Playing multiple audio files

Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Thu Apr 25, 2019 11:49 pm

Playing multiple audio files.

Hello there, great awesome app, thank you for making it.
I was interested if it is possible to play multiple audio sounds in order, together under one sound in flashcards.

Situation: have really fast Chinese audio from mine University of sentences that I'm learning. And often it is really hard too catch what are they saying as they just speak to fast. So I would add second sound in which I would instead of audio of sentences, have sound of words in those sentences, as I have also audio of all words spoken in those sentences.
So for example, where I now have single audio for sentence:
你家有很多書.mp3, I would have multiple audio files play in order: 你.mp3家.mp3有.mp3很.mp3多.mp3書.mp3。
If not, also it would help if there is option to play audio file slower, thank
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby Ernie » Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:32 am

Hi,

The app doesn't support more than one sound file per side. With a max of five sides, that's a max of 5 sound files per card supported.

The app also doesn't support changing sound speed. Android's recently versions now support this, as does iOS. I've never considered adding this before, but I'm going to make a note of it and give it more thought. I'll still likely postpone this a while until I get other higher priority items done, but I think it would be a nice addition.

Sorry I don't have better news for you.
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Sun Apr 28, 2019 11:55 am

Thank you for your reply. I've figured out that I can have Android tts slowed down in the app and that would work good as in spelling mode in app one can set two sound files to show on first question side, so I have normal audio and if it is to fast, I play second audio that is Android tts. Though app has option to slow audio just for three "degrees", which is still relatively fast. Could you expand this option that already exist in app so it would be able to slow tts even further?

Otherwise I'm thinking to make copies of all audios for that deck slow copies down and upload them to deck as well, then it would work as well. Though I would prefer tts in App slowed down even more, as human voice when slowed is pretty bad quality, I'm using Audacity for this. Whereas, tts voice when slowed down is still pretty clear.

Thank you again for this great app, I was looking years for app for learning languages, where I could input with mobile keyboard, since I'm really skilled with continuous input, and since mine friend showed me this app,I just knew this is even better than what I was looking for. But it's complicated, haha, but of course it is, so many options. This is real treasure.
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Screenshot of option for slowing down tts Audio
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Screenshot of first question side with two different audio files ready to play
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby Ernie » Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:56 pm

I added an option for "-5". It slows it down just a little bit more. I think there's a limit as to how much TTS can be slowed.

One thing you might try is to create alternate TTS text and put a period after every word. Maybe find/replace space with period+space. Maybe goofy though. There is a setting in TTS settings screen to ignore text in say [ ]

How are you [how.are.you?]

But this will likely screw up spelling, I think. If you are interested maybe using Alt TTS, but also want to use with spelling, let me know.
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Thu May 02, 2019 7:25 am

Thank you very much, I've tried adding period in between each character and it sounds great, better than slowing down, clearly pronouncing every syllable.

Though, as you said there's problem now with spelling. But you already said solution to that, as you said I created alternate tts Text with periods under text 4 and then put it's sound to answering text under text 2, and it works great, now just need to find formula for adding automatically periods in between each character in sheets, though it's late and I'll leave this for tomorrow.

So this is answered, thank you, though didn't understand what you meant here "I think. If you are interested maybe using Alt TTS, but also want to use with spelling, let me know." But maybe you meant this same kind of solution?
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby Ernie » Fri May 03, 2019 8:18 am

Great!

My original thinking was that the slowed down text was part of "Text 2", the answer.
I thought you can use TTS option "Alternative TTS Text" to use only the text in [ ] to speak.
This would work, but then the spelling answer would have this extra stuff and I don't have an option to ignore text in [ ] for spelling.

Instead, you mentioned Text 4. This sounds much better. You don't need to use the "Alternative TTS Text" option, then right?
You can create a custom card layout:
Side 1 = Text 1 + (normal sound)
Side 2 = Text 2 + Sound 4 (TTS from Text 4 ?)

I'm a little unclear myself on all this, so if you got something working, I wouldn't worry about my ramblings here too much. If you do run into any complication, let me know and I'll try to help.
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Sat May 04, 2019 4:34 am

You got it right,
Don't need to use Alternative tts, but I will keep it in mind, maybe I will be needing it in future, think I could also with Alternative tts, save side 4, as I could put Alternative tts on side 3 with pinyin as for pinyin I don't need any sound, but don't really need this here as I have enough 5 sides for this deck
I'l just add one full card here in case anyone is looking for similar solution

Text 1.........Text 2.......Text 3..................Text 4..................Sound 1 (added doted line to keep structure of flash cards)
圖書館。....圖書館.....Túshūguǎn。.......圖,書,館.........圖書館.mp3

Text 1 is Chinese text with punctuation marks
Text 2 is Chinese text without punctuation marks
Text 3 is Pinyin
Text 4 is Chinese text with periods in between characters, and android tts sound, that will be used for tts to read it out slow character by character when i don't catch everything in original Chinese sound file, since sentences are often quite long and Chinese sound file is spoken rather fast.
Sound 1 is original Chinese sound I got with the book

Setup of whats shown on sides is as follows:
Side 1 = Sound 1
Side 2 = Text 2, Sound 4. (It is set up as answer side, its without punctuation marks, so i don't need to enter them while answering)
Side 3 = Text 1, Text 3, Sound 4. (It shows after i answer card)

There is still one side left, which could be used for English translation which I add just for some cards with which i have problem understanding meaning of the sentence.

