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[gnomre]

Reposting this again...

Hello,

As we move towards our next major milestone, we want to start working on our sounds so that we can offer you a completely reworked, high-quality package, with all new art, scripts, gameplay and sounds. This also gets rid of any legal issues with using sounds taken from other games.

Paramount to this is the need for voice actors, who can really bring the characters of our game to life.

We're appealing to our fans for people who would like to help our game along but don't have any specific modding ability - as well as getting to hear their voices on units in-game barking responses at the player, and screaming for help when they are taking fire!

What do you need to need to help us out with this?
A microphone.

That's it, really.

You do, however, have to want to do this; voices that are too self-conscious, too boring, or too over-acted can ruin the experience. I wouldn't be too worried about this, though, we'll let you know if your voice recordings need to improve a little.

We have scripts ready and waiting for people, all you need to do is let us know that you're interested. We need to get as many different people as we can, so that there is a large variety of reply voices, to make sure that there is plenty of variation when you're playing in-game.

While really we'd just like to get a lot of interested people recording, there are a few things that we specifically want, which I will list now:

People who know what they are doing
We don't mind people who just have a microphone and can send us their voice recordings, but anyone who really knows what they are doing would be very much welcomed to reduce our workload so that we can concentrate on other things. People who can record in appropriate file format, and then go in and edit their recordings with specific software to create certain effects (alien vocals, lower/highten tones, add in communications static/fluctuations, create robotic filters for their voices [for droids]), would really be very much desired. If you know what you're doing, and you're interested, we want to hear from you

British accents
British accents, particularly ones considered 'aristocratic' (rather then clipped cockney) are needed for imperial officers (who drive the heavier vehicles).

American accents
For stormtroopers and the majority of the rebel forces. Nothing too distinctive, such as a thick southern accent.

Anyone who can put on accents, make strange tones with their voice, etc
We have plenty of alien species in our mod, from Bothans to Mon Calamari; we need people who can give these characters life through their voice acting. We want to hear your best "It's a trap!"


That's more or less it.

If you'd like to help out, post here or email us at starwarsspring@gmail.com

To hear what you're capable of, please pick your favourite of these (or the one whose accent most applies), and read off a couple of lines and preferably send them to the email address provided ( starwarsspring@gmail.com ), or post them here. You don't have to read the entire set of lines right now, we're just trying to get a feel for who's suited for what.

Rebel Alliance Fleet Trooper

Notes: American accent. Should sound boyish, eager, but a little nervous
Ok:
1: Roger that.
2: Sure!
3: Uh-huh.
4: May the Force be with us.
5: For the alliance!
Select:
1: Alliance Trooper, Awaiting Orders
2: Alliance infantry
3: Reporting.
4: Yep?
Arrived:
1: I've arrived
2: Orders completed
3: What now?
4: Infantry in position
5: Infantry reporting in, we're done here.
Cant: Can't do it!
Underattack: There's.... There's too many of 'em!

TX-130 Imperial Fighter Tank

Notes: British accent. Should sound calm and assured, even when under fire.
Ok:
1: Forwards!
2: We advance.
3: At once, sir.
4: Nothing will stop us.
Select:
1: Imperial heavy armour, sir.
2: Fighter tank, standing by.
3: Are there rebels to crush?
4: Repulsor drives engaged.
Arrived:
1: Co-ordinates reached
2: Fighter Tank at your coordinates
3: Fighter tank reports objective completed
4: Position secured.
Cant: I am unable to comply.
Underattack: Enemy contact.


LAAT (Low Altitude Attack Transport)



Notes: American accent, similar to Stormtrooper. Ideally have some sort of comm noise/distortion over the sounds, perhaps engine noise [don't worry if you can't do this]
Ok:
1: LAAT Deploying to those coordinates.
2: Roger that, section leader.
3: LZ confirmed, we're going in hot.
4: Copy - gunners to battle stations!
Select:
1: Low Altitude Attack Transport
2: LAAT gunship, what are your orders?
3: Airborne Transport, Where's the LZ?
4: Assault shuttle, awaiting green to go.
Arrived:
1: Low Altitude Transport at Drop Zone now.
2: LAAT reports LZ contact, putting her down.
3: LAAT at target location.
4: Displacement confirmed, crews alerted
Cant: LAAT, can't comply.
Underattack: Incoming enemy fire, lock and load back there!



If you can convincingly pull off different voices from your own or know other people who would be interested in pitching in, feel free to read the lines in those other voices/have them read the lines and send them as well. It's always good to have some variation!

[neddiedrow]

Same as before then?

