Audacity Forum

I'm recording several voices for a project on the same mic, in the same location (my recording booth in my closet), and I'm wondering if there's a good way to make it sound like they were recorded in different locations.

I'm making a faux movie trailer, and want to have several character voices and an announcer-type ("in a world!"), but really don't want them to all sound the same. Other than varying my distance from the mic and the different levels of energy you use to record different types of voices (much more intimate, close to the mic for announcers, further away, more 'real' for characters) are there any basic effects I can use to set the voices apart? I really don't want them all to sound like they were recorded in the same room, even though they are!

Thanks!

<<<are there any basic effects I can use to set the voices apart? >>>

That's two questions.

How do I change the environment? That's a snap. Add echo or reverb and background sound effects--Jungle Sounds, New York Traffic Sounds, Airplane Sounds etc. See: Stan Freberg.

How do I make myself sound like fifteen different people? The short answer is you don't. There are software packages that let you change the basic character of a voice, but they're not usually free. You can mess with the equalizer and similar tools, but you can only go so far without either sucking the personality out of your voice, or sounding like you're sick. You also only have a limited ability to change the pitch of your voice before it starts sounding like a bad MP3.

You can do amazing things with microphone placement. I had a microphone that had extreme proximity effect and I played both the "In A World..." man and the female lead.

For the female, I got high and breathy and really close to the microphone. The ribbon inside the microphone did the rest. I did my Lauren Bacall.

Koz