OK, here's some voices. I think I have a fairly neutral accent actually but in some of these it sounds plain American to me.

I've numbered them the same as the poll. This is just preliminary testing, so it could be another voice entirely. Get suggesting. My take is:

I think Captain Bill is the straight (no pun intended) guy of the group but I don't want to do a normal voice.


Aside from the voice style, what do you think of the quality. It sounds ok here, but there is abit of background hiss I'm unsure how to eliminate. Keep in mind these aren't in stereo. (Should they be Holmes?)
If you choose option 5 please say what you would like. Thanks.

I was set to vote for #1 with the suggestion of slowing down the dialogue to add in a little more age but I find I like #4 a lot.
I'd still suggest slowing down the dialogue with more deliberate enunciation. Capt Bill seems to me like a chap who is in no rush and that might translate to his dialogue as well. Young people tend to speak faster... I think.

I experimented with adjusting the pitch and speed of the dialogue in Audacity and never found anything worth posting here as an example. Slowing the dialogue down did seem to age your voice a bit however.

Concerning quality... I didn't notice any hissing... my ears are probably still ringing from other events of my day.
I'll listen again.

I like the Irish accent from #4.
I like the raspy quality of #3, but other than that, #3 actually sounds like an American pimp from the inner city
I like the pitch from #2, but not the "dopey" quality.

I also agree with Rodney about keeping the speed down ... and enunciate the words carefully. This is true for all characters, but especially for Bill. The only thing I can think of that might help with keeping the speed down is to take the time to relish the sound of each word as you are speaking it. Bill is in no hurry. He also seems pretty thoughtful, so he measures his words carefully.
And don't forget about his character profile! : http://pc.celtx.com/project/mReesaySX0iK/v...es/y8gga0A0t631

I guess my vote would be:
Irish accent from #4 (I love the Irish accent) with a slow and deliberate "old man" speech pattern.

Edit: Yes please do the final recording in stereo. CD quality.

I like 4 best, definitely sounds like a Cap'n Bill - I think even more Irish sounding, would be even more better! Doesn't sound stereotypic American gay at all.

3 was second but needed slowing down - you might hurt your vocal chords doing a whole movie like that. Almost sounded like Red Foxx (who was a raunchy black comic who I believe is now dead)

1 was ok - but needed slowing down, and did sound too normal, too young.

2 was: nope. nope. nope for Capn Bill, but mebbe ok for a dopey Pon

I didn't hear any hissing either. But I have old ears.

Voices should be recorded in mono.

Kiss that thar Blarney stone, lad ! Let your inner Irish run freeeee!!! Accents (Irish, German, Swedish, Chinese, etc) were very common at the time when the Oz stories were written, as most settlers, in the US, were new immigrants. (Maybe I'll do a Chinese witch. heh heh).

Nancy recommends recording voices in mono (not stereo).
Since I ain't exactly an expert in audio, and Nancy is the only one so far who sounds like she knows something about recording voices, I guess we should take her advice

I don' know nuthin' about birthin' no babies Miz Scarlett.

And I sure ain't no recording expert.

I was told by Bob Taylor to do mono when I did Yoop. If you think about it - both channels would be the same anyway.

Thanks guys. It's looking like number 4. I'll try and perfect it abit and slow it down. Though I did that clip fast because he was angry at Trot. I'm not sure how much acting I can do with slow constant words.

I think mono is recommended because if you need to make changes, you just make it on only one channel and then duplicate it.....I think. They're going into Audacity mono anyway. I'm not sure how to stereofy them.

# 4 but talk slower and more Irish if you can

#4 - slower and with a deeper more gravelly voice. He is a sea captain - an old salt. The fact that he wants Trot to get a better education tells of his own lack of education - but to have become a sea captain - he is no dope.....

Cheers

if you ask me a mixture of 3 and 4... the accent from 4 and the voice from 3... and hey, my first post in the SO-forum... i´m in

That's more or less what I did. Though my voice was killing me after. Welcome to the production area!

If I might make a suggestion maybe video tape your self acting the scene out as you think it should be animated. Maybe over act it out a bit see animation needs to be push more than real life to look better. This would do a couple of things that would help us.

1) It would give us something we can edit together and see if when joined together looks good.

2) It would slow your talking down by having you do some body motion head turns and hand acting during your dialog. From your tests I fear I am going to have little time to animate anything other than lip sync.

3) It would show the animator what you want to see which if we do #1 means we get animation that will look good once joined togther.

Just my opinion does anyone have any thoughts on this?