[Faolan]

hi there!

i have (possibly) german accent and audacity, too *g*

please give me a feaw sentences to speak...

cheers,
faolan

[Warlord Zsinj]

Give these two a shot, and send to starwarsspring[at]gmail[dot]com :

MRB trooper
Ok:
1: Heavy Blaster, to that location
2: Sure, I'll set up there.
3: The bucketheads won't know what hit 'em
4: I'll set up a fire support point there.
Select:
1: Repeating Blaster
2: Heavy Repeater, awaiting orders.
3: Where should I set up?
4: Who needs fire support?
Arrived:
1: Setting up a firing point
2: Heavy Repeater in position
3: Fire point Besh active
4: Setting up fire support at your coordinates
Other:
Underattack: MRB Fire point under enemy fire, requesting back up!

Bothan Spy
notes: [whispered, this guy is a spy, it should sound like he is trying to not be overheard. If we can get some sort of animalistic intonation in the whispering, that'd be good too, as it's a bothan]
Ok:
1: Affirmative.
2: Infiltrating.
3: insertion confirmed.
4: They won't see me.
5: A shadow on the wind.
6: Moving unseen.
7: coordinates confirmed.
Select:
1: Reporting.
2: I am the eyes and ears of the alliance.
3: Awaiting insertion coordinates.
4: Espionage unit
5: Observing comm silence
Arrived:
1: I am in position
2: Insertion succesful!
3: Target in sight
4: Objective completed
5: Primary mission completed, awaiting further orders.
6: At your coordinates now.    Other:
Activate: Reporting on enemy movements.
Deactivate: Extraction confirmed.
Cant: It is impossible.
Commencing Construction: Commencing uplink to HQ for SpecOp insertion
Construction completed: Insertion coordinates transmitted, Commandos en route!
Underattack: [not whispered] My position's been compromised!

[PiHalbe]

I think we should collect some ideas on the editing of voices. This we we could provide a uniform feel for all the sounds. Things like static, blips, clicks and voice effects (like radio quality or distortion(?)) are needed almost everywhere. Who is interested in something like this? Might be worth it to start a new topic?

[Warlord Zsinj]

Go for it PiHalbe!

A good way to do this would be for you to do a sample recording of one of your voice acks, and then put up several examples of various filters, and we can comment on which are more appropriate.

I am personally looking for something that sounds 'canned', a little metallic but not highly static, like say, a WWII radio, so that you can hear what is being said.

I'd also consider making the Imperials sound cleaner but more metallic (and cold) while the rebel voices have more radio static and clicks (to represent their more ad-hoc equipment).

[PiHalbe]

Is there any way to see all the units to be included in the new SW Spring? If possible with tech-level or some other form of 'destructive potential'.

I think this would be helpful just to get a feeling for the units. As Warlord Zsinj stated, different voices fit different units. It would be nice to know how mean, tricky, eager, fearsome, professional, calm, ... a unit is to get the intonation right.

As for the mixing thread: I'll look into this on the weekend.

[gnomre]

Our Progress page lists all of the units, though the post-beta ones are somewhat tentative. Some of them could be dropped, or others added in before we finish them.

[PiHalbe]

For anyone planning to record further acks I have three requests for the recording process:

• If you have the possibility to monitor your output while recording, please try to avoid overmodulation of the signal. It is quite cumbersome to correct the recording by hand. Keep some distance from the microphone. You are more likely being to loud than to quiet for the recording process.
• Whenever you record, please feel free to also record some silence. That is, let the recording run for 2 to 10 seconds just like you did before, but don't say anything. Do not cut it off - this can be used to remove background noise from your recording and helps to further increase the overall quality.
• The easiest way for me to edit your voice is as single file per unit. Be sure to leave some time between the single acks, though. If you want to use single files per ack - name them according to "arrived1", "cant", "underattack" and such.

By keeping these two suggestions in mind, you help achieving a pleasant sound experience for Imperial Winter!

Edit: added last point.

[Zoythrus]

i'm sry i cant give my voice out to the units (i dont sound too great), but i still think that the X-wings should say something like "NO-NO-NOAAAAAAAHHH!" (death scream in IV). i would love to hear that.

[PiHalbe]

A friend of mine might want to donate his voice to some of the units. He's German, though. So, are there any units left which might allow for a German accent? Should I just record some stuff and send it to gnomre?

Oh, and what about the droid voices? You said you had someone to do them? Do you already have the texts prepared or do they need some elaboration?

[Mustark Bloomfield]

I think I may be able to donate some commands and such. I am from the south and I have a deep accent. I can also have an Italian, French, Irish, and finally british accent if needed...

Not so sure about Ackbar or the bothans...maybe I can get my dog to bark into the mic or something, lol.
I might be able to do the same thing that the woman from republic commando did. (use organic and around the house items to create walking sounds, or clanking sounds for dark trooper's. (nobody knows but they're are actually robots) .

