by dbieber on 2/22/23, 7:49 AM with 90 comments
by loveparade on 2/22/23, 10:36 AM
by greenmana on 2/22/23, 9:32 AM
It's nice that this was also brought up. At least for me, even though I don't listen to audiobooks, it's too easy to become too "performance-oriented" when reading something. Meaning that ticking the box "achievement unlocked, read another book" becomes more important than what you really get out of the book. Did you now retain as much information as possible? Did you savor the work of art or just gulp it down? Ironically, if you don't use tools like these carefully, listening to books may end up being even a bigger waste of time.
by buckleyc on 2/22/23, 1:15 PM
This leads to: ffmpeg -i happy_book.mp3 -af loudnorm -af silenceremove=1:0:-50dB:detection=peak -af rubberband=tempo=4 happy_book_out.mp4
You could roll all those options into one filter command, but leaving like this for newer-users to digest. I also tend to re-encode using libfdk (though you need to be sure that your ffmpeg is compiled with this enabled) for a better mp4 (or .m4a or .m4b), so : ffmpeg -i happy_book.mp3 -af loudnorm -af silenceremove=1:0:-50dB:detection=peak -af rubberband=tempo=4 -c:a libfdk_aac happy_book_out.m4a
by hsn915 on 2/22/23, 10:31 AM
Sometimes I listen to one chapter in a book and I need a whole day to digest it: I get into a state where I don't want to listen to _any_ music, etc.
by iagooar on 2/22/23, 9:49 AM
by surfsvammel on 2/22/23, 10:11 AM
I am happy I’m past the quantity stage and into actually enjoying things part of my life.
by bborud on 2/22/23, 11:11 AM
After that I have been experimenting a bit with speed settings and what feels comfortable really depends on the narrator. It isn't just how fast or slow they narrate, but also the cadence and the material they are reading. Some material requires some time for processing and thinking while listening. I end up adjusting the speed for every book I listen to and it is rare that I go any faster than 1.4.
Fastbook was a bit uncomfortable to listen to. It totally kills the rhythm of how someone speaks. However it does a surprisingly good job of not making it sound too bad. It is unpleasant to listen to, but it isn't immediately obvious why. So I'd call that perhaps a partial win?
I've tried to gradually up the narration speed, but even if I can understand what people are saying at 2x, it doesn't leave much room for thinking about what they are saying before they are on to the next idea. There is no time for processing. I noticed that I'd pause books to get some time to think - which is clumsy and inefficient.
For video courses I often vary the speed between 1x and 2x speed. Some instructors have a terrible teaching style where their narration is peppered with irrelevant and annoying asides. For instance when they take time to explain something that ought to be obvious and which isn't directly related to the material. Then again for video courses, I make much more use of pausing, speed adjustment, I go back to play things again, stop to think etc.
I don't think this obsession with very high speed is useful. What is useful is to adapt the speed to where it feels comfortable and where you can absorb what is being said.
by totalhack on 2/22/23, 10:41 AM
My wife thinks I'm insane anytime she hears the audio. It's interesting that there seems to be some training component to ramping up speed.
by SimonPStevens on 2/22/23, 9:32 AM
I would like the silence between words removed. But the silences betweens higher level structural blocks are necessary. You need a pause between chapters to signal the change of topic. Or depending on the books structure, sometimes between paragraphs too, when they indicate a switch of topic/perspective/thread.
One of my annoyances with some narrators (directors?) is that the gap between sentences and chapters is equal length, which often makes a confusing jump of context. I like it when each new chapter is announced as it comes.
by kristiandupont on 2/22/23, 10:38 AM
by matsemann on 2/22/23, 10:15 AM
by mark_l_watson on 2/22/23, 2:15 PM
My wife and I have both been family plan members of Audible for about 10 years and when you include their free audio book Plus Catalog, we have probably well over 1000 shared books.
I sometimes speed up listing by up to 1.5 times faster for books that I like well enough to finish, but not 100% liking. For some books I really like, I may end up listening to them two or more times - so it is not all about saving time. Yesterday, I was 3 hours into a 12 hour book and I was not loving it but wanted to enjoy the ending so I skipped forward to just the last two hours.
Even though I am mostly retired, I find there is not time enough for much of what I would like to do. My personal best strategy for getting time back is learning how to enjoy just the first few episodes of streaming video series, and then stopping unless I really love the series.
One last thing on the subject of using time effectively: I find that the recall from reading some books I really loved is far from perfect. My wife and I subscribe to the Blinkist service, and I find a really good use of time is to occasionally read (or listen) to a 15 minute summary of a previously read book and then spend another 5 minutes thinking about the book.
by the_omegist on 2/23/23, 9:52 AM
After a couple of years I realized :
- most modern books just don't worth the time spent reading them : a simple summary would do and often doesn't bring anything new anyway
- the rare books worth reading require time to be processed (for essays) or to get immersed (for novels).
