You know, I tried to dub Boris. But with my low-quality microphone, it sounds awful really really awful. Well, partly because I really don’t like recordings of my own voice, but still.
As you might remember, I did some voice acting for a fairy tale audio book a couple of years ago. In a professional set up, in a sound proof room, professional microphone with pop stopper, it didn’t take us much time, we just had to focus on saying the line correctly, usually twice, and that was it.
However, at home, it took me more than two hours for around 50 sentences - around half of Boris’ lines - because most of the time I was adjusting levels to have something that could be heard or understood. That, and the fact that I wasn’t satisfied with the German accent, but mostly because I couldn’t get the sound to be at least decent.
I’m pretty sure that whatever we want to do is going to take ages and will be awful…
…but I’d love to carry on with the project nevertheless
Dear friend, I understand all of this, but I kindly disagree.
You already have a good quality microphone, it’s inside your smartphone. Often we don’t care, but in order to get clear communication, the quality of the microphones used nowadays, inside our latest smartphones, have improved significantly.
To give you evidence, here is my original TWP VoiceMail message, as it was directly recorded from my phone, without ANY post-editing.
Before uploading the final file to the TWP team, I had only to raise the volume a bit, and convert the format to .mp3
You can compare the delivered version of my message if you dial 6015 in Thimbleweed Park.
As you can see by hearing the unedited linked file above, there are no hiss, pops, cracks, even on the prounonced "P"s.
My idea of a dubbing team is:
Every dubber must have played and finished Thimbleweed Park at last one time
A dubber chooses one (or more) character, and starts dubbing his lines, using his phone, when he thinks the time is right
One (or more) will do the post-editing part, by collecting the recorded sounds and mainly adjusting volume levels. Eventually, if the result quality is unsatisfying, will be asked to re-record that line
One should assume the role of the director, and give directions (I thought of you, Guga). Of course, he could be a dubber as well.
It could be very helpful to have the script Ron used when he directed the people (for each line, the emphasis to use, the context, etc.)
I must admit I didn’t think of my phone. I’ll try again and see what happens. I do hear some hissing in your message, but it might be your accent
The script can be extracted without problems - all lines are numbered, all audio files too. A small script (in the programming sense) can create a text file with all lines for a given character, both original and to be spoken, by comparing the audio filenames with the content of the translation files.
It has no indications for the actor, but… we know the context from the game, and we have a reference: the original intonation. With said text file, one could listen to the original file for inspiration, record that line in his language, and when he’s satisfied, save the audio with the same line number and mark the line as “done”.
Anyway, what I thought was something less centralized. One becomes responsible of his own lines. Records one or two or ten whenever he feels like it, uploads them with the correct name on some shared folder online. Others can listen to them, “review” them (but that depends on how the files will be actually put in the game with an official tool) in game. There must be some coordination, of course, but it will be basically an “open source” dubbing. And some day we will have all files there, ready to be packed and shipped to all those Italians who’d really love to hear Agent Ray speak with a slight Sardinian accent
It’s not terrible but it still sounds like recorded through a phone. There’s lots of nasty frequencies that you can turn down, but it will still sound amateurish. Other problem is - the recordings of different people will differ vastly. This would be true if they recorded in studios as well, but it will be even more pronounced when recording through a phone or a skype mic. There’s not much you can do if the signal is colored so much (like in your example) to match all of them. Volume is not the only factor. Usually audio guy will use EQ (equalizer) and dynamic compression to get them in the same ballpark. Compression is to get voice sound even. Otherwise some parts are too quiet, others will be too loud. You may not think this is a problem now, but it’s different when there’s music in the background.
I’d say go ahead and try anyway, maybe you will learn something cool, but there’s one thing that makes me sure it will fail. There’s just too much audio in Thimbleweed Park. It’s enormous work. There’s no way in hell all people will do all the lines, edit them properly, and after that, someone will put all of them in places. You could try it with DOTT or Loom, but TWP is just huge. And that’s only the technical aspect.
If you still really, really, want do do something though, record some gameplay and dub that, just as a video. Maybe in a trailer form. It’s something possible to do, it’s as much work as you want it to be and maybe it will be a nice advertisement for TWP in your country.
I know, but that won’t stop us this is not aiming to be an official voice over or something like that, but a way of expressing how much we loved the game.
And since the game sold badly in Italy, who knows that this fan project couldn’t bring more interest in the game. Even if it’s in five years
Cool, all power to you, but you also can direct your work to something you have an actual chance of completing. Do a trailer, a stageplay, a small fan game, a recreation of Thimbleweed Town made out of cardboard, a chocolate Ransome statue, I don’t know. There are so many possibilities that do not include work that takes months done by full time pros.
That’s a good news! We are searching for a dubber with german accent, to dub Boris. Would you mind to read Boris lines in italian? I am sure we’ll get our german accent!
Sounds worth a try. I would need to get all his lines(I might need context to or a translation to get the phrasing right). I can record them, upload to soundcloud an send a private link or something. Then re-do according to feedback.
Hope it helps that this is the extent of my italian:
Do you even have ALL the lines from the game extracted and translated and all the roles cast? I don´t think it would even be worth starting before that.
We have the lines for Boris, for now, because it has a very short role in the game.
The project has not started yet, we are gathering information, volunteers, and organizing the work.
I wouldn’t say that - you could be famous with your current voice:
At least in Germany you can book (small) record studios for a few bucks. Maybe you can do this in Italy too? Book a cheap studio for a weekend, invite all volunteers and make a “voice over” party.
really really awful. Well, partly because I really don’t like recordings of my own voice, but still.
