Getting Started

This library is an end-to-end audio/text aligner. It is meant to be used together with the ReadAlong-Web-Component to interactively visualize the alignment.

Background

The concept is a web application with a series of stages of processing, which ultimately leads to a time-aligned audiobook, i.e., a www bundle of:

• ReadAlong XML file describing text and alignment
• Audio file (WAV or MP3)
• HTML file describing the web component

Which is displayed using the read-along web component.

A book is generated as a standalong Offline HTML page and a www bundle by default, but can optionally be generated as ELAN, Praat or subtitle files.

Required knowledge

• How to use a Command-line interface (CLI).
• How to edit and manipulate plain text and XML files using a text editor or a code editor.
• How to edit and examine an audio file with Audacity or similar software.
• How to spin up a local web server (e.g., see How do you set up a local testing server?)

What you need to make a ReadAlong

In order to create a ReadAlong you will need two files:

• A text file, either in plain text (.txt) or in ReadAlong XML (.readalong)
• Clear audio in any format supported by ffmpeg

The content of the text file should be a transcription of the audio file. The audio can be spoken or sung, but if there is background music or noise of any kind, the aligner might have a harder time. Clearly enunciated audio is also likely to increase accuracy.