Creating MP3’s with Alt Text

There are many options for creating MP3’s with the synthesized speech that is used for reading alternative text files. The Natural Reader and WordTalk programs have the ability to create these files but you are limited to the voices on the computer where it is installed. Many of our students use our computers in the AT Lab to create MP3’s to load onto their IPods or other MP3 players. You can also burn the MP3’s to a data CD and play them on many portable CD players and the Victor Reader.

The directions for using Kurzweil 3000 to create MP3’s are below. Other programs that can create MP3’s that are available to you at CSU are Kurzweil 1000, OpenBook, WordTalk, and Read and Write Gold.

Creating MP3’s in Kurzweil 3000

Create the MP3’s from a Document in K3000

1. Open the File menu.
2. Select Audio Files and in the submenu click on Create Audio File
3. Under "Create Audio Files From" you select how much of your document you want to save in your file. If you wish to save the whole document into one file select Entire Document (not recommended for large documents). If you wish to only create a file from certain pages select Page Range and set the Starting Page and ending page to the page range which you would like in the file.

Note: if you are creating audio files to correspond to a book DO NOT enter the page range from the book. Enter the page range from the Kurzweil document where the pages in the book are displayed.

4. Under English Reading Voice set your reading voice (Speaker) and the speed that it will read the document (Speed). The slower your speed the longer and larger the file will be. This dialog should show the default Speaker and Speed for your profile.
5. Under Output File leave the Format as MP3 and change the Quality to Best.
6. If you are creating multiple files from one document change the file name to give it an order like “MyBook001.mp3”. Be sure to type before the “.mp3”.
7. Click OK

To view the files in your Cue, minimize Kurzweil 3000 and open Kurzweil 3000 Pending Audio from the desktop. This will display all files waiting to be created. To access the files that are finished open Kurzweil 3000 Output Audio from the desktop.

Note: If you are not going to write the MP3 files to a CD immediately, Copy and Paste the files to a folder on the T: (THAWSPACE) drive or your flash drive before you leave the machine you are working at.