If you like listening to Dennik N podcasts, from today your choice is much wider: most of the articles published on dennikn.sk from Monday, April 24 can be listened to. They are not read by humans, but by neural voice, which is Microsoft’s Azure voice synthesis technology.
In the texts, for which we also created a version recorded by a “machine”, the option to start it looks very similar to podcasts – the player is right at the beginning of the article.
This is an experimental operation, so below the player you will also find a call to report errors and comments via the form. Please try listening to our neural voiced lyrics and let us know what you think.
Not all texts will be available at first – we want to make sure the listening experience is as good as possible and sometimes the nature of the text (conversation) or technical obstacles (not being able to read charts) make this impossible. We are working on removing obstacles, and we will gradually expand the offer of articles for listening based on the interest of subscribers in this service.
And what does the neural voice sound like? If you haven’t already done so, click on the player at the beginning of this article. The machine will read it to you. Let us know via the form in front of the player if the neural voice can be listened to and how you would improve it.
A few questions and answers:
Who can listen to the neural voice?
The first three minutes of each recording can be listened to by anyone during the trial run, after this time only Denník N subscribers, of any package, can listen. But everyone can listen to this article, for example.
Where can I listen to articles read by neural voice?
On the dennikn.sk website and in the coming weeks also in the Denník N application.
How do I know which articles I can listen to?
From now on dennikn.sk articles with available audio are marked with a small “play” icon on the headline. We do not distinguish whether it is a podcast recorded by our colleagues or a neural voice, the icon means that an audio track is available in the article.
Can I also listen to old articles?
For now, you can only listen to new articles published since 4/24, and depending on the interest in the service, we are also considering making the archive available.
How are copyrights treated when using neural voice?
The neural voices that we are using so far were prepared by Microsoft for its Azure service, and they also provided a copyright solution for such use. So the people whose votes were the basis got paid for it. We will, of course, proceed in the same way if we decide to prepare some neural voices of our own.
Why are you using a male instead of a female neural voice?
There are currently two voices available in Microsoft Azure – one male, one female. Since our carrier voice (live Braňo Bezák) is male, we wanted to have a female neural voice. However, after listening to both voices, we feel that the male voice in the current Microsoft Azure offering is much more natural, so we chose that one for now.
Will Newsfiltre still read Braňo Bezák?
In the near future, we do not want to change anything about the fact that Newsfilter is read by Braňo Bezák. At this point, neural voice is an experiment in expanding the listening menu, not replacing humans. All further steps depend on its result.
If you have any other questions, write to [email protected].
If you have time and want to try listening to an article read by a neural voice, choose from today’s menu of headlines of Denníka N marked with the “play” icon. Open the article, start playback and listen. We will be happy if you let us know your opinion via the form below the player.