About
The Shtooka Recorder is the easiest and fastest way to record sentences for the Tatoeba Project. You can use other free software such as Audacity, but it's much, much slower and requires many extra steps to accomplish the same thing.
Download the Shtooka Recorder
- Download Link: http://web.archive.org/web/20110621160436/http://shtooka.net/soft/kit_shtooka/kit_shtooka_Install_0.9.8.exe
The "Shtooka Recorder" is part of this package.
The original website that hosted this is currently offline. (Jan. 2012)- This is a "Windows" program. (I use it with Windows XP.)
- This wouldn't work on my Macintosh with Windows 7 via Bootcamp. The application would run, but the audio interface wouldn't work.
- If you don't have a computer that runs Windows, maybe you can borrow a friend's computer.
1-minute Demo by CK
This quick demo shows you how fast and easily you can record sentences.
About the Following Locally-hosted Documentation
The following is from shtooka.net (July 22, 2011) and is used under the Creative Commons "By" license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/fr/)
It has been slightly edited, mainly to eliminate non-working links.
About the Shtooka Recorder
Shtooka Recorder is a program for Microsoft Windows which allows automated recording of the pronunciation of many words, expressions, and/or sentences from a list. (One can record an average of 500 words in 20 minutes). It can save audio files in the following formats: .wav .ogg .flac (including Vorbis Comment tag).This program is distributed and licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Screenshots:
List of words that will be recorded:
Information About the Speaker:
Output Properties:
Audio Recording:
The user pronounces the first word, then Shtooka Recorder automatically switch to the next word while saving the file.
Vorbis Comment Tag:
If your ANSI users codepage doesn't support characters used in your list, you can base the namefile on the CRC control sum or encode the filename in UTF-8.
The information about the word is properly stored in the Vorbis Comment tag. Then you can use Renaming programs to automatically rename the audio files using pieces of information contained in the Vorbis Comment Tag. (I've tried doing this with Tag&Rename 3.3 with Persian words, and it worked fine.
How to configure Recording Settings
How does it work?
This window demonstrates the settings that are relevant to the recording process. Let's review the way the program works.
- The program continuously waits for a word to begin. It decides that a word begins when the input level exceeds a given threshold (the "start level", shown at point #1).
- When a word has started, the program waits for a silence. The program considers that there is a silence when the input level is low enough to be attributed to residual noise (i.e. when the input level goes below the "Max Noise Level" threshold, for example at point #2).
- During the recording of a sentence, there can be silences between words. To record a full sentence, the system has to distinguish between silences in the middle of the sentence and the final silence at the end of the sentence. The criterion is simple: when a silence exceeds a given length (say, 0.5s or 1s), it is considered to be a final silence, and the word/sentence is saved. When a silence is detected, a plain vertical line is drawn to show the point where the program considers silence to be final one (#6)
- When the program decides to save a word/sentence, it saves not only the grey "word" itself (#4), but also a small time before the word starts and after the word stops (the two hatched zones, #3)
- If the input level goes higher than the threshold #7 (the horizontal horizontal line), the program will consider that the input is saturated. You will then have to record the word again. Speak a bit more softly, or move your microphone further from your mouth.
Settings :
The "Block Length" Parameter
This sets the time shown as a single block in the life "sound graph" diagram, and sets the duration for which "sound" or "silence" is determined. If you want a finer granularity, make it smaller; otherwise 0.05s is a good choice.
The "Margin Before" Parameter
This sets the time to be included in the recording before the first "sound" is determined. It should not be less than "Block Length", and usually should allow a listener to shift attention to listening after clicking "playback". (This is the duration of left of the two hatched zones, #3)
The "Margin After" Parameter
This sets the time to be included in the recording after the last "sound" block. It can be used as a "buffer" of silence before another sound recording can be played. (This is duration of the right of the two hatched zones, #3)
The "Final Silence" Parameter
This sets the time that the program has to wait after the end of the word (#6) to save it. If you want to record simple words, you can set it to 0.5s, if you are recording whole sentences, set it to 1s or 1.5s.
The "Minimum Length" Parameter
At the end of the word, if the total time is less than the "Minimum Length" the program will not save the buffer. This parameters can help you not to record parasite sounds.
The "Starting Threshold" Parameter
This sets the #1 Level, the minimum loudness triggering the beginning of the word or sentence.
The "Max Noise Level" Parameter
Sets the #2 threshold. Set it as low as you can. If this level is too high, the program will stop before the end of words!
The "Saturation Threshold" Parameter
This sets the #7 threshold. Try speaking very loudly into your microphone to determine the saturation level of your audio system, and set this parameter a little lower.
The documentation is also at web.archive.org
- English: http://web.archive.org/web/20110722082618/http://shtooka.net/soft/shtooka_recorder/en/
- French: http://web.archive.org/web/20110621160010/http://shtooka.net/soft/shtooka_recorder/fr/
Recommendations
- Use the best external microphone that you have or can borrow from someone.
- Built-in microphones often pick up noise from the hard disk or the fan.
- The higher quality the microphone, the higher quality your recordings will be.
- Before sending your audio files to the Tatoeba Project, listen to all of them (maybe twice), and throw out the ones that don't sound natural or that have unwanted noises. I use iTunes for doing this, rather than the Shtooka Recorder, since I think it's easier and faster.
- Read the Tatoeba Project's blog post about this.
YouTube Video
Skip to 0:32, if you've already downloaded the Shtooka Recorder.Created by tatoeba.org/user/profile/AmberShadow, I think.
Find Some "Packs" of Words and Sentences
Other
- Nico is a Tatoeba Project member related to the Shtooka Project
http://tatoeba.org/eng/user/profile/zmoo - Hear Examples:
English Sentences with Audio Linked to Another Language with Audio