[Athen] Turning Text into MP3

[Berkowitz, Daniel J]

Michelle,

The hardest part of turning text into MP3 is the front-end production
necessary to create clean documents that can be converted. There are a
number of programs that will Text-to-Speech encode text based documents
and create MP3 files. This feature is built in to programs such as
Kurzweil, some of the TextHelp line, items from Premiere, and others.

However, the more important part is having a workflow in place that will
allow you to create and/or format text documents that will easily TTS
build into MP3 files. Also of importance is being able to explain to
student end users what they will actually be provided. What the end
product will look (sound) like. It is easy to ask for MP3 - but not so
easy to produce. Unlike the well trained volunteer readers at RFB&D, a
computer program cannot tell what should be read in what order or
verbally explained or pointed out. 

Please allow me to provide a description I have found useful.

Imagine piece of choral music versus a single lyric strand. Now look at
some of the textbooks your students are requesting and imagine them as a
piece of vocal music. 

Some may have a single narrative strand and will be easy enough to do -
but what do you do about end notes on pages? Will these heard as a lead
singer with the occasional backup singer interjecting?

As books get more complicated so do the 'vocal' arrangements. Many
textbooks have side bars, cutouts, foot notes, charts and graphs and
other visual elements filled with text. In theory such documents could
be converted to MP3 but would sound like some off-the-wall Philip Glass
orchestration. More likely is that the MP3 software will crash.

What you need to do is find the central stream of text running through
the document. Strip away everything that is not part of this central
stream and focus the MP3 build on this flow. You have to treat end-users
of MP3 files as you would the old cassette recordings. The assumption
being these are non-VI users who will have the book in hand and be
reading along with the audio. They can see the stream even if they have
trouble swimming in it. 

Personally and professionally, I prefer to create DAISY Talking Books
with MP3 Text-to-Speech encoding. Within a DAISY folder can be found the
MP3 files that comprise the audio output. These can then be extracted
and handed to students as the MP3 files they want. At the same time you
will have created not only a DAISY book but you can also extract the
Text Source file and/or the HTML core files for students needing those. 

I know this sounds complicated -- and I do not deny that it can be. But
as you are finding out, the one-touch "solutions" also have their share
of complications. 

I may as well also throw in a plug for the Accessing Higher Ground
conference where such topics will be covered by the pros. 
http://www.colorado.edu/atconference/

Cheers --- Dann

 
=========================
Daniel Berkowitz - Assistant Director
Boston University Office of Disability Services
19 Deerfield Street, 2nd floor
Boston, MA 02215
 
(617) 353-3658 (office)
(617) 353-9646 (fax)
djbrky at bu.edu (eMail)
www.bu.edu/disability
 


>-----Original Message-----

>From: Michelle Rigler [mailto:michelle-rigler at utc.edu]

>Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 3:32 PM

>To: Berkowitz, Daniel J

>Subject: RE: More questions about Kurzweil

>

>Dan,

>We are struggling with the same issues and I have recently come to that

>same conclusion. I can't believe it took me as long as it has, but we

>are having so many students asking for their books in MP3 format to use

>on their IPods, but what other systems could be used to do this?

>Michelle

>

>Michelle Rigler, Director

>Office for Students with Disabilities

>University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

>(423)425-4008

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: Disabled Student Services in Higher Education

>[mailto:DSSHE-L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU] On Behalf Of Berkowitz, Daniel J

>Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 3:23 PM

>To: DSSHE-L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU

>Subject: Re: More questions about Kurzweil

>

>Your first mistake was in purchasing Kurzweil -- normally such a

comment

>would be followed by a <smile> of some sort but in this case I am being

>serious.

>

>As much as they may market it thus - Kurzweil is simply not designed

for

>the sort of full textbook projects that we commonly undertake in the

>postsecondary environment. It has it place in education but more and

>more we hear of people who are trying to push the software program

>beyond its abilities.

>

>Unfortunately schools tend to sink their money into the Kurzweil system

>and have little if anything left over for other E-Text options. For the

>price of Kurzweil you could also set up a very nice DAISY production

>operation that will provide a variety of options faster than running

>Kurzweil.

>

>Just my 2-cents on the matter --- Dann

>

>=========================

>Daniel Berkowitz - Assistant Director

>Boston University Office of Disability Services

>19 Deerfield Street, 2nd floor

>Boston, MA 02215

>

>(617) 353-3658 (office)

>(617) 353-9646 (fax)

>djbrky at bu.edu (eMail)

>www.bu.edu/disability

>

>

>>-----Original Message-----

>>From: Disabled Student Services in Higher Education [mailto:DSSHE-

>>L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU] On Behalf Of Lisa A Deneen

>>Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 2:31 PM

>>To: DSSHE-L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU

>>Subject: More questions about Kurzweil

>>

>>Aloha,

>>

>>First I want to say thank you for your responses a couple of weeks ago

>>regarding cleaning up text in Kurzweil.  They were helpful and I did

>>figure out a much quicker method.  Now I have a new question:

>>I am converting the text to audio, but when I open the conversion it

>>has only read 1 or 2 pages of the chapter- even though I told Kurzweil

>>to do the entire document.  I have also tried highlighting all of the

>>text in the chapter and telling Kurzweil to read the selection.  Yet,

>>it still only reads 1-2 pages when I open the audio file.  Help!  What

>>am I doing wrong?

>>Any advice would be welcome.

>>

>>Thanks,

>>Lisa

>>

>>----------------------------------

>>Lisa Deneen

>>Disabilities Coordinator/Counselor

>>Maui Community College

>>310 W. Ka'ahumanu Ave

>>Kahului, HI 96732

>>808-984-3227

>>

>>This list is intended to serve as a forum for higher education

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>>

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>

>This list is intended to serve as a forum for higher education

>professionals involved in the delivery of services to students with

>disabilities in higher education. Any commercial posts or posts that

are

>deemed by the listowner to be inappropriate for the list will result in

>the poster being removed from the list.

>

>To sign off the list, send a message to

>* listserv at listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu

>* with the message

>* Unsubscribe dsshe-L

>To search the archives, go to

>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/archives/dsshe-l.html

>Questions? Contact Listowner Dan Ryan at dryan at buffalo.edu