Getting "pro-V/O" out of reasonable reads??? -Sound Forge - PC

Subject:Getting "pro-V/O" out of reasonable reads??? Posted by: munkittrick Date:10/22/2002 11:01:14 AM Hi all. I have got a dependable pro V/O guy who has a very good read, but his pitch is irritatingly higher pitched than necessary to sound "professional" for the client at hand. He's got great inflection, extremely good varriables across his range and a decent level of "vocal range"...except in the lower octaves. I've tried dropping the pitch incrementally to get the effect, but it just sounds pitch-enhanced, or pitch-reduced in this particular case. Is there a plugin designed to drop pitch without dropping the quality of the original track or adding additional coloration, and if so, what is it? Michael
Subject:RE: Getting Reply by: Iacobus Date:10/22/2002 12:58:48 PM Have you tried Effects>Pitch>Shift on the menu bar? HTH, Iacobus
Subject:RE: yep... Reply by: munkittrick Date:10/23/2002 10:19:22 AM Actually, that was why I was asking for a plugin that could do a better job. I have tried to drop the pitch in numerous different ways, but when doing so, it almost always goes just over the edge when it begins to ge the right pitch. Is there anyone who might know of a good plugin to help correctly drop pitch by upwards of 10 percent without a great deal of distortion? Michael
Subject:RE: Getting Reply by: Sonic Date:10/23/2002 11:40:34 AM Occasionally, you can get better results for small changes in speech by going the other route. 1) apply Pitch Bend or Pitch Shift with "Preserve duration" unchecked 2) apply a small Time Stretch (well, time compress) to make up for the length change For step 1, you could also stomp the sample rate (in properties, on status bar, or with the "Set sample rate only" checkbox in Process->Resample), then resample back up to the original rate. It may also help to break the process down into smaller 3-5% steps. All pitch shifting algorithms have their weaknesses, but there are several third-party plug-ins and standalone solutions available: Prosoniq, Antares, Waves, etc. J.
Subject:RE: Getting Reply by: Jason_Abbott Date:10/23/2002 12:33:16 PM I haven't tried any of these myself, but you might look at the list at http://www.directxfiles.com/species.htm#Pitch. I'm sure you could search newsgroups for some of the names there to get good reviews. - Jason
Subject:RE: Getting Reply by: Rednroll Date:10/23/2002 4:57:51 PM Have you tried having the VO guy smoke a pack of Pall Malls before doing the read? Many of the deeper voice VO talent I've worked with smoke to give them that deep beritone sound, and find when they have tried to quit smoking that they just can't get that deep roughness that they use to have.

Subject:Getting "pro-V/O" out of reasonable reads???

Posted by: munkittrick

Date:10/22/2002 11:01:14 AM

Hi all. I have got a dependable pro V/O guy who has a very good read, but his pitch is irritatingly higher pitched than necessary to sound "professional" for the client at hand. He's got great inflection, extremely good varriables across his range and a decent level of "vocal range"...except in the lower octaves. I've tried dropping the pitch incrementally to get the effect, but it just sounds pitch-enhanced, or pitch-reduced in this particular case. Is there a plugin designed to drop pitch without dropping the quality of the original track or adding additional coloration, and if so, what is it?

Michael

Subject:RE: Getting

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:10/22/2002 12:58:48 PM

Have you tried Effects>Pitch>Shift on the menu bar?

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: yep...

Reply by: munkittrick

Date:10/23/2002 10:19:22 AM

Actually, that was why I was asking for a plugin that could do a better job. I have tried to drop the pitch in numerous different ways, but when doing so, it almost always goes just over the edge when it begins to ge the right pitch. Is there anyone who might know of a good plugin to help correctly drop pitch by upwards of 10 percent without a great deal of distortion?

Michael

Subject:RE: Getting

Reply by: Sonic

Date:10/23/2002 11:40:34 AM

Occasionally, you can get better results for small changes in speech by going the other route.

1) apply Pitch Bend or Pitch Shift with "Preserve duration" unchecked
2) apply a small Time Stretch (well, time compress) to make up for the length change

For step 1, you could also stomp the sample rate (in properties, on status bar, or with the "Set sample rate only" checkbox in Process->Resample), then resample back up to the original rate.

It may also help to break the process down into smaller 3-5% steps.

All pitch shifting algorithms have their weaknesses, but there are several third-party plug-ins and standalone solutions available: Prosoniq, Antares, Waves, etc.

J.

Subject:RE: Getting

Reply by: Jason_Abbott

Date:10/23/2002 12:33:16 PM

I haven't tried any of these myself, but you might look at the list at http://www.directxfiles.com/species.htm#Pitch. I'm sure you could search newsgroups for some of the names there to get good reviews.

- Jason

Subject:RE: Getting

Reply by: Rednroll

Date:10/23/2002 4:57:51 PM

Have you tried having the VO guy smoke a pack of Pall Malls before doing the read? Many of the deeper voice VO talent I've worked with smoke to give them that deep beritone sound, and find when they have tried to quit smoking that they just can't get that deep roughness that they use to have.