The Clockwork Mansion

I would have added this to the Radio Project thread, but sadly I don't have that power.

It will soon be a year since we first failed to decide who should play Ink for our radio drama version of DMFA (inspired by Hitchhiker's guide etc) and time is fast running out.  In fact I need to know who should do it this evening, which is why the poll runs for 14 days.  Go figure.

READ BEFORE VOTING

What you are voting for:

1. Tezkat - http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/dmfa/Tezkat_-_Dr._Ink_525-527.mp3

2. JPM - http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/dmfa/jm_ink5r.wav.mp3

3. Dr. Ink - He actually offered to do this as the project was beginning, but we have not managed to obtain a recording of him thus far.   :(

4. If you want to play him yourself, please provide a recording in MP3, WAV or OGG format.  I can apply processing to it like the reverse reverb on mine.

5. If other, please describe.

Argh, the two samples are both awesome in their own ways and yet not quite what I heard in my head when I read the strips... tough decision... X_x;;; This'll take a while...

I don't feel either voice sounds particularly Ink-ish, but probably only because I've always thought of him with an accent something like Stephen Fry's (intellectual/arrogant/sarcastic).  Tezkat is my preferred of the two anyways.

Quote from: Sid on July 29, 2006, 01:58:40 PM
Argh, the two samples are both awesome in their own ways and yet not quite what I heard in my head when I read the strips... tough decision... X_x;;; This'll take a while...

You see my problem..
Obviously I like mine, and since I'm just about to mix that section (having skipped the LL section account of Aary and Jyrras not being done yet) I'll most likely use mine to begin with and replace it with the other one when we've decided what to do.

I was tempted to vote for myself, but decided not to.

I shall have to organise recording myself, then.

"It'd be so much easier to avoid being evil if they didn't leave this big, shiny buttons out where I can push them." :-)

They both sound nice, but for some reason I like Teskat's more. Seems more devious and sarcastic. I would love to hear Ink himself though, should the chance ever arise. :januscat

Ink should do it...it is his character after all....

I would like to hear Ink's version of Ink, but I think I may record a quick bit when I ahve time to record more >>

Mostly 'cause I like saying "My tea tastes like joy now... How horrid."

I want to hear Ink  :mowsad
I don't know I'm staying neutral and vote other (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/WEO/Emicons/coldhearted.png)

Quote from: KarlOmega1 on July 29, 2006, 02:33:32 PM
Ink should do it...it is his character after all....

I did ask him fairly recently, one of my earlier attempts to sort out the dilemma. He didn't reply, though. :(

Well, so far we've tried to get all the character owners to do themselves if able. If Ink is still interested we could have someone fill in till we get further notice. Tezkat did improve his Ink rendition quite a bit, I think we should go with his for now (that is unless we find someone new does an even better rendition).

I don't have the hardware to record my voice; at least, not yet.

Quote from: Ink on July 29, 2006, 09:17:23 PM
I don't have the hardware to record my voice; at least, not yet.

Oh...nevermind my vote in the poll then (voted for ink to do ink)...hehe.

Well... I'm gonna abstain from this poll as well. It's sort of a given that I prefer my version...

Quote from: Tapewolf on July 29, 2006, 01:35:59 PM
I would have added this to the Radio Project thread, but sadly I don't have that power.

I updated the Radio Project thread title. Hopefully that will bring in a little more traffic from the main DMFA forum.  :mowsmile

I do believe that this issue deserves its own thread, however. We can't use the main thread every time we need to run a poll...

Quote from: Ink on July 29, 2006, 09:17:23 PM
I don't have the hardware to record my voice; at least, not yet.

Well... would you like to play yourself if and when you do acquire a mic? We do sort of have a policy of giving character owners precedence when it comes to voicing their creations.

Failing that... are either of us on the right track? Without your input, we've gone off and produced versions of how we think your character should sound--which of course may be nothing like how you want him to sound. Both JP and I should have enough voice acting experience to be able to adapt your suggestions into our renditions of Dr. Ink. For instance, if you think that my Dr. Ink voice is too breathy, too deep, read in the wrong accent, etc... I can try to fix it to the best of my abilities.  :kittycool

I'd like to give it a shot, but other than the tone and feel of the voice, I don't think I'd be abel to get it the way people seem to expect it... (for instance, no accent. It'd sound stupid if I tried to do an accent.)

unless that doesn't matter to you, then by all means pm me what I should do as a sample and i'll try.

Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on July 30, 2006, 03:19:44 AM
I'd like to give it a shot, but other than the tone and feel of the voice, I don't think I'd be abel to get it the way people seem to expect it... (for instance, no accent. It'd sound stupid if I tried to do an accent.)

Tezkat went for overt nastiness.  What I tried to do was make him sound slightly creepy and detached for the main part, while trying unsuccessfully to conceal his enjoyment of Dan/Abel's predicament in others.

FWIW, people seem to be preferring Tezkat so I'm using that for now.  I'll review it when the poll ends. I'd still like to have an Ink or Ink-approved voice at the end of it, mind..

