I’m completely happy to be directed by those with more experience and familiarity on a good sequence of teachings 
However, I did have a bit of a look, and a few from those I reviewed could possibly be suitable for a first podcast (though I have no preferences of any kind)
MN: 53 A trainee
MN: 54 Potaliya the wanderer
MN: 126 with Bumija
MN: 141 4 Noble truths
MN 146: Advice from Nandaka to the nuns
MN 147: Advice to Rahula
MN: 7 Similie of the cloth
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Okay, so HOLY HECKERATION YOUSE LOT!!!
You know how, a couple of posts up, I said we could maybe integrate audio recording with Bilara and get segmented audio? Then we can do cool stuff like playback of segments in real voices like on the SCV app?
Well, take a seat. It turns out we don’t need to do that at all. There is, in point of fact, an app for that:
https://www.readbeyond.it/aeneas/
Aeneas , in theory, is able to match up an audio file with the corresponding text. You end up with three things:
- text in line by line
- audio
- a map file that syncs the two.
So it was a bit fiddly but i managed to install aeneas. I created a text file with the line-by-line version of a short sutta. Then I read it. Run the command, and you get the “map” file, which lists exactly where in the audio file the segment starts and stops.
And OMG, it actually works. 
aeneas-test.zip (1.0 MB)
Open map.json in a text editor. See how it has “begin” and “end” fields? Start the audio, and check the begin and end times for each segment: it’s spot on!
So what does this mean?
It means we can take the audio files of any reading of our segmented texts, run them through aeneas, and get the segment times. This can be used to generate distinct audio files for SCV, or any other purpose we think of. It means the real human voices can be as flexible and adaptable as the computer-generated files.
And the best thing, we don’t need the readers to do anything special. Just focus on reading well. I made the audio file in anchor with just the mic on my phone, and it works fine. We can post-process the audio files to sync with the segmented text, like super-duper easy.
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Gosh, it’s so neat to watch this all coming together!
A few points as I turn over the things in the pot:
Again, I was really beaming when I read the qualities you’d picked out as being most important. I think your recommendation makes a lot of sense, but I think there are perhaps some variations and related details that could be paused on:
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Sustainability: you wouldn’t believe how much I’ve always enjoyed watching people coming together to offer what they have to inject something good into the world. Nevertheless, things take work, people have fluctuating commitments and circumstances and so on, and I’d be very hesitant to rule out a good quality, rock solid resource that would more or less guarantee we would be able to keep things rolling even in times of overly stretched human resources. Keeping in mind the ‘start simple’ principle (or re-jigging it a little to ‘keep a simple foundation’)
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There’s more than one way to go about things: I love the idea of ‘guest readers’, and a million +1s to that. But interested in exactly the same qualities you’ve picked up on, one thought I had was to release maybe a sutta a day/week (I’ll come back to schedule) and then as a second simplicity-tier (ie. as and when possible) perhaps a fortnightly / monthly episode with two or three regulars + guest, discussing recently released suttas (perhaps some take a nerdy line, others a more ‘personal relevance’ line, others thematic, others whatever). Not a million miles away from the Second season of Dhammathreads, but maybe with a bit of a different feel. That said, this was just my first thought, and the main point I want to pause on is just it’s good to reflect on a range of the ways of achieve the qualities we’re interested in sharing.
I can definitely see the benefits of a daily release (although it amplifies the sustainability point), but I can also see some other sides too, and I think to make a call, it might be good to have an idea of who we want to include in our reach.
It can sometimes be overwhelming when you subscribe to a podcast and see there are 600 previous episodes. Of course, these are things you can jump into at any time, and so it should be, I’m just saying at least my experience has generally being pleased that I can conceivably go back and start from the beginning (this can also feed into the ‘listener around friends’ point as you get to see how ‘your friends’ have evolved right from the start). Going a little slower maybe particularly relevant at an early point, while we’d be aiming to find an audience, giving more people more time to hop on from the start.
Also, again, maybe it’s just my experience, but I think there’s something in a measured release. With a couple of podcasts I’m particularly fond of, I look forward to the release day. I Enjoy not having the podcast because it supports my enjoyment of its eventual release. And again, it’s something I feel I can keep up with.
That said, once more, I stress how much I see the value of daily releases, know how great things like the Buddhist Breakfast corner (or whatever it’s called) is, and really recognize it can be a great support to have Dhamma delivered daily like this.
Quite so! Quite so! Thank you so much for kicking this all off and inspiring everyone like this.
