Creating Berzerk like voice synthesis, how?

[Sinister1]

I have recently begun the concept stages of making a homebrew. At the moment I'm starting with just PC development. The game will be classic styled, similar to Atari 2600 or arcade games of that time. Something I really want in my game is some voice clips that sound like they would fit in Berzerk. Could anyone point me in the right direction for creating that? Is there any good programs that would allow me to do this?

[SeaGtGruff]

Which game console or computer would this be programmed for?

 

Edit: Okay, you said "just PC" in your post, so I guess it's a computer with a modern OS (Windows, Mac, Unix, etc.). If that's the case, I'd think you should be able to just record brief messages and save or convert them to WAV files or other audio file formats, then play a given file in your game when appropriate.

 

Edit #2: I guess maybe we need to know what *language* you're going to be programming in. I'd think most modern languages should have built-in functions or established practices for playing sound files.

Edited June 14, 2013 by SeaGtGruff

[Sinister1]

Which game console or computer would this be programmed for?

 

Edit: Okay, you said "just PC" in your post, so I guess it's a computer with a modern OS (Windows, Mac, Unix, etc.). If that's the case, I'd think you should be able to just record brief messages and save or convert them to WAV files or other audio file formats, then play a given file in your game when appropriate.

 

Edit #2: I guess maybe we need to know what *language* you're going to be programming in. I'd think most modern languages should have built-in functions or established practices for playing sound files.

 

Yes I am talking about modern PC OS, windows specifically. I'm starting out in game creation as simple as it gets with GameMaker. I was thinking perhaps there was some type of text to speech I could use to produce the results I want. But maybe I should just heavily modify a real voice clip?

 

To be more specific I have no problem recording sound or putting it in my game. My problem is producing the exact type of sound I'm looking for.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Sinister1

[SeaGtGruff]

Yes, there are programs that can do text-to-speech. If the development tool you're using (I'm not familiar with GameMaker) doesn't have some kind of text-to-speech function, you can download a program to do that and save the speech as a WAV file or other audio file type. I don't know what all is out there to choose from, but WavePad from NCH will let you type in text and create synthesized speech, then save it to a file. You can download WavePad for free, but I think maybe the text-to-speech tool will get disabled after the trial period is up. If that's the case and you don't want to buy it, I do have the master's version of WavePad so I could create the speech synthesis files for you if you need.

[SeaGtGruff]

It looks like there are web sites where you can do free text-to-speech conversions, but attached is a sample I made in WavePad. I also used WavePad to modify the voice a bit, and reduced the sample rate and sample size to keep the file small.

Stupid human You couldn't hit the side of a barn.wav

[SeaGtGruff]

Here's three versions of another one. The first is unchanged except for the reduction in sample rate (to 6000) and sample size (to 8 bits). In the second one I lowered the voice 10 semitones. In the third one I undid the second change and lowered the voice 6 semitones.

Your mother thinks 2600 PacMan is awesome (original).wav

Your mother thinks 2600 PacMan is awesome (change 1).wav

Your mother thinks 2600 PacMan is awesome (change 2).wav

[SeaGtGruff]

One more, since I'm having so much fun.

You missed me, and my imaginary friend too!.wav

[Sinister1]

Thank you for your help so far. In a couple hours I will be able to look at all the things you have posted, as I am currently busy with other things

[Sinister1]

I listened to all you posted. Its pretty close to what I'm trying to do. I really appreciate the help. As soon as I can I will try out the program you mentioned and post again with results.

[SeaGtGruff]

WavePad can be downloaded and used for free for a trial period-- I don't remember, but I think it might be for as long as a month. During the trial period all of the features will work, but after the trial period is ended some features will stop working-- including the text-to-speech tool. To keep the text-to-speech tool working I believe you'll need to purchase a license for the Master's Edition, which is normally $129 but temporarily reduced to $79.99 until June 15 (tomorrow!).

 

When I tried WavePad I decided to buy the Master's Edition after the trial period ended because one of the main things I wanted to use it for was the ability to do a Fourier frequency analysis of a sound, which is available only in the Master's Edition. I later found a free utility that will do the same thing-- but I actually like WavePad's FFT tool better, so I'm content with my decision to buy it.

 

If you're mainly wanting to just do text-to-speech and then modify the result, there might be free resources you can use-- e.g., use one free tool to do the text-to-speech conversion, and a different free tool to modify it. I'm telling you this because, while I do like WavePad and find it to be useful, I'd hate to recommend it to you, have you buy it, and then have you find a bunch of free tools that could meet your needs just as well.

 

Earlier this afternoon I searched for "text to speech free online" and there seem to be many web pages or apps that will do text-to-speech for free and create a WAV or MP3 sound file for you. I didn't try them out, but most look like they either try to produce "natural" sounding voices, or synthesized voices that probably sound similar to the "original" version I posted for "Your mother thinks 2600 PacMan is awesome" (which sounded much better before I reduced the sample rate and sample size), so you'll probably want to modify the result somehow to make it sound more robotic, alien, or whatever. WavePad's text-to-speech tool uses whatever the default voice engine is on your computer-- in my case it's "Microsoft Sam"-- but you can also download third-party voice engines (which may need to be purchased).

 

If you do download WavePad and try it for free, I'd recommend wasting no time generating your text-to-speech samples and playing around with different ways to modify them, so you can accomplish your goal before the trial period ends. Or if you download it and decide right away that you like it enough to buy the Master's Edition, be aware that the sale price ends June 15-- although from what I've seen, it looks like they regularly offer their software on sale, so if you miss tomorrow's deadline then you might want to wait another few months to see if they put it on sale again.

 

One last thing I need to mention about WavePad, because I just recently got burned with it. If you buy a license, it will let you apply free updates to the program for a period of 3 months. After 3 months, any updates you apply will require you to buy a new license. I found this out the hard way, but fortunately I was able to reinstall my original version and reactivate my existing license without having to buy another license. So keep a copy of the original installation file-- they actually recommend doing this themselves-- and keep copies of the emails that contain your license information, activation key, etc.

[+Random Terrain]

I wonder if this is better or worse than GameMaker:

 

Construct 2