Well, I didn't say the tone caught me. Just an accent, and by the looks of it, the accent is preferred x.X

You guys are going to hate me, but the best Ink voice I heard was the old old version Tezkat did, and that I heard in the old forum XD
But if I had to choose between those two samples...Tezkat's voice is now to deep, but it has something "elegant and scary". JP's one is not so deep, but there's a "I don't know what" which is missing compared to Tezkat's voice. And, I'm not a big fan of the reverb XD. Well, perhaps I prefer Tezkat's sample.

Quote from: Xss on July 30, 2006, 08:49:37 AM
You guys are going to hate me, but the best Ink voice I heard was the old old version Tezkat did, and that I heard in the old forum XD

He told me to burn those with fire..

QuoteBut if I had to choose between those two samples...Tezkat's voice is now to deep, but it has something "elegant and scary". JP's one is not so deep, but there's a "I don't know what" which is missing compared to Tezkat's voice. And, I'm not a big fan of the reverb XD. Well, perhaps I prefer Tezkat's sample.

also too late.. (http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/dmfa/tez_abelwantsyou.wav.mp3)

Quote from: Tapewolf on July 30, 2006, 09:34:46 AMalso too late.. (http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/dmfa/tez_abelwantsyou.wav.mp3)

Dang! I know what this is... Um, um, um

Silence of the Lambs! That's it! :U Dr Ink is Hannibal Lecter?

OMG D:

Here's one I received by email:
http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/dmfa/jj_inksample.mp3

I think I prefer Tezkat's interpretation personally.

Quote from: Tapewolf on July 30, 2006, 09:34:46 AM

Quote from: Xss on July 30, 2006, 08:49:37 AM
You guys are going to hate me, but the best Ink voice I heard was the old old version Tezkat did, and that I heard in the old forum XD

He told me to burn those with fire..

Yes, yes... must purge all traces of the old world in sweet, cleansing flames...  :kittydevious

I'm honestly not quite sure what I did in that recording that I lost in the new one.  :mowdizzy

Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on July 30, 2006, 03:19:44 AM
I'd like to give it a shot, but other than the tone and feel of the voice, I don't think I'd be abel to get it the way people seem to expect it... (for instance, no accent. It'd sound stupid if I tried to do an accent.)

Here's Ink's own description of his character:

Quote
Evil psychotic doctor/professor with a horrid lust for syringes and scalpels, but conducts himself as a benevolent gentleman if need be and has a soothing yet horrifyingly evil voice. (This is the reason why I type in italics.)

And Amber's explanation of the speech bubbles in the cameos:

Quote

Quote
I've been wondering this: what is Ink supposed to sound like according to his special text bubbles?

Delightfully refined, yet unsettling to the bone.

The voice is supposed to be very smooth and posh, but creepy. If you ask people to identify a voice matching that description, the first thing out of their mouths is usually "Hannibal Lecter", so that was a natural starting point for me at least. I don't recall there ever being an official word on his accent, but it is easiest to sound refined and evil when speaking the Queen's English (and there has been a "villain always has to be English" thing going around here...) or at least a theatrical Mid-Atlantic accent (a la Kelsey Grammer or Vincent Price). It goes well with the tea thing, at any rate...  :mowcookie

Nooooooo then I can't really do it, since i suck at accents.. x_x

Well, you can still do some Milon clips (from what few comics I did so far).

Having listened to the various things left out in this... I think I like Tez's version.

Incidentally, Tapewolf, have you considered re-layering the tearing shirt noise half a dozen times over itself in short order? Like, ripripripripripriprip. All really really quickly...?

Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on August 01, 2006, 06:35:35 PM
Having listened to the various things left out in this... I think I like Tez's version.

Incidentally, Tapewolf, have you considered re-layering the tearing shirt noise half a dozen times over itself in short order? Like, ripripripripripriprip. All really really quickly...?

URGH.. got the system back to full operating capacity.  Stupid Windows, doesn't understand >128GB disks, unlike Linux.

Llearch, that's a good idea with the tearing.  I might try it, given that I have about 6 tearing sounds from that shirt, plus the original one from DvP where Pegasus gets Dan.

Yeah. Silly linux, limiting you to less than 2 terabytes in a single partition.

... well, unless you update to a 2.6 kernel, which most of the more recent distributions use as standard... :-)

*cough* incidentally, in case anyone wasn't paying attention, I've finished arc 18 for scripting. There's a lot of comments on the web page (here (http://flawed.perception.co.nz/radio/) in case anyone forgot it :-) about where names have been assigned, or guesses made as to who was speaking, or that sort of thing. If anyone wants to help assign names to Jyrras' sisters, or to the Basement Rats, or to, say, the crowd of Cubi in the Academy who all read Dan's mind, I'd appreciate some help... :-)

Well, I know the rats are numbered. If you go to http://www.missmab.com/Cast/rats.php you see the numbers in the background.

I was going to try to figure out the sister deal quite some time ago, but didn't get to it. At one point I think I knew a few of the sisters didn't go by certain names... If we can get a word from Amber though we'd be better off.

