Audio book editing method and apparatus providing the integration of images into the text
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus for recording and editing audio books which indexes the text and audio recording to one another. This allows for ease in locating a portion of the audio recording corresponding to a portion of text. The audio portion can then be edited. Images can be integrated into the text. These images can be included in the completed file for multimedia presentation. The indexing can also be used for ease in placing various takes in the correct sequential order in the master recording. The original audio recording is maintained unchanged while, changes from editing are contained in a separate file. The method and apparatus can also be used to generate compressed audio and text files for ease of forwarding via e-mail.
1. A method of producing an audio file, said method comprising:
providing a computing means having a central processing unit, visual output device, audio input device running software, and at least one manual input device;
displaying a text on the visual output device to a human narrator;
creating a performance of the text by the human narrator;
capturing the performance of the text via the audio input device;
recording the performance on electronic media;
altering a portion of the text;
displaying the altered text on the visual output device to the human narrator;
reperforming the altered text;
recording the reperformance of the altered text;
integrating the recording of the reperformance into the recording of the performance;
indexing the recording of the reperformance of the altered text in sequence with a previously recorded performance of a portion of the text; and
controlling the processing of the file via voice commands.
2. The method of claim 1 , said manual input device comprising a keyboard.
3. The method of claim 1 , said manual input device comprising a mouse.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the software adding intros to the recording of the performance.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the software adding outros to the recording of the performance.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
highlighting a portion of text on the display;
the software locates a portion of the performance recording that corresponds to the highlighted portion of the text; and
editing the recording of the performance corresponding to the highlighted portion of the text.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
highlighting a portion of the text on the display;
the software locates a portion of the performance recording that corresponds to the highlighted portion of the text; and
the software displays at least one attribute of the audio recording corresponding to the highlighted text.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
recording a timestamp of at least a first and a second performance recording;
identifying a break in a performance between the first and second performance recording based on the timestamp; and
normalizing audio output of the first and second performance recording to a prevailing level.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
highlighting a portion of text on the display;
the software locates a portion of the performance recording that corresponds to the highlighted portion of the text;
entering a modification of at least one attribute of the portion of the performance recording; and
storing the modification in a file separate from the performance recording.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
entering comments to the text;
associating the comments to a portion of the text.
11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
displaying a cue in the text representing the comments; and
displaying the comments only when the cue is highlighted.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
exporting the finished audio product to a file of the type selected from the group consisting of: MP3, CDA, MP4, windows media, and WMA.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
compressing a file for export and
exporting the file.
14. A method of producing an audio file, said method comprising:
providing a computing means having a central processing unit, visual output device, audio input device running software, and at least one manual input device;
displaying a text on the visual output device to a human narrator;
creating a performance of the text by the human narrator;
capturing the performance of the text via the audio input device;
recording the performance on electronic media;
altering a portion of the text;
displaying the altered text on the visual output device to the human narrator;
creating a reperformance of the altered text by the human narrator;
recording the reperformance of the altered text;
storing the recording of the reperformance in a file separate from an original performance recording;
integrating the recording of the reperformance into the recording of the performance using indexing of the performance and reperformance relative to the text and altered text;
automatically adding an intro and an outro to the output file;
compressing the output file;
exporting the output file; and
controlling the processing of the method via voice commands.