Female Announcer Project (finished! Custom requests too!)

[Dantarion]

I think its good. Maybe slightly different than normal, but every announcer has its quirks.
Blazblue's announcer is full of engrish, but since its official, people just got used to it.

 

[Slashy]

I think its good. Maybe slightly different than normal, but every announcer has its quirks.
Blazblue's announcer is full of engrish, but since its official, people just got used to it.

Yeah, but...

A. Blazblue's announcer was under my stern, serious description, "REBEL 1...ACTION" has a lot of energy to it.
B. There are ways to incorporate custom announcers in BlazBlue
C. Engrish isn't always a bad thing, that was the charm of Capcom VS SNK 2 and King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2's announcers

BlazBlue's announcer fit BlazBlue, a steampunk and somewhat gritty fighter. It wouldn't fit Smash Bros., an off the wall fighting game with wacky characters and wacky gameplay. A calm, serious announcer just doesn't fit this game, it is jarring to have wacky (and depending on the mod, fast) gameplay with a calm voice.

The portrayal just doesn't represent a game where a plumber fights an electric rat. The fast paced, energetic, high pitched announcer fits the cartoony, light hearted, aesthetic that all three Smash games follow.

 

[ranmaru]

The problem with something cutesy and energetic is that people get annoyed of hearing it very quickly - that's what I did in super smash flash years ago and everyone hated my voice :/ So I tried to go for something like a sexy voice; I'm not really sure how else I could do it without making people get sick of it after two games

Hmmm. How about, crazy omg WTF IM CRAZY ENERGETIC voice? Super smash flash? Hmmm I might see it to see what you mean.

But you are right, you don't want it to get out of hand, but yet you still want it to fit in place. I'm sure there's a middle ground you can achieve.

And yes, I am thinking Bomberman Generations/ Puyo pop announcer style. I don't know what else to think of.

but yeah, try energetic + crazy. Don't be hesitant because some people didn't take your voice well. : D

 

[Two-Ell]

I liked your voice, but I'd love if the announcements were a little less sexual sounding. I don't have any experience with VA'ing, but maybe if you could put a little more energy in your voice, and like slashy suggested, 'announce' the events that would be great.

It doesn't have to be annoyingly cheerful, but I'm sure there's some sort of good middle ground.

 

[ranmaru]

Listening to your voice on Super Smash Flash, it reminds me of Kirby's Avalanche. : D

Just try different variations. I like it. Listen to Kirby's Avalanche announcer. In fact, I loved the announcer in that game! :3

 

[ranmaru]

Voice Snake in a deep voice.
DO EET.

Segtendo. I now challenge you to voice snake in a girly sexy voice. DO ETT

 

[Slashy]

I hope you don't take this too personally Rina-chan, but you really need some outside direction on these projects. It's best for community projects like these to either stick to roles that worked really well in the past or converse with the community as to the best way to approach it.

From what I've observed now and in the past , you're a very talented voice actor, but you're not a very skilled one...if that's a way to put it. You have the ability to probably perform any role given to you, you just don't know the best way to do it. This is why dancers have choreographers, singers have coaches, chefs work under head chefs, and actors have directors, these are the people who bring talent out to its fullest (otherwise they fail at their job). Once you're you have enough experience I have no doubt that you could probably perform a role on your own without the need for a director.

 

[ranmaru]

You know, her suzumiya page seems pretty professional tho. Maybe that's not the case.

I got confused when Slashy called you Kira. I was like 'Kina... Rika... huh?'

 

[Slashy]

You know, her suzumiya page seems pretty professional tho. Maybe that's not the case.

I got confused when Slashy called you Kira. I was like 'Kina... Rika... huh?'

I got the names confused...

 

[Evilagram]

I second Slashy's statement. Rina-chan, you regularly try to push your voice in a way that sounds fake. Your "sexy" attempt just falls flat. It reminds me of the female voice from unreal tournament, which was terrible. Example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq-37V_CayA&t=40

The male voices at the beginning of the video however manage to be excellent. They're some of the best announcer voices out there, regularly used in custom servers across the FPS spectrum. The female ones are just awkward. They tried the same "sexy" thing you did, and they turned out just as bad.

What these announcer calls, versus your other voice acting work, prove is that you can actually speak without sounding like a high pitched source of annoyance.

