Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Thomas, You are seriously a cool man! Both of us agree on these points. Contact info. email: muhamme...@googlemail.com msn: muhammed123...@hotmail.co.uk Skype: muhammed.deniz Klango username. muhammed - Original Message - From: shaun everiss shau...@xtra.co.nz To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 11:48 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts oh for the old days when even toshiba valued their laptops. it used to be decent yamaha opl2 opl3 fm and xg cards. now its soundmax and realtech. Hi, My thoughts exactly. I've never been a real big fan of the Real Tech sound cards. They are in my opinion cheap give away sound cards that all too often get stuck in laptops for no other reason than the manufacturer can buy them dirt cheap and pon them off on their customers. They definitely are not anywhere near the pro level sound cards I'm usually use to. On 3/22/10, Muhammed Deniz muhamme...@googlemail.com wrote: Real tech is crap! that's what I have. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Real tech is crap! that's what I have. Contact info. email: muhamme...@googlemail.com msn: muhammed123...@hotmail.co.uk Skype: muhammed.deniz Klango username. muhammed - Original Message - From: shaun everiss shau...@xtra.co.nz To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 4:01 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts aah. I always like to stay up to date. I have a realtech hd card but am not impressed with the stripped down card on my laptop. sure it is sounding real good for what it is but in games like sod I have to set everything off the card because it doesn't run everything well. In one part of teraformas sounds don't work well at all. I suspect that my card has reduced internal memmory. I have been brought up on yamaha, sb16 and other such cards. A basic card for me that looks good could be the soundmax, no fx but a built in eq makes up for that the realtech hd and the realtech ac97 are ok cards. I've heard about m audio, but hmmm. Its not like I can go fully pro though I am happy with the lack of buzz and hiss on my end. Still like the analog cards as they seem to run smoother. but enough of this I think. At 03:14 p.m. 22/03/2010, you wrote: Hi Shaun, I'm not really sure what sound cards are currently on top. Despite what I've said about Creative going down hill I know the Creative Labs Audigy 4 Pro is a pretty good sound card for games and music, and does have a lot of good reviews. In terms of other brands I've heard Asus has some good high-def sound cards, but have not any experience with them. Another brand that seams to be popular, but I don't have experience with, is M-Audio. HTH On 3/21/10, shaun everiss shau...@xtra.co.nz wrote: hmmm yeah I've never had anything more powerfull than a soundmax or some low end yamaha cards so something like that is semi top. So creative is not the top. what is, maybe roland or yamaha the yamaha synths are less sharp sounding than the roland stuff. although the later keyboards are ok. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi, My thoughts exactly. I've never been a real big fan of the Real Tech sound cards. They are in my opinion cheap give away sound cards that all too often get stuck in laptops for no other reason than the manufacturer can buy them dirt cheap and pon them off on their customers. They definitely are not anywhere near the pro level sound cards I'm usually use to. On 3/22/10, Muhammed Deniz muhamme...@googlemail.com wrote: Real tech is crap! that's what I have. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Plus ergo is rubbish, and if you want the best computer just get your own one built. I think Hp's should be perchesed or maybe a toshiba. Contact info. email: muhamme...@googlemail.com msn: muhammed123...@hotmail.co.uk Skype: muhammed.deniz Klango username. muhammed - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 8:47 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi, My thoughts exactly. I've never been a real big fan of the Real Tech sound cards. They are in my opinion cheap give away sound cards that all too often get stuck in laptops for no other reason than the manufacturer can buy them dirt cheap and pon them off on their customers. They definitely are not anywhere near the pro level sound cards I'm usually use to. On 3/22/10, Muhammed Deniz muhamme...@googlemail.com wrote: Real tech is crap! that's what I have. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
oh for the old days when even toshiba valued their laptops. it used to be decent yamaha opl2 opl3 fm and xg cards. now its soundmax and realtech. Hi, My thoughts exactly. I've never been a real big fan of the Real Tech sound cards. They are in my opinion cheap give away sound cards that all too often get stuck in laptops for no other reason than the manufacturer can buy them dirt cheap and pon them off on their customers. They definitely are not anywhere near the pro level sound cards I'm usually use to. On 3/22/10, Muhammed Deniz muhamme...@googlemail.com wrote: Real tech is crap! that's what I have. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
If I would of got the microphone fixed, then I would help you Philip for free. Contact info. email: muhamme...@googlemail.com msn: muhammed123...@hotmail.co.uk Skype: muhammed.deniz Klango username. muhammed - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:09 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Oh I tend to agree, but I guess it depends on how much extra you're willing to do. And seeing as how this wasn't even Thomas' project to begin with and the amount of trouble it's brought down on him in the four years he's been working on it it's definitely understandable why he just wants to get it out the door. But now that I think of it I don't think Thomas ever intended to use real human speech beyond what was necessary for Angela herself. I tend to agree that real human speech is more pleasing to hear, but I can't honestly say that I'll be able to do that when I start working on games. Sometimes it's not even a matter of being willing or unwilling but what you can and can't actually afford. Like I said, professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive so sometimes some people literally can't afford the extra money, even if they would prefer to use human speech. Thomas does after all have a wife and son to support. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:02 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, A valid point indeed, and one which I certainly considered before I decided to hire voice actors for all of my games; except for the parts I can do here in my own studio. I feel, however, that the chances of a purchase increase with every little detail of quality featured in the game - especially that of the main output voice, as that is what the user will hear possibly for hours on end. My filosophy is this, rather spend a little extra and get everything as good as it can possibly be as you then stand out above the rest, and are thus likely to get more sales in the end. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:56 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts I tend to agree with you Philip, but the problem is that professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive. The lady who does the actual Angela sound clips charged a considerable amount just for doing those clips. It would cost even more for actual speech of the sort you're thinking of. I agree it would sound more esthetically pleasing but it may not be financially feasible unless it could be absolutely guaranteed that Thomas would get his money's worth. And in our market that's not a guarantee. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Shaun, I'm not really sure what sound cards are currently on top. Despite what I've said about Creative going down hill I know the Creative Labs Audigy 4 Pro is a pretty good sound card for games and music, and does have a lot of good reviews. In terms of other brands I've heard Asus has some good high-def sound cards, but have not any experience with them. Another brand that seams to be popular, but I don't have experience with, is M-Audio. HTH On 3/21/10, shaun everiss shau...@xtra.co.nz wrote: hmmm yeah I've never had anything more powerfull than a soundmax or some low end yamaha cards so something like that is semi top. So creative is not the top. what is, maybe roland or yamaha the yamaha synths are less sharp sounding than the roland stuff. although the later keyboards are ok. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