One team oriented question I have, is with all of this wonderful variety of inputs and voices and such, I have the idea that it might be good to designate a specific producer/co-producers roles. Nothing so major or anything, but just to help unify everything into a cohesive, delivered product.
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It would be such a gift to hear human voices reading the suttas. I would also love to hear people having a short, live dialog about a sutta before playing it. Those introductory dialogs would “fast forward” listeners to a contemporary context and provide a familar and comfortable question/answer framework for understanding.
Q: Bhante Sujato, welcome to SuttaCentral Podcasts!
A: Thank you, Robbie, it’s good to be here. What do you have for us today?
Q: We have a question about the root of suffering and what it means for all the suffering we see in the world today…
A: Oh crikey, there are so many things to say here…
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Well well, I’ve been going over Ajahn Brahmalis pali pronunciation classes and discovered something quite wonderful 
My cultural heritage is Latvian (Indo-European language), and the grammar and phonetic structure appear to be almost identical. Latvian also has 3 genders and 8 cases, (as well as all the complicated declensions etc etc). Who would have thought that sitting through 12 years of Latvian School on the weekends would have such a lovely application today I do love the many wonderful facets of Kamma 
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More for the mix:
Yes, indeed, it would be! At the same time, while so excited about all the new voices coming forward, I feel it’s not irrelevant to note that we shouldn’t necessarily take “human voice = better” as an assumed value. It will be better for many, but not necessarily others. As I have articulated elsewhere, for me personally, I prefer to listen to SCV’s Raveena above any human voice I’ve yet heard because I like its ‘personality-light’ quality and find that it helps me listen to the sutta and not the voice. Just speaking for myself, the greatest value humans bring is in the sharing of experience and understanding.
That said, it’s not an either/or thing, it’s wonderful to have both resources. However, one thing I would suggest, is that maybe it would be sensible to maximize our resources. The core of SCV is built on the segmented Pali texts. In a stroke of brilliance, Karl extended that to other Pali texts (so eg. I can listen to a translation by Bhikkhu Bodhi if it’s available on SC, as well as Bhante Sujato’s) and I can’t say how delighted I am he made this decision. But SCV does only cover Pali texts/translations. By my count there are 490 English translations of Agama texts, and to me it would add even more value to use human voices to start making some of these available to listen to as well, rather than in a way duplicate what already exists.
Another other floating item:
I was having a look at Anchor to see if they have any kind of ‘channel’ facility that would enable ‘shoot off series’. One podcast I thought worked very well was 50 Things That Made The Modern Economy. As indicated by the title, it was designed as a contained series that ended after 50 (well, 53, in fact) episodes. Still thinking of my “keep things manageable for the listener” point above, this might be a nice way to handle say a series on the Majjhima, or a theme or whatever under a broader umbrella of something like a “SC Sounds” channel. The one snag with this is that Anchor doesn’t work like that, and they encourage setting up multiple accounts. Of course, with proper, unified branding it should be pretty easy to create a channel-like effect.
One thing of particular attraction to me with the series idea is to essentially, eventually produce audio books for each of the 4 Nikayas. It was something I was actually going to ask Karl about with respect to the development of SCV, but maybe this would be a better way. I know that it’s a bit pathetic, but as I mentioned in some old thread on approaches to reading the Samyutta, much as in theory I’d love to read it (or one of the others) from cover to cover, my funny little mind just can’t cope with it. Now with SCV, that possibility has been opened up for me.
And ending on something completely random, in terms of human readings, has anyone already wondered about doing them with multiple voices (ie, a narrator—or “Ananda” I guess—and individual characters)?
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Thank you Viveka, these all sound like excellent suggestions to me.
This is amazing news. I can already imagine a ‘switch to human narrator’ button on SCV. IMO, segmented translations are one of the most promising developments in Early Buddhism. I hope other translators and academics will follow suit, eg a segmented translation of the Chinese āgamas. It paved the way for SCV and SCP and I suspect it will pave the way for more in the future.
Absolutely. You’re right to point this out, and i’m totally on board with human-AI hybrid episodes (or even AI episodes). As long as it’s not an all-AI podcast I think we are good :).
Thank you for sharing your experience. That more or less explicates, and solidifies, my intuition that we should start with one “sutta” episode/week (in addition to potential “discussion” episodes). One think i’d like to add is that there’s really no hurry, something also encapsulated in Bhante Sujato’s ‘start small and build up’ principle.