So lets ask, what's an example of a fantastic female announcer? Simple, Ellen McLain, the voice actor of GLaDOS, the combine radio system, and the announcer in Team Fortress 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHQkcXgeUrI Her readings are not only full of personality, they're delivered well in context with the content they are paired with. They sound serious, not flirty or perky as ****. These are all read more or less the same way the male voices are read, only with a female voice.

Like what Slashy said, I recommend working with a voice coach of some kind if voice acting is a path you want to take. Can't work with a professional? Get a friend who will criticize you mercilessly, and keep bouncing stuff off them until they can no longer make any complaints.

I'm sorry for the length of this post and hope to see more voice acting in the future.

 

[Dantarion]

I second Slashy's statement. Rina-chan, you regularly try to push your voice in a way that sounds fake. Your "sexy" attempt just falls flat. It reminds me of the female voice from unreal tournament, which was terrible. Example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq-37V_CayA&t=40

The male voices at the beginning of the video however manage to be excellent. They're some of the best announcer voices out there, regularly used in custom servers across the FPS spectrum. The female ones are just awkward. They tried the same "sexy" thing you did, and they turned out just as bad.

You do realize that Unreal2003+ had TWO sets of female announcers, one literally called "Sexy" and then the default female announcer that does the timer and objective updates?

The sexy voice in Unreal is supposed to sound wicked ridiculous for the rewards because those rewards rarely happen in play. (Unless youre playing instagib).

In Ut2004, the default announcer is definetly the female one, and the default rewards announcer is the male one. The 'sexy' one you linked to is supposed to sound sexy and ridiculous, just like the male ones M-M-M-M-MONSTER KILL.

 

[Slashy]

You do realize that Unreal2003+ had TWO sets of female announcers, one literally called "Sexy" and then the default female announcer that does the timer and objective updates?

The sexy voice in Unreal is supposed to sound wicked ridiculous for the rewards because those rewards rarely happen in play. (Unless youre playing instagib).

In Ut2004, the default announcer is definetly the female one, and the default rewards announcer is the male one. The 'sexy' one you linked to is supposed to sound sexy and ridiculous, just like the male ones M-M-M-M-MONSTER KILL.

I DID mention Unreal Tournament in my original post. The default female announcer was great, and fit the gritty nature of the game. The announcers didn't have very many lines and were often drowned out by the rest of the action, which is also worth noting. The announcing in that game (and many other FPSs) was done more for functionality (for game information) rather than trying to enhance the experience. In many FPSs the announcing is pretty dry and nothing special, in fighting and party games; however, the announcing is designed to improve the overall experience. Whether it is setting the mood (i.e. Blazblue) or trying to make it more exciting (Smash Bros. and ANY CAPCOM GAME).

It's not about the voice, it's about the delivery, if I had to pick the closest example of a fighting game that might fit the voice pack she created, it'd be something like Def Jam Vendetta. The urban atmosphere, realism, and grittiness fit the calmer; sexier voice.

Every video game announcer that is still quoted (or at least remembered) is quoted because their delivery fit and enhanced the experience. Shao Khan from Mortal Kombat is remembered due to fitting the experience so well. In Marvel VS Street Fighter, the announcer had a booming voice and he responded to everything like it was the most amazing thing he ever saw in his life. The Marvel VS Capcom announcer was capable of doing a stern and serious performance but was able to switch to a crazy and energetic performance in a heartbeat. The Street Fighter Alpha 3 announcer was capable of delivering quirky commentary and energetic exclamations very well, which is what allowed him to basically do a huge number of crazy performances without coming off as uneasily chaotic.

 

[Banjo2553]

I'm not opposed to the idea of a female announcer (heck, I'd like it if they made a gender switch option for the announcer in the next Smash Bros.) but this just didn't feel right. The sexy tone is a bit distracting, and it just didn't seem to fit Smash Bros. Maybe go with a more energetic tone, but not so much that it's annoying. I'm very sure you can reach that middle ground.

 

[Aaron20b]

I DID mention Unreal Tournament in my original post. The default female announcer was great, and fit the gritty nature of the game. The announcers didn't have very many lines and were often drowned out by the rest of the action, which is also worth noting. The announcing in that game (and many other FPSs) was done more for functionality (for game information) rather than trying to enhance the experience. In many FPSs the announcing is pretty dry and nothing special, in fighting and party games; however, the announcing is designed to improve the overall experience. Whether it is setting the mood (i.e. Blazblue) or trying to make it more exciting (Smash Bros. and ANY CAPCOM GAME).

