Sutta reading recordings in SuttaCentral?

First, let me use this opportunity to thank everyone working on SuttaCentral, it is a great resource and I wish it will be kept alive for a long time :anjal:

I was wondering if there is a plan to add audio recordings of the suttas, in various languages as well, at some point in the future? Access to Insight has such a feature, although it just redirects to various websites.

While reading the suttas is great for studying, I found that listening to suttas can be a good way to prepare myself for meditation or to hear some Dhamma when I am too tired (physically or mentally) to read them…

Lots of recordings have been made by a certain ‘frank k’ on audip.org… is this the same frank k as our frankk on SuttaCentral? if yes, would he be happy to have links on SuttaCentral, redirecting to his recordings?

(Feel free to change the title of the topic or direct me to an existing thread if this has already been discussed)

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You’ll find a number of audio recordings here in the AV section:

But in any case, yes, we do have somewhat vague plans to expand audio coverage more systematically. Once our new translations are completed in English, we will look to having them recorded, and then expand that to other languages. But it will take a few years!

Indeed it is. Some of the audiotip recordings are available through here, but we would love to have more.

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Great to know, thanks Bhante.

It would be great to have a link to the audios on the SuttaCentral pages (for example as a new ‘Audio’ column after ‘ID Title Vol/Page Parallels Translations’). Would it be feasible? wished for?

Delighted to hear that! :grinning:

Potentially, yes.

We live in a time when the keyboard and screen are becoming just one among many ways to access digital information. People should be able to drive a car or cook a meal and say “Hello SuttaCentral, read me that sutta on kamma that I like.” We’ll get there.

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And the whole thing on a decentralized internet, funded by donated cryptocurrencies… I’ve seen a post where you mention that you are watching that space. I wished I could offer my help but I’m not a techie unortunately… so I’ll just offer my encouragement for now.

That makes me think, blockchain technologies have a common point with the Dhamma… once the wheel is set rolling, no one can stop it, no ascetic, brahmin, deva, Māra, or Brahmā, or any governments :grin:

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Very true! I actually discussed this with Ayya Vimala just a couple of days ago. When our new site is operational, we’ll look to getting it on the IPFS.

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Very true! While driving I hook up my phone to the radio to listen to dhamma talks on the web.

I had intended to finish audio recording of the English MN collection by the end of 2016. There are about 20-30 suttas left to record, but most of the ones left were translations by Sister Upplavanna, and those are tough to record and listen to in terms of quality. Her translations were meant for her personal study purposes and not intended for public consumption. When I found out Bhante Sujato was speedily translating the MN in English, I aborted my mission.

I’m delighted to hear Sutta Central will eventually make audio recordings for as many suttas and languages as possible!

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Thanks a lot for the work you have done until now, it is really great to have these recordings. :anjal:

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Great news! Looking forward to free sutta audiobooks. And thank you as well to frankk and other volunteers who do this meritorious work.

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Question on the “like” button on SC (to the community):

I’ve almost completely ignored the “like” button feature for many years, but I started noticing on SC people seem to do it as a quick and compact way to acknowledge a response to a post, confirming they read it, without adding another post to the thread. Is that correct?

If not, I’ll stop doing it (using the like button in that way). People seeing my “like” to Yasoja’s post may suspect self aggrandizement on my part. On the contrary, I wish existing English audio recordings (a complete set) from the entire sutta collection were already available, and I could enjoy the pleasures of anonymity and listen to other people’s recorded sutta readings in solitary contentment. I only stepped up like a temp worker to fill in a void until others can take over.

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Like liberally! The like button simply indicates a positive response to a post. Anything that is well written and relevant to a thread deserves a like. It’s a simple way of expressing appreciation to someone for the time and effort that they took to compose a thoughtful and well phrased post.

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hi i was wanting to get involved but i had a website error Dhamma Wheel - Login
here is an example of what i am doing/intend to do YouTube
if i knew how to edit it would be better

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I like to acknowledge when someone takes the time and effort to respnd to a post I make so often I do it with the ‘like’ button because I don’t necessarily have anything further to say in a subsequent post.

When I first joined SC I was a bit averse to using the ‘like’ button (and I’m not on any social media sites or other forums so I wasn’t very familiar with it either). But when I found out it actually had an integral function to the site, I started to use it more. And I’ve grown to like it :slight_smile: And even when I don’t necessarily agree with something I can ‘like’ it if it’s thoughtful and well-written and sincere. I don’t read all the discussions though, or some I just skim and decide not to get involved at all, so I’m sure I miss some posts that I might otherwise ‘like’.

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I think the like button is intended for Mudhita. (appreciative Joy) even though sometimes it can be your near enemy or far enemy.:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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You can use audacity, a free audio editor:
http://www.audacityteam.org/

That looks like the official site, but when you download check the links carefully to make sure it’s something that doesn’t have malware attached.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s as easy as editing text in a text editor. many of the standard windows short cuts work, like control-c for copy, control-x for cut, control-v for paste, etc.

When I record, I typically average around 2 mistakes every 30 minutes. When I do make a mistake, I leave a long pause, say 5 seconds, then say, “error, repeat sentence (or whatever the necessary correction is)”, and then it’s easy to find it in the editor the delete the offending part.

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