Audio Editing or Voice changing software?
Feb 08, 2012
Hello everyone,
I am developing a number of courses, and I am the sole resource for our e-learning. Therefore, I am wearing many hats. I am narrating all of the courses,as I said, because I am the only resoursce. I would like to know if there is a way to edit my audio so I sound like another person or character? I don't want to speed up the audio and sound like a chipmunk, I was thinking along the lines of the software being able to change my voice to a man's voice or a character like Darth Vader or a futuristic character, I am not sure if there is audio editing software that will do it, or if I need to get a voice changer program and somehow record audio using the voice changer. Has anyone done this or does anyone know of audio editing software that does this?
Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Cyndi
19 Replies
I don't have an answer but wanted to say I am in the exact same boat. I told my HR Director that I think everyone is going to get sick of my voice because I do the voiceovers for all the courses I create and I am NOT a professional voice talent! haha..I am interested to see the responses here!
Free audio editor is Audacity. It has functions that will allow you to change your voice, such as pitich. Also there is MorphVox by Screamingbee (www.screamingbee.com). This program is set up to change your voice to that of a male, child, etc; however, this is not free but not very expensive.
I've seen a few people using this AV Voice Changer (http://www.audio4fun.com/voice-over.htm) you can find a bunch of examples on youtube. Looks like they have a trial, so you could try that.
This could work if your subject material is not to serious, or you know your audience will be receptive of these funny kinds of voices, while still retaining the info your trying to deliver.
When I think audio filters, I think T-pain and more recently, Rebecca Black. You know, Rebecca "It's Friday, Friday" Black.
Rebecca's secret? Autotune.
If there's anything that can boost engagement in corporate e-learning, it's autotune. Check out this quick (and pitch perfect) demo I put together:
Fire safety - Autotune style
Cynthia - AV Voice changer (via @David above) is supposed to work well. I think you'll still have some level of harmonic or robotic type element to them.
One option would be to do the characters yourself, changing your voice and then process using Audacity's pitch filters. Because you're a one-person shop, you can get away with the campy approach of doing voices and slightly modifying them.
Another option is to use something like xtranormal for audio only. The silly, animated characters probably carry the voice effect better than photo characters.
You guys are having WAY too much fun.
You could try inhaling a few helium filled balloons before recording
Joking aside, if you have access to multitrack recording software (I use Magix Samplitude at work, low cost, great features), it includes an effect called Elastic Audio, that allows you to change pitch and tune without too much of the "munchkin" effect :) You can also use a variety of free VST plugins to experiment with pitch?
Samplitude Link
David just made my day
David- that was awesome.
I recently recorded some scenario pieces with various (bad) accents. I don't know if it blew the learners' minds but it was great fun for me. The key is that it was short. I agree that it's harder to pull off for an entire course and definitely depends on the content.
I have so many more versions of this. I think I'll compile and post. There are some really fun autotune apps out there
Perhaps not what you're looking for, Gina, but have you thought about TTS (text to speech)...or do you require digitized rather than synthesized voices? I found some community threads about TTS, like this one: http://bit.ly/xcfUC3
Discussion there includes advantages, limitations, and a vendor that looks like it's reasonable and may not have licensing restrictions...although you'd have to delve in a little further than I have: http://www.panopreter.com/index.php
Good luck!
If you need another voice, send me a script and I'll do it for you cheap or even free.
Another good one is KeRovee:
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/rovee-by-g200kg
This is a VST effect that you can install in your VST folder (usually ProgramFiles/Steinberg/VSTplugins or there's a VST folder within the program files of your audio editor). It does a decent job with male to female conversions.
If you use Audacity, you can go into preferences and check a box to scan for new VST plug-ins on the next restart and it will be available from then on.
A free autotune/pitch correction plugin is GSnap: http://www.gvst.co.uk/gsnap.htm
There's a bunch of free VST effects out there but these are two of the best.
I could see the community setting up a "voice recording swap" - hm, I wonder if/how that might work (as per Dale's note above). For all those one person shops out there, it might be an idea (or even if you don't want to do it as the whole community, perhaps a few select voices in your voice pool).
I also wonder if you could find employees in your org that would want to do it for fun...
Holly, that could be a great idea. I know Andy's Narration Toolkit was a popular freebie a while back. Maybe we could expand on what he started?
I would be all for doing some narration for anyone. I like doing it as well as creating foley-style sound effects. Let me know if I can help!
Dale Hargis
Narration swap is an awesome idea, I'd do it in exchange for narration for my projects.
I'm up for it. Send me a script and I'll read it...
The current best text to speech software is Text Speaker. It has customizable pronunciation, reads anything on your screen, and it even has talking reminders. It is great for learning languages as it highlights the words as they are being read. The bundled voices are well priced and sound very human. Voices are available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and more. Easily converts blogs, email, e-books, and more to MP3 or for listening instantly.
Use people from your company. Write out the script. Give them some coaching. And away you go...
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