Now I'm a voice actor too

[Zarf]

As if I didn't have my hands in enough things already. My dad has some very high quality recording equipment, so I installed it on my laptop today and did some recordings. I'd be more apt to do the Imperial males, but with enough gollum juice I could be coerced into doing the Dunmer male voices.

Voice test 1: [url="http://www.zarfstudios.com/ob/audio/guarboot1.mp3"]I could kill that quar. Those boots are ruined![/url]
Voice test 2: [url="http://www.zarfstudios.com/ob/audio/guarboot2.mp3"]I have traveled far, under moon and star, to seek the guar that ate my boot.[/url]

You will notice background fuzz and reverb. I recorded this in the living room, but we have a big walk-in closet that is filled with sound-absorbing clothes. It works perfectly.

I can put the equipment outside the door, put the mic inside the closet, sit down, and start acting. It's comfy in there.

Finally, and this might break my ability to act for this mod, but I won't swear or tell dirty jokes. If you want me to do that, well, you won't. If you submit to me scripts that have swears in them, I'll replace them with "blast" and "curses and maledictions" and "you frothing guar-turd".

Submit to me any dialog that you want me to do, provide some background for who is speaking it, and I'll get you an MP3 by the next monday.

In my opinion, we should re-do all of the other dialog too, not just quest stuff. Like the persuasion minigame, when people find a body, fighting noises, etc. Just for the sake of consistency. If I'm correct, we can make our NPCs use these voices without effecting the voices that the Oblivion NPCs use, right?

[Razorwing]

Looking forward to it!

[Zarf]

I now have two voice samples for you. If you want me to say something specific, I'll record it in the closet so it doesn't have the reverb and stuff. But I need something specific. Quest dialog or something.

[Razorwing]

Nice work :goodjob:

The background noise in the clips would have been a problem I think, but I think your idea of using the closet could work out well.

Do you know if it's possible to create lip data from wavs? I've heard others say so and I think the CS can handle it, but I've yet to test that myself. If it can you wouldn't have to record the lines directly in the CS, which I imagine would be hard if you're in the closet. But I just don't know, so I couldn't swear I'll be able to use wavs without lip files.

I have a request for voice work that would solve a big problem in the mod right now, namely that only Imperial guards can arrest the player -- the other races just don't have the dialogue for it. Which is troublesome since we have so many dark elf guards. I'm putting together a little script right now



Edit: Oki here's the script I came up with. Not gold, maybe, but I think it covers most situations. If you come up with something for a line that sounds better than by all means use it. It's meant to be a Dunmer voice, but how you choose to act it is up to you. If you find that you can't speak with a raspy voice without sounding unnatural then by all means speak in a normal tone -- just getting these lines done and into the mod will be a leap forward for the mod.

ARREST GREETINGS

"Halt! You have violated the laws of Morrowind. Pay the court a fine or serve your sentence. Your stolen goods are now forfeit."

"Halt! You have violated the laws of Morrowind. Since you can not pay the fine you are going to jail. Your stolen goods are now forfeit."

"Halt! You are guilty of trespassing!"

"Warning, you ARE trespassing in a secure area!" // emphasize the word ARE, please

"This is a secure area. You can not be here. Leave immediately."

PAY GOLD FOR CRIME

"Okay, here is how it works. I will escort you to the castle, where your fine is collected. I will have to take any illegal goods from you." // High disp

"Follow me to the castle, where your fine will be collected and your stolen goods confiscated." // Medium disp

"I was hoping you would resist arrest, filthy swit. Right, follow me to the castle where the fine will be collected and your stolen good confiscated." //

Low disp

RESIST ARREST

"If that's the way you want it." // High disp

"Show me what you got!" // Said to Dunmer

"So the outlander chooses execution? Bring it on!" // Said to non-Dunmer

SERVE SENTENCE

"Yes. Okay, follow me to the castle." // High disp

"If it were up to me you would never get out again." // Medium disp

"Hope you rot, criminal scum." // Low disp

BRIBEGUARD

"Just this once... and DON'T tell anyone or I will hunt you down!"

TGGRAYFOX

"Never heard of him."

NORMAL GREETINGS

"Good morning, Sir."
"Good morning, F'lah."
"Good morning, Miss."
"Good morning, Sera."
"Good morning, Muthsera."

"Good afternoon, Sir."
"Good afternoon, F'lah."
"Good afternoon, Madam."
"Good afternoon, Sera."
"Good afternoon, Muthsera."

"Good evening, Sir."
"Good evening, F'lah."
"Good evening, Miss."
"Good evening, Sera."
"Good evening, Muthsera."

"Sir?"
"F'lah?"
"Miss?"
"Sera?"
"Muthsera?"


