Character Voice Tutorials

Right, here we are then, I'm gonna put up a few tutorials for people here on how I go about doing some of the voices that are used in maps. If you can suggest one or write one yourself, please do and I'll add it to this post.

I use Cool Edit Pro 2.0 for all my sound processing, so if I use effects that your editor doesn't have, don't worry, just find a substitute, getting something that sounds good is all about experimenting anyway.

HUMAN
Probably going to be the most easy one isn't it, lets be honest
Performance - I usually deliver the lines with a British accent, but that's got more to do with the fact that I am British than anything else. I think as a rule people expect British accents in games with a fantasy/dark age setting.
Post Production - Not much to do to it really, if you think your voice is a little high pitched, you might want to consider lowering it a bit with some pitch shifting, but it's not essential

ORC
Ah, the good 'ole orc is a tough one to do, imitation is usually the best way to get the hang of it. Pick a line from one of the Warcraft games and try and imitate it.
Performance - This it tough to explain how I do it. First, try and make your voice more gravelly, talk more in the back of your throat (like Kermit the Frog sort of, but deeper of course!). Make the pitch of your voice modulate more than it naturally would, almost as if your voice is breaking in places, that usually works well. American Accents tend to be used in the Warcraft universe for orcs.
Post Production - Pitch shift the voice down so that it sounds lower and more beastial. Apart from that, it should be good to go.

ELF
Night elves and High Elves sound pretty similar, I shouldn't worry too much about making massive differences between the two. I'm basing the model off the Elven Rangers from Warcraft II, my favourite Elf voice.
Performance - The lines should be delivered with a certain subtlety, a dreamlike fluidness. The accent is american and the pronouciation is very clear and crisp.
Post Production - None is required, I'd avoid pitching up or down for Elves, they tend to have higher pitched voices than humans, but not sqeeky voices like gnomes.

TROLL
I nearly fell out with Blizzard when I heard the troll voices in WC3, they were a little too Jamaican for my taste, not as subtle as the ones from WC2, which is an oppinion that seems to be shared with quite a few people who are working on mods involving our axe-flinging friends.
Performance - Well, it's got to have a slight Jamaican twinge of course, but the really imporant thing to get across is the evilness. I'd avoid dropping every 'th' sound for a 'd', it just gets tired after a while. Really over pronouce your 'oo' and 'ee' sounds though, that tends to work well
Post Production - Right, these guys can benifit from quite a few effects. Use some pitch shift first to lower the pitch, then I think it sounds good if you add a little bit of chorus to it, just the smallest amount. This makes it sound like the original WC2 troll voices did, something otherworldly about them.

DWARF
These guys are great, one of the funnest ones to voice.
Performance - Well, these guys typically have rough voices, what with them living underground and all. They've usually got Scottish accents and sometimes Welch ones too, either works really. Just muck about with them, see what you think is working best for you.
Post Production - These guys really benifit from a bit of a pitch shift and I'd always put some on their voices. That's really all they'll need.

UNDEAD
This is a very broad thing to cover, there's a lot of different types of undead unit, you'll just have to play about with it to get what you want really, but this might be a good starting point.
Performance - The voice should come from the back of the throat and be very rough. It's usually delivered in a sort of whisper, with a lot of emphesis on the 's' in the words.
Post Production - A nice little thing to add to undead voices is a little reverb, just to enhance that detached, dead feeling. Use it in moderation though, otherwise it will sound as though you have a zombie in a bathroom

GNOME
I have never actually voiced a gnome, but I'll give you what I think is a fairly solid way of doing the voice.
Performance - Well, naturally you'll need to speak a lot higher than usual, and try and deliver the lines with a little quirkyness, gnomes tend to fluxuate the pitch at which they speak frequently.
Post Production - You could pitch shift up a little to make the voice sqeekier, that's the only advice I can give.

