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[Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:07 pm
by The Cobaininator
Does anyone know how to tweak talking wav's to make them sound like Zerg and Protoss? Maybe even sound like a radio transmission for Terran? I've been dying to know how to do this now that I have a group of people to make a campaign with.
Thanks,
Cobaininator
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:11 pm
by Maglok
Well you should get a audio editing program like Adobe Audition or Soundforge and read the help file. Programs like that can edit wavefiles in a lot of ways. Sometimes you might also want to mix in some background static for transmissions for example.
A lot of it is also in the acting of course.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:20 pm
by IskatuMesk
Protoss is easy. Make a flange to your liking, then reverse, a light reverb (will take experimenting), and reverse again. Zerg can be harder; most people insist on using the "Underwater" default in Audition which frankly sounds terrible. Obviously there's a lot of technique and things to consider but there's a good starting point.
Mixing is easy. You can actually generate static in audition fairly easily, or you can hunt down the "SPACEMAN" plugin and use that, which is what I do. You can use edit -> Mix in Audition to mix a separate sound for background sound; I believe there was a pack containing sc-related background sounds somewhere out there.
I'd upload the plugin for you guys but my computer is indisposed at the moment.
And as Maglok says, the actor makes or breaks a good vocal.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:55 am
by Legion
IskatuMesk wrote:
Protoss is easy. Make a flange to your liking, then reverse, a light reverb (will take experimenting), and reverse again. Zerg can be harder; most people insist on using the "Underwater" default in Audition which frankly sounds terrible. Obviously there's a lot of technique and things to consider but there's a good starting point.
Mixing is easy. You can actually generate static in audition fairly easily, or you can hunt down the "SPACEMAN" plugin and use that, which is what I do. You can use edit -> Mix in Audition to mix a separate sound for background sound; I believe there was a pack containing sc-related background sounds somewhere out there.
I'd upload the plugin for you guys but my computer is indisposed at the moment.
And as Maglok says, the actor makes or breaks a good vocal.
Protoss is not easy, but it IS as Mesk describes. It's all about experimenting and slightly overacting in places. =)
Zerg... Pff, yeah I try to stay away from stanard presets like underwater anyway. A modified underwater can be fierce, tho. Plus a modified high school thing and some tweaking and there, and your effects can be good enough to be a zerg voice. We haven't heard many zerg voices from Blizz actually. Zasz was great and so were Daggoth and the Overmind, but Kerrigan sounded a bit... too cheap to me.
Ah yes, and I think TheOracle did a tremendous job on Zuhl and Thrax. I liked Zuhl as much as Zasz! And I envy the bastard who created him.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:42 am
by IskatuMesk
Well, easy in perspective. The "psionic" effect is very simple to achieve. But it takes a lot of time to edit the effects to suit the actor just perfectly.
It's one of those easy to learn but hard to master kind of dealies.
Many people thought my Great Destroyer tests were a perfect overmind (at least for the russian translation, I think?)
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:38 am
by Maglok
I think that's the thing. Every actor will need a slightly different edit to sound like a Protoss (if the recording itself is appropriate of course). Protoss recordings without edits are usually very strong voiced words, nearing yelling. "You have failed us Executor!!" 'sharp' stuff like that is the 'easiest' to turn around and get a good Protoss out of. At least in my opinion.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:38 pm
by The Cobaininator
Okay, thanks for the tips so far everyone!
This is a sample of one of our teammates, ShivaFFX. She was sort of tired the night we did this, but ya. This is our first attempt at an infested female terran. Critique as you like. Give us suggestions and tips. We appreciate all the help we can get.
Thanks,
Cobaininator
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:00 am
by IskatuMesk
Well, the first thing I'd say is that the effects are way too heavy and mechanical for an infested terran. Next, I'd say the emphasis on the words are a bit weird. I'LL kill YOU all... or something like that. Sounds like she's trying too hard.
The recording quality is decent though. Except for the fact I can hear her breath hitting the mic. In this specific example it can easily be edited out though.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 1:08 am
by The Cobaininator
IskatuMesk wrote:
Well, the first thing I'd say is that the effects are way too heavy and mechanical for an infested terran. Next, I'd say the emphasis on the words are a bit weird. I'LL kill YOU all... or something like that. Sounds like she's trying too hard.
The recording quality is decent though. Except for the fact I can hear her breath hitting the mic. In this specific example it can easily be edited out though.
The ILL kill YOU all is easily explained. That was me messing with it. XD How do you edit out breathing? Any other ways of fixing the heavy and mechanical effects? I'm really a noob at this. lol
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 1:12 am
by Lavarinth
Breathing is easily decreased by not speaking directly into the mic, but to the side of it.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:31 am
by Maglok
Actually, while that does indeed work, if you got a directional mic (and most are) you will also lose the depth of the recording. The best way to go is just watching yourself try not to do the pops and breaths. Secondly a pop-screen can be put in front of your microphone. You can buy them at most music stores. You can also make one yourself. You take some panties and slip them over a wireframe. Basically it holds spittle and will stop puffs of air so only the soundwaves get through.
Here is a pop-screen.
[imgwh 200x228]
http://www.jakeludington.com/images/pop ... Screen.jpg[/imgwh]
As for editing it. You can usually edit some of it out by cutting or reducing noise or noise gating (but beware noise gates are tricky things)
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:21 pm
by IskatuMesk
The breathing I heard was at the end, away from the voices. You can selectively delete or re-normalize these pieces (down to 0%) at your discretion. Breathing or pops deep inside actual words or other sounds is a different ballgame, but it IS doable... just unadvised.
The best way to avoid it is to use a pop screen as mags said.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:28 am
by riyanjason
I was just watching a live stream with Lumi playing as zerg.. Once he spam building a drone, the zerg voice comes on and it sounded retarded. It gets annoying after constantly hearing it speak "you need more minerals." The sound of the zerg voice is irritating enough to distract you from playing.. I don't know about the majority of you guys, but i liked the SC1 zerg voice much better.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 9:49 pm
by The Oracle
I'm with you on that. The Overmind sounded way cool.
Re: [Sound] How to make Zerg and Protoss voices.
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:04 pm
by Archangel
The Cobaininator wrote:Does anyone know how to tweak talking wav's to make them sound like Zerg and Protoss? Maybe even sound like a radio transmission for Terran? I've been dying to know how to do this now that I have a group of people to make a campaign with.
Thanks,
Cobaininator
Well, see, what you do is you hire me to do all your voice work.
And then I never get around to it.
