Voice Changer / Morpher

[agentbud]

Next year I want to take my costume up a notch and add a voice changer/morpher to create a monster voice when I talk. Are you aware of any good voice changers on the market that are portable, with built-in speaker, usable with a headset microphone – something I can wear unseen under my costume that will change/alter my voice real-time?

[Jim Warfield]

All choirboys want to rush puberty. (Choirgirl? instead?)
Afew years in the haunted house business and you may find yourself fondly remembering the days that you didn't have a deep, ripped, scary voice.
Oh, wait, I just have a voice modulator stuck in my windpipe, there now it's all better, really it is, don't run away! I'm not trying to scare you!

[Old Tree Studios]

I believe Gore-Galore has such a piece of equipment. And from what I've read, they seem to have VERY good reviews as a supplier.

[Frighteners Entertainment]

Kevin is revamping this for the upcoming season.
Nice unit!

[agentbud]

I looked at both gore-galore.com and thefrighteners.com and did not see a voice changer. On thefrighteners.com, several of the costumes mentioned that the voice changer was not included but I could not find this item separately on the site. Can anyone point me to where I can find it?

Thanks...
Mike

[Frighteners Entertainment]

Kevin will have info up on these soon. No sure if this is what you're looking for though. These (as far as I know, which isn't much now-a- days) are going to have prerecorded sounds in them.

[Gore Galore]

Gore Galore will have a portable sound system, but it is not a Voice changer.
It is an MP3 based system with 7 tracks. 6 for sounds and 1 dead track or 7 sounds. We will be using 256 MB SD cards for memory. We are still designing the sounds right now.

It is called the "Scream Cube" and the current version is not on the site yet.
We have been trying to get a voice changer since our inception, but we could never do it at an acceptable cost. The Scream Cube is a great option though. It allows you to create and upload your own tracks to the SD card and all you have to do is slide the SD card into the box and you are ready to go. the length of the track is only limited by the size of the SD card you use. It is only 6 to 7 tracks but the length of each track is unlimited. You could completely script out your Actors performance and all he or she would have to do is hit the button and lipsynch it. The design for the cube is to be mounted within our costumes but I am sure we can figure out a way to get it to mount on a person.

The main downfall is how loud it is. It is so loud the actor is going to need to wear earplugs. Or is that the selling point. hmmmmmmmm, that is the question.

But there was a company called "Screamland" that sold a voice changer for about $700, I think. Steve Koontz, but they are sadly not in business anymore. And I don't know if there is any way to acquire those anymore. There is also another Voice changer on the market made for mascot costumes but it runs over $1000.

I hope the info helps and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

[Monster-Tronics]

Monster-Tronics has been working on several sound systems for our costumes also. I tried to talk to Kevin at Hauntcon about maybe combining R&D efforts but got blown off so we developed our own. I am not looking to market a stand-along sound system; mine are going to be integrated into my costumes. I knew other haunt companies sold these as products and we don’t like to copy other peoples work. We are quite the opposite, “Monster-Tronics likes to go where no man or monster has gone before” (However we will steal lines from Captain Kirk)

I have canned multi recorded systems like what Kevin is coming out with, one that is half recorded and half voice changer and also have a straight voice changer system with a few Monster-Tronics twists. Many of my costumes work very well as wait line entertainment/scares and in a wait line you have to be interactive with the customers so a recorded system will not do.

I’ve been under a rock and had not heard that Screamland went out of business. If Kevin’s system is not what you’re looking for and depending on what and when you need it, I might be able to help you out. Give me a shout by phone or email to give me a better idea of what you need and/or I can give you more details of what I’ve got in the works.

FYI – While we are talking about sound products, on the heels of the Fear Generator we have something new in the Monster Labs that is going to blow your mind this year more info to come…………….

[Gore Galore]

Jeff,
I don't like the way you put that so drop me a note sometime.
If there is a problem I would like to work it out with you.
I love your work, and I think you are a good vendor. I wouldn't want to have any ill will between us.

[Monster-Tronics]

I’ll respond here since there is no ill will, and I don’t want anyone to think that. My wording may have been a bit harsh using “blown off”. I had done a bit of work on portable systems before and did not want to reinvent what had already been done and tried to talk to you a couple of times, but for whatever reason it did not work out. I guess I mentioned that because I didn’t want people to think I was making a knock off of yours because I really hate that in this industry.

Like I said, I’m not looking to market what I’ve done as a stand-alone product and certainly would not try and compete with you. I was just trying to offer Mike some help on a “one off” if he needed a voice changer system and that is not what you are working on.

[sinisterintentions]

I actually have one for sale buy a company that is no longer in buisness. It is called the scream shifter and it is LOUD. I paid $750 for it (no joke). I used it with my gore galore reaper costume and WOW it worked great. Comes with 6 hour battery, Voice changer amp, microphone headset , portable speaker, and charger. Ill let it go for $200 to anybody. Let me know if interested.

thanks,
Kyle Nadeau
sinister intentions haunted attractions

[Gore Galore]

You had me worried. I thought I had been a jerk to you or something. Honestly, I do get a bit uptight at shows. I get pretty stressed sometimes.
I know we talked in front of Tim's booth and I tried to get back over to talk to you again but I didn't do a good job of it.

I would be interested in talking with you about this though. Maybe we can bouce some ideas off one another.

thanks for your second reply.

[agentbud]

Thanks to all for your replies. I appreciate everyone's input. I'm really just looking for something similar to what Kyle mentioned but I can't invest that much, sorry. Pre-recorded sounds won't work, it would need to be real-time morphing so it would have to be compact but all in one (mic, speaker, etc). Jeff, if you are working on something similar (but inexpensive) let me know. Thanks again to all!
Mike

[agentbud]

...Instructions on how to build such a device will do nicely as well.
Thanks...
Mike

[Scottzilla]

How handy are you with a soldering iron? You could cobble something together from the guts of a used fx pedal and some PC speakers. It would be a bit of work but shouldn't cost that much. Just find a pedal that does what you want with your voice and pull the board out. Find some old smallish powered PC speakers that run on 9v DC or something in that range and pull the amplifier board and one of the speakers out. Depending on the stuff you found you may need a preamp somewhere. Enclose in a stylish box, connect it all to some batteries you've cleverly hidden on your person and voila!

Of course I like making things hard on myself. If you don't feel like getting involved in such a project then you should go with everyone else's suggestions.