Hi everyone,
I need to make videos and need to make sure my voice can’t be recognised.
My audacity experience is extremely low but I come from IT background so, I hope to pickup quickly.
Not looking forward to dwell deep into quality and aesthetic stuff, just a good simple trick to make it safe for me should be enough.
All your help and support will be highly appreciated…
Regards,
Wajid
a good simple trick to make it safe for me should be enough.
No good simple or even difficult, ratty tricks. The only sure way around this is Printed Text Readers and simply have someone else read it behind you.
You would think distorting pitch and other voice qualities would work, but you also have to change timing, gaps and cadence. If you don’t, sooner or later somebody is going to recognize how you say certain words.
So, nice try.
No.
Koz
The only sure way around this is Printed Text Readers and simply have someone else read it behind you.
Even that’s going to fail if you like to use certain words and phrases. Somebody familiar with your writing style is going to catch on.
Koz
Hi,
I can’t use reader as a reader for my local language is not available at all. Someone else reading for me is pretty much unworkable.
However, I’m willing to make a written statement and then read it out so it would be sufficiently different from my normal phrasing.
I’m willing to give it a try if you can suggest some good way to change the tone/voice please…
Thanks 
You can try typing your text into an online service that speaks the text with different male or female synthesized voices and record that speech.
Or even try Windows Narrator.
See: Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Windows.
Gale
Someone else reading for me is pretty much unworkable.
Maybe not. There’s a trick where someone listens to your presentation in headphones and then repeats your words in their own voice a couple of words late.
It sounds like that would be absolutely impossible, but it’s actually remarkably easy to do. With a little practice, you can actually let your mind wander to what you’re going to have for dinner tonight.
If you’re a man, use a woman’s voice.
When you finish your new recording, use your video editor to lay it back into the video and time shift it to match your face.
You are going to run into the Uncanny Valley Hollywood problem. If you get really close but don’t hit it exactly, it looks and sounds unnatural and creepy.
You have to do something like this because I’ve seen too many “distorted voices” where someone figured out how the presenter did it and easily reversed the effect back to the original voice.
Koz
A second voice has the advantage of perfect, clear, undistorted voice. Just not yours.
Koz
Are we talking “military grade”, as in, will work for terrorists, blackmailers and kidnappers, or are we talking about “just for fun” grade, as in, not instantly recognised from casual listening? I doubt that we can legally or morally answer the former. For the latter, almost any effect will become fairly unrecognisable when pushed to extremes. Knock yourself out trying them.
Here’s the ones currently shipped with Audacity: Audacity Manual
and here’s a load of additional plug-in effects (see near the top of the page for installation instructions): Missing features - Audacity Support
Oli Arkin’s “autotalent” is good at mangling voices …
D#1.xml (1.65 KB)
But a computer-generated voice would be a much more reliable way of protecting ones identity.
So there we have it - lots of ideas for “just for fun” ways to disguise your voice, but no-one is going to take responsibility for whatever the consequences might be if your voice is recognised. I think that’s as far as we can go productively on this topic so I’m locking it now.