Forum Discussion
Is AI Text-to-Speech mp3 encoding during Publishing necessary?
G’day,
I have a project that uses AI Text-to-speech .mp3 files. When I Publish the course it is taking 7 minutes to complete, which can be painful when you need to do it a few times in a row (eg. Like if you’ve made a small change and want to re-publish again for testing purposes). In case you're wondering, yes, I use the slide preview feature for most of my testing but there are some parts of my course that are best tested in the browser (especially Lightboxing).
From what I’m observing with the progress bar of the publish process, most of the time taken is the encoding of the audio files (6 of the 7 mins). I’d like to know if there is any benefit for me to leave the Storyline-generated AI Text-to-Speech audio files, on each of the Storyline slides, set to “Automatic” (meaning they will be encoded during Publishing) or if I can change them all to “None”? I'm wondering about this, considering that Storyline has created them, so I assume they are compressed and ready to go, as-is, yes?. What are the implications if I were to set all of them to “None”. For example, would the resulting published folder be larger? Is there anything else being done to these AI TTS mp3 files when the publishing process re-encodes them?
Many thanks!
Brett
5 Replies
Ahhh, what gives??? Your precise advice at the end of your first post is as follows:
"You can also use the Media Library to batch-change compression settings if you’re managing many files."
Now, you're saying that Media Library is NOT the place to do this and each file need to be manually changed!
Pulp eLearning, are you AI? This wreaks of hallucination. If so, (and considering the complete 180 turnaround to the last post), I now can't believe anything that has been said in the first post.
Articulate, if Pulp eLearning is your new AI forum assistant (that looks like it was started on the 7th of June), you need to label it as such so we are forewarned!!!
Hello BrettConlon! We are not connected with Pulp eLearning and have since removed their post from this thread. I'm sorry if their reply caused confusion!
Thanks Lauren. While I applaud the intent of the person behind Pulp eLearning's post (to help Storyline user's out by using an AI generated response), it certainly didn't go the way they had expected. I've now reached out to Articulate Technical Support for assistance.
Hi, BrettConlon!
I see you connected with my teammate, Robert, in your support case. I'm glad to see they were able to provide you assistance!
Yes, thanks Kelly. With his permission, here's the response from Robert, answering my request:
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Rest assured, you’ve come to the right place. We’re happy to take a closer look and get you the clarity you need. I listed below the questions from your message, followed by my short responses:
1. Is there any benefit to leaving the Storyline-generated AI Text-to-Speech audio files set to “Automatic” for publishing?
Response: The results of my tests varied in terms of file size; however, there was not much difference in terms of quality that I could distinguish.
2. Can I change them all to “None” to speed up the publishing time?
Response: Yes to all MP3s
3. Are the Storyline-generated TTS files already compressed and ready to go as-is?
Response: Yes
4. What are the implications of setting all audio files to “None”?
Response: It allows you to preserve the original quality and skips the compression process
5. Would the resulting published folder be larger if the audio is not re-encoded?
Response: Regarding the AI-generated TTS MP3, it looks like they are smaller compared to the compressed version.
6. Is anything else being done to the AI TTS MP3 files during the publishing re-encoding process?
Response: Nothing specific or special. All audio files are treated the same. Compressed audio has mono sound in the published output.
Please see this article for more information: Storyline 360: Uncompressed Audio, Stereo Sound, and Higher Sample Rate
I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any questions. I’m happy to assist you!
Best regards,
Robert de la Cuesta
Senior Customer Support Engineer
Articulate Support - https://articulate.com/support/
