Hey guys-

Can someone teach me how to make a specific sound effect?  It's the one you usually hear on tv or movies- when a ghost/child is speaking to you from 'the other side' and it sounds 'echo-y'. It's usually a little 'overlapping' itself and sounds muddled and echos slightly. Maybe even has a little reverb in it.

I want to record a voice- then change it to sound like that effect. I don't know what software to use, and how to do it (I assume there's something FREE out there?)

Thanks!

Did you try farting around with Audacity? Hauntfreak and Haunt Wizard turned me on to it. It's free, it's fun!

I agree, farting is a very scary sound effect :)

Actually, I have that sound effect MASTERED- just ask my wife!  LOL!

Anyone else know how to make the sound effect I was asking about?

Instead of fiddling around with software, why don't you do it 'old school'?

Get a recorder and try talking through long pipes.  Try rice paper over the microphone.  Use different lengths and sizes of pipes.

Use your imagination.  Remember, the sound effects in movies that really blew people away (star wars?) weren't done on computer.

CS

Wow!  Never heard of that before!  I'll give it a shot!

I get that sound you're looking for when I call my husband through the heating vent in the bedroom to his workshop in the basement.  Never thought of recording the "echoing" sound, although the children had lots of fun playing with it when they were little.

Anything that will vibrate from the sound will work to create the echo, even recording in a tile-lined bathroom.  .

I sorta have the sound in my head. If the echo sounds a bit cheesy it definately spring reverb. Spring Reverb alone can muddy things up a bit. If the effect is to be used by yourself as in on your own voice you could set up a mic long distance in a stairwell. But basically it's a drowned out effect that can be recreated with most audio software. Key is distant miking I think. But try a nice tiled stairwell until the cops come ;)

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that this effect is created by taking your original audio file and reversing it, which is not the same as flipping it. I'm not sure of the exact terminology. Reversing it would make it sound like a record played backwards. (Flipping it would reverse the electrical properties or something but you would not hear a difference.)

After the audio is reversed, add an echo. Most sound editing software should have different echo quality options. You may need to experiment.

Now reverse the audio again. You should hear something akin to the Poltergeist Carol Anne talking through the TV effect, or Stewie from the Family Guy Poltergeist episode. If I had a microphone I'd post an example. Maybe I can find a clip of somebody talking somewhere...