[HN Gopher] Show HN: HN Watercooler - listen to HN threads as an...
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Show HN: HN Watercooler - listen to HN threads as an audio
conversation
Hi HN, here's something fun to play with. It takes any HN thread
and turns it into an audio conversation so you can listen to the
thread while doing other things. I've seen many previous attempts
to turn HN threads into podcasts, but they all shared a common
issue IMO: trying to reduce the very rich back-and-forth into a
single-thread single-reader boring podcast. Instead, I wanted to
hear the actual debate from the actual thread! So I asked Claude
3.7 to build this for me as a browser-only app. It just needs a
thread URL and an Elevenlabs API key (this all remains in your
browser, you can check the source code, it's only 3 files, there is
no server storage of anything). To make the resulting audio
experience as natural as possible, each commenter has a different
voice. Commenters who appear multiple times in the thread have the
same voice, and introduce themselves. A bit of context is also
introduced when coming back "up" from deeply nested comments. You
can play the resulting audio or download it for later listening.
I'm planning to later add the ability to load multiple threads so I
can have a playlist generated for listening in the gym! Any
comments or improvement suggestions are appreciated!
Author : sebastiennight
Score : 37 points
Date : 2025-04-17 18:54 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (onetake-ai.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (onetake-ai.github.io)
| sebastiennight wrote:
| Note: I'm particularly interested in feedback on making the
| conversation feel even more "natural" so that the audio is as
| similar as possible as if we were really listening in on the
| watercooler chat.
| gojomo wrote:
| Can I upload my own voiceprint so my comments are said in my
| voice, voice of my choosing?
|
| Can I navigate by voice commands, for example if listening while
| driving?
| sebastiennight wrote:
| 1. This should be possible, I think for example if you saved
| your cloned voice in your account with the same name as your HN
| handle. I'll add this. This should then work for using any
| voice for a specific user (just use the right username as the
| voice's name in 11Labs).
|
| 2. No navigation by voice commands sadly - it generates a
| single audio track. I might be able to insert chapter marks for
| each comment though, so that it'd be possible to "skip" to the
| next comment!
| 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
| I don't have a voice print, can I put something in my profile
| to get a generic feminine voice? I don't suppose there's a
| pronouns field
| sebastiennight wrote:
| I would think once I introduce the feature above, you could
| just create a "01HNNWZ0MV43FF" voice with the Voice Lab[0]
| inside your account (not necessarily duplicating your real
| voice but just using 11Lab's tool to get a feminine voice).
| Would that work?
|
| [0]: https://elevenlabs.io/app/voice-lab
| rgbrgb wrote:
| This is cool. Any chance you can drop an example?
| sebastiennight wrote:
| Given recent developments I think it might be fun to listen to
| this very thread as audio!
| sebastiennight wrote:
| Here's a quick example:
|
| First 20 comments of "John Carmack: writing Rust code feels
| wholesome"
|
| Here is the rendered mp3 :
| https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yG1mwD70ZteXtdh8Jk_sXUXS_sQ...
|
| The thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19126795
|
| First 30 comments of a recent thread, "AGI is still 30 years
| away":
| https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YbgRXBv1LC3IdMl8Xb4i9y98S2T...
|
| The thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43719280
| devrandoom wrote:
| Oh nice cool water. It's a bit muddy looking? Is it safe to
| drink?
| 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
| Continue straight for eleven thousand miles, then turn lreft
| thegreatpeter wrote:
| _rips hair out_
| sebastiennight wrote:
| This sounds painful! I think I'll add a feature so 11Labs
| generates sound effects for comments like this, so they can be
| enjoyed in their full glory
| plun9 wrote:
| It seems that in the generated audio, the number of comments is
| off by one. It is missing 1 comment.
| sebastiennight wrote:
| I think it counts the original post as a comment, so the total
| shown is (original posts plus number of comments). Is it
| actually missing one comment in your audio ? which one? first
| or last?
| plun9 wrote:
| The last one. I did
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43552385 and entered 26
| comments.
| mosquitobiten wrote:
| One big post can have a bigger reply counter-arguing every point
| 1b1. It would be nice if the arguments go back and forth,
| basically segmenting the post and the replies into multiple lines
| of dialog, rather than feeling like you are listening to a
| speech.
| sebastiennight wrote:
| Wait... do you mean, quoting the original (or parent) poster in
| their own voice when there's a quote?
|
| That seems less natural. I think what I can do though, is turn
| quotes into actual quotes, eg. turning
|
| > One big post can have a bigger reply counter-arguing every
| point 1b1
|
| into:
|
| "Look; you said 'One big post can have a bigger reply counter-
| arguing every point 1b1'"
| sebastiennight wrote:
| Issues I've noticed when running it against more threads:
|
| - don't use Legacy voices as they seem to be of much lower
| quality (sounds like someone is calling in from an international
| landline)
|
| - when the same poster appears many times, it gets tedious to
| hear them restate who they are. I think after the first 3, we
| should recognize the voice so that's not necessary anymore
|
| Feature requests I'll add:
|
| - emphasize quotes better
|
| - add audio chapter marks if possible, so it's possible to skip
| ahead
|
| - attach a speaker's voice to the relevant voice in the 11Labs
| account if there's a voice with the same name as the username
|
| - add sound effects if people write down sound effects in their
| comments (this seems tough)
|
| Anything I'm missing?
| wewewedxfgdf wrote:
| This is pretty good I might listen to this as alternative to a
| podcast.
|
| Maybe publish it as a podcast.
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(page generated 2025-04-17 23:01 UTC)