aah. I always like to stay up to date. I have a realtech hd card but am not impressed with the stripped down card on my laptop. sure it is sounding real good for what it is but in games like sod I have to set everything off the card because it doesn't run everything well. In one part of teraformas sounds don't work well at all. I suspect that my card has reduced internal memmory. I have been brought up on yamaha, sb16 and other such cards. A basic card for me that looks good could be the soundmax, no fx but a built in eq makes up for that the realtech hd and the realtech ac97 are ok cards. I've heard about m audio, but hmmm. Its not like I can go fully pro though I am happy with the lack of buzz and hiss on my end. Still like the analog cards as they seem to run smoother. but enough of this I think. At 03:14 p.m. 22/03/2010, you wrote: Hi Shaun, I'm not really sure what sound cards are currently on top. Despite what I've said about Creative going down hill I know the Creative Labs Audigy 4 Pro is a pretty good sound card for games and music, and does have a lot of good reviews. In terms of other brands I've heard Asus has some good high-def sound cards, but have not any experience with them. Another brand that seams to be popular, but I don't have experience with, is M-Audio. HTH On 3/21/10, shaun everiss shau...@xtra.co.nz wrote: hmmm yeah I've never had anything more powerfull than a soundmax or some low end yamaha cards so something like that is semi top. So creative is not the top. what is, maybe roland or yamaha the yamaha synths are less sharp sounding than the roland stuff. although the later keyboards are ok. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Shaun, Not on your life. Close to pro my buttt. You got to be joking me right? First, of all the SB Live line of cards are old technology. Yesterday's technology, and now are considered one of Creative's low budget value sound cards. Definitely not the bleeding edge high end sound cards they use to be back in the late 90's or so. If you want to talk pro grade sound card something like the X-Fi would be more on the list of higher end cards for musicians and sound designers. Second, Creative Labs has been considerably falling behind in quality and standards, and if you pay for one of their high priced cards you are buying the name not the quality. I've had a number of their Audegy cards totally fail after a couple of months of use, and I have a friend who invested in an X-Fi only to find it was defective right out of the box, and had to exchange it for a replacement one that worked. So Creative is no longer the be all or end all of sound cards. Third, you do realise that a Del with a 2.8 GHZ processor is on the low end of processor speed and power these days? My Compaq laptop purchased two years ago has a 3.6 GHZ Intel processor in it, and even that is a bit slow compared to what I could purchase now. So it is not even remotely in the pro catagory you speak of. Cheers! On 3/20/10, shaun everiss shau...@xtra.co.nz wrote: well give it a few years and I may inheret a slow del 2.8 with a sb live in it. no idea how it came with one of those but thats close to pro right there. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
hmmm yeah I've never had anything more powerfull than a soundmax or some low end yamaha cards so something like that is semi top. So creative is not the top. what is, maybe roland or yamaha the yamaha synths are less sharp sounding than the roland stuff. although the later keyboards are ok. At 03:20 a.m. 21/03/2010, you wrote: Hi Shaun, Not on your life. Close to pro my buttt. You got to be joking me right? First, of all the SB Live line of cards are old technology. Yesterday's technology, and now are considered one of Creative's low budget value sound cards. Definitely not the bleeding edge high end sound cards they use to be back in the late 90's or so. If you want to talk pro grade sound card something like the X-Fi would be more on the list of higher end cards for musicians and sound designers. Second, Creative Labs has been considerably falling behind in quality and standards, and if you pay for one of their high priced cards you are buying the name not the quality. I've had a number of their Audegy cards totally fail after a couple of months of use, and I have a friend who invested in an X-Fi only to find it was defective right out of the box, and had to exchange it for a replacement one that worked. So Creative is no longer the be all or end all of sound cards. Third, you do realise that a Del with a 2.8 GHZ processor is on the low end of processor speed and power these days? My Compaq laptop purchased two years ago has a 3.6 GHZ Intel processor in it, and even that is a bit slow compared to what I could purchase now. So it is not even remotely in the pro catagory you speak of. Cheers! On 3/20/10, shaun everiss shau...@xtra.co.nz wrote: well give it a few years and I may inheret a slow del 2.8 with a sb live in it. no idea how it came with one of those but thats close to pro right there. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
I tend to agree with you Philip, but the problem is that professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive. The lady who does the actual Angela sound clips charged a considerable amount just for doing those clips. It would cost even more for actual speech of the sort you're thinking of. I agree it would sound more esthetically pleasing but it may not be financially feasible unless it could be absolutely guaranteed that Thomas would get his money's worth. And in our market that's not a guarantee. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Bryan, A valid point indeed, and one which I certainly considered before I decided to hire voice actors for all of my games; except for the parts I can do here in my own studio. I feel, however, that the chances of a purchase increase with every little detail of quality featured in the game - especially that of the main output voice, as that is what the user will hear possibly for hours on end. My filosophy is this, rather spend a little extra and get everything as good as it can possibly be as you then stand out above the rest, and are thus likely to get more sales in the end. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:56 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts I tend to agree with you Philip, but the problem is that professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive. The lady who does the actual Angela sound clips charged a considerable amount just for doing those clips. It would cost even more for actual speech of the sort you're thinking of. I agree it would sound more esthetically pleasing but it may not be financially feasible unless it could be absolutely guaranteed that Thomas would get his money's worth. And in our market that's not a guarantee. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Oh I tend to agree, but I guess it depends on how much extra you're willing to do. And seeing as how this wasn't even Thomas' project to begin with and the amount of trouble it's brought down on him in the four years he's been working on it it's definitely understandable why he just wants to get it out the door. But now that I think of it I don't think Thomas ever intended to use real human speech beyond what was necessary for Angela herself. I tend to agree that real human speech is more pleasing to hear, but I can't honestly say that I'll be able to do that when I start working on games. Sometimes it's not even a matter of being willing or unwilling but what you can and can't actually afford. Like I said, professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive so sometimes some people literally can't afford the extra money, even if they would prefer to use human speech. Thomas does after all have a wife and son to support. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:02 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, A valid point indeed, and one which I certainly considered before I decided to hire voice actors for all of my games; except for the parts I can do here in my own studio. I feel, however, that the chances of a purchase increase with every little detail of quality featured in the game - especially that of the main output voice, as that is what the user will hear possibly for hours on end. My filosophy is this, rather spend a little extra and get everything as good as it can possibly be as you then stand out above the rest, and are thus likely to get more sales in the end. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:56 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts I tend to agree with you Philip, but the problem is that professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive. The lady who does the actual Angela sound clips charged a considerable amount just for doing those clips. It would cost even more for actual speech of the sort you're thinking of. I agree it would sound more esthetically pleasing but it may not be financially feasible unless it could be absolutely guaranteed that Thomas would get his money's worth. And in our market that's not a guarantee. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Bryan, Again, these are all factors that must be taken into consideration. I do not know any of the underlying circumstances, I was refering merely to the game itself and the impact I think it would have on it. Then whether this is actually possible or not isn't for me to judge. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 11:09 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Oh I tend to agree, but I guess it depends on how much extra you're willing to do. And seeing as how this wasn't even Thomas' project to begin with and the amount of trouble it's brought down on him in the four years he's been working on it it's definitely understandable why he just wants to get it out the door. But now that I think of it I don't think Thomas ever intended to use real human speech beyond what was necessary for Angela herself. I tend to agree that real human speech is more pleasing to hear, but I can't honestly say that I'll be able to do that when I start working on games. Sometimes it's not even a matter of being willing or unwilling but what you can and can't actually afford. Like I said, professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive so sometimes some people literally can't afford the extra money, even if they would prefer to use human speech. Thomas does after all have a wife and son to support. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:02 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, A valid point indeed, and one which I certainly considered before I decided to hire voice actors for all of my games; except for the parts I can do here in my own studio. I feel, however, that the chances of a purchase increase with every little detail of quality featured in the game - especially that of the main output voice, as that is what the user will hear possibly for hours on end. My filosophy is this, rather spend a little extra and get everything as good as it can possibly be as you then stand out above the rest, and are thus likely to get more sales in the end. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:56 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts I tend to agree with you Philip, but the problem is that professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive. The lady who does the actual Angela sound clips charged a considerable amount just for doing those clips. It would cost even more for actual speech of the sort you're thinking of. I agree it would sound more esthetically pleasing but it may not be financially feasible unless it could be absolutely guaranteed that Thomas would get his money's worth. And in our market that's not a guarantee. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Oh I don't disagree with you. It's just that it's one thing for a guy with only himself and/or a furry little child to support to be able to afford to use professional voice talent in his projects and quie another for someone with a wife and kids to support. True Justin Daubenmire of BSC Games generally uses human speech but he usually uses his own voice or that of a close friend as I understand it. I don't know how often, if ever, that he's actually able to pay those who lend their voices to his titles. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:13 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, Again, these are all factors that must be taken into consideration. I do not know any of the underlying circumstances, I was refering merely to the game itself and the impact I think it would have on it. Then whether this is actually possible or not isn't for me to judge. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 11:09 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Oh I tend to agree, but I guess it depends on how much extra you're willing to do. And seeing as how this wasn't even Thomas' project to begin with and the amount of trouble it's brought down on him in the four years he's been working on it it's definitely understandable why he just wants to get it out the door. But now that I think of it I don't think Thomas ever intended to use real human speech beyond what was necessary for Angela herself. I tend to agree that real human speech is more pleasing to hear, but I can't honestly say that I'll be able to do that when I start working on games. Sometimes it's not even a matter of being willing or unwilling but what you can and can't actually afford. Like I said, professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive so sometimes some people literally can't afford the extra money, even if they would prefer to use human speech. Thomas does after all have a wife and son to support. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:02 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, A valid point indeed, and one which I certainly considered before I decided to hire voice actors for all of my games; except for the parts I can do here in my own studio. I feel, however, that the chances of a purchase increase with every little detail of quality featured in the game - especially that of the main output voice, as that is what the user will hear possibly for hours on end. My filosophy is this, rather spend a little extra and get everything as good as it can possibly be as you then stand out above the rest, and are thus likely to get more sales in the end. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:56 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts I tend to agree with you Philip, but the problem is that professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive. The lady who does the actual Angela sound clips charged a considerable amount just for doing those clips. It would cost even more for actual speech of the sort you're thinking of. I agree it would sound more esthetically pleasing but it may not be financially feasible unless it could be absolutely guaranteed that Thomas would get his money's worth. And in our market that's not a guarantee. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Philip, Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I've had two people interested in doing the voice work for the game, but both pulled out last minute and weren't able to do it. That's why we ended up with Acapela Heather.However, I really think when we near final production I'll look for someone else to do the voice overs. As far as your points about synthetic speech I definitely can't argue with that assessment. No matter how good the synthetic speech is it really lacks emotion and often makes mistakes. So yes I'm interested in a human voice actor myself, but having problems finding one who will see it through to the end. On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Bryan and Philip, I don't have the budget to pay people to record their voice for my games. So I ask for volunteers and give them credit in the instructions file. There are several blind people who volunteered for my Sarah game. Just think of all those people on ACB radio and other on-line radio sites who do radio shows for free. Then there are those who are doing podcasts on Blind Cool Tech right now. I am sure some of them would be willing to do recordings. I offer a free game registration to those who help me. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Thomas, I would suggest a website called www.voices.com. I have found some truly incredible actors and actresses on there, and they are not overly expensive. You simply post your job (usually with a word count and a script sample), or if the script is short you post the whole thing and then you will literally get hundreds of auditions within the first couple of days. You can then browse through these, listening to people actually reading your script and comparing their quotes, and finally you just pick up the phone and give the chosen person a buzz. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 11:58 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Philip, Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I've had two people interested in doing the voice work for the game, but both pulled out last minute and weren't able to do it. That's why we ended up with Acapela Heather.However, I really think when we near final production I'll look for someone else to do the voice overs. As far as your points about synthetic speech I definitely can't argue with that assessment. No matter how good the synthetic speech is it really lacks emotion and often makes mistakes. So yes I'm interested in a human voice actor myself, but having problems finding one who will see it through to the end. On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi, Didn't Justin use his wife's voice for Troopenum? I'm not sure about that, but whoever did the voice work did a darn good job of it. The young woman who did the voice overs for Troopenum sounds pretty hot, and she sounded very professional to boot. Definitely can't complain about that voice for the game. However, finding good professional voice talent is hard to find as you pointed out. The need time to record the voice overs, have to have the right voice for the job, and not expect much in return as payment. That's a pretty unlikely set of job descriptions, and is hard to come by. You pretty much have to have the money or know someone willing to do that sort of thing for free. On 3/19/10, Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net wrote: Oh I don't disagree with you. It's just that it's one thing for a guy with only himself and/or a furry little child to support to be able to afford to use professional voice talent in his projects and quie another for someone with a wife and kids to support. True Justin Daubenmire of BSC Games generally uses human speech but he usually uses his own voice or that of a close friend as I understand it. I don't know how often, if ever, that he's actually able to pay those who lend their voices to his titles. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Phil, I see your point, however my personal practise so far has been to pay people for their work but demand in return that anyone who does voice work for me has access to professional recording equipment. This way, I maintain a consisstant high quality standard in all of my productions, because the people with whom I have been in contact and have offered to do voice work for free have certainly been good actors some of them, but most if not all are using budget headset or internal microphones which I do not wish to use in the Blastbay titles. This, I think, is a matter of preference though and one should of course not exclude the other. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:01 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan and Philip, I don't have the budget to pay people to record their voice for my games. So I ask for volunteers and give them credit in the instructions file. There are several blind people who volunteered for my Sarah game. Just think of all those people on ACB radio and other on-line radio sites who do radio shows for free. Then there are those who are doing podcasts on Blind Cool Tech right now. I am sure some of them would be willing to do recordings. I offer a free game registration to those who help me. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Philip, Thanks for the info. I'll check it out. Cheers! On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Thomas, I would suggest a website called www.voices.com. I have found some truly incredible actors and actresses on there, and they are not overly expensive. You simply post your job (usually with a word count and a script sample), or if the script is short you post the whole thing and then you will literally get hundreds of auditions within the first couple of days. You can then browse through these, listening to people actually reading your script and comparing their quotes, and finally you just pick up the phone and give the chosen person a buzz. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
I've done three podcasts on BCT myself so I know what you mean. I was actually slated to do some voice work for BSC Games' Castle Quest before the project was scrapped. That would have been a volunteer job but it would have been a lot of fun. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 5:01 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan and Philip, I don't have the budget to pay people to record their voice for my games. So I ask for volunteers and give them credit in the instructions file. There are several blind people who volunteered for my Sarah game. Just think of all those people on ACB radio and other on-line radio sites who do radio shows for free. Then there are those who are doing podcasts on Blind Cool Tech right now. I am sure some of them would be willing to do recordings. I offer a free game registration to those who help me. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Philip, That's been my experience as well. Both of the young women who were originally going to help with MOTA, as far as voice acting goes, had decent voices and acting skills. The problem was they didn't have access to professional recording equipment, and I spent a lot of time trying to filter out background noise, hums, hisses, and crackles out of the recordings. Good voice talent, but budget recording equipment for the job. I'm not complaining, but it certainly would have helped if they had access to professional recording equipment too. I did, however, pay for the voice talent for Angela Carter and my sound files came in mint condition. Not a pop, hiss, crackle, or background hum to be found on the files. They were all 44100 KHZ 16 byt stereo and they sound like they just came off of a cd. Point is you get what you pay for, and for voice talent you almost always have to pay something to get that degree of professional quality voice work done. So I think if I do this at all I'll probably go the voice actor or actress too. On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Phil, I see your point, however my personal practise so far has been to pay people for their work but demand in return that anyone who does voice work for me has access to professional recording equipment. This way, I maintain a consisstant high quality standard in all of my productions, because the people with whom I have been in contact and have offered to do voice work for free have certainly been good actors some of them, but most if not all are using budget headset or internal microphones which I do not wish to use in the Blastbay titles. This, I think, is a matter of preference though and one should of course not exclude the other. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
He did use his wife for Troopanum 1.6 and then an English girl named Lea James I believe for Troopanum 2.0. Beyond that I notice he generally used his own voice for most of his games. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 5:08 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi, Didn't Justin use his wife's voice for Troopenum? I'm not sure about that, but whoever did the voice work did a darn good job of it. The young woman who did the voice overs for Troopenum sounds pretty hot, and she sounded very professional to boot. Definitely can't complain about that voice for the game. However, finding good professional voice talent is hard to find as you pointed out. The need time to record the voice overs, have to have the right voice for the job, and not expect much in return as payment. That's a pretty unlikely set of job descriptions, and is hard to come by. You pretty much have to have the money or know someone willing to do that sort of thing for free. On 3/19/10, Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net wrote: Oh I don't disagree with you. It's just that it's one thing for a guy with only himself and/or a furry little child to support to be able to afford to use professional voice talent in his projects and quie another for someone with a wife and kids to support. True Justin Daubenmire of BSC Games generally uses human speech but he usually uses his own voice or that of a close friend as I understand it. I don't know how often, if ever, that he's actually able to pay those who lend their voices to his titles. