Hi
Is there any way of altering someone’s voice to make them sound like a fighter pilot or space man?
i.e. Speaking on a microphone inside a helmet
I still want the voices to be clearly recognisable
I could put waste bins on all my actors’ heads but there must be a better way!
For space men try the Phaser or Vocoder effects.
For helmet mics try the Equalizer effect, cutting the frequencies below 200 Hz and above 3000 Hz. For distortion (simulating the automatic gain control and voice activation of helmet mics) try the Leveller effect at its highest setting.
– Bill
Thanks Bill - Using the equaliser effect and loosing everything under 300 and over 2000 hz worked perfectly for my requirements
Those are the settings for “telephone.” Roughly 300 to 3000. If you add the distortion, too (as above), you get the Air Traffic Control voice. This sample is missing all the support noise and other conversations and it may take a million years to download. My Web Host had problems the last couple of days.
http://kozco.com/lacontrol/lacontrol1b.wav
Koz
And if you really want to get retro you could add a short burst of pink noise before the voice to simulate the squelch effect of two-way radios.
– Bill
Yes, a beedlioop at the beginning for a polling radio system and ththththP at the end for a squelch tail. That’s the Hollywood version. The last radio I had with a squelch tail was 1985 and the beedlioop is missing from military radios. They don’t have to share channels. They have exclusive rights to large portions of spectrum. I’ve never heard one on an aviation radio, either.
I really need to record some of the LAX radio traffic and fold this demo into it.
But you’re perfectly correct. That’s how I did it. I recorded it close to the microphone, knocked off the high and low frequencies and compressed the heck out of it. I don’t remember if I used leveler, but casting my mind back, I think this project was the one where I found out you could apply it twice to get that dense carbon microphone compression…
It drives my boss the pilot nuts. All the directions are wrong and there are no flights from LAX to Burbank (that I know of). That’s like flying commercial to the pub for a pint.
Koz
But who cares if it’s authentic? Sounds like the OP is making effects for a game (fighter pilots, space men?). Reminds me of Wing Commander. The aliens were evolved from cats. When they showed up on your screen they looked like a lion wearing a helmet. You could taunt them and they could taunt you. They were constantly making references to their human enemies as “primates”. My favourite was: “Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!”
– Bill
Nowhere is it written (except in Hollywood) that radio voices have to sound like a 1963 carbon button lip microphone. Most airplanes don’t sound like that any more. Some are strikingly good. Is this one of those “Everybody Knows?”
Everybody Knows a radar has to go 'round and 'round. (Last seen in the field in 1973.)
Newsrooms have to sound like a 1968 TeleType machine.
etc.
Koz