special effects

[DrDebH]

To begin with I am not a techie. I'm making an audio book and I recorded someone who I would like to sound as if a character in the book is remembering this other person's words. I found a special effect called vocoder which I'd like to try. However, I already recorded the person in mono and this effect requires stereo. Is there a way to convert mono to stereo? Thank you.

[steve]

You might like to first try this "Easy Vocoder" effect: http://forum.audacityteam.org/download/file.php?id=3421

If that does not produce the effect that you want, instructions for the other vocoder are here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Effect_Menu#vocoder
As you currently have a mono track, miss out steps 1 and 2 and instead use "Tracks menu > Add New > Audio Track" to create an empty track for generating the white noise into.

[DrDebH]

Thanks for your quick answer, Steve. I downloaded Easy VoCoder (I'm not one to search for the tough way to do things but I didn't see that effect listed under effects. (I thought it would just appear there once it was neatly placed in the audacity folder). I tried clicking it and it didn't open. How would I use it, then?

[steve]

To install the plug-in you need to put it into the Audacity Plug-ins folder, then restart Audacity.

[DrDebH]

well, that was interesting.....
I moved the item to the plug in folder and there it was on the Effects menu. So I (smartly) made a copy of the original and proceeded to apply this. I'm not quite sure it's the sound I'm looking for. It had a kind of tinny sound. Interesting, though. What I wanted was more of a hollow, echo-y sound, the way the movies does it when someone is remembering if I'm being clear.
Well, I can try the other method and see if the sound is different.....

[steve]

"Interesting", yes indeed
I thought that it might not be the effect you were after, but there's really no way that I could describe that effect without you hearing it yourself.

Perhaps an "Echo" type effect (see Echo in the Effect menu), or perhaps a "Reverb" (there's a simple reverb effect here: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 42&t=59168

There's also a shed load of other effects here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Nyqui ... t_Plug-ins

What I wanted was more of a hollow, echo-y sound, the way the movies does it when someone is remembering

Perhaps you could find an example on a YouTube video and post a link - we may be able to identify the effects used.

[DrDebH]

Well, the good part is I am learning a little about the program...very interesting. and I thank you. However, I don't really want this sound. I'm afraid the spoken words will be hard to understand with this effect. Do you have any other ideas?

[steve]

Do you have any other ideas?

See my previous post - I guess you must have missed it when writing your last reply.

[DrDebH]

I can't think of a particular movie. I tried echo on the Effects menu yesterday and it echoed too much. The best way i can describe what I'm looking for is the other day I recorded one of the readers and forgot to plug in the external mic. It had that distant, slightly distorted sound. It was still clear enough to hear the words. I should have done that when I recorded the particular actor I was doing but I was afraid to, afraid it wouldn't be intelligible. I should I have done it both ways. too late. Any ideas?

[steve]

Try the reverb effect.