Hi! I’m trying to convert some clips of people talking to make their words sound like noises, but hoping to keep their tones, like the teacher from Charlie Brown.
For Charlie Brown / Peanuts they recorded a guy with a trombone (i’ll find the video if anyone is interested - it’s great), but i’d like to use the tones of real people, but unrecogniseable, so not to be asked to take it down if used. I’ve tried out different effects- my best attempt was to use wah wah to take the edge of most of the treble (not undulating), but can’t recreate that again. I’ve also tried using bass and treble & the equaliser to isolate the lower frequencies, and remove the treble, and then putting it through low filters a few times, and then the high filter a few times, amplifying it a few times to make it audible again. I’ve come close to getting it so you can’t understand the words, but not been able to get rid of it enough to make it unrecogniseable. I also end up with the bass booming so it’s uncomfortable to listen to. I’ve included a small sample of how far i’ve got. (it’s the british number 1, david cameron). If anyone can think of good effects to use or ideas for settings i’d really appreciate it. I don’t want to waffle too much, but will clarify anything that isn’t clear, if that would help.
I’m making a music video for a friend, and would like to start with the audio of a few different tv programs to start it off.
Another thing i looked at to anonymise the voice was using Nyquist to get a weird reversed thing https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/remove-verbal-content-but-not-voice-qualities/33348/1 - i like it, but it sounds a bit too weird for what i want. I don’t mind the reversed effect, but the delay is too much. A teddy bear is listening to it so it doesn’t matter if it makes sense.
It’s a frequent request: “How do I make my voice sound like [option]?”
Frequently requested, not often solved.
I would type out the dialog in broad script form and have a trombone player perform it. I don’t know of any software method of reproducing that from filtering a single voice.
You can get some entertaining effects with the vocoder tool. That’s the Peter Frampton talking guitar thing.
The main “effects” are: 1) band-pass filter, 2) Compression, 3) Distortion (probably in that order).
Distortion can be achieved by using the Leveler effect on a strong setting (repeat the effect if necessary for a stronger effect.
A band pass filter can be created with the Equalization effect by cutting both low and high frequencies.
Hiya - thanks for your advice - i appreciate it. kozikowski - getting a trombone player would be cool but i was hoping to disguise the words of what was said, but making the person recognisable. I don’t think i’ve got that, but at least the words are unrecogniseable. (i’ve included clip of new part). Vocoder sounds great but would need some time playing with that! And cheers for the effects ideas steve and your clip - the hard limiter was real handy to removing the clarity of the words (mostly). what i’ve done sounds a bit harsh, but i’ll mess around a bit more. distortion was too hard for me, but band pass filters & equilization good (and the wah wah!)
it’s not finished product but what i used for the clip was:
wah (0, 0.1, 1, 1.8. 18)
another wah but less harsh
equaliser
hard limiter (-30.5, 0.5, 0)
equaliser
Added Bass
High pass filter x 2
wah again
(pressing buttons really)
thanks for your help
and the charlie brown teacher clip: (there are some nice parts where they crack up in the studio!)