12 replies to this topic

[black_darkness]

I think this kind of sound is really appealing and would improve my game.

Does anyone know how this is done?

[Calum Bowen]

I think this kind of sound is really appealing and would improve my game.

Does anyone know how this is done?

Sounds like cut up vocals stuck back together again in different orders. That's my best bet. (assuming your talking about the talking).
I'm sure there's a better quality video out there somewhere which might help people with discerning exactly what's going on with the audio better.

[black_darkness]

I'm sure there's a better quality video out there somewhere which might help people with discerning exactly what's going on with the audio better.

Here is a much better quality version. Yes I am referring to the speech. Some have different voices though. Deeper and higher pitches.

Edited by black_darkness, 19 December 2012 - 07:02 AM.

[Moritz P.G. Katz]

Hey,

I've been wondering about that too, back when I was a bit addicted to this game... (Before I went to Animal Rehab.)

When you type in this game (e.g. write down your name at the beginning), there are very short samples of each letter - definitely some recorded and sped up voices!
When talking to the villagers, it's a very similar sound. Sometimes pitched up and down a bit depending on who's talking to you. The sound you refer to is those letter samples jumbled up in some kind of way.

My best guess is that they programmed some kind of algorithm that picks out a few letters from each word, or maybe just plays back every third-or-so letter. Maybe it's a lot more complicated, it's hard to tell.
They probably experimented quite a bit before they ended up with that cute babbling sound - the overall sound direction in the game is great!

Hope that helped a bit.

EDIT: Oh, I'm referring to Animal Crossing: Wild World for the NDS, by the way. Sounds like the voices in the other versions are done in the same way, though!

Cheers,
Moritz

Edited by Moritz P.G. Katz, 19 December 2012 - 07:10 AM.

[black_darkness]

Hey

Thanks for the advice. I will try to come up with something. That sounds like a lot of work so it will probably be a while.

[Calum Bowen]

Yep! Mortiz added some vital information to it. I think it definitely sounds like it selects short voice samples (that are certainly sped up) and then randomly selects/repeats/pitches them. The same could be done quite easily using FMOD, I would imagine. I have done something like that with a single sample. I'm not very experienced with it but I imagine you could set up a group of samples and have it select between them and do various processes as described above.

Mortiz - AC audio is.... oh my, one of my favourites! I'm very tempted to get back into the game ; )

Good luck black_darkness! Let us know how it goes.

[Moritz P.G. Katz]

Good luck black_darkness! Let us know how it goes.

Yes, I'd love to hear how it turns out as well.

By the way Calum, it's "Moritz" - don't worry, it's a very common mistake! People seem to think of the name "Mort", but it's actually related to "Maurice" and "Morris" (from "Mauritius", a dark-skinned saint who was very popular in frescos of early medieval times). The more you know!

Cheers,
Moritz ;)

[Servant of the Lord]

Banjo and Kazooie did this, though without distinct words.
Apparently, this trope is called Speaking Simlish, and for Animal Crossing has the following note:

Animal Crossing uses this, with the added bonus that it's created by using samples from FM synthesizers distorting the words in the text box. In the options, you can leave them speaking this "language" ("Animalese"), switch it to "Bebebese", which is the standard RPG blips, or just make it silent.

Each of the three games also has its own varient on this synthesizer. The GameCube game uses a slower-paced synthesizer that's actually fairy comprehensible (your Gyroid assistant is almost understandable, as is mail-lady Pelly). The Wii game, City Folk/Let's Go to the City, uses a faster-paced one that scrambles the sounds more, so it sounds more Simlish-esque and is less understandable. But the DS game is pure gibberish.
Playing the game in Spanish makes Animalese fairly understandable.

[jwezorek]

An easy way to achieve this effect might be to use real text-to-speech software but to provide gibberish as the input. Under Windows for example you could try this using SAPI, the Win32 Speech API.

[Olliepm]

It sounds a bit like a vocal sample running through an arpeggiator.  I don't know about other DAWs, but I'm sure I could make a patch in Reason if you'd like me to try.

[Kristoff K.]

Yes, taking the pitched speech samples is the way to go. However...

I would go a bit further and, besides speeding up the sample, I'd also tweak the formants.

Personally, I think that manipulating the formant could help you adjust the voice, so it would match the character appearance. You know, like a fat character, or tall and thing, or small and cute. By tweaking the formant, you wouldn't have to rely on additional pitching, which could be more time- and resource-consuming.

Edited by Kristoff K., 12 January 2013 - 10:13 AM.

[Kryzon]

There's another technique for "gibberish" dialogue called Grammelot, originally used in theater, which I think is a bit more sophisticated than a procedural solution; it also produces incomprehensible dialogue.
 
You can hear it in games like Rayman 2 (please head to 1:40): 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHyQf5YKo9w&t=1m38s
 
The technique consists of having the actor speak by joining random phonemes that recall to a certain language. It feels like talking - especially when the actor conveys emotion and intonation as he performs - but the message won't mean anything.
In case of Rayman 2 it sounds like french grammelot (probably related to the fact that the game was developed in France...).

[Moritz P.G. Katz]

Interesting. Rayman: Origins uses a lot of pig latin.

Cheers,
Moritz

Edited by Moritz P.G. Katz, 13 January 2013 - 06:46 AM.