Below are two different people doing the voiceover narration for the beginning of Episode 1 (this is the character of Zero, the main character of the show). The first is the original voice, the second is someone new, someone I personally prefer, but perhaps telling you that will bias you. Now the second voice was recorded on the fly today, so things like inflection weren't really touched on, so take that into consideration. I have yet to talk with Chris about this, but I figured I'd throw it up on here, and see what you guys think. The character of Zero is someone who is a strong, confident leader, and is respected by his crew. He also has his emotional side, hidden to all, but still there. Take a listen and tell me what you think, first, or second?

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

The first sounds like he has fallen into a deep well. The second has a nice, deeper voice suited to narration, less deep well sounding but too mush Hisssssss on the s's (it's almost as if he has a lisp)

Cheers

yeah, i picked that up on his S's, I'd also have to get him to work on his sentence structure a little, just how he pauses, but like I said, that was recorded on the fly. And I may have posted the one that was heavily modified for the first voice, so I'll find the purer one

this one has more ambient noise, but a purer voice

Click to view attachment

I think you definitely need a drier audio recording environment (unless the reverb was something you added intentionally).

First voice sounds like an audio book reading. the second sounds more like a character.

They both have some diction trouble, the second more so than the first. they will both need to speak more clearly.

Robcat's analysis is spot on. The reverb/delay/echo actually gets in the way of the drama of the vocal performance. I would suggest that you wring every nuance out of the vocal performance completely dry, then add the barest micro touch of reverb to get the best delivery.

Yeah

the reverb is intentional, it's sort of like what they did to Bill Shatners voice for the narration of ST:TIS (that was the inspirartion for the spacey narration bit) And yeah, I agree completely about the diction. The second voice was recorded at work in the staff room, and I kind of through it upon him, asked if he wanted a shot and he said ok I only used the laptop mic, but should Chris choose him, I would most definitely work his voice and how he speaks.

They all sound like their reading to be honest. The second less so. But this is supposed to be an inspirational speech from the heart. Maybe they should learn the lines rather than read them? Needs more pauses and a gradual build to a crescendo.

well, the second one has big pauses, but the timing fits at least. But I agree, the second one (Nathan) needs work on his inflection. His sentences tend to trail downwards, and they need to go upwards. But if Chris chooses him, then I'm most definitely re-recording it with better equipment of course, and with more then 3 tries!

Let's hope he doesn't confuse his then's with his than's too!

sorry bout that, I'm usually very good at picking those up. Must have just got caught up in th moment of typing (I'm bad at typing so more focus goes to hitting the keys then spelling )

You need to record the audio without the reverb effect. Once you have the audio you like with the high, mid and low range correct, then you may add the reverb effect.

Make sure your mic also has a wind screen in front of it.

If you want , send me the voice script and I will do a test on protools.

eek, this is beginning to get misconstrued. Think of it as an audition. Nathan never saw the script before yesterday and we recorded it at work with the built in mic on my laptop. The reverb is added AFTER THE FACT!! I do wish to not repeat that one more time But yeah, it was simply so that Chris could here what Nathan sounded like and I'll be hearing his final verdict tomorrow. If he chooses that we use Nathan, I will be recording all of the lines with him, using much better equipment and a more soundproof area. Something that will need to be remembered is we do not have access to real actors, so we use our friends and people we know. Nathan for instance has had no theatre or vocal training (fortunately I have so I can coach him a little). ELZ will be a project of using the resources we have at our disposal, so don't have your expectations set too high. But enough of that negative stuff, I appreciate the input, but like I said, this was a quick run we did on our break.

OK, outside of the I think the reverb is too much, Nathan has a good voice but he speaks way too fast. I liked the one that has a more ambient noise, but a purer voice.

here's Nathan with no reverb. I agree about his speed, but for it being the first time he ever saw the script, he did all right, nothing like final, no where near. But yeah, here's his natural voice:

Click to view attachment

If your only 2 choices are Nathan and the original voice, then Nathan's voice is my choice. (Remember to slow his voice down...)

yeah, will do. his first attempt was ridiculously fast, you would think a bullet had whizzed past when he first said it

Nathan2 works for me,
in photography you can use a tissue to soften the flash, is it possible to soften the sound before you ad the effect?

i dunno, i'll have to look around. it's mostly his S's that are shrill isn't it? Funny thing is he doesn't have that shrillness in real life, so I don't know if it's the mic or what. It is a bad mic, just one of those built in ones. I'll have to try with my good mic when I see him next.

You need to place a wind screen in front of the mic. that should help with the SHSHSHSHHH...

that's what my built in mic looks like. I don't exactly know ho to put a wind filter on that

But no, for real recordings, i use an external mic with a windfilter, I just didn't have it with me when I recorded at work on break.

Click to view attachment

Hey Darkwing, don't worry, your laptop is a great way to test your voice recordings.... If you can get a USB mic and a wind screen you could then test to see if your subjects will pass your audio test.

But your current way is still fine, you are doing a great job, so don't worry about your audio test and spend your precious time animation....

Keep up the great work.

yeah, i have a USB mic with a wind filter. Well, I have several different mics, but the USB one is my preferred, though I'd like a snowball mic, but those are 100 dollars, so that's not in the near future

Darkwing, I know it's kinda late in the process to bring this up, but, do you know any drama students that you might audition for these voice characters? They would already have some of the voice training and understanding of enunciation, inflection etc. that you need, and would probably like to add something like this to their resume.

well, the thing with being in my position, is all the drama kids I know, ran off to university and I haven't heard from them since graduation. I was one of the drama kids, so I'll just have to put my knowledge to use and help direct and teach our voice actors as much as I possibly can. Something my film teacher said is that a good actor is only half the acting job, a good director makes up the rest. I imagine episode 1 will be shakey at best. It's the first one and we're all inexperienced. As time goes on however, things should improve (and if they don't, I'd better do a massive review on what's not going on right!) Once the complete Episode 1 is out, I will create a section on the ELZ forum for those both involved and not involved, to critique the episode and see where we should focus our growth on. It'll be brutal and a massive blow to everyone's ego, but it must be done, and like my Art teacher said, ego gets in the way of art.

well, unfortunately Chris has decided against Nathan and will still be playing the part, so voice number one is the one playing zero

They both sound too young for the role - Zero looks to be in his mid to late 20's or early 30's... from your shots and test animations he's a little battle worn... been around to see some horrific things... etc... And neither have "acted" the dialogue. They're readers. Just my opinion.

Think of it this way, can you imagine Ben Affleck as Zero (which I think is on the border of being too young) or Robert Pattinson (Twilight)... that's the voice range the two readers you provided. They're great, don't get me wrong... just not what I expected to hear when I see Zero.

Rob

Yeah, I know, but up to this point, this has been a project of using what we've had at our disposal, which isn't much.

we may finally, after all these months have our part of Captain Zero cast! Nathan is going to end up being one of the main villains (The Progenitor) and I'm waiting final confirmation, but we will most likely have a fellow by the name of Blake Brown doing the part of Zero.

do mind however that most of the people working on this are not actors, but we'll do our best, though I may be fortunate enough to have some drama kids enlisted on this crazy crusade! Stay Tuned!