Trying to sound like a little girl

Hey, although that title sounds ironic or offensive, I really have this issue and need some solution!
I am a male, my voice on the mic reminds both male and female, but mostly male. I have searched a lot, but the software required to do that can’t play in my laptop, so here are the questions:

• What settings should I apply to achieve a realistic female voice? I use Audacity and Cool Edit Pro, so whatever you are familiar with, let me know.
• I am trying to achieve a little girl’s voice too (this is a seperate aim from the previous one), like 7-year old one. I need to know additional settings to sound like one, but in a realistic way, so a suggestion of just “pitch tone change” won’t really be informative enough.

I am looking forward to hearing from you, thanks in advance for any help!

This question has come up a few times which is possibly worrying.
Changing the character of a voice is extremely complex if it is to be done convincingly. The best way to do it would be to employ the assistance of a child or a young lady. In terms of timbre there is not much difference between the voice of a 7 year old boy or girl. A young lady is likely to be able to do a much better impersonation of a young child than a man can. If it were an easy thing to transform one persons voice into that of another, voice actors would be out of work.

Well, my native language is not English and that is why it gets more difficult to find what you suggested, especially for the kid-part. I have found an actual set for a kid’s voice, so problem is partially solved. Thank you for your assistance.

the short answer is you can’t do that.
there is more involved than just raising the pitch.
formants are different and they do not translate with pitch shift.

there is some alleged high end AI software that handles formants too.
doubt if it is worth pursuing for time and cost reasons.

i also wonder if kids voices don’t have a little wavering built in.
maybe a plug in to do that. add a touch. shift the pitch. might be good enough.

best i to get a real kid to record what you need.

The problem with voice pitch change is you can’t change everything. If a normal large man and a little girl both said the word “mom,” it wouldn’t be a stretch to figure out who was speaking, but if they both said “sss,” suddenly it’s much harder to tell. Sounds like plosives and SSS and shshsh don’t change from person to person, so the software has to change some vocal presentation and not others. Much more difficult.

Didn’t we find somebody making man/woman software? Let me check the notes.

Koz

We like to point out that Lauren Bacall’s voice was lower than Humphrey Bogart.

“You know how to whistle, don’t you?”
“You put your lips together…and blow.”

I’ve never been mistaken for a woman, I’m a bass, but I’ve played a woman for voice work. Get really close to the microphone and sound sultry and languid. The microphone spacing gives a sonic character change and everything else is trying to sound like Lauren Bacall.

Hey, Koz, who did you get to play Alicia?

I’m not allowed to say.

Koz

That’s the one.

Koz

but can you do a little girl ?
feels like there are fundamental differences between kids and grown ups that are harder to fake than between adults of different genders.

<<<but can you do a little girl ?>>>

There are people in the company who can do that, but I’m not one of them. This is the answer to only half of the poster’s question.

Koz

Thank you in advance for your input, but I already am familiar with those programs (except for the Vocal Imitation one); the bad thing is that they don’t run on my computer, an error shows up everytime I launch the program.

New question:
A friend of mine is using some advanced software (he didn’t let me know which one - didn’t ask to be honest). I am trying to make some ghostly effects. He told me that I should create several channels; the first channel should have the original sound file and the rest channels should be the “Sfx channels”. Now, how to create that? He also told me that there is a button somewhere (he didn’t know how to handle Audacity, that’s why he didn’t tell me the equivalent button on it), that kind of silences the original channel, but still lets you listen to the file; for my case, which supports sfx channels, he claimed that if I use that button, I will get the original file played through the sfx channels. So, I need to know what button can function like that in Audacity (button or option/setting) and how to create what he generally described.

<<<the “Sfx channels”. Now, how to create that? >>>

Did he have a delivery format in mind? It doesn’t matter how many special effects tracks you have if you can’t transfer a multi-track show out of the computer.

Track numbers over two (stereo) are not normal and special provisions must be made.

Koz

Well, to be honest I am not that experienced with sound editing, so I really don’t know what those words mean. I actually want to make an effect in my recording like the Lich King, from World of Warcraft PC game. Example is located here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2StG_QncKP0 . The first samples cannot define the way it’s made, because they are small in length. Try listening till the middle of the video maybe (I guess an experienced listener like you will get it right away though).

Reversed reverb (and forward reverb & echo) has been used.
For the reverse reverb effect: reverse the track, apply a little reverb, then reverse it back the right way around.
A before-after example is attached …

Thank you, Trebor, this is the way I thought it could be done, but, I’m sorry to say that your sample has nothing to do with the sample I provided. The Lich King’s voice is having an ethereal-like background. Yours sounds like some faded echo. It obviously needs more than that and this is what I’m looking for. :frowning:
Sorry, if I sound harsh, but honestly, compare your voice with Lich King’s voice.

I think Trebor was just trying to illustrate an idea.
The creators of Lich King’s voice probably spent months creating it, while Trebor probably spent about 10 minutes.

The Lich King’s voice also has a lot of synthesized sound mixed in, which have been modulated with the voice, pre-delayed and envelope shaped to blend with reverse reverb of the voice. To make an accurate replica would be a lot of work, but at least you’ve now got some suggestions of ways to approach the task.

I was just trying to illustrate the least obvious of the effects used: not everyone will think of reversing the track.

Like your friend said, (and I reiterated above), multiple layers of effects are required (but all the others are used forwards) …