Audacity 2.1.2 - .exe
There is no doubt within the industry a term for what I hope to accomplish but, being a neophyte, I do not know it. I am doing a weekly reading of articles for a non-profit organization. Many of these articles include quotes of both females and males. Is there a way in Audacity to change the tone of my voice so that it sounds different from mine and possible the opposite gender, when required?
No. Almost all requests to “Make my voice sound like something else” fail. Simple pitch change fails because not all vocal tones change between man and woman… and other reasons.
You could print the text and have a text to speech reader do it.
Koz
Then I can be replaced by a computer? Hmmm.
Thanks, Koz!
A free plugin (which works in Audacity) called Kerovee can convert male to female and vice-versa, but it sounds synthetic …
Text-to-speech sounds more human, but the rhythm, intonation and pronunciation can be wrong …
Thank you, Trebor. I rather like the British accent in the second sound file. And that copy sounds so familiar… 
I’m a bass and my voice will go through soundproof walls. It’s listed as a non-lethal weapon by the state of California. But. I once played a convincing woman through acting and microphone spacing. You can’t get a software package to do that.
Lauren Bacall’s voice was lower than Humphrey Bogart.
Hire an actual woman. There are millions of starving actors out there.
Koz
Koz,
I’ll be sure to watch for your voice in a dark alley, since your voice is registered as a non-lethal weapon. It could still be a frightening experience. And since I, too, live in California, there’s a chance we might cross paths one day.
I am an actual woman, even though I don’t play one on TV. Seriously, though, this situation is a bit ironic. The readings I do are for a non-profit organization that serves the blind and reading-impaired. I believe that I am the ONLY volunteer doing this type of project who IS NOT a professional VO actor. I still haven’t figured out why they encouraged me to do this at all. My original inquiry was about helping with their website. Go figure.
Sheri
there’s a chance we might cross paths one day.
Remember, soundproof walls won’t help you.
I am an actual woman
Is your voice lower than Humphrey Bogart?
…helping with their website.
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why they encouraged me to do this at all.
Do you have a natural reading or speaking style? We had one of those where I worked. He would announce he was going to metaphorically read the phone book and the auditorium would fill up. Vacation slide show? Standing Room Only.
Koz
Remember, soundproof walls won’t help you.
Uh, oh.
Is your voice lower than Humphrey Bogart?
Gosh, no.
…helping with their website.
It’s built with .asp. I am willing to learn.
Do you have a natural reading or speaking style? We had one of those where I worked. He would announce he was going to metaphorically read the phone book and the auditorium would fill up. Vacation slide show? Standing Room Only.
I do not believe that’s the case. I have my suspicions, but have never asked. Why rock the boat? I wanted to help the organization, so here I am, FWIW.
Sheri
Have you watched or listened to the way they do it? Many pros change their presentation or other expression to get different characters rather than trying to sound like a different sex or completely different person. One recent presenter described how hard it was to keep track of a tome she was reading with many different characters.
Also see: reading to kids at the library. Give you only have Fuzzy Bunny and Chicken Little to deal with, most readers change something about their sound—however minor—to separate them. Given you don’t speak in a monotone (my other talent) the listener’s head will do the rest.
~~
I loved a very early version of Microsoft Publisher. Publisher, you may remember, is a display and layout program, not a word processor that everybody keeps insisting it is. I’ll give you an example. In Publisher, it’s one (1) key click to move a picture on a page up-left slightly and have all the words automatically change their wrap and position to make up for it. In Microsoft Word®, that’s a career move.
Publisher used to have HTML as an export option!!! Several of my pages are laid out in Publisher. Then they stopped offering it.
I’m doing most of it by hand with a text editor. I suppose now that they settled on HTML5, I should be able to find an editor sized somewhere between the rock crusher production packages and FireFox Web Developer Tools.
~~
Do you have a natural reading or speaking style?
I can understand wanting to keep a stable of readers available whether or not they read for the BBC/PBS. This against the time when everyone gets stuck reading for the BBC/PBS for a while and you’re it.
Without being too indelicate, are you cheaper or are you the only one that doesn’t have fights with the Producers?
Koz
Koz,
I have listened to many of the professionals who also do volunteer podcasts for the NPO. This made me realize how important it is to enunciate clearly and speak a bit more slowly than many do in normal conversation. While the voices change in my head between the narrator and (fake) interviewee, they are not as pronounced in reality as I would like. [Uh oh. Voices in my head? Don’t worry; they’re not that kind.] After reading your reply about Fuzzy Bunny and Chicken Little, now I can’t stop laughing. Maybe I should try voices like that just to see if anyone is listening.
I do remember Publisher but only tinkered with it briefly. Indeed, it is not a word processing program They used to call it a desktop publishing program. When I created my first website many moons ago I used Notepad. One iteration of that website later, I “graduated” to Notepad++ and still use it 15 years later. If I were you, I wouldn’t get too comfy with the HTML 5 standard. Just when you think it’s safe to go back into the proverbial water, it will change.
As for the NPO, I will never be “it.” They have a good relationship with the owner of a VO school. The last time they asked this man for help, the NPO received over 100 applicants! None of us is paid for this work and there is no producer that I know of. After I record the segments, I combine all of them and a bit of music at each end into an mp3 file and email it to someone. That person may take a perfunctory listen and then post it on the website. It’s a very efficient process. The organization does a great service and has some really nice, hardworking people working behind the scenes to keep it all going.
Sheri
This made me realize how important it is to enunciate clearly and speak a bit more slowly than many do in normal conversation.
There’s just nothing quite like hearing yourself playing back the first time, particularly compared to an actual presenter.
Voices in my head
That’s a whole psycho-acoustic thing. Your voice just going out to the great beyond versus the cupped hand thing, versus actually hearing yourself in real time from a good monitor point and headphones.
He’s playing it for comedy, but that’s a real thing., funneling some of your voice back up to one ear. It’s very much like the enormous, silvery RCA 44BX microphone he’s announcing into hoping you’re not going to notice the little black tie-tack microphone doing the actual work.
Somewhere here I have a picture of people singing to an existing track only wearing one of two headphones. Same thing. Somehow you have to adjust your live presentation so it sounds OK.
Koz
Only an audiophile would notice the lapel mic. I never noticed cue dots in movies until a colorist pointed them out to me.
…to changeover from reel two to real three. That went away with the gigantic platters which supported the whole movie in one pass and that went away with digital projection.
Have you decided how you’re going to vocally shift between characters?
Koz
I don’t have a solid plan, but I will keep experimenting. Every week is a new opportunity.
Thank you, Koz. I believe that the occupation listed in your profile is wrong.
Sheri
That better?
Koz
Not a bit.