I love this idea! Brings the discourses ‘closer to home,’ allows for extra depth, gives an additional fortnightly/monthly date to look forward to…
I can give it a shot! If anyone would like to co-produce the episodes with me that would be wonderful.
I’m still waiting for season 3…
I’d be way too shy to be on air! 
However, these dialogs seem a great fit with fortnightly/monthly “discussion” episodes.
This is a good point, and possibly a reason to favor Jekyll over Anchor while we’re still uncommitted…
Imagine a Therīgāthā audiobook!
Thanks everyone for their suggestions and input. It feels like we’re on our way to something amazing which will benefit a lot of people. I’m humbled to be part of this.
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And therefore an excellent practice. 
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I would be happy to!
@Robbie would I be able to do basically what Bhante mentions in the below quote?
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I found this 2018 PopSci article on recording audio with a phone, with useful tips. Probably we’ll want to avoid mp3, as it’s a lossy audio format.
I’d say let’s give it a try and see if we can get a good quality generic intro & generic outro.
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SCV started with OGG but is now fully MP3 for broadest use. MP3 is lossy at the high-end, which older people can’t hear anyway. That said, offering a high fidelity version along with MP3 would probably be well received.
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I stand semi-corrected…
Turning over some loose thoughts about a more ‘primitive’ version of this, that has, in fact, come up on conversation already, I had a casual review of how SCV currently handles human voices. My explorations lead me to this given in the connected resources page. I’m not 100% sure why but it makes be very happy.
Marvellous!
It actually does sound like a bit of a hoot, but I’m not fully sure the extent to which I can commit to this. Nevertheless, I’m certainly around if you need any help.
Exactly what I was thinking! It’s great to harness the energy that’s gathering and keep some momentum behind this, but I think a little good, measured thinking/exploration time is no bad thing.
I know, right?!
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Not recommended for proper use, this is just a proof-of-concept.
Just last night, we were very fortunate to be visited by a SC dhamma friend, Michael, who works in the video industry as IT support in Sydney. He generously offered us some mics and an interface. We are still playing around to see what works, but here you can see the difference. The folder has two files:
- From my phone to anchor.
- recorded using a proper mic (Rode cardio mic) through a preamp using audacity. It has noise reduction and compression.
sn1.01-recording-compare.zip (1.9 MB)
There’s a huge difference in quality.
I’m hoping that we can use anchor for recording, but we will definitely need to use proper mics. Thery’re not that expensive. I’ve asked Michael if he can help people with testing and setting things up: it’s what he does!
Check out Read beyond, who made the segment matching software I mentioned above:
Their whole thing was audio ebooks: you listen to the ebook and it highlights the passage as you go. This is an awesome functionality. With segmented texts and aeneas to map the audio, it’s trivial to produce them.
Read Beyond, unfortunately, did not survive as a company, but the basic principles are part of the EPUB 3.1 standard. So there will be apps that support it going forward, and meanwhile, the Read Beyond things still work just fine. Try downloading their app on your phone and see how it works.
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Nice, will have to have a look.
I don’t think my phone’s IQ is that high.
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Thank you Bhante, I stand corrected 
.
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WOW. The OGG is definitely immersive. Your voice chases away ALL the silly thoughts.
Please please please more of this, Bhante!
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Inspired by Lokanta Vihara’s Dhamma Drop format, an idea came to my mind. What if we add some extra silent time to the podcast episodes which can be used for meditation? I’d love to hear any opinions, suggestions, criticism, et cetera.
I was thinking about the following structure (drawing on Bhante Sujato structure earlier in this thread):
- Opening theme
- Generic intro
- Blurb
- Sutta
- Generic outro for the sutta part
- Time for meditation (optional)
a) Intro and gong
b) X minutes of silence
c) Gong
The intro describes what’s happening, along the lines of ‘the sutta is finished, there’s now X minutes of silence after which a gong sound is heard.’ No guided meditation, just silence.
But why? Surely people can just use a meditation app? That’s correct, and many do, but I think the extra time might nudge people to relate to the suttas reflectively. An episode becomes a “cyber drop” of Dhamma.
Question: How much additional time would be most suitable for a sutta podcast? Thanks for voting
- No additional time
- X = 5 minutes
- X = 10 minutes
- X = 15 minutes
- I don’t know/something else
0 voters
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If there is just the ending gong, then immersion will happen as it happens.
And it will stop when it stops.
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That’s a good point. So you’d have:
5’. Generic outro
6’. Gong
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Do you also think of doing recordings in Pali? I was thinking it would actually be very worthwhile to have human voice recordings of the Pali texts.
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