If you have 15 minutes, I'd appriciate your feedback

[Corty]

Hello there~

I would be most pleased if you have a little time and I could borrow your ear for a few minutes! I am planning on turning my story into an audiobook, and I'd like to have some feedback before I truly dig deep into this thing.

Some key points you should be aware of:

• The voices are AI-generated. Now, before you click away, reading this, I am not using generic text-to-speech. Give it a click, and skip into a little, if nothing else, to know what I mean.
• That being said, this is still AI. Errors happen that I just can't seem to fix, so I choose the best of what I was given. Hopefully, the whole thing came out enjoyable.
• I am only curious as to how it feels to listen to this. Is it good enough, or should I forgo this project of mine altogether?
• Lastly, I'd really like to know if you would be willing to pay a 1$ Patreon subscription for something like this? Because I plan to put it up there... but I did not make a decision about that yet. But I'd like to read some thoughts about that too.

Lastly, here is the vid:

I really appreciate it if any of you took the time to listen and give me feedback on how it feels or if I should not even continue.

 

[Notadate]

The AI voice isn’t bad, but I still prefer human. I just can feel it is AI
Has a weird flow too, humans have this rhyth. The AI a doesn’t have this feel

 

[Corty]

The AI voice isn’t bad, but I still prefer human. I just can feel it is AI
Has a weird flow too, humans have this rhyth. The AI a doesn’t have this feel

I am fully aware of that. I just don't have the capital to do more.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

I really like it. The ai is really good. It is one of the better ai reads I have heard. The voice is great! I find it enjoyable to listen to. I don't really know how to give feedback on this kind of thing, but I find it nice to hear.

 

[Corty]

I really like it. The ai is really good. It is one of the better ai reads I have heard. The voice is great! I find it enjoyable to listen to. I don't really know how to give feedback on this kind of thing, but I find it nice to hear.

The fact that it is enjoyable and not annoying to listen to is already a positive I am
Looking exactly for this, how you the readers/listeners feel while hearing it.

 

[SailusGebel]

Sounds pleasant and easy to understand. I didn't listen to all of it, so I can't comment on mistakes. Personally, didn't notice any, but maybe they show up later in the vid? I won't pay for it as I don't listen to audibooks at all.

 

[Corty]

Sounds pleasant and easy to understand. I didn't listen to all of it, so I can't comment on mistakes. Personally, didn't notice any, but maybe they show up later in the vid? I won't pay for it as I don't listen to audibooks at all.

Thanks~!

 

[greyblob]

listened to 5ish minutes. the voice and narration is great. i lost interest because it was just exposition but I could see myself listening to something like this

this could also be greatly improved upon in the future by adding unique voices for each character.

 

[Corty]

this could also be greatly improved upon in the future by adding unique voices for each character.

I did try that.

 

[Notadate]

Now let me ask you if you have two minutes to spare

 

[Corty]

Now let me ask you if you have two minutes to spare

Depends on what for

 

[Notadate]

Depends on what for

For your feedback on my … well, book, novel?

 

[Corty]

For your feedback on my … well, book, novel?

Sure. Although your profile is empty of stories.

 

[Theirl]

the quality of the audio is good, its better than the audiobook i hear on youtube

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Audacity is free.

A Snowball mike runs less than 70 and if combined with a pop filter can handle most recordings. I'd stick with the female narrator when you are doing background exposition dumps, however, "close in" narration should be done by a deeper male voice.

A voice asked, and it was clearly upset. It was a deep baritone as the owner of the voice pushed open the double-sided, dark oakwood doors leading into a frozen room.

is a section that should be male.

Thousands of years later, the House of Amarin is still just as powerful as in his time. It lords over 600 000 square kilometers of land on the northern edge of Meriath. Their territory is home to many mountain ranges and deep valleys. A place where the winters are harsh and snow-filled while the summers are cool and refreshing. There are many empires or kingdoms whose size is more significant than theirs, but none would think they would be able to stand up to them. Either of the Six Houses instills the same thought for anyone who hears their names; Power.

Should be female.

Actual human speaking should be done by humans. If you do that, you can get around the uncanny valley effect. You can use only one male and one female voice actor. Use audacity to change prosody, pitch, and tempo to create different voices. When someone is having an internal monologue add an echoey reverb. However, if you use iMovie, they have some good standardized sound effects.

Dunno if you are male or female, but your avatar suggests female, so that'd be the most difficult part. Female voice actors are hard to come by. You find male ones willing to work on projects on Reddit fairly easily.

The use of No Copyright Rounds is very useful. Go develop your library and throw them in the background to help cover up problems.

Here.

A old channel I used to run where I collected Audio Drama. Welcome back Desert Bluffs is a good one. Gallowtree is a strange one. Go wander about some of the fan WTNV shit and get an idea of the good and the bad. Good Morning Nightvale Tonight is mine, "A story about him" is the best stand alone.

Since you only got maybe a half hour of speaking parts, shouldn't be hard to record. If you gave me a week or two, I could find the time to throw together the male speaking parts in a large file, just recording each part one after another. You could splice them together with Audacity.

 

[SomethingStuffHappend]

Honestly I don’t like hearing others read the novel unless they are actors that are really getting into the character.
like a play on theater.
The ai sounds surprisingly good thou doesn’t fit the vibe thou
It would be cool to get some rp old man portraying as a wise wizard. Like Gandolf

 

[K5Rakitan]

AI voices are getting pretty good.

 

[sage61]

The AI voice sounded surprisingly pleasant for an AI voice generated and don't sounds artificial or unnatural. There is some sound effects, changes in tone and pitch while in speech, and also have multiple male and female voices. Overall, it's a pretty good audiobook.

Just I'm more of a visual reader so I can't focus on the story when listening, thus I listen to audiobooks when I'm trying to sleep.

 

[KoolAidDogan]

Playing it at x2 speed makes it feel way more natural, IMO, but I don't know if people would really pay for it.

 

[Sebas_Guzman]

Just so that we're clear, audible will not sell AI narrated audiobooks if they notice its AI. Keep that in mind if you ever get the idea.
As for patreon, I think it's a neat idea if you have an understanding audience. It doesn't hurt anyone and only gives people that would like it an option.

Otherwise, did you use novel AI for this?