QuoteI don't recall there ever being an official word on his accent, but it is easiest to sound refined and evil when speaking the Queen's English (and there has been a "villain always has to be English" thing going around here...) or at least a theatrical Mid-Atlantic accent (a la Kelsey Grammer or Vincent Price). It goes well with the tea thing, at any rate...  :mowcookie

The Doctor speaks the Queen's English. (At least, as much of that vocabulary I know. But for the purposes of accuracy, colour with a u, defence with a c and not an s; etc.)

Quote from: James StarRunner on August 01, 2006, 10:10:38 PM
Well, I know the rats are numbered. If you go to http://www.missmab.com/Cast/rats.php you see the numbers in the background.

Nuts. I'm gonna have to renumber them. *grin*

I had Photophie, and Rat 1, 2 and 3. Based on sequence of them talking, I believe. Ho hum...

I Can try.  Im good at repeating accents.  Its just i can't decide on a voice.

Only Ink should play Ink!

Well, I finally got around to recording my voice.

It was so totally un-Ink-like, when played back, that I think I shall decline to share it (http://flawed.perception.co.nz/radio/recordings/welfare.ogg) with anyone, and instead go hide my head under a rock or (http://flawed.perception.co.nz/radio/recordings/fangirl_affection.ogg) something.


Yes, that sounds like a good plan.

Well, it seems to be a tie between Ink (who has not so far produced a recording) and Tezkat.
If Ink does provide, we'll look at it again, but for now it's gonna be Tezkat.

http://dmfa.it-he.org/dmfa/saia3_2.wav.mp3

Hmm... the texkat one has grown on me after listening to it a couple times, although the second one had a certain quality closer to my original envisionings of Dr. Ink, a sort of airy-evil, although something is definately missing. The third unfortunately seems to hold somewhat of a resounding dullness, almost flat. Not even a good dead-pan... *muses on this*

Oh and... why must you people torture me with your .ogg's? Why?!?!

Because they're better than mp3, and smaller than wavs. :-P

"better than mp3" doesn't cut it >.>

Give poor li'l sienna some mp3s. *patpats sienna*

Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on August 24, 2006, 04:15:20 AM
"better than mp3" doesn't cut it >.>

Give poor li'l sienna some mp3s. *patpats sienna*

How about the fact that the MP3 coding process is patented in the US and therefore illegal?  Is that a good enough excuse?

and? What's that got to do with it?

I'm sorry, you wanted a -serious- answer?

Try Tapewolf's response. Try "smaller file size with better sound". Try "freely available". Try "don't have to pay for every application for encoding them". Try "don't have to pay for every application for playing them". Need I go on?

Heck, try getting the winamp plugin to play it, which, last I heard, I think is now part of the standard set of plugins. I don't seriously know, since I don't use windows, and haven't for two or three years now.

*gives llearch an eyepatch* pirating?

And how about mp3PRO?

According to the patent, and the licencing Fraunhoffer allow people to use their codec...

mp3PRO is an encoder, and hence should be paying them royalties. The fact that -you- aren't paying those royalties doesn't mean they aren't being paid. Nor does it mean they -are- - breaking the law is an option.

The point we're trying to make is that, according to US patent law (which international law seems to agree covers anything that might have some sort of contact in the states) -someone- should be paying Fraunhoffer for each use of the mp3 codec - whether they re-wrote the code entirely or not.

Which makes it non-free. Even if everyone seems to use it anyway.


Why should we advocate breaking the law, when we can advocate a technical solution that's better?

The only ones breaking the law are the ones who create the unlicensed encoders and players.

Quote from: WikipediaFurthermore, while attempts have been made to discourage distribution of encoder binaries, Thomson has stated that individuals using free MP3 encoders are not required to pay fees. Thus while patent fees have been an issue for companies attempting to use MP3, they have not meaningfully impacted users, allowing the format to grow in popularity.

.wav's are good too, I like .wav's ...

Quote from: Sienna Maiu - M T on August 24, 2006, 07:11:45 AM
.wav's are good too, I like .wav's ...

I'll go with that, but then you have to compress them with RAR or ZIP or something, or they quickly get gigantic :(
'Sacred Jaguar' in WAV format is 134MB at CD quality, and 451MB at full tilt.  I asked the mastering engineer to RAR-compress it for faster transfer, and it reduced to 351MB, which is not to be sneezed at.

only 315? ....

Hmm. I'm sure there's options there to shrink it further. I wonder what his defaults are...

Do you think one of those lesser used formats like 7z would do good too? I don't exactly use 7z, but people keep saying how good it is, so... *shrug*

7z was a pig to use in Linux, although it may have improved since.
I'm on Linux and Mr. Shaeffer is on Tiger or something, so it really needs to work on UNIX, not just Windows.  RAR has an advantage over zlib that it does have dedicated audio compression subsystems although 7zip is supposed to be better.

Perhaps we should be discussing methods of transporting audio on the other thread?  'Cause this isn't really much to do with who gets to play Ink  :S