Seeking ways to outsource Fine Tune Audio Timings with COVID-19

Thanks! Will try it out!

I don’t see the need for a feature addition. You can generate the fine tuning files by book. I have not heard of people sharing Fine tuning files before?
But if you think others would use this feature then make a new post for a feature request.

In the old days you would just share the MP3 file and the timing file and those checking would use Audacity to load both and then send back the adjusted timing file. It is a more visual approach. But it has to be taught like any method.

Sorry if I was a wet blanket. Some one called me on that.

Good news is, if you go to Audio section and Audio Files. Select one chapter then do Ctrl A it will select all audio files for all books and chapters with audio. You can then right click on the set and export to Fine Tune. All the fine tuning files will be in the one folder.

The down side is that the HTML files still only have navigation by book. There is no link to the next/previous book.

You still need to copy in the audio files as @Andy_Weathers said. Still it is only two steps not 26 + 1 for NT or 66 + 1 for ONT.

The right click menu currently says Fine Tune Timings and I originally thought that only one chapter at a time was allowed, but yes it does work to create a batch of all the chapters in that book.

My wishes and feature requests should probably be posted separately because it seems like you might have overlooked that I was also talking about, localizing the HTML for fine tuning, string translations, current time stamp location, save location, and a longer section about keyboard shortcuts - all these are suggestions to improve the fine tune timings function (described in detail at the end of the 5th message in this thread).

Ok, yes post 5 was long. My weakness, is following long posts. Sorry.

Yes make a new post for the feature request.

I’ve posed my feature requests in a new post, I guess if you have direct comments about those suggestions we should move discussion to that thread (click the blue link that says Improvements for Fine Tune Timings):

Hi Andy,

You did not mention any use of Aeneas to create timing files. Your language may be different, but in using aeneas, I have found experimenting with various settings and additional rules produced quite good fine timings without any need for fine tuning.

In one case we ended up using timings generated during the NT recording done by Faith Comes by Hearing. Every FCBH recording saves timing data for every line (either a verse or part-verse). This data can be used for synchronization at the verse/sentence level with the synchronization being quite accurate. This method would not work if you are trying to sync at the word level, but we felt the yellow highlighting moved so fast when at the word or phrase (2-4 words) that it was distracting to readers, who appreciated highlighting at the sentence level.

IF you are interested you can contact FCBH and let me know so I can send you further details.

Roger Green

Hello @rgreen620,

I had been talking with FCBH about getting access to timing information from the recording process. Is this now available through DBP4?

Thanks,
Chris

Hi Roger,
Yes, we did use Aeneas to create rough draft timing files, and it works great for our readers who read more slowly. But about half of our recordings are done with a very fluent reader, who doesn’t pause very long for commas. I’ve tried the various settings, but usually have the same results. I’m unfamiliar with what additional rules you can add. I have noticed that certain conjunction words do end up on the wrong side of the phrase separation, but that may just be the way the language naturally inserts a pause after the conjunction (but the comma comes before the conjunction). Our team likes the highlighting at the phrase level, so it changes with any punctuation, including middle of the sentence (colon, semicolon, quotes).

I would like to get in touch with someone at FCBH who can guide me through the process of hosting our audio files, and how to make it so that my apps will retrieve them from a FCBH server (to reduce app file size for the Google Play store). You can write me using First_Last @ sil address.

I would like to get in touch with someone at FCBH who can guide me through the process of hosting our audio files…

Andy, we can give you a contact directly in FCBH, but generally I would recommend you include your local organisation’s FCBH link person in this process. They will already be interacting with FCBH about the programmes in your country.

Hi Ian @mcquayi, I had it working, and my team remotely helped me fine tune the timing files. But after I upgraded to SAB 7.2 it looks like the file structure changed, and now what I upload to Dropbox the HTMLs are no longer playable on a computer other than the one where SAB is installed (and the MP3 files reside).

Previously the Fine Tune Timing files would export to:
Scripture Apps\HTML Output\org.language.book\fine-tuning
That folder would contain an HTML for each chapter, and also had folders for css, fonts, js - stuff needed for the javascripts to work. So I would copy everything from that location to an online Dropbox for the team. I would simply have to create a audio folder and place it next to the css, fonts, js folders. That way when the HTML files were opened on a remove computer it would find the MP3 in the local audio folder.

