request: Robot/Kilrathi voice acting

Aginor

Aginor

Vice Admiral
And here's the next request for my Kilrathi mod:

While the first two were related to graphic features (please check out the threads if you haven't already) this one is about audio.


If any Star Wars battle droids or people that can imitate their voices are active in this community, this is your chance!

I need the following eleven sentences uttered by a mechanical sounding robot voice for the computer of Kilrathi fighters:

1. Mission complete
2. Unable to complete mission
3. Enemy near - autopilot not allowed
4. Hazard near - autopilot not allowed
5. Receiving long distance communication
6. Receiving distress signal
7. Autopilot link established
8. Weapons reconfigured
9. Objective accomplished - proceed next waypoint
10. Objective accomplished
11. Proceed to next waypoint

Any help would be appreciated :)
 
This one sounds like it might be fun...I don't know if I have all the equipment necessary, but I'll call dibs on it. Been meaning to do some more stuff with Audacity lately anyways...
 
What, the cats don't have the Kilrathi equivalent of a sexhotline operator? I thought that was the universal standard in computer voices.
I agree though, a robotic voice sounds fitting for Kilrathi computers.
 
I also have Audacity and even a fairly good microphone I use for recording music (acoustic guitar and voice) but I don't seem to be able to come up with a good sounding robot voice effect. Also I have a (not very strong but audible) German accent so I can't use my own voice.

So go ahead and try it, I'm looking forward to your samples!

(And if you figure out a cool way to do it I would kindly ask to also post which tools and parameters you used. :) )
 
So, are you going for a tinny robotic voice, or something deeper? Star Wars battle droid, Dalek, Cylon (the chrome-plated kind), Vader, what?
 
Hmm... I think Vader might be too low, and Star Wars battle droid a bit too high. I don't know Dalek and can't remember Cylons.
I'll check some youtube videos and report back in a minute.
 
I remember Dalek now. I just didn't remember the name :)
I think we should aim for something that is a bit better understandable than the new Cylon in this video

maybe Dalek-like, a bit lower than them. Cybermen (2006) perhaps.

Ok, I found one that I like:
at 30 seconds. where it says "regroup and concentrate attack".
I'm not a native English speaker and I can still understand them well (I understand the Daleks but not always) so I think this could fit.


EDIT:
I also like the Geth, they sound quite well, but I think they sound too... bubbling? a bit more organic than I would like for a ship's computer.
 
Alright, that gives me something to aim for. Lemme see what I can whip up and get back with you. I'll shoot for late tonight if possible.
 
Alright...here are a couple of quick samples. My 3-yr kid was awake and you can hear him in the sample; try to ignore that - I'm basically just checking to see which of the three you like best and if I'm getting close to what you're looking for. I'll be sure and do the actual recording when everybody here is asleep...
 

Attachments

  • mission_complete_prelim_samples.zip
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Cool, I'll check it out immediately!

EDIT:
Ok, the pitch is good. I'm a bit unsure whether the first one (6d) or the last one (6) sounds better. I can understand both quite well so they seem to be clear enough.
Did you use a wah-wah effect in the second sample(6c)? It sounds like the computer is failing^^ That one might not even sound so bad if that effect wasn't so strong. The way it is now it won't work I think.
At the moment I prefer the third one (6), it sounds low and strong. The way I would expect Kilrathi to let their ships speak. A mechanical warrior (keep in mind that Kilrathi ships are male).
The 'e' in "complete" sounds a bit short, more like "complit" than "complete", otherwise I would say 6 is perfect.

But of course that's just my opinion, let's ask our fellow wingnuts:
What do you think?
 
Aginor said:
Did you use a wah-wah effect in the second sample(6c)? It sounds like the computer is failing^^ That one might not even sound so bad if that effect wasn't so strong. The way it is now it won't work I think.
Click to expand...

For both 6c and 6d, I basically just added an additional effect to 6; it's from a plugin called killerringer. The two use slightly different settings. I'm not sure if it incorporates wah-wah or not.

We'll see what everyone thinks before I reveal my formula...... mwahahaha

Aginor said:
At the moment I prefer the third one (6), it sounds low and strong. The way I would expect Kilrathi to let their ships speak. A mechanical warrior (keep in mind that Kilrathi ships are male).

The 'e' in "complete" sounds a bit short, more like "complit" than "complete", otherwise I would say 6 is perfect.
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll work on that. I did do a first pass at all the lines last night and I'll go ahead and run them through the same set of effects. I'll see if I can't get another batch of samples ready later today.
 
Quick question: do you have a preference on the file format? I'm using Audacity, so I can do .wav (obviously), .mp3 and .ogg (Vorbis) pretty easily. Anything more exotic will take some research on my part to do, but it should still be doable.
 
Ogg and wav are both possible in the FSO engine. I would prefer ogg I think. And if I encounter some problem with OGG I can convert it.
So OGG would be perfect :)
 
Yay!
Downloading now.

EDIT: They sound good, although I have to test them ingame to make sure they sound good there as well. I see one possible problem (hard to understand when other sounds are played simultaneously) but we'll see.

