Voices/sounds for STK

[KroArtem]

Hello all, several days ago a possibility to add some voices in the game was discussed on stk channel. Joerg said there is support for it to make it work. Now all we need are some funny phrases. We decided to try to record them by ourselves and here I want to post my experiments. As we don't know what phrases exactly we need, I've made only some strange sounds to check whether sound quality is acceptable. Feel free to critisize and to give feedback. And, of course, to record your sounds.
Download link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5fkmhhytebiiww/stuff.tar.gz

[Arthur]

For the record, I and KroArtem have talked on IRC about how to do this. We keep the original files in FLAC or WAV format, and try to do 2 win samples and 2 lose samples for each character, as a start. This will hopefully get things going, and if someone wants to join in, they're of course welcome to give it a try.

We'll try to do our best, but we also realize that someone else might do something better, and thus we'll try to be objective and pick out the best samples for each character. So there has to be some quality control, but we know we'll not get professional quality (yet, at least). We aim for getting something bearable (i.e. meaning that people won't turn sfx off because of our crappy voices), and replace them incrementally as we get better proposals.

If anyone wants to give it a shot, I recommend Audacity as an easy-to-use, cross-platform sound recorder and editor.

PS: I'll post 4 samples for Mozilla soon, as my proposal for this character.

[Funto]

Good initiative I would go with non-localized, generic sounds as you do to avoid the nightmare of translating to each supported language ^^

[KroArtem]

Actually we were thinking that this or that kart can have support for only one language, for example Nolok is known to be a bad guy so it can speak German or Russian and so on. For those who doesn't know these languages, it should sound just funny but not annoying.

[Arthur]

Yeah, we discussed this, and I believe the general consensus is that we can use English phrases, since it will not majorly affect the experience of the game if people don't understand it. If people want to make localized voice packs, they're free to do so, but it's not something we will focus on as they won't have trouble playing the game as they would if the text in the game weren't translated.

We'll try to keep the phrases simple, so most people with just a little English knowledge should be able to get the idea.

[Kinsu]

Hi, nice initiative !
I agree with Funto : as this obviously won't be possible to make localized voices, they will have to be as generic as possible... so they should just express emotions (using or not a real language).

The Star Wars Ep. 1 racing game did that very well, even using E.T. languages, this could be a good example (see here).

My feedback about KroArtem's try :

• 4.flac (yipeee) : it's not convincing enough I think ... it sounds like someone who is forced to say it. May I propose some "more convincing" examples of yipees : here and here,
• 8.flac (bored) : not so bad ! I must admit I don't really see when characters could be bored in a race... (when they win, because it's too easy ? when they lose, or when they are hit by a cake ? I'd rather think they should be angry instead...),
• 1.flac, 5.flac, 6.flac : I did not understand which emotion these ones express. In which situations did you intended them to be used ?
• 7.flac : weapon/item sound ?

Anyway, this is a very hard work, so good luck !

[KroArtem]

Hello Kinsu, after some discussion in irc with Arthur_D, we decided that most of these sounds are useless and that's not a problem. This was basically proof-of-concept. However woof-woof sound can be used by nolok/beagle/wilber when they attack or do something else.
Regarding 1.flac, I was saying "Awesome! Excellent! Victory! Ready, set, go!" but without any expression

[Funto]

Err I would certainly not go with associating a specific language to "bad guys"...STK is already accused of being too violent, imagine what people would think if only the bad guys speak German

For the record, in recent versions of Mario Kart, characters speak very few words in English, even in the French version, just like you intend to do.

[Arthur]

I agree with that. One thing to mention though: who are the badguys? As far as I know, we only have one true badguy, Nolok. Giving him an accent would help in making the character's personality, yet at the same time, we don't need to use the old stereotypical "bad guy" German or Russian accent. Still, I must admit it works pretty well in the cartoons I've seen.

Anyway, here's the promised voice pack as my proposal for the Mozilla character. Pretty hard on the throat, I must admit, as I generally don't talk anything like that. Feedback or other proposals welcome.

[Kinsu]

This is indeed a good voice for a bad guy ! Maybe a little too much for a cartoonish game ?

Edit : I was still thinking to Nolok... When I have Mozilla in mind, these samples sound much better !

[Arthur]

This is indeed a good voice for a bad guy ! Maybe a little too much for a cartoonish game ?

Edit : I was still thinking to Nolok... When I have Mozilla in mind, these samples sound much better !

I do not think it's too much for a cartoonish game, as the animated TV series "Inspector Gadget" had its main villain Dr. Claw sound not too far from this. (Not that I in any way can compare to Frank Welker regarding voice acting of course. If you've watched any cartoons made the past 30-40 years, you're almost guaranteed to have heard his talent somewhere, even if you didn't know it.) And I believe the show was aimed at pre-teens, but I have to admit Dr. Claw was fearsome when I first watched it as a child.

If anyone have some proposals of their own, they're certainly welcome to give it a shot. As with all things, we should strive for the best possible quality with what we have. I got a suggestion for somewhat less growling and more voice for Mozilla, but I'm afraid I don't have the means to do "half-growling" - either I growl, or I don't. As said, if anyone else got a proposal, please come forward, or be forever silent (just kidding).

I'll try to do some other character(s) in the coming days.

[Kinsu]

I do not think it's too much for a cartoonish game

Yes, for a dinosaur it's good to me !

If anyone have some proposals of their own, they're certainly welcome to give it a shot.

I may give it a try if I have the time... sounds fun to make