It's not about the voice, it's about the delivery, if I had to pick the closest example of a fighting game that might fit the voice pack she created, it'd be something like Def Jam Vendetta. The urban atmosphere, realism, and grittiness fit the calmer; sexier voice.

Every video game announcer that is still quoted (or at least remembered) is quoted because their delivery fit and enhanced the experience. Shao Khan from Mortal Kombat is remembered due to fitting the experience so well. In Marvel VS Street Fighter, the announcer had a booming voice and he responded to everything like it was the most amazing thing he ever saw in his life. The Marvel VS Capcom announcer was capable of doing a stern and serious performance but was able to switch to a crazy and energetic performance in a heartbeat. The Street Fighter Alpha 3 announcer was capable of delivering quirky commentary and energetic exclamations very well, which is what allowed him to basically do a huge number of crazy performances without coming off as uneasily chaotic.

I think Slashy brings up a really good points. I agree with what he said. Having a dull announcer/commentator just ruins the experience imo. Having real enthusiasm actually enhances it.

I hated the original Street Fighter 4 announcer, it was like all commentary and no real enthusiasm

 

[Segtendo]

Segtendo. I now challenge you to voice snake in a girly sexy voice. DO ETT

I'll turn that down and take back my statement lulz

 

[Rina-chan]

I appreciate the specific and constructive feedback I received. I'll work on one that fits the style as the original Brawl announcer, but with a female voice. Dantarion, do you need me to revise it before AX or are you cool with using it as-is for now since it's so close to deadline?

 

[Slashy]

I appreciate the specific and constructive feedback I received. I'll work on one that fits the style as the original Brawl announcer, but with a female voice. Dantarion, do you need me to revise it before AX or are you cool with using it as-is for now since it's so close to deadline?

I think analyzing Pat Cashman's performance is a great starting point into creating a better performance. I would prefer if you post some samples to us or perhaps post on a different board and get their feedback, or perhaps contact someone who did announcer work before (either fanmade or professionally, I've contacted a few in the past myself) so you know if you're on the right track before releasing the final voice pack.

 

[Rina-chan]

Do you have Skype? Since you seem to be the one who is most knowledgable and (no offense) picky about announcers, perhaps I could sit down with you and a couple of other community members and get live feedback until we agree on a style that is something people would want to use in their game. It would be difficult to record the actual samplea live as the time limits in Sawndz are so strict and I'd rather not mess with frequency divide, but maybe we could agree on a good base voice/delivery.

 

[Slashy]

Do you have Skype? Since you seem to be the one who is most knowledgable and (no offense) picky about announcers, perhaps I could sit down with you and a couple of other community members and get live feedback until we agree on a style that is something people would want to use in their game. It would be difficult to record the actual samplea live as the time limits in Sawndz are so strict and I'd rather not mess with frequency divide, but maybe we could agree on a good base voice/delivery.

My skype name is...Slashyx I'll just add it to my SmashBoards profile. I'll be on later tonight if that works, I'll be able to do my best to kinda do my own announcer style if you need examples for anything. I consider myself the Pandora of video game announcers so I'd probably be able to relate and analyze your performance against a bunch of different announcers.

Oh please, you're being far too kind with the term "picky" obsessive or crazy are better terms :D.

Ah yes, Sawndz, it isn't too bad though, a few dabs in audacity can easily help.

 

[Rina-chan]

Yeah I use Audacity to cut the sound down to the exact amount of time. It's just hard to know exactly how fast to say it except by trial and error. My Skype name is smash_princess - I'm on Alaska time though which is 1 hr behind PST so I usually get on kinda late.

I plan to keep the current announcer available as an alternate downloaf since people on other sites liked the seductive voice.

 

[ranmaru]

Do you have Skype? Since you seem to be the one who is most knowledgable and (no offense) picky about announcers, perhaps I could sit down with you and a couple of other community members and get live feedback until we agree on a style that is something people would want to use in their game. It would be difficult to record the actual samplea live as the time limits in Sawndz are so strict and I'd rather not mess with frequency divide, but maybe we could agree on a good base voice/delivery.

I do too. I might get on to hear stuffs. : D

Also I'm sure people will like the seductive tone so good idea in keeping it.

