[Audacity-devel] Re: Two screen-reader specific plug-ins (fwd)

[David S. <dav...@vc...>]

Forwarded with permission. 'VIP' stands for 'visually impaired person'.
Some people may be interested in Chris' comments re Audacity, including an
improvement he suggests. contains text from Chris, text from me, then more
text from Chris.

David

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:20:12 EST
From: CHR...@ao...
To: dav...@vc...
Subject: Re: Two screen-reader specific plug-ins


In a message dated 19/03/05 10:06:04 GMT Standard Time, dav...@vc...
writes:

On Sat,  19 Mar 2005 CHR...@ao... wrote:

> This is great and I'm sure  it will really help my student. My work
involves
> producing audio  versions of printed material for VIPs, so I am very  aware
of
> the  accessibility issues and Audacity and its team of developers
(including
> yourself) are doing a splendid job. If only other producers  of  software
were
> as aware as yourselves, many more blind people  could enjoy what  the
sighted
> community take for granted. Keep up  the good work.
> Chris
> Southampton Talking Echo,  England

Chris,

What is "Talking Echo"? Is that what you referred  to re producing audio
manuals for VIPs? And may I forward your note to the  Audacity development
team? -

Cheers

David>




David
Throughout the UK, there are over 400 'Talking Newspapers' that produce
local news on audio cassette for VIPs. These are usually charities manned by
volunteers, who select, edit printed material, record and produce many copies  (we
produce 400 per week) for distribution to our listeners. This is a totally
free service and we use the Royal Mail concession to send tapes free of charge
as they qualify as Articles for the Blind. Many Talking Newspapers are now
using  digital recording and editing because of the improved audio quality and I
 introduced this technique to our newspaper about 5 years ago. Before that,
we  were using traditional reel to reel recorders and no editing was done
beacuse of  time constraints. The poor listener had to hear coughs, mistakes and
the  inevitable hiss from magnetic tape.

I am more familiar with CoolEdit, which is now Audition, but Audacity is
quite adequate for simple editing of voice recordings.

I am also involved with Oral History which again consists of  interviews, and
several groups collecting material would like to use editing so  that they
can compile clips about a particular subject. I have produced several  CDs on
topics such as the D Day landings, Titanic and Maritime History and some  clips
are available on the internet.

So, I am now teaching basic techniques to students and volunteers and
naturally the choice to use a free application like Audacity is very  attractive.

Please feel free to pass on any of my comments to the team. The only thing  I
miss in Audacity is the cue function in Audition. This is really useful when
selecting clips or marking the waveform prior to an edit, which can be done
while listening. I guess labels do a similar job, but the vertical line across
 the waveform indicating a cue point and the zoom to and snap feature really
speeds up the process. After recording 40 minutes of audio, you know
immediately  how many edits are required and the times are updated following cuts.
Maybe this  could be considered in a future release?

I have collected some more of your plug ins and you are obviously a major
contributor, so it is great to be able to communicate with someone as
knowledgeable as you. Certainly knocks spots off Adobe!

Best wishes
Chris