Everything it does.

Hummle is being built to do a handful of jobs extremely well: read to you, sound like the story, and never get a word wrong. Items marked Later come after the first version.

the full list, no fine print

Listening

Press Play and follow along. Everything else stays out of your way.

  • Read alongThe sentence being read is highlighted, and the page scrolls with you.
  • Jump anywhereClick any sentence to start from there. Scroll away and Hummle waits.
  • Speed without chipmunksFrom 0.75× to 2×, with the voice’s pitch kept natural.
  • Sleep timerDrift off mid-chapter; it stops when you ask it to.
  • Remembers your placeIn every chapter, article and draft, separately.
  • Listen now or prepareStarts within seconds, or prepares a long chapter first and tells you when it’s ready.

In your browser

A small extension for Chrome and Edge that hands the page to Hummle.

  • Read this pageOne click pulls out the story or article and starts reading. Menus, ads and comments stay out.
  • Read a selectionHighlight a few lines and hear just those.
  • Check before it readsSee the first and last lines it found, so nothing gets missed.
  • Add the next chapterOpen the next chapter yourself, click once, and it joins the same book. Hummle never crawls a site.
  • Only when you clickThe extension wakes up when you use it, and never reads forms or passwords.
  • Rules per siteSkip author’s notes on one site and read them on another. Hummle remembers.

Performance

Voices that act out the scene without you typing a single direction.

  • Reads the roomWho is speaking, to whom, and what just happened shape how each line sounds.
  • ExpressionSubtle, Natural or Dramatic: choose how much feeling you want.
  • Real vocal soundsLaughs, sighs, gasps, groans, crying and more, in the voice itself.
  • Thoughts, shouts, phone callsInner thoughts sound close, shouting sounds urgent, a phone call sounds like a phone.
  • Stays itselfA voice keeps who it is from the first page to the last, whatever the mood.
  • Asks when unsureSarcasm or a mystery speaker? The line gets a small mark and two or three options.

Sound

Effects that belong to the story, mixed the way you like.

  • System-message chimesLevel-ups, skills, quests and warnings each get their own short sound.
  • Story effectsA knock, a slammed door, thunder: placed on the words they belong to.
  • Your own mixerVoice, voice sounds, effects, chimes and ambience each have a slider and a switch.
  • Scene ambienceRain, a crowded tavern, a quiet room, carried smoothly across a whole scene.Later

Writing and fixing

The Studio, for your own drafts and for perfecting any line.

  • Paste and playNo project to set up. It saves your draft as you go.
  • Change one line, redo one lineEdit a paragraph and only that part is made again, joined smoothly.
  • Fix in two clicksClick a line, choose “less”, “no sound here” or another emotion. The fix sticks for the rest of the book.
  • TakesCompare versions of a line and keep your favourite; approved takes are protected.
  • Names said rightSet how a name sounds once and it’s used everywhere. Pronunciation lists import and export.
  • Numbers, dates, abbreviations“3 May”, “1,204” and “St. Mary’s Street” read the way a person would say them.

Checks

Hummle listens back to itself, so you don’t have to.

  • Every word, checkedEach line is compared with the page. Skipped or invented words are caught and redone.
  • Voice checkEach line is checked to make sure the voice still sounds like itself.
  • Clear labelsEvery take shows “All words checked” or exactly what needs a look.
  • Recovers from crashesDrafts and half-finished chapters survive a restart.

Library and export

Your listening, kept where you want it.

  • A library you ownDrafts, chapters and takes live in a folder you choose, searchable by title.
  • Save as audioHigh-quality WAV or FLAC, at an even volume.
  • Audiobooks for your phoneMP3 or M4B files with chapter marks.Later
  • Whole books overnightPrepare a book while you sleep; it picks up where it left off after a restart.Later
  • Projects and castingChapters, a narrator and a different voice for each character if you want one.Later
  • A proper desktop appTray icon, start with Windows, clean install and uninstall.Later

Further out

Once English is excellent, these come next.

  • More voices, all the time: new ages, accents and characters.
  • Other languages, and translating as it reads.
  • Phones, and browsers beyond Chrome and Edge.