Disguise a voice

[3D STEREO]

I am using Audacity 1.3.6 and would like to know how to disguise a voice on a .WAV file [not real time].

I have played with pitch and tempo changes but I am not satisfied with the results and the changes could probably be easily undone by someone.

I have heard that I could use ring modulator but I don't see it in the effects menu on 1.3.6.

[DoomMunky]

I'd like to hear more about this, too! I'd love to find an effect that will let me make a voice sound super deep, or scratchy and scary like the phone voice of the killer in the Scream movies. Anything like that out there?

[steve]

The ring modulator is a plug-in effect - look in the Audacity wki (link at top of page) and search for plug-in.

the changes could probably be easily undone by someone.

If you are planning a major criminal operation be aware that almost all voice scrambling methods can be reverse engineered. If this is just a "for fun" thing, then there are lots of effects that you can try, especially if you grab some of the plug-ins. Try several of them and see which you like best.

I'd love to find an effect that will let me make a voice sound super deep, or scratchy and scary

Try the "Change Pitch" effect - also the equalization. If you search this forum for "Telephone" there is a tutorial about emulating a telephone voice.

[3D STEREO]

What would I have to do to even approach changing the sex of the voice. Simple speed and pitch changes do not produce acceptable results. What is the difference between a male and female voice other than pitch?

[chaosbeing]

If this is possible, I would also be interested in learning how to change a male voice to a more feminine sounding one.

Like the above, just changing the pitch obviously doesn't produce very good results, though I'm sure there's probably a way.

[steve]

A bit of voice "acting" can go a long way. The voice of a skylark is higher than that of a crow, but no amount of pitch shifting alone will make a crow sound like a skylark.

[3D STEREO]

No reason not to agree with stevethefiddle. My limited experience with Audacity is that no amount of reverb or other effects can turn a bad voice or bad voice acting job into a good one.But, I was trying to replicate the Patrick Henry "give me liberty or give me death speech." I was pleased with a reverb effect that allowed me to change the room dimensions and other sound deadeners and relectors. it was like recreating history.

But we do have some interest on this subject so maybe us novices can use the opportunity to learn something. Can someone tell us novices, what is it besides a change in pitch and speed that prevents modifying a crow voice to a skylark voice. I guess that the only variable remaining is the harmonic under tones or over tones [not sure of the terminology].

[steve]

what is it besides a change in pitch and speed that prevents modifying a crow voice to a skylark voice.

With male/female voices, a large part of it is to do with resonance. The nose, throat and chest cavities are generally larger in a male, thus as the sounds are produced, tone will resonate within the head and body at lower frequencies. This is like the difference between playing the same note on a bassoon and on an oboe. Both instruments use similar mechanisms for producing the note (double reeds), but the bassoon is a much larger instrument, so resonates differently and sounds quite different.

Female (and child) vocal chords tend to be smaller and tighter than in the adult male, which also contribute to the different sound - I believe this is the primary reason that the pitch tends to be higher, though it will also effect the harmonic content to some extent.

To make a man's voice sound like a woman's voice, as well as changing the pitch, the man can consciously tighten their throat muscles a little, and control their mouth shape and control their breathing, to assist the transformation. Often a woman's spoken voice will have more tonal inflections than a man (more emotion?) so thinking about the way that the words come out will make a big difference.

[3D STEREO]

Thanks fo stevethefiddel we are done with the subject.

If anyone wants further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance

The child's swing mentioned in Wiki is a good basic example.