Tenor to baritone

[radiorog]

Hi, all. I'm working on a new audiobook, with a '40s hard-boiled detective as the main character and narrator.

The actor who did the dialog work was very good dramatically. However, he's more of a tenor than a baritone. And the character needs a deeper, more powerful voice.

I know I can play with EQ ... but are there any other tricks I might use to give him more depth and "bite"? Or maybe a plug-in that might do it?

Many thanks for any ideas.

Roger

[Bob L]

Consider using Melodyne to lower his pitch.

Bob L

[Dave Labrecque]

Agree that Melodyne is worth a shot since you can manipulate formants as well as pitch.

I'd be interested to hear how it works out for you. My first guess is that it won't be convincing enough. But I'd love to be wrong.

[John Ludlow]

I hesitate to recommend this - because I haven't tried it. It might not work well for you at all. Buuut... I have been very curious about this plugin:

https://www.soundtoys.com/product/little-alterboy/

It does other things too, including changing pitch, but the knob you want is the one labeled 'Formant'. They seem to have identified ranges of harmonics that are characteristic to different kinds of voices and allow you to apply them to an existing voice without changing its primary pitch. You can apparently even change the singers gender using it. But the 'formant' knob is a dial, so there is a continuum of change possible. Listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j4QGmLJ16I

Still, singing and speaking are different things. What we might accept singing, maybe we don't in speaking, and vice versa. Worst case is ending up in the 'uncanny valley' where the listener immediately realizes 'something is subtly very wrong'. If it would work at all for you, you'd probably want to make conservative changes.

They're not the only company that makes a formant effect either. Waves makes one if you have taken the dongle plunge. Here's a comparison between Little AlterBoy and the Waves 'Vocal Blender' plugin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg9O4PEetnU

Here's Jamie Lidell using it to correct the formant in pitch changes he has made to a recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhG4gw85Boo

My own take is that the apparent 'believable-ness' of them is in direct relation to how radical a change you make. That said - it might not take much to butch up your recording a little. So... maybe it would work for you at that.