Thank you very much Ernie
Last edited by taeril on Sat May 04, 2019 7:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Sat May 04, 2019 6:55 am

I've uploaded this deck to shared library so You or anyone else wants to see how it looks like
Deck name: A Course in Contemporary Chinese, Book One, Dialogs
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby Ernie » Sat May 04, 2019 8:33 am

Whoa, you are learning from the same book I am, and have cut audio from the CDs? This might be really useful for me! I'm on book 3, switching over to CC from another series a bit ago. I have audio for books 1 and 2 also from the CDs, and listen to them, but I always wish I had cut audio for sentences + text available for flashcards. You've got the dialogs. Very cool!

I'm currently creating an app that is focused on Taiwan vocab, characters and grammar. The idea is to have dictionary of Taiwan-focused vocab, with word lists pre-made for a variety of study material. For example, if a user is studying for TOCFL, the app has word lists by level, with all vocab in dictionary. CC? The app will have vocab and word lists for each chapter for books 1-5 (or 6). The app will also have a character deck with etymology. Finally, I'm hoping to have a grammar/sentence deck, which my Chinese teacher will help with. The idea is that the app can support a student's normal study material. I'd like to have word lists to support all the common traditional Chinese study books. I'll use Siri/Android TTS for sounds.

I can't include sounds from CDs and sample sentences from the books, as they are copyrighted. I'm wondering if there can be some non-official info I can gather. :)

The app is 80% done (coding and content wise, less sentence/grammar info). I'm currently trying to figure out / finish the sync + auto statistics backup to my server, which is very complicated and makes my brain hurt.
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Sun May 05, 2019 5:54 am

Really? That's awesome, haha, how come you are studying traditional Chinese, simplified has way more resources online.

Are you in Taiwan or in the states, you study in school or privately?
Are you sure you can't use audio from the book? As it's for learning purposes? Though if you will sell app, it might be not regarded as use for learning purposes but for commercial use. You don't think you could record audio with your teacher? Otherwise I'm in Taiwan and could find person willing to record audio, of course that would cost money, but if it would be student, it shouldn't be that expensive, though not sure what would be price to rent recording studio room, otherwise mine wife was recording me audio for book one vocabulary, first half, (you can cheek it up, it is in shared library as well. Though quality of sound isn't that good as it is recorded with mobile and in house, so outside sounds are in background sometimes.

Though, I'll ask tomorrow in school, how they regard others using their audio and books for creating study material based on their books.

I think I'm free to cut their audio since I paid for course and am making this to help me learn better, and when I share it here, I'm not earning any money but I'm sharing it for free, what do you think, should I take it rather down?

On this link you can download audio for all 6 books and work books. (I'm sharing it here as material you would use to study yourself, and they are free to download, especially if you have the book already.) scroll down!
https://mtc.ntnu.edu.tw/eng/book/A_Cour ... inese.html

On this link you can download our University official app (for apple devices only), app seems rather great and first three lessons are free, so you can check it out, though I don't use it, as for me mobile keyboard input is way more powerful as I fell it speeds up learning process a lot, but Im thinking to buy book 2 in apple app, though for now they have just first 3 books there. In app is also workbook with audio and it seems rather well done, have as well mobile keyboard input option but just in few cases. And all audio from books is there as well.
https://itunes.apple.com/tw/app/mtc-dan ... 52400?mt=8
(Im sorry, im not sure if it is allowed posting here links to other apps, please delete this part about apple app if it isn't appropriate)

Im interested in seeing your next app, and even test it, when its ready for teting. of course, if you need a tester, even though Im quite pleased with this app, will your new app as well have mobile keyboard input?
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby Ernie » Tue May 07, 2019 9:04 pm

It would be great to get your feedback on my app. Do you use iOS or Android? It will be another month or two before I'm ready to share a beta version.

I live in Taiwan.

Non-TTS audio is not something I want to think about now (as far as my app goes). I need to stay focused on the core functionality. I'll think more about book sentence contents and audio later.

Thanks for audio file links. (I got physical CDs from the book store when I bought my books.)

I do have your schools app, but haven't played with it much. I need to use it more to see if it's something I want to use, or at least get ideas from. My new app will work differently and solve a different problem (e.g. SRS flashcard review + dictionary)

What does "mobile keyboard input" mean? Do you mean typing something into the app? What exactly are you typing? (spelling? new words?) I also don't know if the word "mobile" is important here.
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Tue May 07, 2019 11:45 pm

You are also in Taiwan? That's great, we can meet maybe?

