[MOD] Irenicus voice better matches the Hooded Man (updated)
tl1942
Member Posts: 178
One tiny thing that bugged me about the transition between Siege of Dragonspear and Shadows of Amn was that you can instantly tell that David Warner's voice sounds quite different when you wake up in Chateau Irenicus. His dialogue audio is delivered more quickly and with a higher pitch.
I actually prefer the deeper, slower delivery in SOD; I almost get the sense that Warner was told to deliver his lines really quickly in BG2 due to file size constraints ~20 years ago. I'm half-joking but that's what it feels like.
To make the transition more seamless, I slightly tweaked all of the Irenicus audio from BG2/SOA to better match Warner's delivery in SOD. This means that I *slightly* slowed down and reduced the pitch of the audio, that's all.
This is a very subtle change! I absolutely did not want to ruin or in any way detract from Warner's performance in BG2, so the changes are only modest. But, IMHO it makes a huge difference and I can better suspend my disbelief when I transition from SOD to SOA. I think that they now sound like the exact same person.
The audio files are attached below (simply drag and drop into your override folder).
EDIT: Further tweaks, meticulously trying to match the frequency spectrum of the Hooded Man audio files. The Hooded Man's audio also has a very subtle echo which I tried to match as closely as possible. Also matched to this excellent must-download mod that resamples SOD's audio from 44khz to BG1 and BG2's 22khz. This should be the final version.
I actually prefer the deeper, slower delivery in SOD; I almost get the sense that Warner was told to deliver his lines really quickly in BG2 due to file size constraints ~20 years ago. I'm half-joking but that's what it feels like.
To make the transition more seamless, I slightly tweaked all of the Irenicus audio from BG2/SOA to better match Warner's delivery in SOD. This means that I *slightly* slowed down and reduced the pitch of the audio, that's all.
This is a very subtle change! I absolutely did not want to ruin or in any way detract from Warner's performance in BG2, so the changes are only modest. But, IMHO it makes a huge difference and I can better suspend my disbelief when I transition from SOD to SOA. I think that they now sound like the exact same person.
The audio files are attached below (simply drag and drop into your override folder).
EDIT: Further tweaks, meticulously trying to match the frequency spectrum of the Hooded Man audio files. The Hooded Man's audio also has a very subtle echo which I tried to match as closely as possible. Also matched to this excellent must-download mod that resamples SOD's audio from 44khz to BG1 and BG2's 22khz. This should be the final version.
Post edited by tl1942 on
4
Comments
"I actually prefer the deeper, slower delivery in SOD; I almost get the sense that Warner was told to deliver his lines really quickly in BG2 due to file size constraints ~20 years ago. I'm half-joking but that's what it feels like."
I really like Warner's delivery in SOD a lot better; the deeper pitch and slower delivery makes the character sound more intimidating. Different strokes for different folks, I guess, though it's a safe bet most people see it the way you do (because they originally played BG2 20 years ago, so in their mind, that's the way Irenicus is *supposed* to sound by default). Regardless, this is here for anybody who wants it.
I think if you gave a listen to the audio files above with an open mind, you might just agree that the slightly deeper voice and slightly slower delivery is more effective.
Again, the change is very subtle; you might not even notice without comparing it to the original audio. I absolutely did not want to ruin the original BG2 audio, so the change is only slight. But IMHO, it's effective and a change for the better.