I really struggle with audio books that do that. It seems like it shifts some internal perception of mine from “book” to “audio drama” and ironically, it makes it much harder for me to get immersed in the book.
It’s weird. When there’s just one narrator and they do different voices for different characters I don’t think twice about it but I can still tell the characters apart by voice alone. But when there’s an entirely different person’s voice my attention gets mildly distracted by it. It’s similar to when sometimes books will have a random sentence read out by someone different than the narrator, probably a post recording correction.
That being said it’s usually pretty few and far between when I come across an audiobook book with multiple narrators, and usually it’s per section of the book (maybe from the perspective of different characters) rather than switching mid dialogue between characters
I tend to agree with you. The one exception I find is that when there is a single narrator, it seems bit off when they voice the opposite sex.
I’ve actually found myself surprised at how my brain doesn’t hear that was weird. I personally find it very natural. Maybe it’s because I was read a lot of stories verbally as a kid?
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You could literally use AI to mark quotes for which character was supposed to be speaking it according to the context.
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Elevenlabs Projects seem to make them possible now.
As for AI voices, it doesn’t quite match real life voices yet. I think what’s more feasible is to get an above average actor with a decent budget, then mask the voice with programs like RVC.
Elevenlabs is incredible but yeah it’s not there 100% for audiobook purposes I think. I trained it on an audiobook from one of my favorite narrators and had it read from another book. It sounded just like the guy but the intonations and mannerisms just weren’t quite there to match the text.
Not sure about AI, but there are a few audiobooks out there that feature an entire case, and sound effects.
This will take quite some effort. I’m editing books, and sometimes I don’t know who is speaking a line (then I ask the author to clarify that point, but they don’t always do).
