Brainstorm: Klk'k voices/language

For collaboration between the different artists creating music and sound for vegastrike.
CLoneWolf
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Re: Brainstorm: Klk'k voices/language

Post by CLoneWolf »

Turbo wrote:One other question for feedback: one of the voice lines in the XML (accompanied by a reduction in relationship, but no other explanation) reads, "*hit*". To me that make little sense. Since the Klk'k make everything into a joke, I recorded it as "Hit...you sunk my battleship!" I figure if JackS doesn't like it, we can edit it down to "hit."
I *think* the *'s around the word "hit" were meant to indicate a hit sound rather than a spoken word; it's exactly one of your recorded lines that makes me think so, as it has a theatre directive sort of hint, [singing idly] IIRC, which of course is descriptive and not meant to be spoken.
Turbo wrote:P.S: I tried Traverso, and it likes to crash Win7-64, so I'm back with Audacity until I have more time to work with it.
Ouch. Very sorry to hear that :( Maybe Ardour could be worth a try; another advantage of this approach is that, in case you're still deciding on multiple versions, you don't have to spawn and keep (and worse, until final choice is made, maintain! :shock: ) whole sets of intermediate files, each with one of the candidate effects applied. At most, you'd have a single set of unaltered source sounds, and different project files, each with a set of effects and values. Also, Ardour lets you save snapshots other than keeping the whole undo history; so if you find a good setting and set a snapshot at that point, reverting from further fiddling that you deem not worth keeping is at a click distance (the click click, not the distance click ;) )
Turbo
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Re: Brainstorm: Klk'k voices/language

Post by Turbo »

Deus Siddis wrote:Wasn't it the Rlaan though that you wanted to use the multi-voice effect on? Maybe something like a tremolo effect is more what you are looking for (in a one-mouth species) to give it more character.

Some simple pitch adjustment may (or may not) help create a different feel for them. For example if they are smaller than humans, their voice might carry a higher pitch.

You could also experiment with some sort of aquatic sound effect, bubbling or splashing, mixed in some subtle way since this is a semi aquatic species.
The Rlaan voices were completed 2 years ago, after much discussion.

Technically I should say that the Klk'k have 2 tongues and separate airways for breathing, not 2 mouths. I already gave them a strange voice (which others described as either Bugs Bunny or the Coneheads) and a sarcastic tone. Interestingly, the acoustics of my computer room (normally very good for voice acting) wanted to echo the buzzing quality of the voice I was doing. The second sample does slightly increase the pitch of the echo-like right channel over the original left channel. Personally I prefer the first sample (reverse delay). Klk'k are not aquatic or even amphibious, just comfortable around water.
CLoneWolf wrote:I *think* the brackets around the word "hit" were meant to indicate a hit sound rather than a spoken word; it's exactly one of your recorded lines that makes me think so, as it has a theatre directive sort of hint, [singing idly] IIRC, which of course is descriptive and not meant to be spoken.
That makes sense, but I am not sure how to execute it so the player can tell that sound from a hit on his own ship. And would the target be transmitting but not talking at the moment of the hit? Maybe I could take a hull-hit sound followed by the incoherent breathing-and-clicking (already elsewhere in the script), so basically you hear the hit and his too-angry-to-speak-human-language reaction. They are difficult to anger, and the rage is deep but short-lived.

Edit: I checked some other faction scripts, and several had the "[hit]" included. So now I am guessing that we don't play any sound with those.
Turbo

There are two speeds in combat: stopped, and as fast as you can go. Unless you run into something, going fast keeps you alive more often than stopping.
CLoneWolf
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Re: Brainstorm: Klk'k voices/language

Post by CLoneWolf »

Turbo wrote:That makes sense, but I am not sure how to execute it so the player can tell that sound from a hit on his own ship. And would the target be transmitting but not talking at the moment of the hit? Maybe I could take a hull-hit sound followed by the incoherent breathing-and-clicking (already elsewhere in the script), so basically you hear the hit and his too-angry-to-speak-human-language reaction. They are difficult to anger, and the rage is deep but short-lived.
Some native speaking would surely do the trick, but our radio-like post-processing might already be enough not to mistake the incoming sound for a hit on the player's ship, but now I'm also thinking that...
Turbo wrote:Edit: I checked some other faction scripts, and several had the "[hit]" included. So now I am guessing that we don't play any sound with those.
...that maybe, those *hit* lines were just placeholders, waiting for wits to come up with proper lines; in that case, given the MOI vacancy, actors might be free to script those lines by themselves, what do you think?
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Re: Brainstorm: Klk'k voices/language

Post by Turbo »

Yes, why not?

You did not say: which of the two voice styles did you like, the reverse-delay or the stereo-echo?
Turbo

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CLoneWolf
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Re: Brainstorm: Klk'k voices/language

Post by CLoneWolf »

Err... well... I didn't say, because I can't decide :roll:

The first thought was that the stereo delay one, though sounding very well (personally I like listening to sounds that wrap around the whole stereo panorama), brought too much channel separation coming from a single living being; that would be true in face to face communication, but actually the sender's stereo microphone might enhance the separation because of the particular anatomy of the speaker... So probably the first version is "safer" but I still can't definitely exclude the second as it might still be feasible after all (IANAE, I am not an exobiologist :mrgreen: )

Besides, it would be very nice to get more opinions from other people... who could then eventually be lured in voice acting for the missing factions ;)
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Re: Brainstorm: Klk'k voices/language

Post by Turbo »

CLoneWolf wrote:Besides, it would be very nice to get more opinions from other people... who could then eventually be lured in voice acting for the missing factions ;)
Wise advice. I am content to wait for more input. And since I haven't done it in a year, I put out a new call in "Contributor How-To" for voice actors.

In the meantime, I can do other things. For example, I have found the raw recordings for 2 more news stories on my hard drive. They just need editing and assembly. I must have stopped work on them last spring because I was preparing to move jobs.
Turbo

There are two speeds in combat: stopped, and as fast as you can go. Unless you run into something, going fast keeps you alive more often than stopping.
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