Ed Slonka Jr Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 What is the best way to sync a voice to make it appear something is talking such as a pumpkin at Halloween singing Monster Mash?Is there any software to pull just the voice off a music file?Thanks for any ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimCanfield Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I do not know if this is the best or even easiest answer but this is what I did. I sequenced Rudolph for this year and I used the tapper wizard and tapped out his voice then turned channels on and off to his voice. I think it looked ok. I am sure others will have better idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Slonka Jr Posted March 22, 2008 Author Share Posted March 22, 2008 Thanks Jim, that's what I did experimenting with a couple songs. I have noticed in some videos that the lights appear to be actually reacting to the voice as if it were done with the VU tool. I tried several things with VU but had no success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimCanfield Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I have never used the VU meter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evan.a Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 ed your going to have to do it the old fashion and tap the voice. I do it the same way jim does but I use fade down. it gives more depth to what you hear and depending how you tap you might have two blocks together. fade the first block than you have a second word in the anamation. you have to listen to how the voice sounds. sometime depending on the voice I fade down than use shimmer. listen to "i want a hippopanumas for christmas" and youll see what i mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimCanfield Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Good points Evana. I do use the fades to emphasize the natural fluctuation of the voice; however I have never thought of using the shimmer effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.farney Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I used the fade techique also, but I found it looks more realistic if you overlap the fades. It will look more like the pumpkin is speaking if the light influxes and has the same energy levels as a human voice.Think about how you speak. When you say a sentence, even though you break for each word, there is no break in the intensity of your voice. Think about representing this with light. The light should not be 100% off unless the voice is silent. By this logic, you don't necessarily want to fade down to 0% on every word.I pick a fade length so that when I insert this fade for every syllable, so there is good inflextion (change) (enough fade down time so you can see it fading down), but not enough that you hit 0% for each word (unless the speaker pauses or there is space between words, sentences, or phrases.) So, I try to make it true to the voice. Once you get the fade down length correct, just paste the fade in each spot where the next word or syllable occurs. In most cases, it will not fade down completely to 0%. In places where the speech is very fast, it will barely fade at all because you'll keep pasting the fade on top of itself. I still hook up a light and watch it when I'm done. I find a few areas will still need doctoring to get it perfect.I didn't follow my own advice 100% here, but here's a few pastes of "speakers" I had in 2007. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimCanfield Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Oh wow, that makes a lot of sense. You really have thought this out, and I may have to go back over my sequences and try that technique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 If you want my Monster Mash sequence, I'll send it to you. It was my first light show (before my first Christmas), so I can't promise it's the best quality of voice synth. I used the tapper wizard with fading and then went back and cleaned it up. I was using LOR I so I just kept my .05 timing. With S2 I do it slightly differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Slonka Jr Posted March 23, 2008 Author Share Posted March 23, 2008 HAPPY EASTER to All!Thanks for the great ideas. I like the one with the overlap. I can see I have a lot of practicing to do.I am a newbie and just got 32 channels in the sale last month. It's unbelievable how easy it is to get hooked.I have been doing some songs for a Fourth of July display, started a Christmas display and then got obsessed with Halloween.:?Do you think congress will add hours to the day for us?Steve, would you please send you Monster Mash sequence to me.Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Ed Slonka Jr wrote: Steve, would you please send you Monster Mash sequence to me.Here's the sequence file.The audio file is not actually the song performed by Bobby Pickett. I didn't have a copy so I did a search and ended up on EZ-tracks. You can read about my experience with that site here.I have a copy of the audio file (performed by Countdown) here. You can't hear the difference from the original Bobby Pickett version, but I suspect the timing may be slightly off, so make sure to use this one. Attached files Monster Mash.lms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Slonka Jr Posted March 23, 2008 Author Share Posted March 23, 2008 Thanks Steve! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale W Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 I have a sequence of Monster Mash by Boris. I used the fades as described above for a 16 channel sequence and fades for the backup singers too. PM me if you want a copy of the sequence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale W Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Dale W wrote: I have a sequence of Monster Mash by Boris. I used the fades as described above for a 16 channel sequence and fades for the backup singers too. PM me if you want a copy of the sequence.Scratch that. I thought I had a sequence. I can not find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Fortenbach Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Here is a program I googled for lip sync. The program looks like you can use their ideas for christmas light designs to get the lip sync tight and right for your display.The program has a try before you buy feature.http://www.lipsync-mx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamlet Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 I narrate my displays based on a theme every year using the voice sync method.I set my grids to 1/10 of a second and listened over and over again. I then filled in the grids with fades up and down. I also set different intensity levels depending on how loud or soft the words were spoken I agree that overlapping fades gives better results. Here are some examples. Video quality is not that great.There is voice sync narration at the beginning of the video, in between each song and end.My fist year I did a Shrek theme. On the second song of the video I did a voice sync to Elmo and Rosie on two mega tress. Last years theme was the Penguins of Madagascar.Its a tedious and very long process. Not sure if I will do it again this year.Look forward to seeing your videos,Good Luck, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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