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Ah I see. So I doubt a Logitech USB microphone with Gold Wave would cut the cracker. That's what I use, not that I do much recording these days. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 5:11 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Phil, I see your point, however my personal practise so far has been to pay people for their work but demand in return that anyone who does voice work for me has access to professional recording equipment. This way, I maintain a consisstant high quality standard in all of my productions, because the people with whom I have been in contact and have offered to do voice work for free have certainly been good actors some of them, but most if not all are using budget headset or internal microphones which I do not wish to use in the Blastbay titles. This, I think, is a matter of preference though and one should of course not exclude the other. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:01 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan and Philip, I don't have the budget to pay people to record their voice for my games. So I ask for volunteers and give them credit in the instructions file. There are several blind people who volunteered for my Sarah game. Just think of all those people on ACB radio and other on-line radio sites who do radio shows for free. Then there are those who are doing podcasts on Blind Cool Tech right now. I am sure some of them would be willing to do recordings. I offer a free game registration to those who help me. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
On the voice acting front, I do wonder if people in the community can help. I myself am not a professional, but do have a fair amount of stage experience and my own recorder, and would be happy to do any voicing Tom, philip or others needed to further audio game developement, and wouldn't charge at all. As I said a while ago in my audeasy artical, it's in everyone's interest that games sound good, and this very much includes the players. Yes, this does mean contributing free talent to a commercial project, but unless the voice acting requirements were such that it took me a considderable amount of time to reccord, I really wouldn't mind that at all. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:02 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, A valid point indeed, and one which I certainly considered before I decided to hire voice actors for all of my games; except for the parts I can do here in my own studio. I feel, however, that the chances of a purchase increase with every little detail of quality featured in the game - especially that of the main output voice, as that is what the user will hear possibly for hours on end. My filosophy is this, rather spend a little extra and get everything as good as it can possibly be as you then stand out above the rest, and are thus likely to get more sales in the end. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:56 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts I tend to agree with you Philip, but the problem is that professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive. The lady who does the actual Angela sound clips charged a considerable amount just for doing those clips. It would cost even more for actual speech of the sort you're thinking of. I agree it would sound more esthetically pleasing but it may not be financially feasible unless it could be absolutely guaranteed that Thomas would get his money's worth. And in our market that's not a guarantee. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
As I said Tom, I'd be quite willing myself. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:58 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Philip, Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I've had two people interested in doing the voice work for the game, but both pulled out last minute and weren't able to do it. That's why we ended up with Acapela Heather.However, I really think when we near final production I'll look for someone else to do the voice overs. As far as your points about synthetic speech I definitely can't argue with that assessment. No matter how good the synthetic speech is it really lacks emotion and often makes mistakes. So yes I'm interested in a human voice actor myself, but having problems finding one who will see it through to the end. On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Bryan, That's right. That's what we call budget equipment. It is inexpensive semi-professional equipment good enough for a podcast or doing home recordings, but isn't up to professional recording standards. If you have ever listened to professional recordings of voice work they tend to be reallly really good. There is a major difference between a microphone that costs $500 and a budget microphone that costs maybe $25 like daylight and dark. There isn't any doubt which is the superior tool for the job. Unfortunately, most people don't have that kind of high quality recording equipment just laying around unless they do it professionally,or have really high standards for equipment. On 3/19/10, Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net wrote: Ah I see. So I doubt a Logitech USB microphone with Gold Wave would cut the cracker. That's what I use, not that I do much recording these days. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
I myself use an r09 with sterrio external mikes, though i can plug in a good quality mike if needed). Sinse this is also the machine I use for recording read articals for my research, I can confirm it tends to sound fairly good quality. My only issue is that it's a pain to use for podcasts and game reviews owing to the need to play on sterrio speakers. It's great for solo voice stuff though. In fact, I have already recorded some voice samples for a game using it which is intended to be a professional project (though I'll say no more here). Beware the grue! dark. - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 11:28 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Ah I see. So I doubt a Logitech USB microphone with Gold Wave would cut the cracker. That's what I use, not that I do much recording these days. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 5:11 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Phil, I see your point, however my personal practise so far has been to pay people for their work but demand in return that anyone who does voice work for me has access to professional recording equipment. This way, I maintain a consisstant high quality standard in all of my productions, because the people with whom I have been in contact and have offered to do voice work for free have certainly been good actors some of them, but most if not all are using budget headset or internal microphones which I do not wish to use in the Blastbay titles. This, I think, is a matter of preference though and one should of course not exclude the other. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:01 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan and Philip, I don't have the budget to pay people to record their voice for my games. So I ask for volunteers and give them credit in the instructions file. There are several blind people who volunteered for my Sarah game. Just think of all those people on ACB radio and other on-line radio sites who do radio shows for free. Then there are those who are doing podcasts on Blind Cool Tech right now. I am sure some of them would be willing to do recordings. I offer a free game registration to those who help me. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Needless to say this so-called budget equipment is what most people are likely to have. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 5:37 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, That's right. That's what we call budget equipment. It is inexpensive semi-professional equipment good enough for a podcast or doing home recordings, but isn't up to professional recording standards. If you have ever listened to professional recordings of voice work they tend to be reallly really good. There is a major difference between a microphone that costs $500 and a budget microphone that costs maybe $25 like daylight and dark. There isn't any doubt which is the superior tool for the job. Unfortunately, most people don't have that kind of high quality recording equipment just laying around unless they do it professionally,or have really high standards for equipment. On 3/19/10, Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net wrote: Ah I see. So I doubt a Logitech USB microphone with Gold Wave would cut the cracker. That's what I use, not that I do much recording these days. