geekchick77 | Reading

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

On the whole it's been a pretty good week, modulo problems with the kitchen plumbing, and my internal plumbing. But music! With m leaving next week for the US until the end of October, we had to get as many of their tracks on the new Kaleidofolk album as possible recorded. For this we needed scratch tracks, and as of this afternoon we have them. We have studio time booked for Wednesday and Thursday.

We visited StudiOjo Friday evening. It's only 450m away -- an easy walk even for us. I'll be saying more about the album soon, presumably; all that's needed is time to write it. For now, I'll just mention the title, Winds of Time, which comes from a line near the end of the next-to-last track, "Millennium's Dawn".

In the process of searching for an instrument cable I came across my MXL large-diaphragm condenser mic, so the purple RØDE NT1 I've been coveting will have to wait until this project is done. Hazard pay.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: okay (body not particularly s
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: tuning a newly-restrung Plink; making scratch tracks

jesse_the_k

The American Foundation for the Blind is researching AI:

( details on how to participate )

In addition to the environmental and ethical violations which LLMs/AIs depend on, the endless hype and inaccurate performance make me shudder and growl. Yet I admit I’ve used neural text-to-speech voices for casual audio reading. The neural voices require an internet connection and they lose intelligibility at speed. They’re best as substitutes for human readers.

Blind computer users set their on-device system text-to-speech (TTS) at high speeds. Three hundred to five hundred words per minute are often cited. For screen reader applications, a robotic voice is a feature, enabling bits to flow from device to brain with minimal interpretation.

Neural voices produce much higher quality than system-level TTS. When fed appropriately coded input, they can laugh, whisper, and sound sarcastic as well as "analyze" an essay to produce a "podcast" dialog between two synthetic discussants. Some samples here: https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/

But I know well the expertise that skilled human narrators bring to their work—whether it’s commercial audiobook production, volunteer alternative-format creation, or podfic elves making magic. I don’t want a world where those jobs are outsourced to computers.

On the gripping hand, I remember when skilled Linotype operators--many Deaf--were obviated by computerized systems where reporters keyed their own copy. I used the bridge technology of phototypesetting, as well as pioneering desktop publishing. It's expected that admin workers now create flyers and graphs and charts.

Have you tried neural voices? Recognized them on YouTube or TikTok or your recent tech support call? Do you have thoughts for or against?

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

A very bad hiss on one channel of my recording rig turning out to be a bad cable, and not the (rather expensive) microphone. (If it had been the interface it would have been a good excuse to get a better one.)
Having extra mic cables sitting around for just such a situation.
Having made a psych appointment for next week, before N told me that I probably needed one. NO thanks for freaking out under stress.
Progress, specifically in breathing and singing exercises. Having m as a vocal coach.

I do not know how to characterize the fact that the RØDE NT1 now comes in PURPLE. Gratitude doesn't seem quite appropriate.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: Kaleidofolk rehearsals

jesse_the_k

Open captions

my brief audio description

Asian man faces camera, sitting at laptop with white earbuds and animated face. Another person's back enters the screen. "This motion" is him pointing to his ear then the laptop and nodding. The picture on his desk is just the words "food" and "healthcare"

Stream: ( right on here )

When you want to view a YouTube short in the classic YouTube screen (with the controls you're familiar with!) you replace the word "shorts" in the link with the word "watch"

I first saw this and the link was youtube.com/shorts/I908J9_u0WE

To use the classic horizontal player go to youtube.com/watch/I908J9_u0WE

Edited due to a strange Markdown bug: when I create a bare link with angle brackets, uppercase letters are transformed into lower case.

<https://youtube.com/watch/i908j9_u0we> becomes https://youtube.com/watch/i908j9_u0we (and the video ID string in the code example are I908J9_u0WE)

but when I create a Markdown link [youtube.com/watch/I908J9_u0WE](https://youtube.com/watch/I908J9_u0WE) the case remains as typed.

jesse_the_k

An acquaintance asked me basic questions about “how to get disability benefits” in the USA. Might as well share it here.

I call myself a “disability doula” because I’ve helped many folks through the process of understanding available services, finding disability community, and accepting a new way of life and identity. Except where noted, I’m happy to answer questions.

Local face-to-face free help

Centers for Independent Living (CILs) have been serving disabled people since the late 1970s.

Find one near you: https://ncil.org/about/find-your-cil-list/

( eight relevant topics )

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

from MillCon was somewhat grueling. But it was a good con, and we gave a good concert set. Worth it.

We then spent the rest of this week working on scratch tracks.

I'm too sleepy to hunt down good links -- not a whole lot anywaay because see above about working. (I'm too old for this. Nevertheless...)

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: hard to tell
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: N and m laying down a scratch track

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

N, and her expert knowledge of advanced massage therapy. NO thanks to my back, especially the QL muscles.
m's amazing vocals, especially the descants that have become sort of a kaleidofolk signature.
Scratch tracks.
Finally finding out about the hidden playback volume control in Audacity. NO thanks to whoever decided that it should be initialized to zero. WTF?
NO thanks to cataracts, which are destroying my night vision among other things. Along with a growing collection of Conditions, many of which also start with the letter "C".

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: Scratch tracks

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Jessamyn Smith

Reading

Done Since 2025-09-07

Neural Text to Speech and an AFB AI Survey

Thankful Thursday

Oh, this tiny video says so much about working!

Getting on Disability, USA edition

Local face-to-face free help

Done Since 2025-09-01

Thankful Thursday

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December 2022

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