn't come at all.

Well...we might be the buggy whip manufactures when the automobile came out. It may just be adapt or die.

I'll hold out, but I'll also be trying to understand it. If art becomes just 'look what I did with AI', I wont think much of it. I already think all the CGI in movies is far less cool than it is meant to be. Producers may be like Wow, look at all our flying objects and explosions, and I just think its boring. I call it CGI boring. I think I may start saying AI yawn.

 

[R. R. Hunter]

Well...

Haha! I just noticed your new rules lol

 

[pmmg]

What rules? Just adapting with the times

 

[Penpilot]

Well...we might be the buggy whip manufactures when the automobile came out. It may just be adapt or die.

I'll hold out, but I'll also be trying to understand it. If art becomes just 'look what I did with AI', I wont think much of it. I already think all the CGI in movies is far less cool than it is meant to be. Producers may be like Wow, look at all our flying objects and explosions, and I just think its boring. I call it CGI boring. I think I may start saying AI yawn.

To me, as great as CGI can look, without a compelling story behind it, it's like looking at a picture of a model on a magazine cover. Nice to look at in the moment, but it's not real. It doesn't evoke anything other than a shug and cool. If the story is compelling, the effects could be paper mache hand puppets, and I'd be emotionally engaged.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I think AI already has a stigma in the writing and reading communities.

The stigma will fade as the quality improves. If you go back 20 years then "self-publishing" had an ever bigger stigma attached to it. It meant you had failed as an author, that no one wanted your novel, and that you were desperate. Then the indie revolution happened, and that all changed. Note, there are still plenty of people who frown upon indie novels and consider them inferior somehow. But it has become the default option for many writers, and there are plenty of indie books of the same or better quality as trad novels.

The same will happen with audio books. Yes, currently humans reading them are still better (most of the time...). However, it also costs something like $2.000 to create. If you add in that the average book sells in single figures, then that is not an option for 90% of authors. It's just too expensive. So, we're at the point where the choice is not to have an audiobook or pay a small amount and have an AI narrated audiobook. Or even do it for free. Google already has a service in a few countries where they give you a free AI narrator if you put it in their store. That's a pretty good deal if you ask me.

As a side note, there is also a large group of people for who it doesn't matter who narrated the novel. I've heard from plenty of people that they listen to audiobooks at double speed. Which removes a lot of the finer nuances a human narrator gives. Why then pay $2.000 when you can have it for just 10% of that amount?

 

[R. R. Hunter]

Haha! I searched for books narrated by elevenLabs AI, and came across a reading of The Hobbit by an AI Stephen Fry (from elevenLabs). They took down the YouTube video, but it has been archived, and it's not bad. (linked below).

Why then pay $2.000 when you can have it for just 10% of that amount?

Yes. It's a golden opportunity for AI Voice Companies indie authors. There will be a flood of audiobooks, but that is only good for readers/listeners lol

edit: did not link properly. remove the spaces on both sides of archive if curious.
https://web. archive .org/web/20230125023726/https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=VTTtLMbRwA4