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Custom Vocals


Sotha

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Inspired by Graymans excellent vertical contest entry, I am considering the possibility of making one character unique in vocals in my next mission. Before going any further with this thought I want to ask a few things here just so I know what I'm stepping into. I've no experience in recording nor voice acting.

 

1) is it possible for a mapper to create a light vocal set, say one or two barks per category, and use it for an ai.

2) where can I find a list for the barks I need?

3) I do not have any experience in this kind of endeavor: how much work is it? Recording, .oggifying, soundshader creation, how to mash everything into a vocal set?

4) Is there anything else I should take into account?

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Is there anything else I should take into account?

 

Uh, yeah... The fact that you are continuing to expand your fm building skills (I've seen your comments on the things that have inspired you here and elsewhere) is going to make me ever more excited to see your next mission. B)

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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Uh, yeah... The fact that you are continuing to expand your fm building skills (I've seen your comments on the things that have inspired you here and elsewhere) is going to make me ever more excited to see your next mission. B)

 

Or then the mission is going to be crap, because I'm focusing on the wrong things.. :o

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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For 2: you can find a publically available list of barks on the thread that asks for someone to act the Wench Vocals. Still, I took the liberty to remove all except for the most generic lines (cough, drown) from it and post it here. As you can see, even that is 9 pages long in size 12 Times New Roman.

basic_tdm_script.txt

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It's not an easy task. After recording everything, you then have to create a new sound shader that links to all the new files, as well as a new def file. I can help with those if you get that far.

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It's not an easy task. After recording everything, you then have to create a new sound shader that links to all the new files, as well as a new def file. I can help with those if you get that far.

 

Thank you.

 

I want to verify one more thing:

Is it possible to make a light vocal set so that not all things have sounds? I'm thinking of only to make the most critical vocals: basic humming, noise hearing, player spotting and light combat barks. I would not make any others.

 

Or *must* I have vocals for everything for this to work?

 

If(first_scenario) then I'll try stuttering something in a mic this weekend and after that I probably know if I want to proceed with this.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Is it possible to make a light vocal set so that not all things have sounds? I'm thinking of only to make the most critical vocals: basic humming, noise hearing, player spotting and light combat barks. I would not make any others.

 

Yes, zombies work in this way. You could look at the zombie_vocal.def for an example. Most barks have "nosound" applied.

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Tried to do some vocals, but the mic I found in my drawer wasn't exactly the best possible.

Vocals recorded with this would be excellent if the AI was trapped underground. ;)

 

Postponing this into the uncertain future.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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As I get it you need a really good microphone, a good recorder (like a separate chunk where you plug in the mic). Forget recording directly into the computer. Lots of unremoveable noises. Then you need a good booth to be in, like a wardrobe with clothes and soft things that hampers echo. Me and my girlfriend are recording and my dad has recording as an mateur hobby so he's got quite good equipment, but it's really hard to get it right anyway...It's depressing huh.gif My goal is to get it as good as I can and send it to Goldchochobo and hopefully he may remove some noise and then my contribution to TDM is in the bag :)

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Using joe-shmoe's microphone shoved into a laptop can work fine in a nice quiet room for the occasional FM conversation. But if you want to make a totally new ultra awesome super-duper wicked nice professional-sounding vocal set, direct-to-computer via 3.5 mm stereo plug is probably unacceptable.

 

You can get pretty nice performance using a very good digital USB microphone into a computer (My Audio-Technica mic setup cost me $300, just coz I'm a nit-picky audiophile). I like Fieldmedic's wardrobe idea. I know of walk-in-closets that are more acoustically viable than some recording booths.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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Using joe-shmoe's microphone shoved into a laptop can work fine in a nice quiet room for the occasional FM conversation. But if you want to make a totally new ultra awesome super-duper wicked nice professional-sounding vocal set, direct-to-computer via 3.5 mm stereo plug is probably unacceptable.

 

You can get pretty nice performance using a very good digital USB microphone into a computer (My Audio-Technica mic setup cost me $300, just coz I'm a nit-picky audiophile). I like Fieldmedic's wardrobe idea. I know of walk-in-closets that are more acoustically viable than some recording booths.

