The term voice changer (also known as voice enhancer) refers to a device which can change the tone or pitch of or add distortion to the user's voice, or a combination and vary greatly in price and sophistication. A kazoo or a didgeridoo can be used as a makeshift voice changer, though it can be difficult to understand what the person is trying to say.[citation needed]
Hardware implementations
[edit]The earliest voice changers were electronic devices usually used over the telephone for the purpose of disguise. There are low-priced, small lithium battery-powered voice changers that are used between a phone's mouthpiece and the user's mouth.[1][2][3][4][5]
More sophisticated voice changers have different levels of various distortion effects variable by faders.[6][7]
Software implementations
[edit]Nowadays, software implementations are very common. There is a plethora of techniques that modify the voice by using different algorithms.[8][9] Most algorithms modify the voice by changing the amplitude, pitch and tone of the voice. The pitch plays an important role from changing a male voice into female voice, and vice versa. The results of voice changing through software are quite impressive and satisfactory.[10]
"Voice cloning" software can mimic the sound of a specific person's voice based on recordings of that voice.[11]
Appearances in media
[edit] |
- Voice changers can be seen in various movies, including Scream, Saw, Super Troopers, Steel and a Talkboy voice changer was used in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
- Current affairs television shows and documentaries will sometimes employ the use of voice changers to disguise the voice of someone who wants to remain anonymous.
- In the anime/manga series Death Note, the mysterious detective named "L" uses voice distortion. It distorts his voice, making him sound like a robot.
- Conan Edogawa, the main protagonist of the anime/manga series Detective Conan uses a bowtie-shaped voice changer. By turning a dial on its back, he is able to imitate all kinds of voices that he hears.
- In the tutorial mission of the video game, Saints Row: The Third, Johnny Gat, Shaundi, Nyte Blade, and The Protagonist all use voice changers during a bank robbery.
- Jason Hudson uses one in Call of Duty: Black Ops when interrogating Alex Mason.
- Clara Lille uses a voice distorter when talking with Aiden Pearce on her phone in the video game Watch Dogs until they meet face-to-face.
- Some superheroes use voice changers, either to disguise themselves or intimidate their opponents:
- In the live-action TV series Arrow, Oliver Queen, when communicating under disguise as "the Arrow", uses a voice changer.
- In the film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Bruce Wayne uses it to disguise his voice and to inflict fear into criminals.
- In the film Spider-Man: Homecoming, a voice changer is activated when Spider-Man turns on his Tech Suit's interrogation mode, making him speak in a deep, frightening voice to a potential suspect.
- In the animated TV series Star Wars Rebels, the Rebel Alliance's Fulcrum agents use voice changers to disguise their identities.
- A Coca-Cola commercial starring Mindy Kaling also features a person who has a disguised voice and appearance to remain anonymous.
- Microsoft introduces Voice Cloning in Virtual Team Meeting software referring to teams.
- In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Mike Toreno uses voice changers when calling CJ.
- In the Spanish heist TV series Money Heist, the leader of the robbers, the Professor, frequently uses a voice changer to talk to the police.
- In the Rugrats episode "Angelica Orders Out", Angelica uses Stu's voice changer, which makes her sound like her mother, to call a deli to order dessert and to call all of the kids' parents to go to her fake surprise party.
References
[edit]- ^ "Electronic Halloween voice changer with Phil Burgess". YouTube. 10 October 2012.
- ^ "HOW-TO – Wave Shield Voice Changer @ Adafruit Learning System". 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Voice changer megaphone". Archived from the original on 13 April 2021.
- ^ "Voice Changers".
- ^ "Voice Changer".
- ^ "AMC2 NEO and PD200X All in One Personal Streaming Audio Production Studio".
- ^ "MHC-V42D | Guía de ayuda | Diversas funciones para karaoke".
- ^ Abe, M.; Nakamura, S.; Shikano, K.; Kuwabara, H. (April 1988). "Voice conversion through vector quantization". ICASSP-88., International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. pp. 655–658 vol.1. doi:10.1109/ICASSP.1988.196671. S2CID 62203146.
- ^ Hui Ye; Young, S. (May 2004). "High quality voice morphing". 2004 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. Vol. 1. pp. I–9. doi:10.1109/ICASSP.2004.1325909. ISBN 0-7803-8484-9. S2CID 14019057.
- ^ Ahmed, I.; Sadiq, A.; Atif, M.; Naseer, M.; Adnan, M. (February 2018). "Voice morphing: An illusion or reality". 2018 International Conference on Advancements in Computational Sciences (ICACS). pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/ICACS.2018.8333282. ISBN 978-1-5386-2172-1. S2CID 4775311.
- ^ Brayne, Sarah (2018). "Visual Data and the Law". Law & Social Inquiry. 43 (4): 1149–1163. doi:10.1111/lsi.12373. PMC 10857868. PMID 38343725. S2CID 150076575.