I am trying to find a good voice changer program. Or else hire Mel Blanc, but he is dead. This will enable me to create the characters voices on demand, instead of trying to get my friends and family to read scripts into a microphone. Does any one know a good program for this purpose? I recently downloaded a demo of Voicechanger Diamond and was sincerely unimpressed. The preset voice filters did not resemble the characters they represented. The pitch shift did not include any modification of timbre. And the speech rate was compressed or expanded depending on whether the voice was shifted up or down. So rather than wasting days or weeks testing software, I would like a recommendation. Sincerely, Wagner the Undead

Attached Link: http://www.adobe.com/special/products/audition/syntrillium.html

Thats OK, Adobe has a good reputation in the VRML arena. Just look at Adobe Atmospheres for avatar development. I will check it out. However, I am still interested in recommendations from someone who has successfully created character voices using their own as a base. Thanks for the tip. Sincerely, Wagner the Undead

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ditto

As ockham has mentioned Adobe Audition is very good I do use it for what you are wanting to do, plus other things. I have also taken my voice and changed it into my bosses voice (it took a while to do it with a lot of tweaking). I am a male and have a very deep voice and my boss is female and has a very sexy upper midrange voice. When I finished it sounded just like her. Adobe Audition is the way to go also with several VST plugins (those will help...alot)

I haven't gotten to that stage yet, but I just on the basis of the music experiments I've done, I heartily recommend Audition. I've used both the included CD of .cel sound files (a customized .mp3 file format; it lacks the fade-in and out, so you get razor sharp start-stop play action), and .wav files from the Magix Soundpool DVD's (worth every cent, and low cost to boot), and been able to extend and shorten play times without any noticeable change in frequency. I would assume that the controls that allow changing the frequency baseline would be just as precise. Never mind the fact that you can import an animation onto one of the channels and time your sound effects in Audition....

Attached Link: http://www.sonicfoundry.com/

i use Voice Changer Software Gold VCS its simple and it works well for me cus i just need to make voices for mimic. you can do this with it:baby, girl, boy, old man, old woman, robot... voice). By adjusting the pitch and timbre level to make your voice deeper or thinner, male or female, here the link its super easy there is also a platinum ver. http://www.visual-mp3.com/review/12193.html

On the Mac, you can use GarageBand. It has some excellent filters for voice changing. (I used it for my short, SpaceCat http://poserfilms.com/spacecat/ )

Attached Link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I should probably not stick this oar in, but a great many people who attempt voice acting (performing it or recording it), are not quite up to the challenge. If you are in any sort of situation -- school, community theater, radio connections -- where you can get access to real voice talent, experienced directors/coaches, and people who know more than how to stick a quarter-inch mini-plug into the side of a Sony Vaio...well, you will find it pays off in spades. Good sound can kick visuals up to a new league entirely. Bad sound can drag the whole project down. And no where is this more critical than with the voice acting.

Attached Link: http://mp3-player.audio4fun.com/dj-music.htm

I work with professional voice talents every day. Actresses, Anchors, Radio Personalities... Many of them have home studios now, can record and email/FTP voice recordings over the internet. I can also record in the studio and send them via email/FTP. It's not as hard to hire the professionals now and they aren't as expensive to use either. bB

Actually, I'm envious, Bast. Most of the talent I work with is community theater (although I've become pretty good at estimating if someone has "got it" or if they are going to be a drag on the session). Strictly pre-recorded material for theater use, which is a different process and result than animation. One needs a nuanced performance but there's more slop in the timing. Experienced voice talent is amazing to work with in any case. Working with a precision tool gives you, the artist, so much power to realize your vision. I have had at least three of these gentlemen generously give of their time to come out and record with me. So, yeah -- there is talent out there and it does not have to be hard to find them or expensive to use them.

ITA.

I've had local theater acting groups come to the studio to do recordings and it wasn't easy pulling a good performance out of them, - especially when working with children. What I often do, is trick them. I have them practice with other actors to warm up. They think the microphones aren't on, but they are, and they often do their best performacens when they thinking they aren't in the hot seat. LOL. It's often more natural sounding, so try that trick, and do alot of editing. ;)

I've recorded actors, lawyers, writers, anchors, sports people, radio people, local theater troops, etc. Radio people "give good voice," but let me tell you, actors and anchors run circles around everyone else. You would expect actors to be good, but I think most people would be surprised that TV personalities are actually quote good too. ;)

bB

Message edited on: 09/17/2005 16:09

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Ok, Thank you all for your recommendations!
I was only expecting two or three replies, however, this must be a popular issue. Let me try to address all the points raised and maybe one of you could moderate a forum for this topic?

About recommended applications, I have already rejected the products from AUDIO4FUN. Their demo was not convincing, although their tech support group assures me that the full product is much better.

Cool Edit from Trillium is a product that I have tried in the past and will look at again. However, it is now owned by Adobe, which only proves its worth as a product.

Audacity is sponsored by SoundForge, a leader in audio software applications. Since it is free, it will be my next application to test. As the poster said, The price is right.

About my abliity to read for another character, well I will let you judge that for yourself. The vast majority of my work is, and will go, unpublished. What I do post, I expect your honest criticism. As one person told me. I have a face for radio, :).

About hiring online, local theatre, and television actors to read for me. Well I will let that go until I have an important commission. After watching my girlfriend go into a fit of giggles after trying to read an anime script, well it was difficult to tell her that she was not suitable. Actually, I didn't. I just stopped asking her to read.

If you have any links to groups who will do script reading, in English and Japanese, let me know.

Otherwise, all of you have been very helpful.

