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doomwar
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Need some pointers on an old man's voice
« Thread Started on Mar 2, 2012, 4:05pm »

I've been trying to do two versions of an old man's voice, one using the typical way of making the voice (high, slow and creaky), and the other using combination of a typical Hong Kong-style old man's voice (raspy) and the former, I probably need a few pointers on both.

First is the raspy,creaky high voice:

old man voice test.mp3

Next is the typical way:
old man voice test 2.mp3

Is there anything I need to improve on?

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bananabuddy
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Re: Need some pointers on an old man's voice
« Reply #1 on Mar 2, 2012, 9:23pm »

Droop your cheeks/corners of your mouth. Your old, so your face should be sagging.
And because your cheeks are sagging, you need to work harder using all the other parts of your mouth.

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scottstoked
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Re: Need some pointers on an old man's voice
« Reply #2 on Mar 4, 2012, 12:09am »

On the first one, the voice went wayyyyy too high, I'd say. I think doing an old man voice is more about texture in the throat and chest, than pitch. The second one was definitely better.

For what it's worth, I've heard VERY few VA's under 25 that can convincingly pull off the "old man".

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Calavera
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Re: Need some pointers on an old man's voice
« Reply #3 on Mar 4, 2012, 1:42am »

What I most often try to focus on is, similar to as has already been mentioned, the amount of effort required to vocalize. You have to make it sound like you truly lack the youthfulness your character once had.

Scott is right, texture is the name of the game here. Today's buzzword is "placement". When I have to do an older voice, the placement is typically high and in the back of my mouth. At the same time as all of the above, you still have to be projecting, otherwise it just sounds like you're whispering into the microphone.

I think the biggest hurdle to jump is just practicing until the voice is no longer smooth and young, but instead tired and old (the kicker in being not sounding tired...yawn). Once you've got that down, you have to manage to keep it consistent (or at least only vary it within the limits of the character). Ultimately you're trying to hit a vocal texture, but in order to sell it you've got to make people believe it's a character too (the acting side of voice acting).

Here's a quick example...but I passed by the 25 mark a year ago

Of course there are many "types" of old man voices. You likely won't be hearing many Saturday morning cartoons with something like what I did above.

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scottstoked
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Re: Need some pointers on an old man's voice
« Reply #4 on Mar 4, 2012, 2:37am »

"High and in the back" of the throat is an excellent way of describing it. I think Calavera and I use very similar methods based on his audio (which sounded great).

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