What was/is done to alter JAMES EARL JONES' voice when speaking as DARTH VADER?

I think Peregrinus nailed it, at least for modern methods. I had some success a while back on JEJ's voice running a Flanger on it, and it was pretty damn close to the way he sounded in ESB/ROTJ especially (I've since lost the settings and have been unable to recreate it). It's not a voice change effect, so it doesn't really work on anyone but JEJ.. you've got to have the base voice already and just give it a little tweak.
 
Treadwell said:
Ben Burtt has literally said that's what they did. In ANH at least.
But not the ONLY thing, surely.
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Wasn't that mainly how he did the lightsaber fights using a shotgun mic? :unsure

Riceball said:
What does a Hyperdyne Vortex do and what is the alternate product that you mention?
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Real time voice effects, basically for cosplaying/trooping as vader, which costs $421-$471 compared to a Zoom Multistomp pedal(mainly used for guitars, but can also be used to turn almost anyone into a Sith lord) :lol
 
I was just thinking, one good way of working on re-creating the Vader voice effect would be to use a sample JEJ's voice to work from and then tweak it to match yours. I think that there's lots of good samples to use in Coming to America, in it he lowers the pitch of his voice so it's more Vader like and the speech pattern is Vader like as well. Then once you've got the settings down for JEJ it's only a matter of tweaking them for yours and learning to actually speak, not just sound, like Vader.
 
Riceball said:
I was just thinking, one good way of working on re-creating the Vader voice effect would be to use a sample JEJ's voice to work from and then tweak it to match yours. I think that there's lots of good samples to use in Coming to America, in it he lowers the pitch of his voice so it's more Vader like and the speech pattern is Vader like as well. Then once you've got the settings down for JEJ it's only a matter of tweaking them for yours and learning to actually speak, not just sound, like Vader.
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That's a cool idea, Riceball. I've actually been watching this video over and over again--which is fracking hilarious, btw--to get samples of JEJ's voice from a variety of his movies, including Coming To America. Check it out, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen! lmfao (NSFW, btw)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xs6plv_vader-sessions-hd_fun

ps~if you want to watch it in HD, you may have to click on the HD icon on the lower left of the screen, and change it to 720HD.
 
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whoever did the impression in those Rebels Bumpers was TERRIBLE.

I wonder if there is a JEJ understudy.

The Chad Vader guy is the closest one i've heard so far when he really tries.


But, back to the topic... I noticed during Rebels Season 2.1, Vader didn't quite sound right. I know Jones is older at this point, and that could quite be it.. but i wonder if the filter is different too.
 
NeilT said:
But, back to the topic... I noticed during Rebels Season 2.1, Vader didn't quite sound right. I know Jones is older at this point, and that could quite be it.. but i wonder if the filter is different too.
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I wouldn't be too surprised if the sound team on Rebels don't know the secret (for whatever reason) behind creating Vader's voice so they had to recreate it on their own and in doing so haven't got it quite right. It's also possible that JEJ himself, having not voiced Vader in some years I think, has sort of forgotten how to do Vader's voice. It's obvious that he doesn't quite use his regular speaking voice or speech pattern as Vader so he had to try to remember what he did and reacquaint himself with Vader's voice.
 
Riceball said:
I was just thinking, one good way of working on re-creating the Vader voice effect would be to use a sample JEJ's voice to work from and then tweak it to match yours. I think that there's lots of good samples to use in Coming to America, in it he lowers the pitch of his voice so it's more Vader like and the speech pattern is Vader like as well. Then once you've got the settings down for JEJ it's only a matter of tweaking them for yours and learning to actually speak, not just sound, like Vader.
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Exactly what I had in mind, and been trying to achieve :)
 
The Wook said:
I always hear and read articles about Ben Burtt's awesome, yet simple, creation of Vader's breathing sound, but never anything on how Ben (or perhaps someone else) altered James Earl Jones' voice when delivering Darth Vader's lines. On this topic, I have a few questions:

1) How did they (I'm guessing it was Ben Burtt) alter JEJ voice? Did they have him speak into a voice-altering device (perhaps similar to the ones Hyperdyne makes) while recording his lines? Or did they record his unaltered voice reading the lines, and then alter it in the sound studio?

2) If JEJ's voice was altered in the sound studio, how did they do it? What effects did they use to give his voice that incredible, singular sound?

3) If you don't know how they did it, do you know anyone who has been successful in altering an actor's voice in the studio to make it sound a lot like JEJ's Vader?

4) If you don't know anyone who's been successful in altering an actor's voice in the studio, can you refer me to any fan films in which Vader appears and sounds close to JEJ's Vader?

5) There is one fan film I'm aware of, in which Vader's voice is done quite well, called Knight Quest. But it was made 15 years ago, and I have not been able to find an email addy for either the film's creator, Joe Monroe, or the film's Vader voice actor, Ben Fletcher, to inquire. If you know how I can get in touch with them, or anyone else who worked on that film and might know how to contact them, I'd appreciate it. I read somewhere that Ben Fletcher voiced Vader in a number of fan productions, so you may know him from some other Star Wars fan film(s). Here is a link to Knight Quest:

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

Thanks!

The Wook
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From my guitarist point-of-view, I can make out that the voice is doubled, and that there's some form of modulation involved. Now, with doubling, we have straight up doubling with a very short delay (less than 100ms) on one end of the scale, and flanging (doubling where the doubled voice is stretched/compressed with an LFO iirc) on the other side of the scale. Inbeteen these two lies the Chorus effect where the delay is very short and the frequency of the modulation pretty fast.
The Vader voice is definitely somewhere on that spectrum of doubling-chorus-flanger. But it's subtle. Add a little plate reverb and you're done.


EDIT: Actually, the FLANGER uses a very short delay ( <20 milliseconds ) the timing of which is modulated by an LFO. The CHORUS uses a somewhat longer delay time. So, the opposite of what I said.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
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Riceball said:
I wouldn't be too surprised if the sound team on Rebels don't know the secret (for whatever reason) behind creating Vader's voice so they had to recreate it on their own and in doing so haven't got it quite right. It's also possible that JEJ himself, having not voiced Vader in some years I think, has sort of forgotten how to do Vader's voice. It's obvious that he doesn't quite use his regular speaking voice or speech pattern as Vader so he had to try to remember what he did and reacquaint himself with Vader's voice.
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Waaay back, STARLOG publisher Terry O'Quinn published an account of the SW 10th anniversary convention in which they did a bit with someone in an LFL Vader suit performing to a prerecorded JEJ track. Terry directed the recording, and JEJ asked him "what does Vader sound like?" Terry had to run out and grab a "story of" album so Jones could listen to what he'd done before.
 
Treadwell said:
Waaay back, STARLOG publisher Terry O'Quinn published an account of the SW 10th anniversary convention in which they did a bit with someone in an LFL Vader suit performing to a prerecorded JEJ track. Terry directed the recording, and JEJ asked him "what does Vader sound like?" Terry had to run out and grab a "story of" album so Jones could listen to what he'd done before.
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That's pretty common for voice actors. they do so many things they forget even the big ones.
 
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