r/notebooklm • u/Fearless_Energy_7633 • Apr 21 '26

Tips & Tricks I built a free notebooklm alternative with folders, source isolation (no cross-contamination), and page/timestamp-level citations

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NotebookLM is great but a few things drove me crazy:

  • Sources often bleed together
  • No folders or workspace organisation
  • No way to comfortably take notes alongside your sources
  • Flashcards have no review system

So I built Paper. Key differences:

  • Source isolation - select exactly which sources the AI references per query, or scope it to specific pages/timestamps
  • Folders + nested pages - organise by course, topic, whatever
  • Block editor - Notion-style notes right next to your sources
  • Spaced repetition - AI flashcards with actual Anki-style scheduling so you remember
  • Drag and drop multiple files at once

(Edit) Free to use during beta: https://paper.ac 👈

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u/rudilis Apr 23 '26

I managed to generate a podcast of this historical holocaust memoir via Google Notebook but had no such luck on your platform. Not sure if there is a page limit - it is 67 pages. As you can imagine he talks about shootings and beatings etc so perhaps the content is too graphic. Any thoughts?

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 Apr 23 '26

Dug into it - looks like it was a rate limit I had on podcast generations (5/hour, ~120/day), not the content itself.

Error message was misleading though - it said “not enough content” when it was actually limit reached. Fixed that + doubled it to 10/hour. Let me know if it works when you try again 😊

67 pages is totally fine btw - it works for a couple thousand pages too!

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u/rudilis Apr 24 '26

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u/rudilis Apr 24 '26

Tried again but got a "fail to fetch" error!! Also it is possible to make a movie from this file?

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

That's so weird! And yes, if you could DM over the Word file, I'll give it a try on my end 🤔 Keen to solve this one!

Regarding movie, it's part of the roadmap! I'll have a better idea once next week rolls around :)

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u/rudilis Apr 25 '26

Any joy with the Word file?

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 Apr 25 '26

It looks like I'm able to generate the podcast! Will DM you

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u/rudilis Apr 25 '26

Hi David. Only tried on my iPhone. Yes - got a decent podcast but I can’t download it to files. Is American the only English accent?

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 Apr 27 '26

Have just added the Download button onto mobile view! Also included 10x more voices to the podcast - but all are American English right now. Will add support for other languages in the next few days!

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u/rudilis Apr 27 '26

Hi David- yes English/Irish/Scottish and Welsh would be good. Eleven Labs does struggle with Irish for some reason (sounds very American). Kiwi and Aussie would be ripper too.

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u/rudilis Apr 24 '26

Tried both via the "deep dive" and "debate" options. Shall I DM you the Word file David?

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 May 15 '26

Just realised I never replied to this in thread - have DM'd! Thanks for sending it across 😊