Looking for Vocal Talent

[Springheel]

Hey all. I'm working on some new characters for my mission, and I'm going to need to find someone who can do a half-decent recording of a character with a vaguely arabian/african accent. Anyone happen to know of one? I won't need any vocals for at least a few months but I'd thought I better start looking now.

[lost_soul]

I would be happy to help, but I'm from northern California and I don't really have an accent... I'm just a guy in his late 20s. For recording gear, I've got a USB headset, an MP3 player, and one of those PC microphones straight out of the '90s. It may not be high tech, but I know my way around audacity; volume normalization, hiss removal, avoiding clipping, etc.

Edited September 17, 2011 by lost_soul

[Springheel]

I would be happy to help, but I'm from northern California and I don't really have an accent.

 

Can you adopt any kind of an arabian or african accent? This is for a foreign, moorish character, so he needs some kind of accent to work. I was actually imagining something rather short and clipped, like that big black pirate on Pirates of the Carribean, but something more arabic could also work.

[Bikerdude]

I do voices, but african or arabic and beyond me..

[ECHELON]

could go the Italian accent?

[Komag]

I can't say enough how much the microphone matters. I picked up a $100 condenser mic that plugs right into USB and it's something like 1000 times better sounding than my previous recordings using a basic $30 computer microphone. The difference is unbelievable, just night and day. No amount of post-processing can fix recording with a lousy mic.

[OrbWeaver]

The difference is unbelievable, just night and day. No amount of post-processing can fix recording with a lousy mic.

 

+1.

 

The basic mics that come with a computer are for videoconferencing, Skype etc. They don't even come close to being usable for proper recording.

 

Ambient noise is also important. You might not notice the whine of the computer fan because it is there all day, but it will be very obvious on the recording, along with any passing cars or aircraft, people outside etc.

[lost_soul]

There are also the wind guards and the like to prevent ppppopping "P" and hissing "S" sounds when people use words beginning with either of these letters. You can also talk not directly into the microphone to help prevent these problems.

Edited September 19, 2011 by lost_soul

[SeriousToni]

Do you need an oriental sound or a black sound? As there are differences in arabic and african voices I didn't get yet, on what you focus.

 

By the way, are the people who synchronized the guards and peasants still available to record special conversations for fan missions?

[lost_soul]

Well I know many of them are still around. There's Bikerdude, who voiced both a guard and a servant. There's also BrokenArts (female voice) and the guys who made the NHAT campaign. I wonder who provided the thug voice though?

[Serpentine]

I'm not sure what you mean by "African", but if a white South African accent is passable (The English, I'm not the Afrikaans accent that you hear in District 9 or whatever) - let me know.

[Springheel]

Do you need an oriental sound or a black sound? As there are differences in arabic and african voices I didn't get yet, on what you focus.

 

I don't have a specific preference. I've made an african-looking moorish character for use in my next map. Historically, the moors were primarily Northern African, but they included Arabs, Berbers and Black Africans. So any accent that could conceivably fit one of those descriptions would work.

[SeriousToni]

Well I know many of them are still around. There's Bikerdude, who voiced both a guard and a servant. There's also BrokenArts (female voice) and the guys who made the NHAT campaign. I wonder who provided the thug voice though?

 

Good to know as I wanted to set up a few scripted_sentences in the future