Creepy backgrounds, anyone?

[jonrd463]

At first, I wanted to try voiceacting, but I found out I suck at it. No matter how well I tried to dramatize it, whatever I recited into the mic sounded like... well, a recital. However, in trying to make a creepy zombie voice, I think I've found my acoustic niche: creepy sound effects!

So, for your dungeon or general creepiness needs, let me know what you guys are looking for, and I'll see what I can do. Just to give you an idea of what I've been messing with, check out the following example.

Ghostly kid-thing

The voice is me trying to sound like a kid with the help of pitch tweaking, but the background is what I'm most proud of. It's my own heartbeat and breathing. I got rid of all the ambient noise in the room, turned the microphone level up, and pressed it to my heart. It took some cleaning up but I was able to isolate the actual beat and amplify it. To be honest, it kinda gives ME the creeps listening to it, knowing my physiology is at work here. Oh, just a note, it is a little rough around the edges, however I am capable of getting good, clean sound without any pops or distortion for finished work.

-Jon

[Razorwing]

Very nice work! In case anyone wants to download jonrd's clip, here's the direct url (right-click and 'save target as'):
http://uploadfile.putfile.com/videos/16408340194.mp3

The beating-heart sound effect add to the spookiness in a great way. The moans are unnerving too, in the positive sense. My only notes is that at about 0:19 into the clip the length of the echo makes it very hard to hear what the voice is saying for the rest of the recording. Also, at about 0:25.7 there seems to be an accidental breath sound.

I wonder if we could mod something technically similar to the voiceovers in the final run of the Camoran Paradise part of Oblivion's main quest? Because that would be a great effect when playing a special location in the mod. It would have to be a big location to compliment your excellent voice work. As you recorded the lines, did you envision a particular quest idea? Because it came out so great I really really hope we can build on your initiative and turn it into an in-game location.

[bobbyhood]

Damn, man now I got the creeps. :O I did something extremely similar to this in Sound Forge once but I had my two-year old niece do the voice. My sister was so creeped out by her own daughter's voice that she wouldn't let me use her again...

Good point about Camoran's Paradise. After doing the Painted Troll quest in Cheydinhal I had high hopes for the Paradise. I thought it was far more normal than it could have been. As for an in-game location featuring a similar atmosphere to this, I'd like to see it. Good audio is what really makes for a scary experience because it is the largest palette you have; you can never see everything that you hear.

[jonrd463]

Thanks, guys!

RW, if you're talking about adding a "voice-in-your-head" echoey dialogue in some part of the game, that'd be a great idea. I know this is extremely cliche, but just as an example, let's say there's a haunted house you have to take care of, and while you're going through it, you're subjected to the sounds of a killer from the past dispatching the family that used to live there person by person.

There are all sorts of possibilities. I'm going to do some more experimenting over the next couple of days and see what you all think about it.

-Jon

[Razorwing]

A haunted house might be a clich?, but I think the details you mention sound quite original and has great potential for being both horrifying and sorrowful. Perhaps it happened in the not-too-distant part? To give the player a way to dispense justice to the murderer. Would be hard if the killer had died of old age. But hey...!... what if there instead was a portal or other means for the player to travel back in time, to prevent the killings from taking place?

[Tunester]

RW, to piggy-back on your idea, I like where you're going with the portal to the past. It would be awesome to have a quest to clean out a haunted house, only by traveling back and saving the family. Then, this is the harder part, when you return the house is normal with normal distant relatives of the un-slain family. It would be neat to see if they remembered you or had heard stories passed down about the man from the future who saved them.

Also, I really thought your sound was CREEPY. Would be excellent for a haunted house.

[KuKulzA]

:eek: I see... dead people....


( oh, shut up! it's just me! )> lap: <( ow! )


EDIT:
good job, it is real good for a haunted place... and then add in lighting... and well made interiors... and ghosts...

[jonrd463]

Hmm... you know, I just thought of something. With Gundalf's excellent Velothi tiles, making tombs should be a snap. Does that mean a reimagining of the classic whispering ambient noise needs to be put together? Edgar Greyshadow (voiceover guy over at the ESF, for those who don't know) made something similar, but if you guys want something exclusive to ST, I'll see what I can come up with.

Any suggestions, feel free to post them. Otherwise, I'll just stick close in overall sound to the ones from Morrowind.

-Jon

[jonrd463]

Here's a rough sample of some tomb whispers. Opinions? Suggestions?

-Jon http://media.putfile.com/Velothi-Tomb-Whispers-sample

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by jonrd463
Here's a rough sample of some tomb whispers. Opinions? Suggestions?

-Jon

Nice!
It has a chanting and rhythmic feel to it I think. Unless that was intentional perhaps you can overlay a few drawn-out moans over the whisper cycles?