Crowdsourcing custom sound sets
meagloth
Member Posts: 3,806
So if any of you have ever tried to make a custom voice set from clips of a television show, you know how much work it can be. Sifting through hours of a television show to find enough clips of a certain characters voice to make a full set, and not really getting enough lines to make it work.
Well, I think I might have a solution. A part-solution, at least.
We can Crowdsource the lines. If a few people take an episode each, and write down the time and line we could compile them best them into a soundset much faster. And this way, of someone wanted a specific voice set, we might be able have one in a few days. To-order voice sets, if you will.
For example: I want a Malcolm Reynolds (firefly) voice set. So I'll watch ep. 1, and every time I hear what I think might be a useable line, I write down the time and the line, and a suggested use like this:
Battle cry- "We are just to pretty for God to let us die" -1:22:42 se1 ep1
And I'll do that for all the lines I find on episode one. And @Nonnahswriter can do it for episode 2, @Elminister can do it for 3, @Ravenslight can do it for episode 4, and soon, we have the whole season. Then we can pick the ones we want, and one person can go back, record and compile it all.
Ta-da, custom soundset.
So starting us off, I already have a few mal lines* so I'll post those. I already have the, recoded so I won't go back and rewatch the episode to find the time and episode, but they'll still work. What sound they'll be(action, selection, enviroment, etc) are flexible. I'm putting action, selection, and rare action/selection under "selection" for simplicity.
Battle cry- You hold. YOU HOLD!
Battle cry- wea are just to pretty for God to let us die
Selection- right
Selection- I just wanna get payed
Action- this shouldn't take to long
Party death- it doesn't have to go this way
In city- I can't help thinkin there's something else at work here
Selection- wheel never stops turnin'
Action- we'll be dead. can't get paid if we're dead.
Selection- your mouth is talkin, might want to to look to that
Selection- it's been a long time since patience shot me, and that was due to a perfectly legitimate conflict of interest. I got no grudge.
Selection- if anyone gets nosy just.., you know, shoot em'
Selection- everybody's makin a fuss
Selection-how's business?
Bored- this is not my best day ever
Action- hey, is there a reward?
Target immune- huh
Pickpocket- I'm sorry, was this one for you?
Battle cry- you don't want to go down this road with me, boy
Spell disrupted- makes my life a little for interesting than I usually like.
Trap set- I'm a bad man
Leader- you live by my rule, keep your sister from doin anything crazy... You could maybe find a place here.
Death- I'm thinkin we'll rise again
Stealth- got us some crime to be done
So as you can see, I've got a few, but not a full set, and some are real hard to find. Here's a link to a guide to making custom soundsets, if you don't know already.
*I know it's been a while, but I'll resume work on my custom soundset I promised tommorow, regardless of the interest in this thread.
Well, I think I might have a solution. A part-solution, at least.
We can Crowdsource the lines. If a few people take an episode each, and write down the time and line we could compile them best them into a soundset much faster. And this way, of someone wanted a specific voice set, we might be able have one in a few days. To-order voice sets, if you will.
For example: I want a Malcolm Reynolds (firefly) voice set. So I'll watch ep. 1, and every time I hear what I think might be a useable line, I write down the time and the line, and a suggested use like this:
Battle cry- "We are just to pretty for God to let us die" -1:22:42 se1 ep1
And I'll do that for all the lines I find on episode one. And @Nonnahswriter can do it for episode 2, @Elminister can do it for 3, @Ravenslight can do it for episode 4, and soon, we have the whole season. Then we can pick the ones we want, and one person can go back, record and compile it all.
Ta-da, custom soundset.
So starting us off, I already have a few mal lines* so I'll post those. I already have the, recoded so I won't go back and rewatch the episode to find the time and episode, but they'll still work. What sound they'll be(action, selection, enviroment, etc) are flexible. I'm putting action, selection, and rare action/selection under "selection" for simplicity.
Battle cry- You hold. YOU HOLD!
Battle cry- wea are just to pretty for God to let us die
Selection- right
Selection- I just wanna get payed
Action- this shouldn't take to long
Party death- it doesn't have to go this way
In city- I can't help thinkin there's something else at work here
Selection- wheel never stops turnin'
Action- we'll be dead. can't get paid if we're dead.
Selection- your mouth is talkin, might want to to look to that
Selection- it's been a long time since patience shot me, and that was due to a perfectly legitimate conflict of interest. I got no grudge.
Selection- if anyone gets nosy just.., you know, shoot em'
Selection- everybody's makin a fuss
Selection-how's business?
Bored- this is not my best day ever
Action- hey, is there a reward?
Target immune- huh
Pickpocket- I'm sorry, was this one for you?
Battle cry- you don't want to go down this road with me, boy
Spell disrupted- makes my life a little for interesting than I usually like.
Trap set- I'm a bad man
Leader- you live by my rule, keep your sister from doin anything crazy... You could maybe find a place here.
Death- I'm thinkin we'll rise again
Stealth- got us some crime to be done
So as you can see, I've got a few, but not a full set, and some are real hard to find. Here's a link to a guide to making custom soundsets, if you don't know already.
*I know it's been a while, but I'll resume work on my custom soundset I promised tommorow, regardless of the interest in this thread.
4
Comments
But I know nothing about sound editing or creating custom sound files, and it would take a lot of time for me to learn... A lot of time that I don't really have. >_>;; I mean, I'm willing to get my feet wet, but I make no promises on end results.
We have recently been playing around with Audacity and recording in general, but are still in the learning phase. With current time constraints, it’s a long term project.
A couple questions want to creep into my cloudy, half asleep mind this morning though. The first being, what would be the legalities of passing around something like this?
I'm of an opinion that as long as you make everything yourselves, don't use others' work, you'll be fine.
There're custom soundsets for BGEE that use lines from other games, so what @meagloth is thinking about, should be in that line as well.
And now this is my second opinion, after feeling a big responsibility for a right answer to this topic and some analysis.
Whichever way you cut and use sound, whatever your project, you have one thing in common: you don’t exactly own the sound effects you’re using.
This is why for using sound you have to get a licence - a permission to use the sound in specific ways.
A licence will explain what can and cannot be done with the sounds. It will outline how the sound effect can be stored, shared and used.
Every project is different and it may be difficult to know what the owner thinks without contacting the owner.
A licence can allow sound effects to be used in a few projects without restriction (i.e. "for free"). If your project isn’t listed (as "a use without restriction"), it doesn’t mean you are forbidden from using the sound this way. It just means that you may have to pay additional fees to do so.
Using a certain sound as an on-screen effect when a monster roars, a door opens, a character speaks is one of possible projects without restriction.
But even if you don't need to pay for that, you should still contact the owner.
Tl:dr: When asking and answering a legal question, it's always better to check several times. As for @meagloth 's question, this is the only right answer:
You have to contact the owner of the appropriate sounds to get a licence for using a certain sound for a soundset in BG/IWD/any other game
Also read up on Fair Use (LINK), and make sure that what you're doing is in line with that (especially with regard to using sound recordings from television shows).
Firefly and other shows are not public domain, so I would be especially careful about posting mods that pull video or audio clips from them, especially on this site. But if you can make a case for the material being covered under Fair Use, it's probably okay.