Fast playback of podcasts and audiobooks

Sansafix- hear what you are saying and understand that this is not so easy - but please please please do keep this on the consideration list and try and pull this off.  Fast and slow without pitch correction - why bother! Hard, yes maybe, but what a challenge and I’m sure you guys are up to it. - keep up the good work it is appreciated.   

"There will be no enhancement in Pitch correction in the next firmware. Its computation intensive and development intensive. Using the PC with its resources makes this trivial, but for us its hard. We need to do FFT and inverse FFTs to pull it off. "

While it may not be easy, it is very important to those who listen to many podcasts, lectures, and audiobooks. Imo this is a much more important feature for an mp3 player than playing video or displaying photos. While editing tags or processing files ahead of time on a pc to play at a faster rate on an mp3 player may be possible, doing all this preparation is not desirable.

@jk98 wrote:

"There will be no enhancement in Pitch correction in the next firmware. Its computation intensive and development intensive. Using the PC with its resources makes this trivial, but for us its hard. We need to do FFT and inverse FFTs to pull it off. "

 

While it may not be easy, it is very important to those who listen to many podcasts, lectures, and audiobooks. Imo this is a much more important feature for an mp3 player than playing video or displaying photos. While editing tags or processing files ahead of time on a pc to play at a faster rate on an mp3 player may be possible, doing all this preparation is not desirable.

Dude JK could you start to qualify your statements like “IMO this is a much more important feature…” For you… This is indeed true, but I bet you find double or triple the number of people who want better video support. Sandisk needs to focus on the greatest need for the greatest amount of people First… then all the little things (especially the really hard little things) like pitch correction second. I have recently begun to use my fuze for lectures, and I wholehartedly agree with you that FOR ME this is crazy important. But I would rather have sandisk fix all the big stuff that people struggle with on here all the time (ie. SMC) than devote valuable resources to a frill that a select few of us want.

Conversionbox wrote: 

 

…I wholehartedly agree with you that FOR ME this is crazy important. But I would rather have sandisk fix all the big stuff that people struggle with on here all the time (ie. SMC) than devote valuable resources to a frill that a select few of us want.

I think I am in love…

@hazza wrote:


Conversionbox wrote: 

 

…I wholehartedly agree with you that FOR ME this is crazy important. But I would rather have sandisk fix all the big stuff that people struggle with on here all the time (ie. SMC) than devote valuable resources to a frill that a select few of us want.


I think I am in love…

EWWW!

"Dude JK could you start to qualify your statements like “IMO this is a much more important feature…” For you… This is indeed true, but I bet you find double or triple the number of people who want better video support. Sandisk needs to focus on the greatest need for the greatest amount of people First… then all the little things (especially the really hard little things) like pitch correction second. I have recently begun to use my fuze for lectures, and I wholehartedly agree with you that FOR ME this is crazy important. But I would rather have sandisk fix all the big stuff that people struggle with on here all the time (ie. SMC) than devote valuable resources to a frill that a select few of us want. "

That is the problem. While video on a portable video player(with a 3"+ screen of 640x480 or higher resolution) is quite desirable, putting video on a player with a 2" or smaller screen that is just 176x220 doesn’t make sense to me. Perhaps if video was left off the Fuze, it might already have variable speed playback with pitch correction, and navigation by folders. I wish Sandisk would have video only on players that can handle it elegantly. I was looking for an audio player with a card slot and a display, and found very few choices. The other player I was considering with a card slot also has video though. I was looking for a player with a basic low power LCD display that is on all the time while the player is playing. Player makers don’t seem to want to use these(I guess since they don’t support photos or video).

I have had my sansa fuze for about 6 months, in every other regard it is perfect, but the lack of variable playback is disappointing.  My previous player was a sharper image 1gb that cost about $25 and had variable speeds in 10% incriments from 10% to 80%.  If that player could do it I’m sure you could too

avatar619 wrote:
I have had my sansa fuze for about 6 months, in every other regard it is perfect, but the lack of variable playback is disappointing.  My previous player was a sharper image 1gb that cost about $25 and had variable speeds in 10% incriments from 10% to 80%.  If that player could do it I’m sure you could too

Sure they could.