Since upgrading to SAB 7.2, now the Fine Tune Timing files are exported to:
Scripture Apps\HTML Output\fine-tuning\org.language.book
(Note that fine-tuning is now the parent folder rather than the daughter folder). But when I copy all the HTML files to a shared Dropbox folder, along with css, fonts, js and a newly created audio folder with the MP3 files - _now the HTML files can no longer play the audio. The text and buttons all show up correctly, but it shows with a audio time of zero and no audio will play:


It is not an issue with the file names for the MP3 files, since I copied all of the exact audio files to the Dropbox under the new audio folder.

Any ideas what has changed in the upgrade to SAB 7.2? I was looking forward to showing the team all the new keyboard shortcuts on the new fine tune timings html files. But now it seems to be not working at all for me.

Do I need to put the audio in a different location to be found? It looks like the HTML is not finding the audio when a copy is placed on a remote computer?

I can’t reproduce your error. I can’t get it to not work.

When I choose Fine tuning timing files, it takes me through several dialogs:
image

I choose the second option in the first dialog.

image

I choose the first option on the second dialog.

image

Here either is fine. If I choose to zip, I will unzip and test
But if I choose not to zip I will look at the set then Zip to send to someone.

When sending to someone the HTML settings are ignored and audio is put in the audio folder. In the Fine-tuning HTML the link is made to that audio folder.

My HTML file at the bottom looks like this:

  <div class="audio-player">
    <audio id="audio" controls>
      <source id="audio1" src="audio/web-Mat01.mp3" />
    </audio>
  </div>

Get back to me if you still are having problems.

Hi Ian,
I don’t see any of the dialogue boxes, so maybe I’m looking the wrong place. The only way I know to Fine Tune Timings it to select Audio under the app I’m working on on the left. Then the second tab is Audio Files where I add the audio files and create time file drafts with Aeneas. When I right click on a Timing.txt file then I can select Fine Tune Timings…

On my installation of SAB this procedure takes me directly to Fine Tuning that chapter with the HTML file. I don’t have any of the dialogue boxes you are speaking of. Do they only occur once and I need to find the location to edit those preferences?

Where did you choose Fine tuning timing to get all these options?
I’m using SAB 7.2, build 65, released July 9, 2020
Thanks for all your help!

@mcquayi, I’m using SAB 8.0 and don’t see these fine-tuning dialogs either. I know that some fine-tuning HTML files that I’ve created in the past had more than one <source> option, including the online path I think, but all I get now is the full path to my MP3 files. What I’ve been doing is using Notepad++'s “Find in Files” feature to correct the path in these files every time, which is kind of a pain.

BTW, remoting the fine-tuning is something we’ve been doing for ages. It’s actually been a useful engagement tool, in that it allowed us to crowd-source the work to people who didn’t speak the language. (We had them do it on the Latin transliteration that Aeneas used.)

  • You have to be on the collection in the left pane.
  • Right click on the collection or book in the left pane and choose Fine Tune Timings…

Aaaahhhh! I must have used that one time before, and then later I was puzzled why I had to manually edit the HTML.

Is it intentional that the dialogs only appear when creating the Fine Tuning files from that approach? Surely that’s an oversight and the experience should be consistent, whichever path one takes to get there?

It would also be lovely if it would remember the selections made in these dialogs from one time to the next.

/dan

In the latest version of Scripture App Builder (8.0.1), the Fine Tuning wizard appears whether you select ‘Fine Tune Timings…’ from a book collection, book, or selected audio files. It also remembers previously selected options.

Awesome! Thank you! :slight_smile:

@richard, please send on our sincere words of thanks for all the team that continues to update the app with suggestions from users like myself. My strength is “ideation” so I’m accustomed to having lots of ideas (which at least I think are good). But the SAB team has done a great job of integrating the most important of these updates that can help everyone.

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Hi all,
Back to the original topic in the post, the SAB assist volunteer team are now up and running efficiently, allowing for outsourcing of Fine Tune Audio Timings. I’m the liaison with the group so let me know if you want to take advantage of this service.
Andrew_shafe@sil.org