{What I Love!}
Hello! I'm Scruffy, and today, in this addendum video to my analysis of Splatoon music from last
week, I'd like to explain the effects I used to emulate Inkling voices from Splatoon. It's by no
means official, or the only type of vocals used in the games, but I think I've got a decent imitation
going. Also, I'll explain the general tools you need from any digital audio workstation, but I
only know how to set them up in Logic Pro for Mac, so that's what the visuals will show for now.
First, it helps to record something Inklings might say, so you can compare your effects
with the original. The pitch doesn't have to be exact, but try to get the sort of cadence
and rhythm that Inklings have, if it can even be discerned in the original.
[original and example play] Next, we'll need to add a pitch shifter,
in Logic that's called a Vocal Transformer. This is honestly to get my voice closer to the timbre
and formant of the original, so the intensity of this effect will depend on the type of voice you
have. For me, I need to set my pitch up an octave, and set the formant up to plus nine. This means
that not only is the fundamental sound of my voice higher, the overtones in my
vowels sound higher as well. [1st step and 2nd step play]
So next we move on to equalization, which is a standard of any DAW. In Logic it's called Channel
EQ. Based on the new pitch of this sample, I've created an EQ curve that replicates the mid-heavy
sound of Inkling voices. As you can see, I've used the low-cut frequency curve to take out the bottom
1000 Hz of sound, and then bring it above the middle line to increase the resonance of sounds
around 1320 Hz. Then I put another negative peak in around 4350 Hz, and let the rest of the high
end speak a little louder, but not by much. [2nd step and 3rd step play]
This is a nice untampered Inkling voice, but it's time to add the iconic touch that makes
it not human. We need a low-pass filter with some resonance, and that is automated to oscillate very
rapidly so that that resonance shifts up and down the spectrum. This is probably the hardest part to
get right, and Logic adds quite a few different extra effects to it in its automated LP filter,
AutoFilter. Here's the layout, let me break it down. First we have our filter section which
handles the tonal color of our filtered sound. I've set the type of filter to a 4-pole lowpass
filter, with a slope of 12 db per octave. The cutoff is the point of this lowpass filter after
which the higher frequencies are cut off. We don't need this to be any less than its highest value,
especially since this is a high-leaning sound. Then, I've brought resonance up
to 46%. Resonance can quickly get out of hand and generate feedback on an automated filter
like this at values higher than 55%, so I've kept it at a safe but high value. In Logic,
Fatness boosts low frequencies to compensate for high resonance. Again, the low frequencies of this
sound have been attenuated by our EQ curve, so we don't need that. Spread makes the filter have
a stereo effect, we also don't need that. We do want envelope to modulate the cutoff
frequency over time. Here's the envelope's shape, with a short attack, a long delay, no sustain,
and a long release. This envelope softens the modulation caused by the LFO, which is the
active ingredient in this filter. It's oscillating around 9.3 times per second, with a triangle wave
shape. Everything else about the LFO is left untouched, we aren't looking to phase it.
Logic also offers distortion in this filter, since it's trying to emulate analog effects.
I've given a little bit of distortion before and after the filter, but that may be a matter
of taste. Finally, we don't want any of the dry, unaffected signal. We only want what the
signal is after this filter. [3rd step and 4th step play]
Okay, that gives us a pretty close, quick and dirty Inkling voice filter. However,
you can give this an even closer character to the original Inkling voices by changing the amount and
rate of LFO modulation over time, with automation curves. Just press A in Logic's window to open the
Automation window, select the value you want, in this case it's AutoFilter: LFO - Cutoff
Modulation and Autofilter: LFO - Rate. Then you can click anywhere to create a node,
a keyframe if you will, to animate this value. Now you can see the LFO values change over time,
and you can experiment to give your Inkling calls a more faceted level of expression.
[4th step and 5th step play] This step is not required though.
It's there to go for extra authenticity, but then again, I have no way of knowing if this method
is authentic other than the ending sound. And I believe these three effects can get a voice to at
least evoke an Inkling rather well. With that, I'm Scruffy, and thank you very much for watching.