If they had also built and sold a $25 POS mp3 player with only 1 GB of memory storage, questionable sound quality and other left out features.


avatar619 wrote: 


 My previous player was a sharper image 1gb that cost about $25 and had variable speeds in 10% incriments from 10% to 80%.  If that player could do it I'm sure you could too

 


 

Sure they could.

 

If they had also built and sold a $25 POS mp3 player with only 1 GB of memory storage, no FM radio, external memory card slot, questionable sound quality and other assorted left out features.

 

Since they already have slow, normal, and fast options for audiobooks I find it hard to believe that it will be taxing to add a “faster” option at 1.5 speed. While not as useful as being able to select the exact speed, this would be a reasonable compromise

Am I the only audiobook reader out there is sandisk land?

1.5x isn’t very usable without pitch correction. Even 1.2x is annoying to listen to without pitch correction.

I hear a lot of people talk about pitch correction, but I can listen to most audiobooks at 1.7 speed without pitch correction. I find the “chipmonk” voice entertaining I guess thats just me.

why not recode your audio books and podcases and such at higher speed with pitch correction if you need that on the go?

It’s a workaround, but you could speed up the file before putting it on the Fuze.

Get the sound editing program  Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net

You’ll also need to get the mp3 encoder lame_enc.dll. Get the .zip file from this page:

http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/

Unzip it and put lame_enc.dll in your C:/Program Files/Audacity folder. Now Audacity can make mp3 files. 

Open your file with Audacity. Edit/ Select All and go to Effects and Change Speed. 

Then  Export Selection as .mp3 and send it to the Fuze.

Happy chipmunking. 

I download most of my books from the library through overdrive, which doesn’t allow any file alteration.

“why not recode your audio books and podcases and such at higher speed with pitch correction if you need that on the go?”

  Speakers often don’t speak at the same speed or level of complexity all the time. On my pc, if I start playing a lecture at 1.4x for example, I might need to raise or lower the speed based on the speed of the speaker or the complexity of the speech. For complex topics, I might need to slow it down to 1x to comprehend, or for simple material and a slow speech, I might need to raise it to 1.6 x to not be bored.

@avatar619 wrote:
I hear a lot of people talk about pitch correction, but I can listen to most audiobooks at 1.7 speed without pitch correction. I find the “chipmonk” voice entertaining I guess thats just me.

1.5 is about my limit in both cases.  With pitch correction it tends to get too choppy (unless the speaker has huge pauses between each word like William Shatner) and without correction it’s too squeeky for my taste.

Actually I generally prefer “chipmonks” too.  There are some podcasters whose normal voice I don’t even recognize because I’ve always listened to them without pitch correction. :wink:

@knifethemac wrote:


@avatar619 wrote:
I hear a lot of people talk about pitch correction, but I can listen to most audiobooks at 1.7 speed without pitch correction. I find the “chipmonk” voice entertaining I guess thats just me.


1.5 is about my limit in both cases.  With pitch correction it tends to get too choppy (unless the speaker has huge pauses between each word like William Shatner) and without correction it’s too squeeky for my taste.

 

Actually I generally prefer “chipmonks” too.  There are some podcasters whose normal voice I don’t even recognize because I’ve always listened to them without pitch correction. :wink:

I agree, it can make everything seem much more exciting and funny.  The only time I listen at normal speed is when the topic is racy, because it can sound a little creepy for the chipmonks to be discussing such things :smiley:

I can imagine listening to Barry White muse in chipmunk mode…there’s something funny and twisted in that.

I agree, pitch correction and a higher limit for the playback speed would be wonderful.  In a perfect world, I’d have two choices, one for speed, and selectable pitch correction.  The Sansas are great for audiobooks, and enhancements in this regard would make a great thing even better.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy: