joostp wrote:Unfortunately the Joey voices on the DATs are not final and need post-processing (you can download a sample here).
Not to be Mr. Negative here, but it sounds nothing like the voices in the game. Joey's voice in the game used a normal voice with varying pitches only with a "robotic" filter.
The guy in the sample spoke in only one pitch. I hope the voices they used for the final actors are on the tapes as well.
Last edited by dpolsrod on Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
I think the ring modulator is on the right track, but the effect needs a lot of tweaking. I gave a few different things a try, playing around with vocoders and synthesisers, and while the results were kind of cool and could work in the context, they didn't sound enough like the original. I don't have a ring modulator effect on my system so I can't give that a try (if someone knows of one that I don't have to pay for, I'd be glad to though). The thing to do is probably to grab a sample from the original game and listen to it constantly while changing parameters etc, until the effect is nearly identical.
Actually, I was thinking about the same thing.
The higher sample rate doesn't really make a difference when you limit the frequency bandwidth and distort the speech beyond recognition...
Okay, I actually did manage to hack up the music system so that it outputs midi files. I'm not sure if they really comply with the midi standard, but they work fine in my winamp.
joostp wrote:Update:
Unfortunately the Joey voices on the DATs are not final and need post-processing (you can download a sample here).
Any suggestions on filters and techniques to make it sound like it did in the game are appreciated.
Maybe you can give us some pointers, edweird?
Joost, we have been thinking back... we believe there are two recordings of Joey - the first of which was deemed not good enough; so another was done. I wonder if you have both? We think that Virgin cut the samples up and applied the filter to Joey.
In a way, though, I wonder if you need to worry about Joey? His is a robot voice - it's meant to be low-res...
edweird wrote:I don't have a ring modulator effect on my system so I can't give that a try (if someone knows of one that I don't have to pay for, I'd be glad to though).
Kurufinwe wrote:There's a fairly complete collection of BASS MIDIs there, if that may help. (Dont ask me how I stumbled upon those, that was some time ago and I've long since forgotten).
After reviewing the contents of the dumped tapes and talking to various people at Revolution, we've learned there are 2 sets of recordings.
The 1st set, which Revolution recorded and supervised (these are the tapes we have and are, as far as dialog is concerned, mostly complete - but some of the voice-acting is quite poor and often different from the material used in the final game), and the 2nd set consisting of (a lot of) re-recorded takes done by Virgin (because they didn't like the quality of the original recordings and quite possibly the fact that it sounded too 'british' to appeal to e.g. the US audience) - these are the recordings we're currently missing and are looking for.
This project unfortunately can't proceed without them, and is thus on hold until we manage to somehow get ahold of these recordings (they are being looked for, however the fact that Revolution are in the middle of moving offices and Virgin UK is no longer in business doesn't help us!).
Then make a "british" version and call it a director's cut or something.
Nothing sounds too british too me, and apparently neither to most americans, thinking of the popularity of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (even I had to read the captures on some scetches).
There still could be made a second version once you manage to get the tapes.
Can you post an example on how "poor" it gets?
Knowing the voice acting of FOA, it's not exactly movie quality either, and it was fun to play and listen to anyways.
