A software dedicated to recording audio books

[Lulu04]

Hi all, I'm Lulu, 53 years old french guy, sorry for my bad english.

I'm passionate about computers and wrote "Give Your Voice" a software dedicated to voice recording and producing MP3 for LibriVox and LitteratureAudio.com (a french equivalent of LibriVox). It's free and the code is open source (GPLv3).

At this time, it work for Windows 64b and Linux 64b (tested under Windows 10 and Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS). In a futur, a MacOS compatible version will be available.

Download the latest version at: https://github.com/Lulu04/Give-Your-Voice/releases/latest



The software support english and french languages.

If you're interested in giving it a try, install it and start a small project: maybe there are still a few bugs. All ideas for improvement are welcome !

Features

• One directory per section (chapter/text/poem) -> your project is well organized.

• Allow multiple recording per section -> the software keep the page number where you stopped.

• Remove background noise on recording files.

• While recording, use CONTROL KEY to mark places where you have made reading errors, making it easy to find and correct them.

• Audio tools:
  • add silence, cut or silencing part
  • insert new recording at cursor position
  • replace the selected audio by a new recording

• Mix your voices recording in a simplified window
  • compressor, amplify and bass boost effects for voice enhancement
  • Add musics and sounds to your reading (not allowed by LibriVox). Trim the musics/sounds and keep only the part that interests you
  • graphical volume envelope to easily control the volume (fadein, fadeout)
  • editable metadata
  • integrated audio limiter to minimize audio clipping

• Produce MP3 files compatible with LibriVox.org and LitteratureAudio.com
  • respects of their rules for file name
  • MP3 generated at 44100Hz, mono, constant bitrate mode, 128kbps
  • normalization at 89dB as MP3Gain, (can be modified)

• Export several MP3 files into a single ZIP file.

• Compress your terminated projects to free disk space.

• Full undo/redo system for audio modification.

• Supported language: French, English.

• This software was made with love, however it may contain some bugs!

Screenshot
The main window with the project tree view and the audio edition at the bottom


Background noise analysis before recording voice


The mixer window where you produce the MP3 files

[InTheDesert]

I think you should post this here. People will be quite interested!

[TriciaG]

I'll just move this thread over there. Thanks for the suggestion, ITD!

Welcome, Lulu!

[Lulu04]

Thanks TriciaG and InTheDesert !
I've just publish a new release:
- added an english version for the user guide.
- fixed some minor bugs

[Cufarmer]

This is interesting. I will check it out this weekend!
Thank you!

[Lulu04]

Hi Cufarmer, thanks you to try it.
Please post all bugs/errors you will found and any suggestions here.
have a nice weekend!

[Cufarmer]

Hi Cufarmer, thanks you to try it.
Please post all bugs/errors you will found and any suggestions here.
have a nice weekend!

I saw that a supports Windows 64, but I did not see a windows installer.
If you have a link for that, can you send it to me? PM or here?

[mattm]

If you're interested in giving it a try, install it and start a small project: maybe there are still a few bugs. All ideas for improvement are welcome !

Hi Lulu,

Very cool-looking software!

This reminds me of another software called "Vorsovox" contributed by someone a couple years ago, although I don't see any postings from them since. I played with it a little. viewtopic.php?t=88315

After you're done your recording, you feed Vorsovox

• The recording itself, i.e. the WAV file,
• The text of the original script you were reading from.

It uses speech-to-text to get the script back from your reading, then uses a string edit distance to align your reading with the original script, so you can easily spot mistakes and cut out parts you got wrong and had to repeat.

It might be interesting to integrate these ideas into your software. OpenAI's Whisper https://openai.com/research/whisper speech-to-text software engine is open source. Vorsovox used a different engine that is also free, but I don't remember what it was.

An upgrade to that would be to do the speech-to-text online, while the reader is reading and automatically detect and flag errors on-screen the reader didn't notice, so they can go back and make the correction right away. Having to re-read sections you only noticed had errors during editing days later is so frustrating - and it usually sounds bad if your voice has changed.

Capstone version - get it all working in VR headset so readers don't need to make space in the recording booth for a laptop...

[GettingTooOld]

Hi Lulu,
This is a wonderful idea. I use linux and am glad to see that you've ported it to linux. I use an older browser, so github does not allow downloads. Github prefers people who they can spy on it seems. There are other sites which allow downloading just as they have always done. I've been downloading since last century. I don't see any need to update my spyware. I hope to see someone place your good work on any other site, where people can download it freely, without cost, without registration personal data. Just download. for free.

[Lulu04]

I saw that a supports Windows 64, but I did not see a windows installer.
If you have a link for that, can you send it to me? PM or here?

Hi Cufarmer, the link for the latest release is https://github.com/Lulu04/Give-Your-Voice/releases/latest. Go down, in the Assets part, there is a link named "GiveYourVoice_1.0.2_Win64_setup.exe", click it to download the windows installer (for 64b machine only).
Let me know if it works.

Hi Lulu,
This is a wonderful idea. I use linux and am glad to see that you've ported it to linux. I use an older browser, so github does not allow downloads. Github prefers people who they can spy on it seems. There are other sites which allow downloading just as they have always done. I've been downloading since last century. I don't see any need to update my spyware. I hope to see someone place your good work on any other site, where people can download it freely, without cost, without registration personal data. Just download. for free.

Hi GettingTooOld, I'm sorry you can't access the software. For now, the linux version was tested on Ubuntu 22 and is only for 64bits machine. I will try to send you by pm a direct link to the linux archive, may be it will work for you. Let me known please.

It uses speech-to-text to get the script back from your reading, then uses a string edit distance to align your reading with the original script, so you can easily spot mistakes and cut out parts you got wrong and had to repeat.

