MP3 Voice files> effects (which plugins?)

[triffidfood]

Sorry to post a really, really basic question, but if you don't ask you don't learn I guess?

I'm trying to use Audacity (1.2.6) to edit some MP3 audio/ voice files, from a pc game (for my own personal use, simply because I *hate* the voice acting in this particular game, it totally destroys any kind of immersion for me.)

Anyway, I don't really know anything about voice/ audio editing, and all my attempts so far have just produced distorted sounding 'voices', instead of simply different sounding, but still convincing voices. (Slightly altering pitch is the only thing I've found which seems to 'work' in any sense).

Please could someone help me out.... I've checked the wiki list of VST plugins for inspiration, but since I don't really know what I'm looking for, it kinda feels like I'm wading through treacle.

I basically want to make the voices still sound convincing (as voices-- i.e. organic sounding, clear), but give them a more exotic, alien (as in otherworldly) feel, and as much as poss. remove the very distinctive American accents they seem to have (not that I have anything against American accents, it's just that hearing them over & over again makes it feel as if the game is taking place somewhere in middle America, as opposed to on an alien world).

Anyway, sorry for such a basic question, thanks for any help.

[kozikowski]

The vocoder effect might work OK. Search for that plugin. That's the one that forces a human voice to sound like a guitar or other instrument. Because of the way it works, you may have to select two different audio tracks. I've never used the digital version of the effect.

You're stuck the the American accent.

It's really difficult to change one voice into another without trashing the result.

<<<There are a lot of vst and direct x plug-ins that work in all the pro and semi pro editing software. I have used a vocoder plugin to make me sound like a robot and a demon .>>>

Koz

[triffidfood]

Thanks, I'll give that a go!

You're right, it does seem to be really difficult to alter voice files without trashing them (i.e. without making them actually *sound* like distorted, processed files, as opposed to simply different sounding voice files).

Anyway, I'll try using vocoder & see if it helps.

Btw, since I'm looking to apply the same changes (once I've figured them out ) to several thousand MP3s, is it possible to use batch mode to do this?

I noticed the features section for 1.3 says:

Batch / CleanSpeech

Audacity has a new feature that allows you to process a bunch of files, for example normalizing and converting to MP3. The CleanSpeech mode provides a simplified interface for some standard adjustments typically made on speech recordings. You can access these features in the Batch tab of the Preferences dialog.

.. does this mean I can somehow apply vocoder (for example) settings to a whole pile of MP3s sequentially, or am I just being insanely optimistic now!?

[steve]

Unfortunately you can not use the vocoder in batch mode. But you can use the pitch change effect in batch mode (Audacity 1.3.5)

[triffidfood]

Unfortunately you can not use the vocoder in batch mode. But you can use the pitch change effect in batch mode (Audacity 1.3.5)

Actually, altering the pitch (carefully altering the pitch....) seems to be the best way of achieving what I'm trying to -- i.e. altering the sound without distorting it too much & completely wrecking it.

Thanks, I guess I'll update to 1.3.5. ...