So such apps solve a false dichotomy, in my opinion. But it can be useful as an "improved podcasts" maker. For the audiobooks I was making, I used this app which is great and highly customizable (speed, pauses time, export in multiple formats, cut into chunks, ...) : balabolka[1]
by specialist on 2/22/23, 3:18 PM
- transcribe
- automunge that transcription
- remove "ah", "um" etc
- remove repeated phrases [0]
- optionally summarize [1]
- stitch the surviving segments back into continuous audio
- match words-per-minute between the speakers [2]
- do all the "smartspeed" stuff that Fastbook and Overcast.app do
[1] No shade, because I understand it's a chat and not scripted, but Accidental Tech Podcast could benefit from summarization. I love that they're talking stuff out. But sometimes I just want the conclusions.
[2] Like when Lex Fridman interviews someone who talks faster than him.
by a1371 on 2/22/23, 10:14 AM
I'm not planning to stop but I have noticed that after a few years of doing this, my speech has gotten faster. This is not good because I feel sometimes I don't let people process what I say and sometimes I make them feel rushed. I suppose fast listening is subconsciously training me to speak faster
Another interesting observation is that I often don't know what the theme musics of my favorite YouTube channels sound like because they sound very different at a faster speed. When I accidentally hear them at normal speed I think to myself that they actually sound a lot nicer than what I'm used to.
by nobrains on 2/22/23, 10:30 AM
So, either I could listen to audio, using this tool, but keep the speed 1x, OR use >1x speed but not use this tool (i.e. keep the gaps).
Cannot do both.
by mattferderer on 2/22/23, 2:21 PM
I can still listen at a reasonable 1.5x (or faster if you wish).
They have transcriptions you can use to read along or use to create notes.
For popular podcasts you can review a list of snippets people saved.
It's easy to share your snippets with friends, note & storage apps.
I would love to see a version of this for books and audio books. I do know that you can buy both the written & audio books & then use one of many review or summary websites to compare & see what other people have taken from the book. But it would nice to see this all in one app. For podcasts, Snipd has set the bar for the time being.
by nateberkopec on 2/22/23, 9:42 AM
by chillbill on 2/22/23, 1:02 PM
by glanzwulf on 2/22/23, 9:53 AM
I feel like the pursue for speed/efficiency kills the time our brain needs to actually absorb and digest what it just listened. If after a week you don't remember anything, what was the point?
But hey, if it works for you it works.
by philipphutterer on 2/22/23, 10:49 AM
However, I believe there is a way to do this with a single ffmpeg command. I remember watching lecture videos with higher speeds wondering about the huge amount of silence that made it still pretty annoying. I didn’t find anything simple to trim silence on audio and video combined and finally only listened to the audio with trimmed silence using ffmpeg.
Edit: It's literally just an audio filter in ffmpeg, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/29411973
by francis-io on 2/22/23, 9:56 AM
Current stats: * Listened for 27 days 9 hours, * Manual Skipping: Saved 17 hours, * Increased speed: Saved 31 days 21 hours, * Auto trim silence: Saved 6 days 14 hours
by f0e4c2f7 on 2/22/23, 3:04 PM
by thornewolf on 2/22/23, 3:15 PM
by Cipater on 2/22/23, 1:24 PM
Additionally, I struggle with hosts who have a habit of ending every sentence with an upward inflection, which I find quite annoying.
by nibbleshifter on 2/22/23, 10:07 AM
Start at 1x, then increment the speed slowly over a bit of time giving your brain time to adjust. You can easily get to 3x speed by "ramping" the speed over a period of time.
Is there any audio book reader that supports such speed ramping? In an automatic way?
by Klaster_1 on 2/22/23, 9:26 AM
by shartshooter on 2/22/23, 4:09 PM
It's like it recalibrated my set communicating speed, in a bad way.
I've switched back to 1x, which felt painfully slow at first, but it's helped me slow down and think more.
YMMV
by Tagbert on 2/22/23, 10:09 PM
by glial on 2/22/23, 8:06 PM
by prokopton on 2/22/23, 10:29 AM
by surprisetalk on 2/22/23, 11:05 AM
by ranting-moth on 2/22/23, 9:53 AM
VLC on Android is great for this.
by algog on 2/22/23, 6:23 PM
by okasaki on 2/22/23, 1:25 PM
The FOSS android audiobook app I use (Voice) has it. Youtube and twitch both have it too, so does mpv/mplayer.
by smcleod on 2/22/23, 9:53 AM
by hutattedonmyarm on 2/22/23, 2:50 PM
by judiisis on 2/22/23, 10:29 AM
by iLoveOncall on 2/22/23, 9:42 AM
by msrsan on 2/22/23, 9:30 AM
by azubinski on 2/22/23, 9:43 AM
I listen to more than 1000 audiobooks per week at 600x speed. And I have a lot of free time left. And I like this sound "bzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhazzzzzzz".
by bbokan on 2/22/23, 12:00 PM
by Aardwolf on 2/22/23, 12:13 PM
by swyx on 2/22/23, 10:02 AM