 

 

Haha, most of what I said is a collection of stuff I've asked here and there. But as I've tested the wardrobe, it's a quite good idea. Tested first with a mic in a large room and it sounded "echoy".

 

Is that so? I could bet a foot that I've seen you stating that mic-into-computer is like hand-in-toilet - just no good :) (Not those exact words though :) )

 

But for my upcoming mission I've put a friend onto the sound details :D It's the same guy that made the ambients for Betrayal...

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Are you wanting to do the voice acting yourself, or do you have someone picked out that can record the parts for you? If you want to do them yourself, I can recommend some good, cheap ways to record. But, if you are looking for someone to do the voiceovers for you let me know. I have a staple of a few people that includes some former Hollywood actors (although they cost), but some local actors that are really good and won't cost a dime. Let me know if you want to pursue this.

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."- Frank Zappa

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Is that so? I could bet a foot that I've seen you stating that mic-into-computer is like hand-in-toilet - just no good :) (Not those exact words though :) )

I said that to someone a while ago who thought they could build a new AI vocal set by plugging their analogue mic into their sound card. Not going to sound good. Every pc case (especially laptops) have some problems with grounding that will result in sound artifacts -- often extremely difficult to remove.

 

If you use a pro digital mic through usb/firewire, it's a digital signal that's very hard to accidently create any analogue artifacts. You're left only with the room noise, and the mic's self-noise (which should be negligable if your microphone is good, and well-taken-care-of).

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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Are you wanting to do the voice acting yourself, or do you have someone picked out that can record the parts for you? If you want to do them yourself, I can recommend some good, cheap ways to record. But, if you are looking for someone to do the voiceovers for you let me know. I have a staple of a few people that includes some former Hollywood actors (although they cost), but some local actors that are really good and won't cost a dime. Let me know if you want to pursue this.

 

Thank you.

Well, it is just a FM, so I was planning to give a shot at the acting myself, because I've never done something like that, and I enjoy trying/learning new things.

I don't think I want to put big money on this test of mine, so cheap record suggestions would be nice.

Also I'm not exactly sure I'm able to get something done due to my finnish accent and general lack of acting skills. Need to practise a bit and retry.

 

However, if you have access to good actors who are willing to help: there aren't many vocal sets in TDM, and a few well made more would increase the variety nicely, if you're interested, of course.

Springheel knows more on this topic.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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I said that to someone a while ago who thought they could build a new AI vocal set by plugging their analogue mic into their sound card. Not going to sound good. Every pc case (especially laptops) have some problems with grounding that will result in sound artifacts -- often extremely difficult to remove.

 

If you use a pro digital mic through usb/firewire, it's a digital signal that's very hard to accidently create any analogue artifacts. You're left only with the room noise, and the mic's self-noise (which should be negligable if your microphone is good, and well-taken-care-of).

 

Aha, so if you go digital you can eliminate most of the noise because it's analogue...interesting... :)

 

I would like to contribute with so much to this mod, but it all boils down to intricate stuff and difficulties! I wish I had my own mixing guy that could take care of all the technical stuff, and I just needed to stand in the recording booth and act, because that's the fun part! :D The only thing that I feel I can be good at is mapping...But hell! Come on, Sotha! Try to make some voices for a guy! :) I will make my own attempt in the future. huh.gif

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You only have to be picky if it's something like an AI vocal set (which is meant to be professional or pseudo-professional, coz you'll hear it all the time ;) ) .

 

If it's an FM conversation, I really don't care if there's a little hiss or a slight hum; putting forth the initiative to record a line or two boosts my opinion of a mission a lot. :) I'd recommend grabbing a laptop and your microphone, finding a nice quiet place without "bathroom echo", and record a few takes.

 

If you have no laptop, you can do a few things to help cut room noise. Turn off your house's A/C, turn off the TV 2 rooms away, close any nearby windows, and point your mic toward a far wall and away from your tower's whirring fans. I've sometimes gotten fleece blankets or bath towels to muffle the computer fans for a quick 5 minute take.

 

EDIT: Concerning noise... higher-frequency hiss, and buzzing/humming is all probably analogue noise. The rest is likely room noise (fans, tv, air conditioning, traffic noise, nature noise bleeding through windows) . Even 'shotgun' mics, which are very very directional, pick up a lot of room noise.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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