darklord42

That's a shame, then there really isn't much to be done. After thinking about it the problem with the voice actors isn't that they are amateurs, It's clear many weren't given the direction to keep all inflection out of their voice. So it sounds really off, and uncharacteristic of all other droids In-game. That and most of them sound young, which isn't what you wanted. If you could have gotten a few 30-40 year old actors, you would have been better off... When searching for voices, you have to know what you want not except anything less. If you had a mic that was decent or at least a ZOOM handheld, then it would have been better if you went out did the recording yourself. So you know it's all the same. CS-28 is decent, And Combat/Escort Droid is serviceable. I can see that many effects were used on the voices, so I misspoke. The main thing is I don't believe the existing droids in game with voices e.g. B1-D4 of Telos, were used as a model when mastering the voice recordings. More could have been done there. I would experiment with dropping the sound quality to say 8000Htz and up-convert it to 44.1k or whatever is used in game. To try to get that far off, "tin can" sound and play with it some more. I guess what it comes down to is, am I willing to take on such a project myself, and right now I just don't have the time. Or I would have just done it...so for now it's a shame.

My point is it isn't minor. Nor is it just the combat droids, evreything needs tweaking one way or another. Anything that comes out as amature sticks out like a sore thumb, when put up against a comercial game. Is it easy? no. Is it worth it? yes.

That may be the case, but there is still a lot of creativity that can be done with it. I'm afraid I'll be blunt. Can you honestly tell me it is up to the standard of the rest of the game? Because that is ultimately your goal for evreything to pay off. Even the voices that are currently good, can be molded to fit into the game even better. I absolutly agree, not evreything has to be started from square one. In fact, it's likely that what you have is a good base. Just needs some heavy editing. I strongly belive each and evrey avenu should be explored for this project. Just please don't call it a day yet.

Greetings all, I absolutely appreciate everyone's hard work into making this a reality. But it has been said over and over again. Suddenly coming from the main game and into this section is incredibly jarring and takes one out of the incredible immersion that is TSL + TSLRCM. It's - unfortunately- a detriment to the experience. Now what can we do about this with the communities limited resources? The droid planet is filled with Droids! Excellent, there is hope! ------- Now the first idea is to use the stock droid beeps and whirs as much as you can for voices. People don't mind reading as long as they aren't being distracted. I can't read the text with the current VO's nor do I really enjoy listening to it, so I'm missing out on a lot of crucial data. Now you done a great job putting this in already. But take it one step further! Go out into the internet find more stock sounds you can use. There is freesound.org (Be very careful as it's a mixed bag and you have sounds of all sorts of quality.) I remember some actual R2 beeps from the movies. Good idea. If someone has a proper mic, record your own mechanical sounds. Anything. ------ My next idea is to use text-to-speech (TTS) programs for voices as variety and the dialog heavy characters. Now I know it may sound cliche, but it will give you the monotone you need for a base, plus newer ones can be manipulated with their inflections with the right punctuation. None of the voiced droids really sound human in game, nor do you want your voice actors to sound human. If you have good software, you can add all sorts of effects, ring modulators, distortions, pitch effects to change it up and still make it understandable. As for software to use, some effects can be done in Audacity. It doesn't have to be Avid Pro Tools. If someone has a mac and the money, Apple's Logic is pretty decent at 200$. I highly recommend MetaSynth 5. You can do a heck of a lot with that program. It's perfect for manipulating sound with a great visual interface. But it's extremely expensive, and unless one of you is a real audio nut, you probably shouldn't bother. (I got it cheaply though a professor as part of a class.) -------- You can put out a call for proper voice actors. Do a search. There are proper places to go and ask, without breaking any bank. In the end, I would still add effects to make it sound less human, and make it sound like it's coming out of a tin can. Perhaps a simple lower of sound quality to land-line phone quality will do you wonders, then up-convert and add reverb. ----- When you are all done, try to get everything to sound like the rest of the game, with the right reverb and levels. There are a lot of options. Just have fun with it.