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Thomas, WhenI first started out with Pb-games and Pb Soundscape I also worked a lot with people who eere using 25, 50 and 75 dollar things, and no matter how good their acting skills were, it took a considerable amount of time to clean up the recordings and the result were seldom completely up to scratch anyway which just made for an impossible situation in the end. So with Blastbay I decided to simply not use recordings made with such gear at all, and go the professional equipment root all the way. I have set up a decent studio here at home that I use frequently in my gaming work and also in other audio productions that I do, and this has proven to be an invaluable asset. This way, I get top knotch audio for all of my newer games and never have to worry about using noise reduction, pop/click removal or any other such techniques. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:26 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Philip, That's been my experience as well. Both of the young women who were originally going to help with MOTA, as far as voice acting goes, had decent voices and acting skills. The problem was they didn't have access to professional recording equipment, and I spent a lot of time trying to filter out background noise, hums, hisses, and crackles out of the recordings. Good voice talent, but budget recording equipment for the job. I'm not complaining, but it certainly would have helped if they had access to professional recording equipment too. I did, however, pay for the voice talent for Angela Carter and my sound files came in mint condition. Not a pop, hiss, crackle, or background hum to be found on the files. They were all 44100 KHZ 16 byt stereo and they sound like they just came off of a cd. Point is you get what you pay for, and for voice talent you almost always have to pay something to get that degree of professional quality voice work done. So I think if I do this at all I'll probably go the voice actor or actress too. On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Phil, I see your point, however my personal practise so far has been to pay people for their work but demand in return that anyone who does voice work for me has access to professional recording equipment. This way, I maintain a consisstant high quality standard in all of my productions, because the people with whom I have been in contact and have offered to do voice work for free have certainly been good actors some of them, but most if not all are using budget headset or internal microphones which I do not wish to use in the Blastbay titles. This, I think, is a matter of preference though and one should of course not exclude the other. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Folks, I know that Bavisoft went to a local college acting class and asked them to do the recordings for Grisly Gulch. Most colleges have a recording studio if they have a radio station. When I was in New Jersey, I was able to use the Library for the Blind's recording studio for a few of my earlier games. They used it to broadcast a radio reading service in the 1990's. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Philip, Not only that, but if the game is one in an entire series of games each time you create a new game in the series you'll always have some of the necessary voice work on hand to get you started. The next game in the series won't cost as much as you probably won't have to record things like numbers, the main menu, etc. All of that will be done the first time round. All you will have to have done is any content that is unique or new to the game. As I'm an avid Tomb Raider fan I intend to create a series of Tomb Hunter games that have a number of quests or adventures featuring Angela Carter just as Tomb Raider has a number of adventures/quest with Lara Croft. Sooner or later the sounds, music, and any voice talent I pay for will get cheaper just because I'll have most of what I need already paid for during previous games in the series. On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Bryan, A valid point indeed, and one which I certainly considered before I decided to hire voice actors for all of my games; except for the parts I can do here in my own studio. I feel, however, that the chances of a purchase increase with every little detail of quality featured in the game - especially that of the main output voice, as that is what the user will hear possibly for hours on end. My filosophy is this, rather spend a little extra and get everything as good as it can possibly be as you then stand out above the rest, and are thus likely to get more sales in the end. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Philip, Been there done that. As you say it doesn't really work. Goldwave and Soundforge are great tools, but every time you edit a file using the handy sound filters you might get rid of the background noise you also lose some sound quality as well. What you end up with sounds almost as bad as what you started with if not somewhat worse like being too tinny, muffled, whatever. There really isn't a way to get a professional recording out of substandard equipment. I know that all too well. For example, many on here know in addition to a game developer I'm also something of a musician. I can play keyboard, guitar, and drums. Thing is though all of my gear is budget quality stuff. So even though I have the talent to record my own game music it wouldn't sound as good as a professional could do. I don't have the right gear for a professional recording, and I know it. Whenever I record my keyboard it sounds good from a budget home musician's point of view, but the sound faunts sound like crap compared to something a musician with a keyboard that costs 10 times more than mine. Got the talent, but not the tools. Cheers! On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Thomas, WhenI first started out with Pb-games and Pb Soundscape I also worked a lot with people who eere using 25, 50 and 75 dollar things, and no matter how good their acting skills were, it took a considerable amount of time to clean up the recordings and the result were seldom completely up to scratch anyway which just made for an impossible situation in the end. So with Blastbay I decided to simply not use recordings made with such gear at all, and go the professional equipment root all the way. I have set up a decent studio here at home that I use frequently in my gaming work and also in other audio productions that I do, and this has proven to be an invaluable asset. This way, I get top knotch audio for all of my newer games and never have to worry about using noise reduction, pop/click removal or any other such techniques. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Thomas, This is very true. This is why I decided to stop bothering with it at all and spend that little extra to get people with the proper equipment. Sometimes, very rarely, if I find an exceptionally good voice artist who lacks the gear I'll ask them to find a local studio in their area and book them into that. Often, however, people are offended because I cannot use their work even though I attempt to explain to them that I'm not unappreciative or ungreatful for their offer to record for free, but that the gear just doesn't cut it in the end. As for music, I do a bit of that myself and I get very good sounds out of my studio, but my talent is not yet up to the standard that I expect in my games and so I hire pros to do it instead. I write mostly orchestral and Scandinavian folk music, but only as a hobby. For the time being... Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 1:09 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Philip, Been there done that. As you say it doesn't really work. Goldwave and Soundforge are great tools, but every time you edit a file using the handy sound filters you might get rid of the background noise you also lose some sound quality as well. What you end up with sounds almost as bad as what you started with if not somewhat worse like being too tinny, muffled, whatever. There really isn't a way to get a professional recording out of substandard equipment. I know that all too well. For example, many on here know in addition to a game developer I'm also something of a musician. I can play keyboard, guitar, and drums. Thing is though all of my gear is budget quality stuff. So even though I have the talent to record my own game music it wouldn't sound as good as a professional could do. I don't have the right gear for a professional recording, and I know it. Whenever I record my keyboard it sounds good from a budget home musician's point of view, but the sound faunts sound like crap compared to something a musician with a keyboard that costs 10 times more than mine. Got the talent, but not the tools. Cheers! On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Thomas, WhenI first started out with Pb-games and Pb Soundscape I also worked a lot with people who eere using 25, 50 and 75 dollar things, and no matter how good their acting skills were, it took a considerable amount of time to clean up the recordings and the result were seldom completely up to scratch anyway which just made for an impossible situation in the end. So with Blastbay I decided to simply not use recordings made with such gear at all, and go the professional equipment root all the way. I have set up a decent studio here at home that I use frequently in my gaming work and also in other audio productions that I do, and this has proven to be an invaluable asset. This way, I get top knotch audio for all of my newer games and never have to worry about using noise reduction, pop/click removal or any other such techniques. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Would that be expensive for Thomas? What would be the return on his investment? Thanks. --- In God we trust. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 1:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Charles, It would cost a bit; that's for sure, but it would give the benefit of having a game that sounds a lot more professional and more pleasant to listen to for the user since a real human has ten times more emotion than a speech synthesizer. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:10 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Would that be expensive for Thomas? What would be the return on his investment? Thanks. --- In God we trust. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 1:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hello Thomas, now when we're talking about professional equipment, so check file that I've made from a VST synthesizer, which I have and the synth is called Nexus. To le about reFX then go to: www.refx.com Here are the audio sample: http://www.sendspace.com/file/qgy2ka Enjoy. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
And the tools! ain't! cheap! (grin) --- In God we trust. - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 7:09 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Philip, Been there done that. As you say it doesn't really work. Goldwave and Soundforge are great tools, but every time you edit a file using the handy sound filters you might get rid of the background noise you also lose some sound quality as well. What you end up with sounds almost as bad as what you started with if not somewhat worse like being too tinny, muffled, whatever. There really isn't a way to get a professional recording out of substandard equipment. I know that all too well. For example, many on here know in addition to a game developer I'm also something of a musician. I can play keyboard, guitar, and drums. Thing is though all of my gear is budget quality stuff. So even though I have the talent to record my own game music it wouldn't sound as good as a professional could do. I don't have the right gear for a professional recording, and I know it. Whenever I record my keyboard it sounds good from a budget home musician's point of view, but the sound faunts sound like crap compared to something a musician with a keyboard that costs 10 times more than mine. Got the talent, but not the tools. Cheers! On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Thomas, WhenI first started out with Pb-games and Pb Soundscape I also worked a lot with people who eere using 25, 50 and 75 dollar things, and no matter how good their acting skills were, it took a considerable amount of time to clean up the recordings and the result were seldom completely up to scratch anyway which just made for an impossible situation in the end. So with Blastbay I decided to simply not use recordings made with such gear at all, and go the professional equipment root all the way. I have set up a decent studio here at home that I use frequently in my gaming work and also in other audio productions that I do, and this has proven to be an invaluable asset. This way, I get top knotch audio for all of my newer games and never have to worry about using noise reduction, pop/click removal or any other such techniques. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
That's exactly my point. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 9:10 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Would that be expensive for Thomas? What would be the return on his investment? Thanks. --- In God we trust. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 1:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
well obviously I couldn't do any of the female voices but I could do other voice work free of charge. Usually even if I work for people I rarely do it for cash, getting free games, mp3s and other things usually food is all I care for cash only if it takes me somethingl like 3 weeks to do one little thing but not for a couple days job and sertainly if i really like it. At 11:58 p.m. 19/03/2010, you wrote: Hi Philip, Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I've had two people interested in doing the voice work for the game, but both pulled out last minute and weren't able to do it. That's why we ended up with Acapela Heather.However, I really think when we near final production I'll look for someone else to do the voice overs. As far as your points about synthetic speech I definitely can't argue with that assessment. No matter how good the synthetic speech is it really lacks emotion and often makes mistakes. So yes I'm interested in a human voice actor myself, but having problems finding one who will see it through to the end. On 3/19/10, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote: Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
well all I can record voices for anyone that wants em I have time. on the subject of voices any idea where jaffar has got to I know I have been selected to do recording for his video/audio game based on treasure island. I got things sent at him last year, got a notification in november that I was gona get on a private beta list but since then nothing. he is not even on msn I can't even send email at him, that is the email goes but nothing comes back. Not that I mind to much but if he has gone away well. At 12:01 a.m. 20/03/2010, you wrote: Hi Bryan and Philip, I don't have the budget to pay people to record their voice for my games. So I ask for volunteers and give them credit in the instructions file. There are several blind people who volunteered for my Sarah game. Just think of all those people on ACB radio and other on-line radio sites who do radio shows for free. Then there are those who are doing podcasts on Blind Cool Tech right now. I am sure some of them would be willing to do recordings. I offer a free game registration to those who help me. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
