Combine Overwatch Voice Effect

[Carmack]

Hey!
I was just wondering if anyone would know any specifics on emulating the combine overwatch voice effect. It would be very neato to play with. Just imagine a combine soldier saying:
"I'll have a large Burger, hold the onions and a small proportion of french fries."
Any help on what program or presets would help.

-Carmack

 

[Roman Legion]

That wud be cool!!

I wunder if they sell combine voice effect...

 

[Carmack]

That would be pretty awesome.
Just imagine- a singing combine soldier!

 

[Hazar]

they ran it through some sort of filter, but as to what it does I think only they know.

 

[dogboy73]

I've got a VST plug in that can give that kind of effect to voice/vocal samples. In actual fact it simulates the effect of a voice being transmitted across short wave radio but there are parameters to shape the effect.

To me it sounds like the Combine voices have been pitch shited down a few semi-tones & then had some sort of distortion added. The effect is probably finished of with some heavy EQ'ing in order to shape the sound to give it that talking through a gass mask quality.

 

[Lahire149]

what is your VST plugin for (which application)?

 

[Plug]

To me it sounds like the Combine voices have been pitch shited down a few semi-tones & then had some sort of distortion added. The effect is probably finished of with some heavy EQ'ing in order to shape the sound to give it that talking through a gass mask quality.

ch-ching

pitched down, light distortion and a bit of eq'ing to accentuate the harsh frequencies coming out of the helmet. Most of the effect would come from the original voice recording, the way it's spoken.

 

[Sid Burn]

That's awesome!!! I hope you can create one...

 

[Ennui]

yeah, if anyone gets settings for it or something in a common program then tell us the presets.

 

[Carmack]

yeah, if anyone gets settings for it or something in a common program then tell us the presets.

Yeah, I'm messing around with Sony Sound Forge to see if I can get anything.

 

[Carmack]

Yay!

Well, after more than a year I finally came somewhat close to emulating it! Not that hard, done with Fruity Loops and the Vocoder VST.
"Hello Halflife2.net" - Kind of bad quality though
Clicky
"Random Conversation About Coffee" - Kind of hard to hear
Clicky

-Carmack

 

[Beerdude26]

I wondered when you were going to be able to emulate it. Now all we must do is make a gigantic HL2 RPG with Shens as the protagonist! \0/

 

[Ludah]

To me it sounds like they took the original voices, pitched them down a few semitones, ran through some light phaser effect, and then distorted it. Considering the way vocoders work, I don't think they were implemented, but I don't know.

You can get something approximate to it in any music program, and could probably fine tune it to sound exactly like what you hear in the game.

I've fooled around with the stuff a little bit in Reason, but nothing extensive.

1. Record your voice.
2. Load it up into the NN19.
3. Route through a Scream4 Distortion module and a PH90 phaser (in whatever order you think works best, depending on which effect you want to dominate).
4. Go to town and you should eventually get something close. I personally think the "Fuzz" algorithm on the Scream4 works best, but perhaps "Digital" would be better suited.

 

[Para]

Well, after more than a year I finally came somewhat close to emulating it! Not that hard, done with Fruity Loops and the Vocoder VST.
"Hello Halflife2.net" - Kind of bad quality though
Clicky
"Random Conversation About Coffee" - Kind of hard to hear
Clicky

-Carmack

Good enough for me. All it needs is those radio clicks and such and it's ready to be used in a mod or something.

 

[VortigauntLover]

Well, I don't know how they did that, but me and my cousin can do a really good Combine voice with just our natural talking voice.
Very amusing actually.

 

[TaoFan]

Nice try, but it's very hissy and it just doesn't sound complete without those wonderful radio beeps.

 

[hool10]

Someone see if they can get info by e-mailing, "Kelly Bailey". He was the head honcho for the sound in Half-Life and Half-Life 2. If they can sell voice changing Darth Vader helmets I know fans can make a Combine voice changing helmet.

 

[Para]

Someone see if they can get info by e-mailing, "Kelly Bailey". He was the head honcho for the sound in Half-Life and Half-Life 2. If they can sell voice changing Darth Vader helmets I know fans can make a Combine voice changing helmet.

True fan's easy three-step guide to making "real" combine voice:
1) get yourself such a bad cough that you need to be hospitalized
2) get a cheap (5 dollar tops!) walkie-talkie and start jammin'
3) record the voice and profit!

Disclaimer: May not actually work.

 

[Ludah]

The static and beeps can easily be replicated with white noise and some simple waveforms.

 

[Vass]

I've got radio clicks (added white noise) and lower pitch but how would I distort the voice?

 

[hool10]

True fan's easy three-step guide to making "real" combine voice:
1) get yourself such a bad cough that you need to be hospitalized
2) get a cheap (5 dollar tops!) walkie-talkie and start jammin'
3) record the voice and profit!

Disclaimer: May not actually work.

Rofl! I can just see it now, Combine walkie talkies that alter your voice to sound like them. And the handsets are combine heads with a litte antenna sticking out of the top. And then you could could put the dials on as eyes.

 

[Azner]

Rofl! I can just see it now, Combine walkie talkies that alter your voice to sound like them. And the handsets are combine heads with a litte antenna sticking out of the top. And then you could could put the dials on as eyes.

Um...

 

[kewlnick12]

I did the voice once.I found you need to have a croaky voice to work.

 

[Hazar]

lawl, I remember this thread from way back when