Voicing the Voiceless

Question: Who will speak for those with no voice?

Answer: Lord Zorn, hopefully.


There are tentative plans in the works to record dialogue for some current in-game NPCs who, despite having much to say, never manage to generate an audible decible level in doing so. Think Brother Smyth.

Lord_Spike's buddy Lord Zorn is reportedly a fairly accomlished fellow at this sort of thing, and possesses the necessary gear to do high quality recordings.

What we need, initially, is a list of NPCs that are currently silent. Please submit any likely candidates here, and try to stick with a sensible priority level. For example, I think a good set of criteria would be a) NPCs who have a lot of lines, followed by b) NPCs who are sought out by parties in the opening vignettes of each alignment.

I don't know how adept Lord Zorn is at disgusing his voice, so there will probably be some limit to what can be done here, but this project is in its infancy anyway, so just throw out any ideas and suggestions and we'll see where we can take it from there.

And no, that pirate leader on the random encounter River Road map is not our first priority! :anger:


STATUS as of 07/01/2006

Voice Sets in The Can: Gremag, Clarisse, Black Jay, Rannos Davl, Kenter Nevets, Kent, Valden, Frank, Barkinar, Deggum, Gnoll Leader, Falrinth, Jade Empress, Pishella, Kella

Projected Voice Sets: Countess Tillahi, Sir Juffer, Tolub, Cavanaugh, Lord Viscount Wilfrick, Grud Squinteye, Preston Wertz, Madam Ophelia, Ogre Chief, Assassin

Voice Sets on Order: Mona, Ah Fong, Brother Smyth, Seleucas, Grank

 

Well, I have a puffy shirt...

May i twist this slightly and suggest (just for discussion) some of Allyx's new characters for Verbobonc? Or, characters that appear both there and in the original, if they are unvoiced (can Zorn do a strawberry-blonde beauty from the dungeons? :chick: ) That would help that mod have an integrated feel.

Just an idea

 

Very good idea, Ted. Axl - do you have any contenders in Verbo-Mod who span both it and the original material?

Also I'd like to make a nomination: Kenter Nevets. The guy's the friggin' town elder, after all.

As far as the vignettes go . . .

Lawful Good: Valden the Wainwright (sp?) - not voiced, I don't think
Lawful Neutral: Kenter Nevets (yay!) - not voiced
Lawful Evil: Turuko - voiced (I hate that set though)
Neutral Good: Terjon - voiced
True Neutral: Jaroo - voiced
Neutral Evil: Terjon - voiced
Chaotic Good: Black Jay - not voiced
Chaotic Neutral: "some local" (doesn't apply)
Chaotic Evil: Rannos Davil - not voiced

Watcha think?

Edit: Spike, could you get some input from Zorn as to how many different voices he thinks he could realistically do? I think there are already cases where one voice actor has done a few different ones, like the guy who voices Burne (also does a PC voice set or two, I think), so this isn't unprecedented.

 

Hmmm, I might be able to fix this by editing down his dialogue (removing "duhhhh"s and hiccups, etc.). Would you people prefer a non-staggering, plain-speaking Elmo or a non-staggering but still slurry-speeched Elmo?

Of course we'd also have to change the on-screen text to match his audible statements.

Another consideration in all of this is the fact that we're fattening up the DL size with each file we add, though mp3s aren't that large.

 

Yeah, I have a few candidates...

1) Jenna (from the temple)
2) Tinafer (renamed* from the temple)
3) Gleem, Chanda and Nybble (from the moathaouse)
4) Darlia (new character)
5) Lord Viscount Wilfrick
6,7 & 8) the shopmap traders
9) the Innkeeper
10) the travel agent (actually if Brad can give me my worldmap button I can delete him from Verbobonc)

*Tinafer was renamed for Verbobonc - I didn't see the need to keep the name for a bit part character when I can expand her role in the game (and keep it in line with additional info I found about the area), she still doesn't say much, but she does has a new quest.

 

I can provide modulation of sound files that would effectively change the pitch and register of anyone's voice. It would work for making someone sound like a giant or a demon (or SATAN!), but not for just making them sound like some other person. So I could do something to make Lady Zorn sound like a female druid masquerading as a female giant.

 

Ooooo could she do Moaning Myrtle for the dialogue of ummm Clarisse in DH? That'd be ironically ironic.

Also, Turuko has some gaps as well as an annoying voice, but personally I find it suits him to a 'T' (goes with the obnoxious picture / demeanor etc). Imho.

Otherwise, Black Jay and Rannos / Gremag sound like a good call. Spike, think u can do a crusty ol' Black Jay? "Git off my land, varmints!"

 

Thanks for weighing in, Zorn.

How about we do this, to start:

1. Get a sample of Lady Zorn doing Moaning Myrtle.
2. Get a sample of you doing Black Jay. Black Jay is one of two characters that have been mentioned twice in this thread, so if that's not a forum-wide 'edict,' I don't know what is.

Re: Black Jay, I don't know if you're familiar with these characters or not, but Lord_Spike could certainly fill you in as to the chips on their respective shoulders. Black Jay is an angst-filled guy. (Notice they don't call him 'Happy Yellow Jay.') In his case, as with most others, the dialogue lines already exist in text form in the game, so they would need to be reproduced verbatim. Maybe you could do a third sample where you improvise just to show us what you can do. As far as the specific dialogue for Black Jay, I can post it here later this evening if no one can retrieve a line or two before then. I agree we should start small just to test the waters.

Thanks for your input and your services! :dance:

Gaear

Edit: Technical question - would you be recording this audio to analog tape, digital raw data, Windows PCM Wave, MP3, or what specifically? I ask as I will likely be the final-stage mixdown engineer in this process.