Looking to voice act for Silgrad.

[Mr. Tissue Box]

Hi, I'm Mr. Tissue Box, a long time forumer at Bethesda Game Studios Forums, and I've been wanting to voice act for quite a while. I'm 16 years old, and I have some samples. Here's the first one:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7116hw

http://www.sendspace.com/file/v1pxad

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6egdl6

EDIT: Here's another one: http://www.sendspace.com/file/6jymdh



I could do male high elves, bretons, imperials, possibly wood elves.


This is my first go at voice acting, and I'm using Audacity right now. If anyone has some tips on how to make sound quality better, that would be wonderful! I've used the noise remover tool so far to remove computer background noise. And there are mouse clicks, so I'll have to edit that out.

[Zurke]

Hi Mr.Tissue Box and Welcome to Silgrad Tower. I can see MTB in your future .

Here on the forums and in the mod itself, voices are a large part of the workings. I am not a voice person but we do have those with that particular talent and I am sure they will be along to greet you.

Again, welcome to the forums.

[Mr. Tissue Box]

More samples:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qh0uft Wither, wane, and die.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/azd7n5 You bore me mageling.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6cwjps Time for experiments.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/zh2esy Pathetic magics.


Also, do you think the voice files need some resonance? My friend listened to them and he said the voice files needed some resonance. If so, how do I use Audacity to get resonance?

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Mr. Tissue Box
More samples:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qh0uft Wither, wane, and die.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/azd7n5 You bore me mageling.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6cwjps Time for experiments.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/zh2esy Pathetic magics.

Also, do you think the voice files need some resonance? My friend listened to them and he said the voice files needed some resonance. If so, how do I use Audacity to get resonance?

I listenened to a couple of those and though, "These sound very Jon Irenicus". Then, lo and behold, I noticed the filenames.

What your friend means by 'resonance' is probably reverb. I'm no voice guy, but I am a musician. Reverb can be a rather undesired effect most of the time (especially in voices), I can say that there probably is some reverb in the samples you posted (i.e. there is a small amount of reverb in the room you recorded in, but you probably don't notice it). You can reduce it by hanging sheets across your ceiling and plastering your wall with posters, stuff like that.

Your friend's suggestion of adding reverb is probably not a good idea, unless you're going for an ethereal, ghost like voice.

[SACarrow]

It would be a week that I'm barely around when a couple of quality VAs wander by. I am The Voice Guy, and I've finally had the chance to listen to your samples; very nice work. Please feel free to poke around the Acoustic Development board to get a feel for how we are developing the [only male to this point, unfortunately] voices for ST. Some races, like Dunmer, Bosmer and Khajiit, are being done in Morrowind style; others like Nord & Imperial, are being done in a "re-imagined" style. Let me add, none of these changes affect vanilla OB characters at all.

As for your samples, I have an idea or two about where your voice could fit, but I must consult with Those Who Decide Such Things and get a consensus. In the meantime, I do have a couple of technical observations as well.

• Please don't go nuts with the effects. Unless there is a specific effect desired, it's best to stay as close as possible to what your voice can do naturally. We may apply light effects, but extreme effects can make the voices sound unnatural.
  
• The recording environment is important. I didn't detect too much background noise, but the volume was very low. It can be amplified, but that also brings up the background noise level. I'll include a file that you can play in WMP to get a feel for the volume. Mic level may not be the only one that needs to be turned up; there might be an Audacity or Win setting as well.
  
• I really did not notice this issue on your recordings, but it's always a good idea to avoid the "popping Ps." Keep a cloth over the mic or point the mic at your chin to avoid the breath sounds caused by plosives.

I'll still be intermittent for the next week or so, but I'll try to keep things updated.

HTH,
Steve

[Mr. Tissue Box]

I need some tips for better sound quality. The current computer that I voice act on is very loud, but it has a great sound card, and I understand that the sound card is important to sound quality. When I use the noise removal tool, I can still hear the computer noise when my voice speaks. I think this has become a bigger problem since today, I guess. When I first started recording, my sound quality wasn't too bad? Is the sound quality in my samples ok?

[Xae]

To me, it sounds like you've removed quite a bit of white noise ranging from mid to high frequencies. There's a range of natural quality missing from your voice in the "Time for experiments" sample in addition to a wraith-like effect, as if your words are covered in a foggy breath.

The "You bore me mageling" sample has excessive volume dynamics, where the first two words are spoken loud and the rest are barely whispered. This basically guarantees an unmasterable sound file.

It'd be easier to get a good idea of the voice acting in itself if your samples included longer sentences.

Regarding your sound quality, it can depend on a lot of things, ranging from the microphone, volume settings, cable quality/length and where it runs etc. Sometimes you can shine the audio with some EQ and a volume envelope of some sort, however the general rule is that if a file sounds like it needs fixing, then it needs re-recording.


All the best,
Xaeaix

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Hi Mr.Tissue Box,

I'm amazed I missed this post. Anyway, nice work! I noticed that you were speaking about Imperial and Breton voices in one sample and I thought you might like to check out the way I got round the problem: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DWWSAV6hQgE . At the start, you will notice that the Imperial and Breton voices are differentiated simply by an added 'breathy' effect to the Bretons and a slightly decreased 'posh' effect.

The difference between the two is a moot point because they are both voice sets that rely on a distinctly personal voice as opposed to being of a particular effect, accent or pitch. It's therefore difficult to differentiate between the two in terms of any description or by following any tendency of speech.

The recordings are fine and your general expression is unique so even just keeping to your natural voice is a good idea because your voice is fine.

As regards the functions of the voices you used, I would say that the nasal-sounding 'you will wither' and 'experiments' lines has a lot of potential as a major NPC voice....reminds me of Richard O'Brian =)....plus showing evidence of pausing for added aplomb is always a good sign of a professional approach.

'You bore me mageling', however, shows evidence of another potential voice. If you were to develop this with a short, sharp and snappy approach together with the whispered menace in your voice then you would have another distinct and highly useable voice.

I hope this is the start of more great work from you. I'll look forward to working with you. Don't forget to drop by my 'Voice Acting Tutorials' thread once you get access to 'The Whispering Veil': [Tutorial] Voice Acting Tutorials .

@Xaeaix - Hi Xae! Nice to see you over here

[Mr. Tissue Box]

Hey, thanks for the replies guys. I have a couple more voice samples, I'll post them later when I have time.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/rb9j5g ~ Another take of Irenicus, I think...

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hv2rmk ~ I heard this on a youtube video that someone did and I felt like casually impersonating it for fun.

[Mr. Tissue Box]

Bump.

Another voice sample.

Congratulations noob.