Did You Know...?
Did You Know...?
in reverse!
Did
You Know...?
Although over 20 different
voices appear in the game, my natural one isn't anywhere to be seen...
Did You Know...?
My work is no stranger to the world of editing, but never before has that extended to speech. In The MDickie Show, though, that's exactly what you're invited to do! In the speech/uncensored/custom folder you'll find a whole topic that's designed to be replaced - from the conversation to the remarks, and even the video. Here's your indispensable guide to pulling it off...
Know
Your Role
There are several key files
to take care of. The main ones are files ConvA.wav through to ConvD.wav,
which are found in the "speech/" folders. These are the lines that will
be spoken, in sequence, by the 2 guests. They shouldn't last more than
30 seconds each. You should also find 4 similar files named RemarkA.wav,
etc.. These are one-liners that will be delivered at random during a fight.
Note that they are directly linked to their "Conv" parents - I.e. "RemarkA"
comes from the same person as "ConvA". Naturally, they should be very short
(more often than not, they can simply be extracts from the original lines).
The final file to consider is the video for your topic. Given that you
cannot enter the actual name of your new topic, the logo is your only indication
of what it's about. The image video_topic34.jpg is reserved for
just that, and it can be found with all the others in the world/videos/
folder. Fairly self-explanatory - just make sure you keep a similar scale
and save in the .JPEG format...
Getting
Started
Unless you're playing with
existing sounds you're obviously going to need some sort of microphone.
No fancy software is needed for the basics though. All of my promos began
life in the Windows standard "Sound Recorder" program. It doesn't
really matter what you use at this point, but bear in mind that the files
must end up in .WAV format. Don't worry about file sizes at this
point either. Although cuts are going to have to be made later, you should
concentrate on recording the very best sample possible and then working
down from there. It's easier to make things worse than it is to make them
better. So whatever you use, make sure you're working with CD sound quality
at first...
Stepping
Up To The Mic
Getting a clear recording
is an art in itself! There are plenty of things to go wrong, from messing
up your lines to picking up unwanted sounds from the outside world. Worst
of all, though, is distorted sound - when certain words are said too loud
for the microphone and translate badly. Some of my early recordings are
guilty of this, but I soon figured out a great remedy. It's best to set
the microphone volume to low, so that your recordings are rather quiet
and hardly anything translates off the chart. Then all you have to remember
to do is increase the volume of the recording to normal and the results
should be much clearer...
It's
The Way You Say It
For the perfectionists among
you, getting the basic line down may only be half the story. I like to
take them into a more advanced wave editor (Magix Music Maker 7),
where not only do they get trimmed down neatly but they also get enhanced.
In such packages you can usually add effects like echo. I did this ever-so-slightly
for each line to make it sound like it was spoken through a TV mic. And
for novelty characters like God and the Alien I obviously put it into overdrive!
Just in case the option's there and you're tempted, remember NOT to play
with the pitch - that can be handled by the game itself. What you may want
to do at this juncture is cut a censored version of each line. You need
a good wave editor to get in there and pick out each swear word, but other
than that it's fairly straight-forward. Just find an authentic *BEEP* sound
from the Internet, reduce each swear word to silence, and place the beep
sample in it's place...
Break
It Down
Save the finished lines
in full quality by all means, but by the time you place them in the game's
speech folder you should have reduced them all to 22050kHz frequency.
This is easily done by returning to Sound Recorder. Just go to File/Properties
and click "Convert Now" and you'll be able to downgrade to 22050. Whether
you like it or not, this is essential because that number is what the game
works with - you'll get some messy results with any other frequency. You
may also want to set the sound to "Mono", since it trims the file size
down nicely and hardly affects the quality. So too does using the "Microsoft
ADPCM" format instead of regular "PCM". You should find that option along
with the frequencies...
Get
It On The Air!
All that's left is to load
up the game and select what used to be "Custom" as your show topic. You
don't even have to worry about the line exchanging process, as the game
does it automatically as soon as a file has ended! One thing your promo
will be lacking is subtitles. I'm afraid these are painstakingly coded
into the game itself and cannot be accessed. You also have no say in the
character gestures or crowd responses - but they're suitably vague as standard...
Show
& Tell
If you're pleased with the
results, you may want to send your creation to a friend - or into MDickie.com!
It's easy enough. Just pile the 8 speech files and the 1 video image into
a zip file, complete with a message telling the user to place them in the
appropriate folders. Unfortunately, there's no way of extending the selection
of promos - I.e. you can't create a new folder and expect it to turn up
in the game. Every new topic you create must replace an existing one. If
there are a few official ones that you're not fond of, feel free to replace
those - otherwise you should keep a backup of any files you replace...
