Making the human voice sound scary

[santacore]

Serato Pitch N' Time can do some cool things while still sounding good.

The bottom line is you can't change a performance. If they really want it scary, tell them to re-voice it properly.

[AMIEL]

use a granulator!

[soundfx]

Yeah, the performance really does need to be spot on scary in the first place. One common trick also is to use 2 pitch shifters....one slightly under normal pitch and the second slightly over. If used subtly, it can make the voice nauseatingly evil. Of course, that's just a start. Maybe you could reverse the voice, then print reverb to the reversed track. Then reverse THAT file. You're left with a creepy sound whereas the voice is preceded by its own reverse reverb tail....sucking every syllable into being. I'm sure there are a gazillion more starting points.

[richardswag]

Give this a go - it's free!

Koen Tanghe @ Smartelectronix : KTGranulator

[Brent Hahn]

You can double the voice with a whisper. When you do it, make it match the original exactly, but do it, you know... creepier. It'll be somewhere between a bit of work and a whole bunch to get it to match exactly, but the results will be cool -- very organic. Filtering /pitch shifting/chorusing the whisper can be nice, too.

A musical example of this is Jim Morrison's vocal on "Riders on the Storm." Not really meant to be "scary" in that context, but it does add a certain eeriness.

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

You can double the voice with a whisper. When you do it, make it match the original exactly, but do it, you know... creepier.

Yeah good trick, also just dubbing in general can make it sound bigger and badder. But as always you need a deep evil voice to begin with .-)

If you have trouble aligning the whisper and the original, use VocAlign when lazy.

[Andrew Mottl]

You could try Avoc Throat . It lets you change the "throat" of the vocal perfomer, might be able to do sth. with it.

Pitch shifting is nice. Think musically - go for a tritone interval (-6 half notes below the original, and maybe another one -12 for the octave below. Or -11 to really get to the ears).

Another nice thing: Reverse reverb ("preverb"). Either bei consolidating the track to another one, reversing that, apply reverb 100% wet, then reverse the track again. Should be in time with the original now, but the reverb leads up to the actual words.
Easily done with an impulse reverb plugin that allows you to revers the impulse response. Then delay the track "backwards", i.e. so that it starts earlier to compensate for the long preverb tail.
Short plates work well!

Just my two cents.

[Stephen Muir]

I recently worked on a project where the "creepy alien energy creature" (visual effects pending) ADR had already been recorded in a rather flat monotone. I wound up throwing pretty much every "spooky voice" trick I could think of at it.

The primary (C channel) vocals were pitch-shifted downward quite a bit, with a second even lower-pitched version mixed in at a lower level. To add a bit of an unnatural gurgle, I used a slap delay (0 ms delay, 21% depth, LPF off, rate 18Hz).

To fill up the L R LS RS a bit, I used the previously described "preverb" technique. Actually, I made up six tracks of 100% wet "preverb," each with slightly different pitch-shift and slap delay gurgles, with an additional standard slap delay (different delay time for each track). The six tracks were then sent spinning around with a rather unpredictable auto-panner. The end result was mixed in pretty low but the effect was suitably unsettling, with eerie whispered repetitions of the vocals bouncing back from random points in space.

The whole mess was then sent through a bass extender and an impulse reverb. Some articulation was lost in the process; fortunately the ADR had been very clearly annunciated.

[maria]

Wow, great stuff guys I'm really having fun with this one

[RadioFilter]

I think no single effect will come off sounding great so definitely try layering a few like the others have mentioned. I've gotten good results by pitching down the original track 1 or 2 semitones with the formant turned down a little as well (Digidesign's TimeShift plug). On another track I pitched the original down an octave (12 semitones) and added 100% wet impulse response reverb, something with a short decay time, and moved it a frame or two later. Another track had just a touch of spectral delay for added creepiness. I chose not to use preverb because that, to me, sounds telepathic or non-material but works great in other situations.

It's great to hear other people's approach!

[seanmccoy]

Originally Posted by richardswag

Give this a go - it's free!

Koen Tanghe @ Smartelectronix : KTGranulator

The sound design team for The Golden Compass also mentioned granulation (without naming a plugin or processor) in the current Mix magazine. I've never played with this at all because I assumed it was more for creating strange synth patches. What's the consensus on their usefulness in post, and are there any other contenders?

[theoryinmotion]

Anatares Throat

[charles maynes]

I used PurePitch for the film Constantine... there is even a "Devil" preset that is a good starting point....



Charles Maynes

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by charles maynes

I used PurePitch for the film Constantine... there is even a "Devil" preset that is a good starting point....

Charles Maynes

Do they have a preset called "God?" I know a ton of VO guys...

[santacore]

Do they have a preset called "God?" I know a ton of VO guys...

For that I'd call Michael McConnohie. I love working with that guy.

[charles maynes]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

Do they have a preset called "God?" I know a ton of VO guys...

you must be thinking of the Don Lafontaine preset... it doesn't work unless the starts with "In a world..."


Charles Maynes

[littledoodler]

Speakerphone is really really good for this.

[maria]

wow that sounds amazingly scary The only problem I have encountered is that my room tone is also transforming down which doesn't match with the other characters. I managed to reduce it at some points but at other places my room tone is just too loud to be removed. As anyone ever had this problem before?

[Andrew Mottl]

Have you tried filling/backing the pitched part with a pure room tone?

And maybe a properly set expander will help reduce the room on the pitched track?


But you might already have tried all one could...

[maria]

Great idea, I actually used the wavearts plug-in and got a pretty good result.