Return of the Tentacle

Sequel to the Point&Click-Adventure "Day of the Tentacle" · By catmic, pepper-mint-audio

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a few minor (English) voice annoyances

A topic by insomniac_lemon created Jul 24, 2018 Views: 730 Replies: 5

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insomniac_lemon6 years ago (1 edit)

After Hoagie does the bench press, it sounds like he says Pitchin'. Unlike the other instances of when he says that (I mean he still says it a little oddly other times, but it's in-line with the rest of the voice/attitude).

I'm not sure if it was intentional (isn't it set in the US?), but Bernard has a few Intrusive-Rs ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linking_and_intrusive_R#Intrusive_R ) as if he (or is voice actor) has a non-rhotic dialect (dialects from the UK/Australia/New Zealand especially, maybe more). An easy example of this is when he says "I don't want to scissor this", he says it like "I don't wanter scissor this". I'd say it was him just saying it too fast but I'm pretty sure he also said 'draw ring' instead of 'drawing' (I don't remember where that was, so It might've been a different character) which is a common intrusive R.

Also in Bernard's description of Hoagie, he says "he's the one who has to tidy it up" like "his the one who has to tidy it up". So maybe it is just hastiness.

I could point out more (I'd have to replay and listen to every dialogue) but I'll just leave it at this for now as I'm not sure what the capacity/desire for fixing stuff like this is. Obviously some descriptions could be differentiated more as well to better suit each character's personality...

catmicDeveloper6 years ago(+1)

Thank you for your detailed feedback, it's very appreciated. But we also can't stop stressing enough that this is a fan adventure we did for fun in our spare time.

When you make a game that is free for everyone, you will most likely be unable to pay anybody for their work. You are up for a hard task because with the scope and quality of this project, you are demanding a lot but have nothing to offer in return. These people all have their lives and bills to pay, so you will naturally end up very low on their priority list. This forces you to make a lot of compromises. Of course, players want the original voice actors, recorded in a studio with great acoustics and the best equipment and you will also need to have an experienced dialogue director and a crew of audio editors to get awesome results as fast as possible.

It is very easy to want everything especially if you can afford it. We can't afford that, actually we can't afford anything like that. Our budget was 0€ and we think it was a very reasonable decision to make sure that the voice actors capture the spirit of the characters instead of demanding the 30th take because of some phonetic details and thereby killing all their energy and motivation for the recording session.

So as a free fan project, other options are simply out of range and too expensive for us. Nevertheless, we love all the performances of our cast and think they were way to good for not being paid.

insomniac_lemon6 years ago

Uhh yeah, I understand all of that (hence the last paragraph). I just figured these are small enough to actually fix (hence why I didn't say anything like "you need to redo all of this"). Or, in the case of Bernard, maybe I was wrong about him being born/raised in the US. Some of the issues may even be editing errors (noise removal gone awry or mistakes with splicing?) and may be fixable more easily if the raw recordings are still saved.

FWIW most of the voices are decent impressions of the original voices and good in their own right. Many of them you have to compare one-after-the-other to tell the difference (for instance the original Hoagie voice is more John Goodman-y--as in more gravelly yet booming--although I think the RotT voice is perfectly fitting and acceptable. Like maybe his voice was just a bit stressed back in the DotT days).

catmicDeveloper6 years ago (1 edit)

We used denoising only on certain occasions as it was really not necessary for most of the recorded dialogue. And you are right, the English Bernard actually is from Australia and we love what he did. We just don't think it is a good use of our time to go through hours of recordings and trying to alter a slight accent.

Concerning the "pitching" after Hoagie is done with the bench: we think it makes the "bitching" sound more stronger in this place. Sometimes, an "mistake" can be intentional. That line replaced with Hoagies standard "bitching" makes it sound weaker.

Don't get us wrong, that was interesting feedback, indeed. We just take the opportunity to explain how we came up with this. Maybe, next time we want to record a strong "bitchin"-line and push the voice actor to a "pitching", we may remember this and will try a slightly softer p, that is still strong enough for what we want to tell? ;)

insomniac_lemon6 years ago

Sorry, I can't imagine why substituting a b sound for a p would be intentional... it just sounds odd. I've never heard anyone say it like that.

It kinda-sorta-maybe makes sense as a way to show fatigue post-workout, but that'd be better served by a more tired/breathy pronunciation (like a drawn-out 'biiiih-chen', maybe even with an inhale inbetween). Even more complicated is the energized attitude and that if you work-out first he won't say it until after eating (allowing him to Popeye). So it really seems like a higher-energy (contrasting his normal laid-back attitude) and faster pronunciation (maybe even b'ch'n') would be more in-tune with how he acts.

Also Re:English Bernard, does your English Laverne voice actor have English as a second language? She has more of a foreign accent (one I can't really recognize) and less of a crazy voice. Sort of makes me think maybe Laverne is an exchange student (maybe she was kicked out of medical school in her home country for doing something... unethical... or because she had a breakdown/episode? Either one barring her from medical practice, but not in the US?) so it doesn't feel too out-of-place.

Trevizer6 years ago

Is possible to add an option to mute the voices? I know is a great job but for non-english people can be a little annoying, thanks!

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Return of the Tentacle

a few minor (English) voice annoyances