Goshinsetsu ni arigatoo! (Thank you for your kindness)
Arigatoo gozaimashita! (Thank you very much)

Message edited on: 09/17/2005 19:02

Heh. Yes...one of the great skills is learning what NOT to tell the talent. Don't tell them they stink (just quietly delete the material after they've left), don't tell them the mics are on (the inexperienced talent often "freezes up" when they know the record light is on. Tape is cheap. Blank CD and hard disk space is even cheaper. Start recording the moment they enter the studio.) And of course...never ever tell them you blew that golden take by switching the wrong inputs. I find the phrase "safety take" has saved my asp more than once. Bast, my experience with theatrical voices is they require an experienced theatrical director for best results. Left to their own devices they don't always make good choices.

Voicechanger Diamond DO NOT PURCHASE, this is a total waste of money. LOGIC on Mac (high-end expensive) has tools...I see them in the menus but have not used them. There is a plugin from Steinberg "Voice Machine." I have no experience using it, but just dropping it into this thread if someone has used it. I echo echo echo the sentiment: use live talent. I suggest getting a condenser microphone if you can afford it. ::::: Opera :::::

WagnerTheUndead, Did you SAVE THE RECORDING of your girlfriend giggling? DO NOT ERASE IT! PRICELESS. ::::: Opera ::::: voice talent for hire: http://www.sunspotsproductions.com/ http://www.voiceovers.net/ http://www.fatattitude.com/fatvoice/voice.asp? http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/bevilacqua2.1.html how it looks from the point of view of the actor http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Special+Features&category2=Voice+Acting general voice acting essays ::::: Opera :::::

There is a 30-day trial version of Audition at the Adobe site. AUDIO FOR FUN I tried, wasted $100, highly unconvincing voice changing, but if they have a free version, try it. ::::: Opera :::::

I , for one, can't afford to hire anybody for anything, as I'm in the hobby mode here. Some of the programs are too expensive for me as well. Is there nothing for us poor, hobby oriented folks? (posted for all that want to get going in this but can't invest much money) It was stated the $100 Diamond thing is not worth the cash. How about the $29 one now on sale for $20 ????

Surely there must be some good (preferrebly free) voice changing software for the pc? Hiring people to do voices is not really a practical option if you are just making animations for non-professional use or your own amusement.

There's also text-to-speech. It's robotic, but fun. :D http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html I use it mostly to get foreign word pronunciations correct, but it's still kinda fun to play with it. Macs come with a bunch of voices too. Zarvox is my favorite. ;) bB

Read post 11. I believe Audacity is free. Wry grin to us Mac people, who are usually the 'left-outters', who have GarageBand to play with. ::::: Opera :::::

I thought there might be some specific voice changer software.

I dunno about the software...I've just used the pitch and formant shifter plug-ins on my copy of Vision. Can't shift things too far without grain effects, but I was able to turn a mixed group in their fifties into a semi-believable high school glee club once.

Ok, I am going to reply to this again. Then someone else has to be the moderator! This is obviously a hot topic...

First, products:

AUDIO4FUN VoiceChanger program. I and two others in this thread have stated it is not worth the cost.

Garageband has been listed by two persons as a good tool. I will try the demo.

CoolEdit by Trillium, now owned by Adobe as Audition, has been listed as good, but costly. I will test the demo version.

Audacity, by SoundForge, is free. I am currently testing this product. I do need to know which VSP plugins are good for character voices.

MAC OS options, well I am a Wintel user so, no comment. However some of the previous products may have MAC versions.

Second, live talent.

One artist has provided several links to groups that will read scripts and send audio.

And no, I did not record my girlfriend's giggle fit. Sorry, I know that was a total opportunity lost, but their is a trust issue involved, you know?

Now, I do not intend to respond to this forum again. I will be contacting some of you individually with questions. However, thank you all for your support.

Domoo, Arigatoo gozaimashita!

Message edited on: 09/18/2005 18:28

Hey Operaguy, Is that GarageBand 1 or version 2???

Attached Link: http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/mix.html

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This is a very interesting thread. My thanks to the many who responded. I am a complete noob to these programs. I have never heard of the ability to change ones voice say from male to female before. I downloaded the audacity and tried a test. The pitch controls are greyed out and there is no manual for this product. So I have no clue what to do. Wagnertheundead Please continue to ask questions on this forum as I'm sure there are many who would like the same answers. The gold vcs never sent the the key to dunlock thier demo software. So I couldnt' try it. I downloaded the free adobe trial version. Are there any pluggins that we should get for Audacity and/or for audition? Since my wife is not interested in this I would be interested in male to female changes. Some of the software talks about how they can change your voice live over the internet. I don't care about that. I would like the best software and plugins to change a voice. I don't care if it is done fast or slow. Are there any samples on the web of what these programs can do? Thanks again for the many responses.

The effects in audacity only work when you select all or part of an audio sample, there is no manual but there is an "online" help (not an internet help).

You can select the whole sample in the edit menu select>all or by pressing ctrl-a.

Message edited on: 09/19/2005 10:31

JoeMcCarron, Xantor is correct. In Audacity, once you have selected a portion of the wave form, the effects are available. Now, my tests so far have resulted in pitch shifting my voice from normal to munchkinland. So I recall that their are significant differences between male and female voices. Different voices have different characteristics. The first is the principal tone, and then additional overtones. The combination of these is referred to as timbre (tamber). So now I am looking for two more things, first, additional VST plugins to add harmonics to the voice, and second, a technical document that describes the differences between human voices. So that is where I am at now. Are their any music theorists in the house who can "pitch" in? :) Sincerely, WagnerTheUndead

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