hmmm I do have good mics headset wise that have produced good audio but i am no wiz. I have a laptop with a hd audio card and not much else I don't have all the cool gear actually should I have had that I probably wouldn't be able to install it all here. my desk is quite full most of it with the drives I use for backup. and my speaker system but hmph. At 12:11 a.m. 20/03/2010, you wrote: Hi Phil, I see your point, however my personal practise so far has been to pay people for their work but demand in return that anyone who does voice work for me has access to professional recording equipment. This way, I maintain a consisstant high quality standard in all of my productions, because the people with whom I have been in contact and have offered to do voice work for free have certainly been good actors some of them, but most if not all are using budget headset or internal microphones which I do not wish to use in the Blastbay titles. This, I think, is a matter of preference though and one should of course not exclude the other. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:01 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan and Philip, I don't have the budget to pay people to record their voice for my games. So I ask for volunteers and give them credit in the instructions file. There are several blind people who volunteered for my Sarah game. Just think of all those people on ACB radio and other on-line radio sites who do radio shows for free. Then there are those who are doing podcasts on Blind Cool Tech right now. I am sure some of them would be willing to do recordings. I offer a free game registration to those who help me. Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
well I sertainly don't have a whole load of stuff. however I have a clear mic with no buzz. I have ok software I have audacity and someone gave me studio recorder which has a few nice things. I can sertainly fiddle with some audio but I also hate hiss. I have some smaller cheaper mics but they do not buzz at all. my laptop has almost no noise. At 12:33 a.m. 20/03/2010, you wrote: On the voice acting front, I do wonder if people in the community can help. I myself am not a professional, but do have a fair amount of stage experience and my own recorder, and would be happy to do any voicing Tom, philip or others needed to further audio game developement, and wouldn't charge at all. As I said a while ago in my audeasy artical, it's in everyone's interest that games sound good, and this very much includes the players. Yes, this does mean contributing free talent to a commercial project, but unless the voice acting requirements were such that it took me a considderable amount of time to reccord, I really wouldn't mind that at all. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:02 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, A valid point indeed, and one which I certainly considered before I decided to hire voice actors for all of my games; except for the parts I can do here in my own studio. I feel, however, that the chances of a purchase increase with every little detail of quality featured in the game - especially that of the main output voice, as that is what the user will hear possibly for hours on end. My filosophy is this, rather spend a little extra and get everything as good as it can possibly be as you then stand out above the rest, and are thus likely to get more sales in the end. Kind regards, Philip Bennefall - Original Message - From: Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:56 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts I tend to agree with you Philip, but the problem is that professional voice talent is hardly inexpensive. The lady who does the actual Angela sound clips charged a considerable amount just for doing those clips. It would cost even more for actual speech of the sort you're thinking of. I agree it would sound more esthetically pleasing but it may not be financially feasible unless it could be absolutely guaranteed that Thomas would get his money's worth. And in our market that's not a guarantee. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:21 AM Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
yeah I have a recorder which sounds real budget. at some point I may be able to pull a second desktop with a couple analog soundcards in which will work however. I have a good headphone set, about 200 bucks worth of that and a good field recorder also a good 40 buck headset mic combo which is ok for what it is. sertainly no noise on my end from anything. ofcause there is a phone in the room so. At 12:45 a.m. 20/03/2010, you wrote: Needless to say this so-called budget equipment is what most people are likely to have. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 5:37 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Bryan, That's right. That's what we call budget equipment. It is inexpensive semi-professional equipment good enough for a podcast or doing home recordings, but isn't up to professional recording standards. If you have ever listened to professional recordings of voice work they tend to be reallly really good. There is a major difference between a microphone that costs $500 and a budget microphone that costs maybe $25 like daylight and dark. There isn't any doubt which is the superior tool for the job. Unfortunately, most people don't have that kind of high quality recording equipment just laying around unless they do it professionally,or have really high standards for equipment. On 3/19/10, Bryan Peterson bpeterson2...@cableone.net wrote: Ah I see. So I doubt a Logitech USB microphone with Gold Wave would cut the cracker. That's what I use, not that I do much recording these days. Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza? Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi, Horrified! Neo Speak Paul? In Q9? Shutter! I have little enough tolerance for that voice as it is. Best Regards, Hayden -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Philip Bennefall Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 1:21 AM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: [Audyssey] Mota and tts Hi Thomas, I would like to make a small suggestion for Mota, if I may. I appreciate the convenience of using synthetic speech while the game is in intensive development (e.g. when you have a million things changing from day to day), but in my mind you make a much more professional impression on your end users if you use an actual voice talent in the final product. Since you are using concatenated audio files anyway, this would not be a difficult thing to do as it would just be a matter of replacing the tts version of each file with the real woman's voice. To me, this gives the game a much nicer atmosphere and an over-all nicer feel, as I personally tend to get rather irritated with the little glitches that are inevitably going to be present in every concatenated tts voice. When I say concatenated in this case I do not mean your game sound files but rather the way that the actual voice is constructed, there are hundreds of little chunks that they try to fit together to form the particular phrase in question and these engines are far from perfect. A real lady would be able to emphasise her words so that you really feel for what she is saying and can put it in teh context of the game so to speak, rather than the dry and unemotional tts voice equivalent. I guess what I'm trying to say is, in a game where the text is so dynamic so that a real human voice would be impossible such as Entombed I can put up with tts, but in a game like Mota I think it would be highly benefitial for the end product to use an actual voiceover artist. Again, you would only do these recordings when you feel that it's not very likely that the general set of words and phrases will change much. As an example, imagine Q9 with NeoSpeech Paul? Kind regards, Philip Bennefall --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
Hi Charles, You got that right. My keyboard is a $350 keyboard I purchased a couple of years ago, which sounds ok, but definitely isn't up to recording my own game music. A professional musician has an electric piano that costs somewhere in the range of $3000 to $5000, and has some truly awesome sound faunts. My little budget job doesn't even come close. On 3/19/10, Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net wrote: And the tools! ain't! cheap! (grin) --- In God we trust. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Mota and tts
well give it a few years and I may inheret a slow del 2.8 with a sb live in it. no idea how it came with one of those but thats close to pro right there. At 02:30 p.m. 20/03/2010, you wrote: Hi Charles, You got that right. My keyboard is a $350 keyboard I purchased a couple of years ago, which sounds ok, but definitely isn't up to recording my own game music. A professional musician has an electric piano that costs somewhere in the range of $3000 to $5000, and has some truly awesome sound faunts. My little budget job doesn't even come close. On 3/19/10, Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net wrote: And the tools! ain't! cheap! (grin) --- In God we trust. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
