Skip to main content

User login

What is OpenID?
  • Log in using OpenID
  • Cancel OpenID login
  • Create new account
  • Request new password
Register
  • Home
  • Browse
    • 2D Art
    • 3D Art
    • Concept Art
    • Textures
    • Music
    • Sound Effects
    • Documents
    • Featured Tutorials
  • Submit Art
  • Collect
    • My Collections
    • Art Collections
  • Forums
  • FAQ
  • Leaderboards
    • All Time
      • Total Points
      • Comments
      • Favorites (All)
      • Favorites (2D)
      • Favorites (3D)
      • Favorites (Concept Art)
      • Favorites (Music)
      • Favorites (Sound)
      • Favorites (Textures)
    • Weekly
      • Total Points
      • Comments
      • Favorites (All)
      • Favorites (2D)
      • Favorites (3D)
      • Favorites (Concept Art)
      • Favorites (Music)
      • Favorites (Sound)
      • Favorites (Textures)
  • ❤ Donate
Tutorials

[Audacity] Create a computer voice

dklon
Friday, January 11, 2013 - 14:56

Using your own voice and one effect in Audacity, you can turn yourself into a computer.

What You Will Need

  • Audacity. It's free and easy to use.
  • Plugins - You won't need any extra plugins for this effect.
  • eSpeak (optional) - If you don't have a microphone or don't feel comfortable with your voice, you can use this for text-to-speech synthesis. The output isn't amazing, but it can suffice and is unencumbered by any licensing restrictions.

Creating the effect

  1. Take a recording of your voice in Audacity. You can load any WAV output from eSpeak in as well.
  2. Select all of the sound by using the selection tool or press Ctrl-A.
  3. Go to Effect->Delay... from the menu.
  4. In the dialog that appears, type in the following values:
    • Decay: 6
    • Delay 0.009
    • Echoes: 30
  5. This will apply the effect once on the voice, and it may not sound like it did much of anything. Press Ctrl-R to repeat the effect 2-3 times. Play it back each time you apply the effect again. I've found 3 to be enough in most instances.
  6. You may notice that your waveform has grown in amplitude and may have some artifacts on the higher frequencies. To bring it back down, click Effect->Normalize..., and use the default settings. In 99% of cases this will do the trick.

Optional

If you're looking for a more sinister-sounding computer, you can pitch shift the voice (Effect->Change Pitch...) prior to adding Delay in Step 3. 1.5-2 octaves is usually enough to do the job.

  • Log in or register to post comments
qubodup
joined 16 years 3 months ago
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - 21:53
qubodup's picture

Hey, thanks for this neat and super-simple tutorial!

I made a video based on these instructions: http://youtu.be/j8BZz62ZaM8

I think you meant "Delay" and "-6" as the first attribute and parameter. :)

  • Log in or register to post comments
dklon
joined 13 years 2 months ago
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - 22:00

Awesome. Thanks for the kind words. I think my HTML might have gotten eaten there for that value. And yep, it is Delay, not Decay. When I had originally been writing it, I was also working on something explaining the ADSR envelope and must've gotten my wires crossed.

  • Log in or register to post comments