Thanks again, I will report back with the results later :)
 
*insert profanities here* I can't edit my post. again. It worked half an hour ago but won't work now.
...
Anyway, here are the results: The files work, they were a bit too quiet though. I used audacity to amplify them as far as possible without clipping and now they are loud enough and clearly understandable.

The only other thing I noticed is that - while they work ingame - the ogg files are not correctly played by the mission editor's preview function. So for future sound recordings I will revert to wav files. With the computer voice it doesn't matter.

So now I'm content and since nobody else complained about the files yet I think will use them as they are.

Thanks again for your help, and I already wrote your nickname into my mod's credits :)
 
You're quite welcome. Lemme know if you need any more samples or when/if you start looking for people to do character voices. Next time I'll remember to normalize the clips before I send them off...

If you want to put my full name in the credits instead of my 'Net handle, you can.
 
The voice work for my mod contains of two parts which are not quite separate but a bit lonked:
- Part one is for the "Kilrathi mod". Its goal is to replace all generic terran wingmen voices we hear when certain events in the engine occur with Kilrathi ones. Tolwyn has already told me he could do Kilrathi voices (he was the one who did them for Saga) when I send him my script but I don't really know what he's doing, just that all Kilrathi he did so far sounded good. :) I have to talk to him again.

So basically I need four to six different full sets of Kilrathi voices with the following sentences (not exactly please :D ).
Of course they should fit to each other, so if a Kilrathi sounds like a weak kitten when being shot at he should also sound like a weak kitten when attacking. Those are converted into "personas" for the game. First step is to get the texts done.

1) "All fighters are destroyed, area is secure"
2) "Enemy fighters have arrived"
3) "I'm attacking your target"
4) "We're the backup and we've arrived to save your ass"
5) "Bravo Wing here, we've just arrived"
6) "There's a fighter on your six!"
7) "I'm dying!"
8) "Charlie Wing here, we've just arrived"
9) "I'm getting the **** out of here"
10) "I'm disabling your target" (going for engines)
11) "I'm disarming your target" (going for turrets)
12) "I'm breaking formation to engage enemy"
13) "Delta Wing here, we've just arrived"
14) "Echo Wing has arrived"
15) "I'm taking damage"
16) "I'm ignoring your target"
17) "I'm not following your order"
18) "I can't pick up your target on sensors"
19) "You just fired on me, man"
20) "Main player has been killed!"
21) "Main player just did something cool!"
22) "I'm out of missiles!"
23) "My fighter is heavily damaged"
24) "Main player is straying away from objective"
25) "Main player is traitor, off with his head!"
26) "I'm following your order"
27) "I'm the greatest!"

Also I will need at least five or six capship personas, those have far less lines though. IIRC they are limited to
1. Ship has arrived
2. Ship is departing
3. Friendly fire
4. Death
5. Target destroyed

I think that's all the engine is capable of without scripting, which is the aim for the mod since it should allow campaign/mission builders to build their own Kilrathi missions/campaigns.





The second part is the Kilrathi voices for my campaign (which I plan to release separately because it will take longer). For that I will need another five or six sets of all lines spoken by a distinct character, plus some sentences that the wingmen say during the missions.
Finally one of them will speak the briefing texts IF I do briefings/debriefings with voiceovers.
It's that much work and I'm not sure whether I should do it or not.
I can record the lines for the campaign as soon as the story and the missions are finished. I'm now working on the third mission of ten so that will take a while. The rough outlines of teh story are finished but the text isn't. I'm still in the progress of checking the story versus the canon facts and writing the most important parts that I need for the mission texts. The rest will be non-voiced in the fiction viewer so the players can read it or skip it.






So as you see there are some things still to do. If anybody is interested in creating lines for the generic pilots, please post your ideas here.

Here's an example for aKilrathi. Note thath I don't mention Terrans or Apes or whatever refers to humans because that way you can use that voices in a campaign where Kilrathi fight Varni/Firekkans/Hu/Kilrathi:

1) "We're out of prey it seems"
2) "More of them! Sharpen your claws!"
3) "I will shred him to pieces"
4) "We are here to join your hunt"
5) "Bravo Wing here, time to fight"
6) "Watch your back"
7) "I'm dying!"
8) "Charlie Wing here, time to fight"
9) "Tactical retreat is not the same as running away"
10) "Let's hamstring them" (going for engines)
11) "We will take their fangs" (going for turrets)
12) "The hunt has begun"
13) "Delta Wing here, time to fight"
14) "Echo Wing has arrived, time to fight"
15) "I am under fire!"
16) "Alright, that on is yours"
17) "I can't do that."
18) "I can't see your target"
19) "Arrhh.. be careful!"
20) "May you sit next to Sivar, brother!"
21) "Very impressive, brother!"
22) "I don't have any missiles left"
23) "My fighter is almost breaking apart!"
24) "Where are you going? Come back!"
25) "You have betrayed your clan! Die!"
26) "As you wish"
27) "A proper fate for a coward"
 
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