 

[Atlus8]

This is some pretty neat stuff!

 

[Dantarion]

I appreciate the specific and constructive feedback I received. I'll work on one that fits the style as the original Brawl announcer, but with a female voice. Dantarion, do you need me to revise it before AX or are you cool with using it as-is for now since it's so close to deadline?

If you end up getting it done, Ill throw it on my SD before I leave for AX.
As of right now, I will be using the ones you already did.

 

[Slashy]

I'll be around all day Saturday....since I keep missing you on Skype.

 

[Gifted]

I'm honestly stumped. I have sawndz, I have supersawndz, I have brawlbox. But I can't do it.

Sawndz requires a BRSAR http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3783/nzf9.png but as you can see, there is no "Open BRSAR"
I checked the intructions and I typed in the ID's. Still male.

Which confuses me... Why can't you people just be like "Here it is, put it in" instead of "Here's a file, find a way to convert it with this, this and this."

Because I just don't get it. It's like Textures.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/156/k2ui.png What the HELL am I supposed to do with all this?

 

[Steelia]

Seeing how this topic was made 3 years ago, that's probably why some of the info is dated and super confusing.

For one thing, I have no idea why you have the Palettes folder open in that last pic. You want the textures in the Textures(NW4R) folder, not the palettes! Those are for something else entirely, which you never need to edit anymore. Just right-click the pics in the Textures(NW4R) folder, export them into the format of your choice (PNG recommended), edit in Photoshop/GIMP or what have you, then import them keeping the same settings. Easy easy.

For Sawndz, you require a BRSAR, that's correct. But you don't open the BRSAR in Sawndz - the program injects the files into your BRSAR automatically! A very handy tool. So don't worry about opening the BRSAR. Just make sure it's in the same folder as your Sawndz program.

Now then . . .

I'm still pretty new to the whole Sawndz thing myself, but I've injected plenty of files into the BRSAR as is... Here are the values you need:

narration file *not 100% sure on this one*
DC snd_group_menu

melee file
DD snd_group_narration_melee

menu file
DE snd_group_narration_menu

characall file
DF snd_group_narration_characall


Take all the files from the RAR file and put them somewhere, preferably in the same folder as your Sawndz file.
For your BRSAR, make sure it is named smashbros_sound.brsar or Sawndz might not recognize it.
Rename the 4 files by putting ".sawnd" at the end of the filename (examples below).
Open your Sawndz program.
In the bottom-most text box, type in either DC, DD, DE, or DF (example pic below).
Click the "Insert .sawnd" button.
Search for the appropriate sawnd file.

DC = narration 4B58000.sawnd
DD = melee 4BEC900.sawnd
DE = menu 4C29480.sawnd
DF = characall 4C3B640.sawnd

After you've double-clicked on the appropriate sawnd file, Sawndz should automatically insert that file into your BRSAR. Do this for each file, and you're done! I'd recommend making a "Backup create" of your original BRSAR, just in case.
Small note, I'm using sawndz 0.12 ~

If you're going to attempt this, good luck. Hope this tutorial was of any help.

 

[Gifted]

I did everything as you said and it's still a male voice.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8114/v4ua.png
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3402/p41a.png

Can you do it and send me the files so I can just out them in my SD card? I swear on me mum, bro ham, I'mma flip my lid so high off the ground you won't see it for decades to come.

And I'm sorry for necroposting, it's just so obnoxious.

Imagine it... instead of the boring male voice going "Toon Link" Like he has no idea what he's doing. Imagine a girl going "TOON LINK!!" "PIT!!" OlimAR~!!" "SONIC!" Would just be..... great.

 

[Steelia]

There might be another way. Now that you mention the SD Card, there's a code that can load sawnd files from the SD Card. Are you using that code? I know the latest build of Project M has it, not sure of any other hacks, or what the code itself is.

I'll still look into putting them into the BRSAR in the meantime... By the way, what version of SSBB do you have? NTSC, PAL, etc.? The offsets I put in the previous post are for the NTSC version, if that makes any difference.

Edit, after playing around a little with the files, I found the problem. They're not sawnd files... they're BRWSD files! I think. That would explain why they couldn't be injected with Sawndz. Going to have to do this the hard way, so I'll get back to this in a bit.

