Separate settings for audio in Dictionary/Flashcards vs Reader

[Arqui3D]

Hi,

Am I missing something, or are Pleco's audio settings only global, and not customizable for Dictionary/Flashcards vs. Reader?

I mean, while using the dictionary and reviewing Flashcards I like both native male and female (and their robotic counterparts if there's no native recording) so I can better "average" the sounds in my mind. But while using the reader I find it distracting to have each word pronounced by a different voice. It even throws in TTS voices in the cycle, even for words that do have native recordings! So I'd prefer the Reader to stick to only male voices, and force it to use the native recording if there's one for that word. But I like the dictionary/flashcards to cycle voices (male first), of course also giving priority to native recordings.

How can I set things up this way?

Thanks!

 

[mikelove]

They're only global at the moment - haven't gotten many requests that they be otherwise, though we can certainly consider it for a future release. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Arqui3D]

Nevermind, just found out that I can have separate settings on the iPad (for reading) and iPhone (for flashcard review). Duh!

Still, the fact that in reader mode it sometimes uses the TTS voices for words that already have a native recording, feels like a bug. It doesn't happen when you tap on a word, but when you jump from word to word using the arrows.

 

[mikelove]

That is odd - are you sure these words have native recordings both with male and female? The system generally favors gender over recorded-ness.

 

[Arqui3D]

Please bear with my accent, Mike...

Thanks for your attention.

As I said, while in the reader when I find a new word, I like to compare the male and female native recordings to better grasp the pronunciation. But, while jumping from word to word, or when I first I tap on a word, of course I prefer the native male recording, if there's one, or the male TTS, if there's no recording.

(Sorry that my iPad was full of dust in the first video)

So, to sum it up:

It would be ideal if it always gave preference to the native recording, when there's one for one's preferred gender (and please not jumping between genders when jumping from word to word...). But when one stops in one word and presses the button again, it's cool to be able to alternate between both male and female native recordings (or TTS if there's no recording).

 

[mikelove]

Do you have the demo versions of any of our audio add-ons installed? The fact that it's using recorded audio for single-syllable recordings suggest that it's trying to use one of them and falling back on TTS when it can't.

 

[Arqui3D]

Nope... I just got this iPad two months ago and installed Pleco + recovered my iTunes purchase of the extended male audio. Then in June I also got the Reader addon, then I upgraded to the Pro bundle, then I added the KEY Dictionary. AFAIK, I've only been trying the demo of the OCR and some dictionaries before upgrading to Pro, and since doing so, I can't even see if there are demo installations. Maybe a reinstall is in order?

 

[mikelove]

But is it possible you might have the demo version of the female audio installed? I'm hearing female single-syllable audio here and you only mention a purchase of the male audio. You can check this in the 'Installed' tab of Add-ons.

 

[Arqui3D]

Can't remember doing that. What I did do is delete the female extended audio after upgrading to Pro, as I thought I would not be needing it. And now something seems to be damaged, as I can't re-install it.

 

[Trickyt57]

I can replicate your problem, but it was with great difficulty to make it do this. To get there I had to set my settings as follows:
Settings ==>Audio==>preferred gender==> Alt (F 1st)
Use TTS if no recording==> On
Voice==>Pleco mandarin female or cycle voices. (Both have the same result of gender switching)

The conclusion I reach is this problem occurs with the preferred gender setting and using the Alt setting.

Instead, change your preferred gender setting to male, female or alternating and the problem goes away.

Settings==>Audio==>preferred gender==> Alternating

Now you will get what you want - a constant sex when you step forward through the text, but a changing sex when you tap on a word for the second time.

By the way, if you want to read a whole sentence or whole document in one go, the setting Apple Mandarin Female is the best. Turn off the Pleco Mandarin (male) and the Pleco Mandarin (Female) voices.

 

[mikelove]

@Trickyt57 - thanks for figuring this out! (had me puzzled, though I probably should have thought to ask for a backup of his settings now that we have the ability to generate those on iOS)