FlameReader
FlameReader ( flamereader.com ) is a great tool for adding audio to GPS tours. FlameReader converts any text to speech and records to mp3. There is no need to copy and paste; FlameReader reads your narrative script directly from Word documents. The voices of "Kate" and "Paul" are particularly natural sounding, and you can use them both to make your narratives sound like a conversation. Here is an example of FlameReader audio and more tips and tricks for making your GPS tours sound better.
Listen to this: audio sample,
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Clearly, the voices area not real, but I must admit that these "computer" voices are more natural than any I've heard. I notice when using these voices for narrating a GPS tour, the unsuspecting listener, at first, focuses attention on the mechanics of the voice to determine whether or not it is a computer voice they are listening to. Then, the listener becomes more interested in what is being said, instead of how it is being said.
Getting
Started
FlameReader is very easy to start using, especially after watching the videos that are included in the help program. Simply highlight the text you want to have read and save as .mp3.
Shown at right is the FlameReader reader window, where you see the text used in this example. You just type the text you want read, paste text from another document, open a text document or use the PowerReader to convert text in applications like, Microsoft Word, Adobe (PDF files), ebooks etc. Tool bars for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook read and convert text from web pages and emails. For just about any form of text, FlameReader can convert to speech and save as .mp3.
It is really that easy, but if you want to improve on the results here are some tips and tricks.
Add More Punctuation
I quickly learned how to influence FlameReader's spoken words, making sentences flow better, by inserting more punctuation into the text. Better modulation is achieved using commas, colons, quotation marks, and hyphens. Here is the over-punctuated text read in this example.
You are entering: the Pebble Hill historic district. On your right, is the Baufman-Honour-Stiles House, locally known as: "the castle", because of its two-story turret, and French-Norman Style.
Making it a Conversation
Changing
voice during your narrative makes it more interesting to your listeners,
and adding silence gives your listeners time to process all they are experiencing.
Buttons for inserting silence and change of voice are shown here. The standard
edition of FlameReader
comes with 2-voices. Additional voices can be purchased.
Adding Music
Below the voice and silence buttons are controls for adding music. First select Add Music, then use the browse button to locate the music or sound effects in mp3 format that you want played in the background while the text is being read. When Add Music is selected, the music or sound effect will loop continuously while the text is read. NOTE: The background music will not be saved when you convert the text to mp3. To add add music to the converted audio file, you must use Audio Editor, which comes with the standard edition of FlameReader. Just open the speech mp3 file in Audio Editor and use the mouse to click on where you want the background music to be inserted, go to edit menu, and choose “mix from file”. Note also that in order to use this feature, the background music must be in .wav format. You can also use Audio Editor to convert mp3 files to .wav files.
Language Translations
With the translation feature, FlameReader will translate English to French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and vice versa. Since I do not speak a language other than english, I was not able to tell how well this feature worked.
License Restrictions
Flame Reader is for personal use only. The voice library providers, AT&T and NeoSpeech, do not allow FlameReader customers to use FlameReader to generate audio files for commercial purposes.
Conclusion
FlameReader is a great product for creating audio for your own tours, especially if you do not like the sound of your own voice. But the license restrictions prohibit authors and publishers from including FlameReader voices on tours they sell, which is regrettable. The idea of marketing your home grown tours to foreign speaking tourists could be lucrative, if commercial license fees were reasonable. I plan to investigate these fees and revise this article at a later date.
- Doug
