How do you make one of those real crazy radio bumper/promo voices?

[lagavulin16]

You know what I'm talking about...

"You are listening to the ONLY only only hip-hop R&B station worth listening tooooooooo.... KAY AR DEE KAY ONE oh six point ONE!!!!!"

With all the huge compression and echo and chaos everywhere. I get that there are usually background effects, echo that just gets dialed in for a big word, but the overall HUGE SOUND of the voice is what I'm after.

[Meffy]

Some people have singing voices. Some have announcing voices. Some have neither. I have an announcing voice. Can't tell you how to do it, it's just something you do. If your voice is in the right range, practice. If it's not, maybe try a vocoder... and practice.

[metamorphosis]

First you must sell your immortal soul to the devil for making such blasphemy.

[djanthonyw]

You mean like this... http://www.sendspace.com/file/dvct91

[AuthenticDan]

Radio bumpers and stuff are fond of VERY extreme stereo effects and sweeps and completely tasteless processing of every single kind. Compress the voice as tastelessly as you possibly can. Apply every single plugin you have (seriously) and switch between different effects every phrase or so. Drop a ton of extraneous sound effects everywhere. Read up on mid/side recording (and take a look at Voxengo MSED.)

[synthgeek]

edit: oops, wrong thread

[lagavulin16]

You mean like this... http://www.sendspace.com/file/dvct91

Sort of, but with more emphasis on the voice and less on the music. Starting 18 seconds in here is a good example:



Meffy: I'm not talking a good announcing voice. I'm talking something hyper processed and yes, rather distasteful! I need to do this as a joke for a friend. metamorphosis and AuthenticDan have the right idea!

"Radio bumpers and stuff are fond of VERY extreme stereo effects and sweeps and completely tasteless processing of every single kind. Compress the voice as tastelessly as you possibly can. Apply every single plugin you have (seriously) and switch between different effects every phrase or so. Drop a ton of extraneous sound effects everywhere. Read up on mid/side recording (and take a look at Voxengo MSED.)"

I'll give all of this a try, have plenty of filters and compressors to run it through. Might see what the FabFilter bundle can do for me, particularly Volcano2 and the Compressor.

[Meffy]

A good announcing voice can do the kind of sound you want with little or no added effects. :-} If you've got that to start, you're ahead of the game. I'd trade mine for a decent singing voice any day but that's life.

[Melkor]

One radio station around here (2MMM) cannot help but pile on the Waves Metaflanger.

Not just wordbites, but the entire thing ..... every syllable.

Makes the DJ sound a bit like C-3PO.

[kbaccki]

The guys that do radio spots like you're talking about generally have deep, projecting voices. Somebody with a squeaky voice just isn't going to cut it. Depending on your voice you could start with pitching the vocal down a few steps (or more), and also doing some double tracking to thicken the overall sound (which you could also simulate with a proper pitch tool).

Whatever you record, make sure you project as much as you can (i.e., from your gut), which of course is what a pro is trained to do! Also some proximity effect would be useful -- try to use a mic/chain that allows you to get a good beefy source recording. E.g., eve a cheapo mic like the AKG Perception can be give you a lot of proximity effect that would be useful for you.

I think an amateur could pull together something respectable with the right source material and the right combination of post processing.

Also... get a copy of PrecisionSound Stingers I/II to bring everything together...

[kbaccki]

The other thing I forgot to mention is that the totally overprocessed sound you're talking about needs to be done in several passes... I.e., there's no one-shot solution, if you know what I mean. Those spots are pieced together from layers of hacked, chopped, channeled, and processed clips... E.g., a common effect is the st-st-st-st-st-stutter they put in for dramatic effect, which is easy to do with any old WAV editor... I may be stating the obvious here, but if not: you need to think in terms building the thing from the ground up, not applying a rack of effects to a single, static voice track.... Know what I mean?

[ninai]

there are vocal morphing tools out there that do the trick and with some effects and music going on in the background you can hardly tell it's morphed (if done right)
Also to pitch voice down really helps.

But the best way is to smoke lots of cigars & drink whisky.. when you have done that for 20 years you have your voice..lol

[Ah_Dziz]

all the stations around here still use cool edit pro for this kind of stuff.

[koolkeys]

Radio bumpers and stuff are fond of VERY extreme stereo effects and sweeps and completely tasteless processing of every single kind. Compress the voice as tastelessly as you possibly can. Apply every single plugin you have (seriously) and switch between different effects every phrase or so. Drop a ton of extraneous sound effects everywhere. Read up on mid/side recording (and take a look at Voxengo MSED.)

Nonsense. Sure, some are over the top. But good bumper and sweeper production doesn't need any of that. What stations are you listening to?

Most don't do that.

Brent

[koolkeys]

all the stations around here still use cool edit pro for this kind of stuff.

As do most of the radio stations in the industry.

Fact is, if you want good bumper material, it HAS to start with a good voice. What you do from there all hinges on how good the voice is, how long you have(usually around 8 seconds, with station ID's being around 10 seconds), where in the program the sweeper/station ID/bumper is being played, and what kind of programming it is.

But it all comes back to the voice. Many stations contract out the voices if their on-air talent doesn't cut it, but most get by using what they have already in-house.

Brent