Edittwo, after a little while of tinkering, I came up with this. I uploaded a zip file to this post, download it and insert those files using Sawndz. The ones on the first post didn't work, but these ones should. Let me know how it goes

 

[Gifted]

So.. I did the insert and it's still a male voice. You know, this is Karma.

Unless, I'm not supposed to put it in the sfx folder.... am I supposed to put it in the "Sound folder" ?
-chex-

EditTwo. Fk this.

And I have a United States Wii and Brawl.

 

[HeavySmashGuy]

I honestly don't know how this would work. Show me a vdieo of it in action and I'll see if Imlike it.

 

[Steelia]

So.. I did the insert and it's still a male voice. You know, this is Karma.

Unless, I'm not supposed to put it in the sfx folder.... am I supposed to put it in the "Sound folder" ?

Sawnd files go in the SFX folder, correct. If you go that route, they're going to need to be renamed.

DC = 220.sawnd
DD = 221.sawnd
DE = 222.sawnd
DF = 223.sawnd

 

[Gifted]

YES! it worked, thank you so much. Minor issue, it wasn't the energetic girl,
but it's still better then the lame dude. Thank you, sir/ma'am. You hath saved my sanity.

I wish I could show my gratitude over the net, but sadily, text shows no sign of greatfulness. But if you could see how much I was smiling... you'd melt. Hands down serious. You would blee'en melt.

 

[Steelia]

Very glad to hear it worked! I did try browsing around for the energetic version while working on this one, but it looks like the original links for it are broken. Bummer.

Just some small notes, there's no voice call for "Pokemon Trainer" or "Fighting Alloy Team", and the "Jackpot" voice from wifi spectator mode distorts near the end. Otherwise, everything else should work okay. Hope you continue to enjoy

Lastly, I'm not sure how familiar you are with the scene, but in case you don't already know, you can find tons~ of texture mods, stage mods, and other goodies here: http://forums.kc-mm.com/Gallery/BrawlView.php
If you sign up on their forums, you can also access subforums with many guides that could be helpful if you ever want to try anything yourself.

 

[Gifted]

Lols, my Brawl is packed to the brim with Textures and PSA's from there.

My two most cherished ones are Infinity Toon Link and Prominance Toon Link.

Got my own textures and the Infinity Toon Link CPS's. I even downloaded Demise for the name. So I can have it say "Demise" instead of Toon Link, cuz I am basically a beast with it, and everyone knows who's battled me, that it was no small feat to beat me. And those who try to do Toon Link vs my Toon Link to show me how it feels to get wrecked, end up wrecked themselves. Hell, i hads to download a few God like PSA's just so people could be on Par with me. Also... I have the "Energetic Girl" links here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/r24ekbjwvg0gdg4/snd_group_narration_characall.sawnd
http://www.mediafire.com/download/3a7ccexjmazyrp6/snd_group_narration_melee.sawnd
http://www.mediafire.com/download/e9xjm5w2y5ijspi/snd_group_narration_menu.sawnd
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ntz84tdvm2a41to/snd_se_menu_narration.sawnd

See what you can do with these. And when you finish, can you tell me the codes you use?

 

[Steelia]

oo, all of those work just fine... Here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/8y3urdnwd7g3d97/rina-energetic-sawnd.zip
Renamed the files appropriately, so all you have to do is stick them in your SFX folder. Credit to Diddy Kong and Rina-chan for the originals of course.

The only codes I use are the ones supplied by the current build of Project M 3.02. I have no idea what it consists of, never peeked into the file.

 

[Gifted]

Thank you very much for your patience and helping. It means alot.

 

[tbtechwiz]

as for the OP, I am the one of the two that helped with compiling the mod, i know theres a diddy on this forum , he is not to be confused with me on brawl vault, where i am known as Diddy Kong

 

[Gifted]

Ah, well... good job on it. I love it.
Woulda been nice if you helped too while I were having the problem instead of coming in later. But it's a great mod.

"GAME!!" "TOON LINK!!!" "MARIO!!" It livens up the entire experience.

 

[IronChar]

Rina-chan I'm starting to hear your voice more and more at local P:M tornys- actually its where I first heard this re-done announcer calls. the guys seem to like your version- the regular one is very well done

 

[gamegod7]

Hey I'm not sure how active this thread is, but have you already done announcer voices for Roy and mewtwo? I would like it added to my project m build