It might be interesting to integrate these ideas into your software. OpenAI's Whisper https://openai.com/research/whisper speech-to-text software engine is open source. Vorsovox used a different engine that is also free, but I don't remember what it was.

An upgrade to that would be to do the speech-to-text online, while the reader is reading and automatically detect and flag errors on-screen the reader didn't notice, so they can go back and make the correction right away. Having to re-read sections you only noticed had errors during editing days later is so frustrating - and it usually sounds bad if your voice has changed.

Capstone version - get it all working in VR headset so readers don't need to make space in the recording booth for a laptop...

Hi Mattm, thanks for your suggestions. I'm sorry, I'm an old-school amateur programmer and I don't have the skills to do this. My goal is to make the software as simple as possible so that even people with little technical knowledge can use it, without needing a sophisticated computer or device. I have a look at Whisper, thank you for the link.

[Cufarmer]

Thank you!
I'll give it a go.

[GettingTooOld]

Hi GettingTooOld, I'm sorry you can't access the software. For now, the linux version was tested on Ubuntu 22 and is only for 64bits machine. I will try to send you by pm a direct link to the linux archive, may be it will work for you. Let me known please.

your personal link worked fine, though I'd consider having it somewhere publicly accessible. While most programmers figure 'just windows' because that will access 'most' users or they think 'some app' for the same reason, Other programmers put in that little extra effort as you do, making things universal. Although at some point you have to think "Err, maybe I will not port to CP/M"

First cab off the rank is the requirement of a c programming environment. Many (most) linux distros don't include a programming environment out of the box, in fact they don't allow you to have a firewall, much like windows has not effective firewall, ditto apple.

It is good to see you have docs included

I'll try opening it in other distributions and let you know one by one how it goes. So far, I haven't run it because of it's dependencies.

[Lulu04]

your personal link worked fine, though I'd consider having it somewhere publicly accessible.

Any tips ?

While most programmers figure 'just windows' because that will access 'most' users or they think 'some app' for the same reason, Other programmers put in that little extra effort as you do, making things universal. Although at some point you have to think "Err, maybe I will not port to CP/M"

Yes! More, as I say to Mattm, I'm passionate about programming but, alas, I'm not (yet )an expert. I know programming in FreePascal (the language the software is written) but my lack of knowledge about operating system causes me a lot of problems! My computer is Windows based and try making things universal take me lot of time. But I learn, and I will continue because... I like it ! a MacOS version is planned.

I'll try opening it in other distributions and let you know one by one how it goes.

Thank you very much for that.

So far, I haven't run it because of it's dependencies.

Could you tell me which dependencies are causing problems?

[GettingTooOld]

Any tips ?

https://help.archive.org/help/uploading-a-basic-guide/

Writing in mid 2023, Internet archive is very easy to download from. Even with a reasonably old browser. Some parts don't seem to work, but most of it does, and I can manage to find useful things there.

I'm passionate about programming but, alas, I'm not (yet )an expert. I know programming in FreePascal (the language the software is written) but my lack of knowledge about operating system causes me a lot of problems! My computer is Windows based and try making things universal take me lot of time. But I learn, and I will continue because... I like it ! a MacOS version is planned.

Many people have always known, or at least I might be able to say it's been a popular Meme, that bill gates is the devil, though, as of writing this, he is, [redacted by me] releasing mosquitoes [redacted] [do an internet search]

I don't use windows because it is no secret at all that it literally spies on you all day every day every hour, every few minutes, keystroke logging, taking pictures, and so on, it's no secret, it's in the user agreement and discussion about that is all over the internet. So as surely as that is always going to be the case, it is certain that there are a lot of people who will not use it. That list will go on forever.

Learning anything about windows is, speaking rationally, a waste of time because all your investment in time and effort will be destroyed when they arbitrarily change windows, as they always do. Windows 95 had plenty of tips and tricks, and they are all worthless.

Linux on the other hand is yours forever. Only you can decide when to give up on it, which people just won't do. If you learn linux therefore, you can use what you have learnt forever. All the oldest commands, decades old, still work just fine and will continue to do so.

From what you say about learning, I'd suggest puppylinux. It's said to be easy to install and use, I'll be happy to assist if I can. It is super-easy to learn and maintain. All changes you do are saved into a single save file which you can simply copy as a backup and restore as you please. If it is deleted, everything becomes like new again. Manipulating the save file needs to be done from another operating system.

Interesting thing is that you can install many kinds of puppylinux onto the exact same partition, in the same filesystem and select the one you want at boot. I try to put them into different folders, sometimes I will install (or just copy) an extra copy of my favorite operating system so if I ruin something I can use another one, it's a lot of writing to explain but the short of it is that it's worth learning, especially for you.

People who want to can create their own version of puppy with their favorite software all pre installed and then release that as a distro. There are different distros for different interest groups.

I suggest that you can install a distro or puppy with your program, vlc, audacity, GIMP, and everything you can think of and then release that as YOUR distro. It would make it simple because all your software is pre-installed ready to go out of the box. You understand why this is important.

here is some puppylinux, though you can also search for all creators..
https://archive.org/search?query=puppylinux&and%5B%5D=creator%3A%22barry+kauler%22

Could you tell me which dependencies are causing problems?

Code: Select all

root# ./giveyourvoice
./giveyourvoice: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by ./giveyourvoice)

So you could make a distro with these things already fully installed using a tool called woof. You could have help videos or files on the desktop, all software tested and running upon install. This would make it easy to include non-techie people in your empire to take over the world.

[Cufarmer]

I have an Ubuntu machine that hasn't been booted in 6 years.
This thread is making me want to dust it off and fire it up