Audio : thinking voices in my head

[Wit]

Yesterday I watched Dexter and he's a lot talking to himself. They use his voice in a slightly different audio mode to mimic that he's thinking. A cool tool to tell stories - but I'm breaking my head over the way this can be done. Anybody?

[Axel]

Yes. I don't remember how this is done in Dexter, but generally you assume that thinking is a voice out of nowhere, it doesn't reach out, reflect or resonate. It's mono always, captured in a silent room (no dictionary at hand, but since you know german, "schalltoter Raum"). You cut out breaths (unless they are inward sighs) and in the mix you contrast it to a stereophonic panorama or make it the only event in the center channel.

The more primitive way to make clear that a voice is supposed to be a thought is, er, "Hall". It implies that the voice comes from far away (in time) or that the skull is hollow. Today only used in parodies ('Scary Movie').

[Wit]

....and in the mix you contrast it to a stereophonic panorama or make it the only event in the center channel.
 

 

Wow thank you for your answer Axel! I'm working with FCP and only have two audio lines so I guess the center channel is missing? What (free) audio/edit software is there for Mac to create this effect without to much more work? 
 

 

 

The more primitive way to make clear that a voice is supposed to be a thought is, er, "Hall". It implies that the voice comes from far away (in time) or that the skull is hollow. Today only used in parodies ('Scary Movie').

 

 

 

 

This I don't really get. Reply in German is possible  ;)

[brucker]

there are only Left and Right channels so you're not missing a middle channel :P

 

in simple terms, the signal comes from the middle when the sound from the left and right are the same volume,... to us it sounds like it's from the middle.

 

with stereo,... the signal from the right and left are different, like what you hear with your ears,... as sound bounces around the room it reaches each ear at slightly different times because they are in different positions on our head.

 

so a stereo recording has two channels,...

 

a mono recording is only one channel ( but there is a middle and side like L+R but that's not too important for what you want to do right now) that one channel is split between 2 speakers evenly so i tsounds like it's coming from the middle.

 

check out Cockos Reaper,.. it is not free but the trial policy is very good, makes it almost free, and the quality is better than some pay programs. works on mac i believe. 

[HurtinMinorKey]

 Channel delay to simulate stereo (there is usually a pluggin for this). You can then add the hall effect with reverb.

[gh2sound]

@Blanche what ep are you referring to - I'll give you a breakdown of the processing used. As the chaps are saying above reverb is often used to imply reminiscing - if you give me a precise example I can probably give you more help!

[Axel]

It is a psychological problem. And there is no universal answer. Thinking is mainly a subconscious process like digestion, and only the last steps emerge into conscience. They lead us to believe we were making a decision with our minds, but it's just the literal tip of the iceberg. The seemingly reasonable outcome of it is founded entirely on instincts, emotions and social conditioning.

How do the 'voices in our head' sound? It depends. Most people never think in words. They 'make films', daydreams, audiovisual scenes. Some phrases hover over the landscape like banners in the sky, alien voices. Parental voices, benevolent, malevolant, It, encouraging, guilt- or lust-provoking, repeated like mantras.

If forced, one translates this rich material into the threadbare, more abstract language of words.

A certain sound for thinking would be a creative interpretation, something that is right, without actually being correct. Closer to the youngest findings would be:

> An inserted sequence that's colored by the character's mood and that deals with the problem surrealistically.
> A bubble above the head of the thinker, in which we see the thoughts unfold.
> The inner world projected to the outside. It may sound weird, but that's actually what happens. The input from 'reality' diffuses through mighty filters, what we see, hear and take for real is really our own feedback.