'Sir' and 'Miss' are used when the guards adress non-Dunmer.
'F'lah' is an informal term for a person, similar to 'guy', and only said to fellow Dunmer.
'Sera' and 'Muthsera' are used for other Dunmer they hold in high regard, but may be used when adressing other races if the player has distinguished himself in a future quest.
The last category is spoken during night-time.

GOODBYE

"Goodbye, Sir."
"Goodbye, F'lah."
"Goodbye, Miss."
"Goodbye, Sera."
"Goodbye, Muthsera."

FEARGENERAL

"By Azura!"

COMBAT

"I will let you live." (accepts yield)

"En guarde!" (Assault)

"Arrgh!" (Attack sound - feel free to improvise)

"I yield!" (Flee)

"Hrg!" (gets hit - feel free to improvise)

"Murder!"

"Pickpocket! Everyone, guard your purses!"

"Thief!"

"Trespassing is against the law! I'm placing you under arrest."

"I implore you to show mercy." (yields to player)

PERSUASION

"What?" // enters persuasion
"Very well." // exits persuasion

"Hrm." // dislike
"Hehe." // like
"Really?" // love
"Pah!" // hates

MISC / CORPSE

"There's no sleeping in the street, begg... (gasp) This person has been murdered!"
"May Azura grant your soul eternal bliss."
"The blood is still wet. The murdere can not have gone far."

[Zarf]

I'll print this out and get right to it!

About the Lip data: No idea. Tell me what format works and I'll put them in that format.

Also, how do you pronounce "F'wah"? I never heard it in Morrowind. I know "N'wah" is "In-wah" (INwah) and "Muthsera" is "Muh-thserr-uh" (MUTHsera) or "Moe-thserre-uh" (mothSEra).

Finally: About the line "There's no sleeping in the street, begg... (gasp) This person has been murdered!"

Can I change it to "You shouldn't sleep in the street, you fool..." etc? What if the Dunmer finds a well-dressed guy? He wouldn't be apt to say "beggar". Just a thought.

[Zarf]

It's recorded, I just need to split it to pieces and convert to MP3. I'll keep the .WAVs if that helps.

EDIT: The closet worked, no reverb or fuzz.

[Razorwing]

Cool

The word "F'lah" isn't one of the most common terms, but it does occur in few places in TES3, for instance in these greetings:
"Well, well! You brung me a little present from Sera Synnolian, eh? He's a good old f'lah, for an outlander. And what can I do for you?"
"You look like a f'lah who knows his way around, eh? [...]"

But to be honest I wasn't familiar with it either until I read about it in a wiki article and then checked the CS. I don't know how it would be pronounced, you can decide that if you want. My hunch tells me the weight should be FLah but that might just be me.

As I mentioned I can't guarantee the lipsynch will work, but if it does work then the wav file needs to be in this exact format:
Bitrate: 705kbps
Audio sample size: 16 bit
Channels: 1 (mono)
Audio sample rate: 44 KHz
Audio format: PCM

I'll try it out once I get a copy of your files. A set of mp3's already converted would be very helpful too.

I think both ways of pronouncing muthsera are correct. I remember your second example from TES3 voices, while in TES4 they seem to use the latter. I only heard it once, when I was thanked by the wife for bringing back the painter to Cheydinhal.

Sure you can change that line. The idea I was thinking of was that the guard saw someone lying in the street, assumed it was a beggar, then was shocked to see it was a murdered person. Your version is better though.

[Zarf]

Oh dear. So I need to convert the remaining files from MP3 back into WAV? I should be able to do it in that format, but don't expect them until Tuesday. Here are the MP3s:

[url="http://www.zarfstudios.com/ob/audio/dunmale.rar"]Download - 2.26 MB[/url]

There is also one .WAV. See if that works. Do you know for sure wether or not .MP3 files won't work?

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Zarf
Oh dear. So I need to convert the remaining files from MP3 back into WAV? I should be able to do it in that format, but don't expect them until Tuesday. Here are the MP3s:

[url="http://www.zarfstudios.com/ob/audio/dunmale.rar"]Download - 2.26 MB[/url]

There is also one .WAV. See if that works. Do you know for sure wether or not .MP3 files won't work?

Got em, thanks!

I'll try out creating a .lip file from the wav. The properties of the wav file doesn't correspond with the data I listed so I don't know if I will be, but I'll try. It may work, if I remember correctly it's the audio sample rate that's the really important bit.

I'm 100% sure the mp3 format doesn't work for lipsynch purposes.

[Zarf]

Rats. Well, I tried the WAV exporter within Acid, and I didn't see where I could set the bitrate. I'll keep looking though.