Check this out, friend made a code that colors characters according to their tones according to tone numbers we got from Pinyin, but it's not finished yet and the screen save I've uploaded here is just testing out, not tone connected yet, but he said it's working and it's easily done, so over weekend I plan to add that to dialogs in book one, if you are interested, can share it then with you and you can check out how it works. Though, friend doing that, I know him just shortly, so don't know if he's going to give me the code, but it seems rather simple thing to do. I've asked him if he can do it one day, and explained how we could do this fairly simply by extracting tones from Pinyin. After two days he sent me test Dialog to check if it works in your app and said it took him little time.

Typing with mobile keyboard, yeah mobile isn't really important, keyboard is, with spelling input your app has, I've learned to type Chinese in Pinyin, since I learn Pinyin, so now I'm able to type also on computer.
I've searched for similar thing when I was learning German few years back, Duolingo doesn't have that option, neither hello Chinese, and neither they have spaced repetition, this two things work wanders for me. That's why I'm able listen Chinese sentences and type it Chinese in spelling.

University app is really professionally done, but like dulingo etc doesn't have spaced repetition and neither keyboard input, so at the moment I think your app is one of the best in it's category, it's just complicated, so it is not attractive to masses. I've show it friend from class and made him buy it, but he's just not into it, he sees fcd helps him learn faster but doesn't want to take time to figure out your app (when I bought your app, I've spent three hours or more testing out how it works). So he always asks me to set decks for him....

Friend that made color code will also now buy your app, mine wife to, seems I should start charging you for the promotion... Just kidding.

Well as said in start, if you are into socialising, doing sports, like cycling, surfing skating etc, practicing Chinese, let's meet.

Have a nice day
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Wed May 08, 2019 12:10 am

It's working
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby Ernie » Fri May 10, 2019 7:38 am

I suggest you email me. That will make it easier to communicate.

I've never used colored Chinese characters before. Because of your post, I realized this was something that would need to get added to my new app. Yesterday and today I added this feature. Your cards look great. I'm impressed. I guess you added HTML for each character. I don't know how you do it, but for my app all my (raw/stored) pinyin is with tone numbers at the end, so I can read these and apply the colors to the corresponding Chinese characters (using HTML styles). When I show pinyin in the app, I'll convert the numbers into marks.

My app currently doesn't have spelling. It has the drawing pad where you can draw with your finger. It sounds like being able to use a keyboard to do spelling tests is important to you. I think it would be easy to add spelling since Flashcards Deluxe (FCD) supports it and I'm using the same coding base for both FCD and the new app. It will be good to get input from others on what's important. (I don't use keyboard in FCD myself.)

I agree that the app is complicated. But there are a lot of people that like the power and flexibility that the app provides. You can't do everything, I think. My girlfriend keeps recommending that I have have both a simple-hold-your-hands interface, and then a power-user interface that can be turned on. Getting specific suggestions from people like your friend on what exactly was complicated and what exactly people prefer over other flashcard apps is likely helpful to me. App's like Quizlet have a nice website for creating flashcards, which I don't have. I know some people would rather have a more structured approach to created cards, instead of Excel. Eventually I'd like to make an app for PC/Mac where you can add/edit/sync flashcards to mobile device.

I appreciate you promoting the app! :)

Ernie
et@orangeorapple.com
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Fri May 10, 2019 8:22 pm

I'll sent you an email.

I'll just add here feature I found in your app that is related to period slowed tts that others might find useful.

If you add new row in a text in a flashcards (enter), you can write anything in next row, and flashcards will consider just first row in spelling mode as as answer text and ignore rest of the text that follows after new row.

So now, as you initially suggested, with "Alternative TTS Text, i can have it both the answer and alternative text to be read by TTS on same side and they don't interfere with one another.

So I have recorded sound set on side one, and TTS on side two and they will both show up in spelling mode on first side, if in card layout sound one is set to show on first side

So this way I don't need to use extra side for slow TTS .
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby Ernie » Fri May 10, 2019 8:45 pm

Oh! Put "text to ignore for spelling" on line 2. Great idea!
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Re: Playing multiple audio files

Postby taeril » Fri May 10, 2019 10:59 pm

Sorry, I didn't understand well what you mean, "text to ignore for spelling" on line two? If that is command to ignore text for spelling, there is no need for it, app already ignors text on line two for spelling automatically, no need for external command. But maybe you have this command in your code already, and that's why it ignores it.

Just tested it out, app automatically ignores text on line two for spelling, no matter what you put there, though text in [] will also be ignored even if on same line, in spelling if alternative tts is turned on, if alternative tts is turned off however, then text in [] will be also considered as part of answer.

I didn't try this before when you suggested alternative tts, because you said that it will interfere with spelling answer, so I come up with using another side for tts, but now it's even better as another side can be used for another things, I'm already using six sides now as Friend translated text to German, so I have that too in cards for him, but it's also useful for me, so I don't need to add English as well.
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