Would There Ever Be a Possibility...?

[MatthewM]

This is awesome to see so many people now on board! I knew we would catch some fire here. Anybody that you think can and will help us out is welcome.

Thinlómien- all your ideas sound great, keep them coming. Does this Nogrod character know how to record? Because Mac, Rikae, and myself have not the slightest clue on the technical part of things.

I have some acting experience and I am banking on voicing Boromir. I will, of course, give a sample through whatever medium we choose to go with. I'm just waiting for nose to heal fully as I had my deviated septum corrected two weeks ago.

With the narration thing- it does seem like we can figure this out once the writing starts. I'm sure with dedication this will flow.

Accents- I see no big deal in differing accents as long as they aren't hard to decipher. Finnish accents are fine! I also could see a certain accent, such as Finnish, working well with the Elves. At least one of the strongholds- Rivendell or Lorien. I'm American, so I don't really know how to describe my voice in terms of a distinct heritage like Europeans can. You'll see in the near future.

Oh and...what is LJ?

[Gwathagor]

LJ = LiveJournal

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

LJ = LiveJournal

Thank you Sir Gwathagor

[Gwathagor]

Sir Gwathagor..... Heh heh. Yeah, that's right. I'm SIR Gwathagor.

[MatthewM]

Hey now, I was just being friendly, I take the Sir back! How about ... peasant?

Ok off topic, that was the last time.

[Gwathagor]

I liked it. "Sir Gwathagor" had a good ring to it.


Gwathagor has a fair amount of acting experience as well, but his voice sounds weird on tape. Good luck finding a part for him...of course, if he plays everyone, than nobody will notice that he sounds different. Maybe we should all record ourselves reading bits from the Book and post links to the recordings up here?


Anyway.

We have to figure out what format we'll use and how it'll work - whether Skype or something else. I think this should happen first, because the whole project depends on this, and on whether it's feasible.

Then we need to choose a passage to record - this might depend on what actors we have, or we might be able to recruit. Then we'll adapt it, write out a script.

And then choose the actors.

Then we actually have to make it happen. Hard part.

A lot of these things could happen simultaneously, but I thought it would be useful just to review our various objectives, to give us a general sense of order and direction.

-SIR

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by MatthewM

Does this Nogrod character know how to record? Because Mac, Rikae, and myself have not the slightest clue on the technical part of things.

I'm no professional but I do know a thing or a two as I do recordings here at my home with an audio software program - mainly music but we have experimented with other stuff as well (with Lommy and Greenie that is).

And I don't think skype is the answer to our problem.

Something I think we might try out first.

Let's decide on a short scene or a part of a scene - let's say one page or two - where we have several characters speaking and some narration and then deal the roles. Then everyone involved records her/his part with any audio device which creates a digital recording ie. one that can be sent via e-mail. You should not worry about the "silences" between what your character says, just record the lines your character has one after another. I will then combine the audio files in the mixer unit of my sofware, cut them and organise them to follow each other in the way they should be.

I can then do some limited number of tricks with the tracks (yes, I'm going to make every one person's lines into one track in the final composition) like use an equalisator to add more bass or treble to the voice, add echo or pan the tracks coming from left, right or center etc.

One thing we might also consider would be testing with different settings for voices. If you send me a clip of your voice reading a part of the text I could make a few different-sounding versions of it so that you could then decide yourself which sounds the best (even if my software has limited possibilities to handle voices they still are varied enough to produce quite different sounding voices). This might also be one way of dealing with the problem of there being comparatively more females participating in this than there are female roles in the book.

So that's the first idea that comes to my mind. What do you think?

[Rikae]

I fear that wouldn't work from an acting standpoint - none of us are professional actors, and even they don't attempt to read their lines in total isolation. There will be no sense of the tone of the other characters' readings at all.

[Macalaure]

From the acting standpoint it might be a problem, but it is very good to know that we are getting somewhere in the technical department. You recorded music, Nogrod? That's very good!

Here's a (perhaps silly) suggestion: Would it be possible to combine Nogrod's approach with Skype? The actors could connect via Skype and hear each other play, being able to interact, but each could record his own voice by himself and send it to Noggie, who pastes them together again. This sounds kind of complicated, but, under the assumption that Skype and the used recording program function together, it could maybe work.

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by Macalaure

Here's a (perhaps silly) suggestion: Would it be possible to combine Nogrod's approach with Skype? The actors could connect via Skype and hear each other play, being able to interact, but each could record his own voice by himself and send it to Noggie, who pastes them together again. This sounds kind of complicated, but, under the assumption that Skype and the used recording program function together, it could maybe work.

It seems worth a try to me. The one problem I can foresee is that the other actors' voices from Skype might bleed through onto the individual track, but that can probably be minimized by fiddling with various settings and using good quality headphones, and perhaps Nogrod can cover up any that remains? It sounds pretty close to what's done to create the voice tracks for cartoons or record music in a studio, actually, as far as I know. Perhaps we should start looking for appropriate recording software, and have a trial run? Free software would be ideal, since quite a few (the majority?) of us are starving students...

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

Let's decide on a short scene or a part of a scene - let's say one page or two - where we have several characters speaking and some narration and then deal the roles. Then everyone involved records her/his part with any audio device which creates a digital recording ie. one that can be sent via e-mail. You should not worry about the "silences" between what your character says, just record the lines your character has one after another. I will then combine the audio files in the mixer unit of my sofware, cut them and organise them to follow each other in the way they should be.

So that's the first idea that comes to my mind. What do you think?

Nogrod- I really like this idea. I'm willing to do either a joint session or indiviual sessions. I do understand what the others are saying though, so I'm up for giving both methods a try.

Is an MP3 completely out of the question? Because I have a program, Music Maker 2004, and it records audio sounds but the only way to send them is if I convert them to MP3. I would like to send you a sample Nogrod, so you get an idea of my voice.

May I suggest a page to read from? I'm going to be recording myself as Boromir and I will be reading from page 289, during the chapter The Ring Goes South. Almost every member of the Company speaks here, as it is the debate on whether or not to go into Moria. Maybe this would be a good scene to practice on the program we choose?

Nogrod- what e-mail address shall I send this to?

[MatthewM]

Correction! I can send it as a wave, I believe.

[MatthewM]

Rikae and Mac, I have sent you an e-mail with samples. Incase you hadn't checked your mail before coming to the post.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by MatthewM

Nogrod- what e-mail address shall I send this to?

Do not use my email given in the user CP as it has really limited space and seems to be always full - and audiofiles are big.

You should use my gmail account instead. I will PM it to those who have actively discussed matters here lately starting now with Matthew, Rikae, Mac, Oddwen and Legate...

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Nogrod, we ask members not to post their e-mail addresses in order to protect themselves from spam or worse. There are too many bots combing the internet for links. Please do remove it from your post; those who wish to have it can contact you by PM. Thanks!