Access to Audio Files
One odd thing about the last few releases of Kurzweil 1000 was that it could create files that it didn't know how to read. Using the Create Audio Files facility, which can be found under the File->Utilities menu, you were able to create MP3, WAV, or Audio DAISY files. This was a very useful feature for taking those files elsewhere and reading them at your leisure, but it was a little peculiar to not be able to play them within Kurzweil 1000. Now you can.
You can open MP3, WAV, WMA, or Audio DAISY files within Kurzweil 1000 and play them. Kurzweil 1000 treats them as though they were open documents, and many of the same keystrokes apply. Control+Home will take you to the start of the document, Control+End to its end. The commands that move backward, forward, or repeat the current unit work pretty much as you'd expect, except that the units are blocks of time rather than blocks of text. Specifically, of the reading unit is line or sentence, it equates to 15 seconds in an audio file. If the reading unit is by paragraph, it equates to 30 seconds. You can, of course, stop reading and restart it.
You can also change the reading speed. The default reading speed for an audio file is set, somewhat arbitrarily, at 150 words per minute. At that speed, you will be hearing the expected speed of the recording. You can speed it up with F12, or slow it down with F11, until you reach 300 words per minute, or 75 words per minute. This works reasonably well for recorded text, but it can sound more than a little strange if you are playing music.
You can also set and use bookmarks, create and read notes, and, of course, expect Kurzweil 1000 to maintain your current reading position between sessions.
Note that if you wish to open a DAISY 2 Audio document, you should find and open the file ncc.html.
You can open MP3, WAV, WMA, or Audio DAISY files within Kurzweil 1000 and play them. Kurzweil 1000 treats them as though they were open documents, and many of the same keystrokes apply. Control+Home will take you to the start of the document, Control+End to its end. The commands that move backward, forward, or repeat the current unit work pretty much as you'd expect, except that the units are blocks of time rather than blocks of text. Specifically, of the reading unit is line or sentence, it equates to 15 seconds in an audio file. If the reading unit is by paragraph, it equates to 30 seconds. You can, of course, stop reading and restart it.
You can also change the reading speed. The default reading speed for an audio file is set, somewhat arbitrarily, at 150 words per minute. At that speed, you will be hearing the expected speed of the recording. You can speed it up with F12, or slow it down with F11, until you reach 300 words per minute, or 75 words per minute. This works reasonably well for recorded text, but it can sound more than a little strange if you are playing music.
You can also set and use bookmarks, create and read notes, and, of course, expect Kurzweil 1000 to maintain your current reading position between sessions.
Note that if you wish to open a DAISY 2 Audio document, you should find and open the file ncc.html.
posted by K1000Engineer at 1:29 PM
2 Comments:
So, can I mix text and audio and use the k1000 as a daisy book production application?
Hi Pranav.
I'd say no, there are way too many things missing to use K1000 as a DAISY book production application. It can write DAISY 2 Audio and DAISY 2005 Text, but it can't write a mixed audio and text file. You can annotate an MP3 or Audio file, but you can't then convert it to DAISY. And, even if we get around to adding those features, one would ideally also want some convenient features to record human speech, and to rapidly synchronize text and recorded audio.
Stephen
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