How to record a voiceover for PlaneShift's NPC!

Welcome to the PlaneShift guide for NPC voiceovers. Here we will discuss the manner in which we will accomplish large scale voice overs for our many characters, quests, and books.

Establish Standards and Practices for recording.


In order to have the greatest consistency in formatting tools and methodologies of recording given our various mics/computers/environments, we will establish a standard set of practices and advice which will apply to all who record for PlaneShift.

First install Audacity we will be using version 1.3.

Now plug in your mic and open Audacity.


Setup The Recording

Go to preferences:
  1. Audio I/O

    If you have a stereo mic change it to stereo. If it is mono make it single channel.

    Select the correct recording device.

  2. Quality

    Change the sample rate to other and select 96000 Hz (96 kHz).

    Make sure that Default Sample Format is set to 32-bit Float.

Recording

- Don't start speaking right away.
Count to three, then read the text you want to record , then at the end count to three again. Our post-production team will clean up the file later.

- When you record put something between you and the mic.
Place a flat condenser mic 8 inches away at eye height to avoid breath pops. Or place the mic at mouth height and mount a hoop-type pop filter a few inches out front.

Something like this



An old nylon stocking taped or glued to some round hoop and tightened works wonderfully and costs next to nothing.

- Record everything at 100% if possible. Keep in mind, however, that some mics are just too sensitive to do this.

- Never record anything that peaks at 100%. However you do want it to be as close as possible, so it is better to speak a little more quietly and let us amplify it later if need be. Please note that turning down the mic is not effective as this will still result in a flat peak on many occasions.

- Eliminate background noise.
Bathrooms and garages don't work well, since they both tend to have echoes.

Do not record anything just once. Say everything five times so that the best version can be chosen.

Everything shuold be recorded in English for the time being, but please do not try to change your natural accent. We are considering the idea of using different accents for the different races and would like to get as many samples as possible.

Which sentences should I record?

At this point we would like to have all the "greetings" and all the "goodbye" phrases of our NPCs.

Enter into the game, walk around and find you preferred NPC, or the one you want to record for. Say "Hi" to him and read what he answers, then record that phrase with Audacity.
Then say "goodbye", read what he says, and record this phrase as well.

Some NPCs have multiple Hi and goodbye answers, in that case, please record each one separately, and place a number in the file name, example: harnquist_hi_1.zip

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