I'm pretty sure you said British is very much needed.

I'm going to have to ask my brother if I can borrow his mic though.

(And rebels don't have deep southern accents, only the porkins and some other pilot from A New Hope had that kind of accent. Neither do stormtroopers).

[Warlord Zsinj]

Great Mustark!

Record some of the units above and send your auditions to the email address linked above !

[PiHalbe]

Concerning my (German) friend. I'll just let him (them) do some acks for one or two units and will send them to you. So you can see for yourselves.

Btw. a comprehensive list of all acks remaining undone would be nice. 

[Warlord Zsinj]

Might be worth adding a checkbox function on the dialogue page to mark an ack as 'completed', gnomre?

[gnomre]

= Unit has voice acks recorded

[123vtemp]

I may be able to help with some voices.

Also I believe some of those long times as with the LAAT may be to long to be used.
If these are to serve informative information they need to be relatively short so that a player can react while the event is still important.

[Warlord Zsinj]

reaction time is less important then simple annoyance. Acks that are too long are annoying to listen too repeatedly, while most acks are not long enough to warrant a reaction time, and more often then not are used in a situation where they are merely acknowledging the user's action has been recieved/completed. Where they are under attack, this will usually be accompanied with a text alert, which you can read instantly and hit F3 to jump to the problem.

[123vtemp]

So how are audio alerts desired to function.
By the way point notifications do not work hald teh time for me because my troops are nearly always in battle and thus F3 takes me to such a location. A stuck unit may also steel my opportunity to respond to one of these points. :/

[SinbadEV]

I submitted a sample of me doing a Bothan voice... I have a much better microphone now... Are there any other either "boring canadian accent" or "Weird Alien Accent" voices that I can audition for?

[Warlord Zsinj]

Yeah, we got your bothan, it was pretty good. I also did a bothan one, but I think we'll probably use yours, because I've done a heap of other voices already, so it'll be better for variation.

There's plenty of other stuff you can try:


Imperial Troop Carrier
curt military voice, american accent
Ok:
1: Orders recieved
2: Mind the closing door
3: Reinforcing front lines
4: Moving troops
Select:
1: Troop Carrier, go ahead
2: Ready to move infantry
3: Awaiting transport detail
4: Imperial Troop Transport
Arrived:
1: APC has reached waypoint
2: APC nearing objective
3: Prepare to dismount
4: APC at your coordinates now
Other:
Activate: [load] Mount up!
Deactivate: [unload] Dismount! Go!
Cant: APC cannot comply
Underattack: APC encountering enemy resistance!

Alliance Cargo Hauler
Can be an alien, but try to keep it clear and distinctive, and reasonably jovial/easy going, rather then evil or weird
Ok:
1: Moving materiel to the front
2: Hauler Dispatched
3: Setting up a support route...
4: Roger that flight command!
Select:
1: Cargo Hauler
2: Alliance Airborne Support
3: Support Craft
4: Who's too lazy to drive?
Arrived:
1: Cargo Hauler at destination
2: I'm at the Drop Zone now!
3: Hauler requesting further instructions
4: Cargo hauler at LZ
Other:
Activate: [load] Gravclamps... reading green... we're set here.
Deactivate: Clamps gone! May the Force be with you!
Cant: Hauler, what spice are you on?
Underattack: Cargo Hauler has run into fire en-route!

[BeskarKomrk]

Do you still need this? If so, I'd be interested.

[Warlord Zsinj]

Absolutely, please send your auditions.

[PiHalbe]

Hey gnomre, would it be possible to divide the voice acting progress bar into several steps? I'd think about something like:

• 0% - Nothing happened
• 33% - Voice recorded & received
• 67% - Voice edited & pending for approval
• 100% - Acks finalized

That would make it a lot easier to see the current status. Thanks in advance.

[gnomre]

Sure, the value is just a number between 0 and 100 in the database anyway. I'll edit the form.

[Warlord Zsinj]

I was meant to tell you to do that, wasn't I? >_>

[PiHalbe]

Nah, I wanted to do. It's just that I forgot ...

[Dotz]

I think the droids should have voices. If so, then I will do them, I have the perfect sound editing software to make them sound more robotic (do NOT ask for grievous, I dont know how to properly layer his voice.)

[Warlord Zsinj]

Go for it, we're happy to listen to some samples. We have already got some vocals for the battle droids and the Super Battle droids, but there are plenty of other droids in IW, so why not send us some examples? See the email link in the first post.

[Dotz]

ok, then. just give me a week ago to get the software properly set up (some stupid computer issue) and to purchase the sound editting software (I thought it was free but it was a trial) and to ask my dad for a microphone.

sorry about this, I didn't think it would take this long