GOBLIN
These guys voices have undergone a bit of a change since WC2, they're no longer sqeeky and high pitched, but have low, gruff voices. I'm not gonna argue this one, Blizzard have won, I submit. DAMN YOU!!!
Performance - Just deliver the lines in a nice, sleazy low voice, don't worry about pronoucing every single letter perfectly, just keep it loosy-goosey. Another trick that you might like to use is to hold your nose while you're delivering the lines, it seems to make it a little more goblinesque.
Post Production - If you don't think that your voice is low enough, try using a bit of pitch shift. Noticing a pattern with these post production sections yet :P

DEAMON
Right, these guys can be really fun to do, but rely on you having some decent filters you can put over the voice.
Performance - Basically however you want it to be, a lot of snarling never goes amiss and a whole heap of evil.
Post Production - You've guessed it - I'm gonna advise using pitch shift again. You can either make the voice higher or lower, whichever you prefer, just as long as it sounds unnatural. Now, a few effects that I use on deamon voices are reverb, multitap delay and chorus. You can really go to town with all of these, make it sound very unnatural.

OGRE
These guys are fun to voice and easy to achieve if you know how to do it.
Performance - You've got to deliver the lines in a simple way, slowly and in broken english. Try and get your tongue to fill your mouth, lay it flat against the bottom, pushing the tip against the back of your lower teeth and then arch it so it fills your mouth, that will make it sound good.
Post Production - pitch shift the voice down so it sounds low, and then you can always use some chorus to make it sound like there are two voices - the two heads of the ogre. most chorus filters will give you an option of selecting how many voices there will be.

TAURON
I've never voiced a Tauron before, but I think I know how I would do it.
Performance - Make it slow and regal, in a deep voice. Keep your lips and tongue as rigid as possible, it makes you annouciate in a different sort of way. It might work for you, it's a bit hit and miss.
Post Production - I can't really suggest anything for this other than the usual pitch shift, though you might want to use some bass boost to make it sound as if the voice has come from a large animal.

I'll add some more later, when I've done some research on them

Thanks, I hope this helped someone

Challis

On the subject of trolls. The darkspear tribe (from the islands) are obviously more inspired by West Indies culture than the other trolls. Wc2 trolls were jungle trolls. So, its not like ALL Warcraft trolls are Jamaican.

Nerubian, Naga, Pandaren.

yeah, that's true. I just happen to prefur the Azerothian Forest Troll voice, you've just gotta select a voice that's most befitting the unit/character you've created.

I'll try and incude those voices, there's some good ones there, I'll have to play about with some filters to see if I can get a good naga sound

Hope thisll help me :) always needed something like this, thx.

Great tutorial, hope to soon see the "ogre" one you are planning on doing :)

Hmm...Challis did you delete my post describing Naga and other race voices or was it deleted in the downtime?

I got the impression wc2 trolls were forest trolls.

Good tips though.

Its weird to explain but for undead, I always though to use the tips you said, but it be said in a smug evil/grinning sort of way, if that makes any sense.

Wow, and they are for Cool Edit Pro 2. Awsome! Thanks dude!

~Daelin

Your posts must have been lost in the downtime, I didn't delete them, sorry KingGigli

Alright, Ill post them again later today.

Awesome, this'll help me for my carreer . some of these kind of voices (undead, daemon, goblin...) are easy to me, but it's much helpful anyway.

+rep

Hey, here's a reply to a guy who PM'd me about doing a cryp-fiend style voice (I forget what their actual race is called)

I do use Adobe Audition, yeah, and most of the stuff I'm gonna list here is stuff I know you can do in that, not sure about other programs.

First of, try and do a kinda rough, whispery kinda voice when you record it in, that'll really help.

Now, there is one of two ways to treat the voice, I'd suggest trying both and seeing which turns out better results:

1. make two copies of the recorded voice and pitch shift one of them down quite dramatically. Then, place both of them in a mix and seperate them slightly (like 0.2 of a second or something) so that the higher voice kicks in just after the lower one. Mix this file down and bang some heavy reverb on the mother.

2. Use a chorus filter on it, make sure there are only two voices but the difference between them is dramatic. You could experiment with more than 2 voices, just play about until you get something that sounds the way you want it to. Again, add a bunch of reverb to it to give it that creepy feel.

Method 2 will take less time, so try that one first I guess. I hope this helped, and good luck with the V.O's

Challis