Trying to sound like a little girl

[Mr. Monroe]

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!

[steve]

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.

[Mr. Monroe]

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.

[whomper]

• 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.!

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.

[kozikowski]

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

[kozikowski]

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

[Trebor]

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

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 455#p30455

[kozikowski]

That's the one.

Koz

[whomper]

I've never been mistaken for a woman, I'm a bass, but I've played a woman for voice work.
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.

[kozikowski]

<<<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