valhalla360 wrote:
fj12ryder wrote:
valhalla360 wrote:
fj12ryder wrote:
I have to vehemently disagree. A good narrator can add a lot to a audio book. Listening to the "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" read by the author is wonderful. I can't say that the text-to-talk app doesn't work okay, since I've not tried it, but I would warrant it can't compare to a real person, and I mean a "GOOD" narrator.
You do realize, "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is a radio program that was transcribed into a book, so yes, it's a special case that benefits from mimicking the original media source.
For most books, there is a minor improvement but hardly noticeable.
I didn't know that, and fail to see how it's relevant. He's not doing a radio skit, he's reading the book. How does the computer voice differentiate between different people? Male and female? We'll just have to agree to disagree.
Warning thread drift:
A radio skit built around various exaggerated voices will benefit from maintaining those separate voices even when converted into the audiobook format.
Most audio books simply have a single narrator and he reads the text verbatim something like:
Narrator reads: “I like the cover," Arthur said. "Don't Panic. It's the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody's said to me all day. ”
Since the narrator said that Arthur said it, it's readily obvious who said it. The narrator typically doesn't effect a feminine voice for female parts if he is male (or vice versa with a female narrator reading male parts).
If the narrator doesn't use differences between characters, be they be male or female, they are not effective narrators. While a male narrator will not turn into a female when reading a female character, a good one will change his voice to make an obvious female. Same for a good female narrator when voicing a male. If they don't, there is little difference between a narrator & a computer voice. Nothing as boring as a narrator that just reads.
If you want a good example of character voices, listen to Will Patton reading James Lee Burke's
The House of the Rising Sun.
