It Finally Happened.....Again

[BentonGrey]

All of my original packs are now finished!  These are being uploaded to my first yahoo group as we speak.  FINALLY!  Anyroad, if you got these before, please go ahead and get them again, they should be much better!

M4-MrFreeze
M6-Mad Hatter
S6-Scarecrow
C2-Catwoman
P2-Penguin
C4-Clayface
C5-Clock King
C8-Killer Crock
B3-Bullock
B4-Bane
B5-Batgirl

Also, if you downloaded either Livewire or Metallo, they both had the wrong ID's, and I'm uploading fixed versions to my second yahoo group.  Well, all of the hard stuff is out of the way, no I can get back to sampling.  Look forward to some more packs MAYBE by the end of the weekend...but probably not until next week.

[BentonGrey]

Oooooooooh kay....well, I thought that I'd be able to have something out by now, but it turns out that I took a lot more samples than I thought I had!  Ha, well, I've finished editing all of them, and I'm just about done with the first season fo Justice League.  Now, I've got to package things up and set up the voice files.  I MIGHT get all of the following released today, might not:

Hawkgirl
Felix Faust
Mongul
Wonder Woman
Manhunter Robot
Circe

I have some samples for Hades, the Flash, Batman, and Superman; and I'm almost done with: John Stewart, Martian Manhunter, and Giganta

[BentonGrey]

Well, to be honest, this is just me being plain lazy!  Ha, I have finished three of the voicepacks, and they are uploaded to my second group.  Now available:

Felix Faust
Mongul
Manhunter Robot

[Carravaggio]

Faust? now that is a must have! thanks BentonGrey for all the DC love!

[BentonGrey]

Thanks man, glad you're enjoying them!  I've got even more DC goodness coming out...erm, eventually.  For the moment, these two will have to tide all of you over.

Circe
Wonder Woman

Both of these lovely ladies are available on my second Yahoo group.

[BentonGrey]

Well guys, I have some rather bad news.  I went back to work on my voicepacks yesterday while there was a lull in characters to add, and I discovered that the youtube files I was using to sample from have all been taken down.  You see, I bought my DVD's as soon as the season went off the air, when it wasn't officially available yet, and they won't play on my computer.  (Now, I know we're not supposed to talk about this kind of thing here, and if a mod feel that this is inappropriate, I'll be happy to edit this post, but I just figured I should let you all know that it's going to be a good while before I can make more packs.)  I always intended to buy the real DVD's, and this has simply moved up my timetable for it.  This series deserves to be supported more than just about anything else, so it was always my intention to get the DVD's, but I was planning to wait until, maybe next Christmas.  Anyroad, I have been watching the official DVD's like a hawk, trying to find them at decent prices, but our funds are extremely limited, so it's going to be a while before I've got all of them.  All this to say, my voicepacks are going on a longer hiatus than planned.  I do still have a ton of samples that I haven't meshed together yet, so you might see one or two more after I release the mod, but no promises.

[Panther_Gunn]

Do those DVD's (quite possibly VCD's) play fine on your regular DVD player?  Does that player have a set of stereo out jacks (at the very least, it has the lines to the tv/stereo)?  You should be able to buy a simple Y-cable from Radio Shack, going from the standard red & white stereo plugs to a microphone/headphone sized plug.  Plug that into the line in/microphone jack on your sound card, and you're set.  Of course, I did this with my laptop, so it was a little easier to transport & set up on top of the stereo.  ^_^

[Peerless1]

I recently downloaded your VP collection, and I must say...

Your selections are great!  They are so dead-on.  I had a couple of laughs just listening to Orin/Arthur/Aquaman.  "Keep me waiting again at your peril."  -- That is so  :lol: funny!

Awesome work!  Thanks.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Benton, if you can tell me the episode and time where a given clip is, I can obtain anything from JLA season 2 for you.

Unfortunately, that's all I have now, except for the entire Batman Beyond Series.

[Mystik]

if you cant find them on youtube try stage6

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Peerless, I'm really glad you liked them.  Haha, yeah, every time I play with Arthur in the game I have to do random stuff just to enjoy his lines. :D 

I'm glad you like my selections too, but it's mostly thanks to the awesome people behind JLU!

Wow, thanks Cat!  I've got tomorrow off, I may very well take you up on that offer.

TR, hmm...I'll check that out!

[Mystik]

I just cant wait till you finally get to batman and superman

[BentonGrey]

Haha....I've got some samples for each...but you'd be surprised at just how hard it is to find the right ones.  I'm afraid I may have too many irons in the fire to get back to them any time soon, but I do want to finish all of the voice packs eventually.  I'm secretly hoping that someone else will pick up where I left off! ^_^

[BentonGrey]

Amazing!  Unbelievable!  It's another voice pack from Benton Grey!  Haha, I'm working on the sounds portion of my mod like I promised I would.....though it's taken me a good long time to get to it, and I found that I had a nearly completed Martian Manhunter pack just layin' around.  So I finished it up and uploaded it to my first yahoo group.  Maybe I'll find some more while I'm cleaning house, but don't get your hopes up!

[BentonGrey]

Ho-ho!  Two in one week, what's going on?  Yep, I realized that I had enough on the Flash to release a serviceable pack.  It's not great, and I'll probably update it before too terribly long.  (I've got the samples from two episodes just sitting untouched on my hard-drive.  I've just got to find the time to go through them.)  Still, you can ride the lightning along with Wally (or Barry, if you're like me) on my first Yahoo group.

[Mystik]

just installed these, thanx benton
hope you continue

p.s I can send you any batman/superman/jlu episode in mp3 format if you like

[Sledgehammer]

Very nice, Benton! It's nice to know you continue to create these things. I'm more of a Marvel fan, but I can surely appreciate a great Voicepack. And I think they capture the essence of the characters quite well.

Besides, I've been covering Marvel for a while. It's nice that people here have the opportunity to pick voices from the other "Big One".

Keep it up.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks guys!  I really appreciate the support.  I was beginning to think that no-one had noticed these two releases! ^_^  Sledgehammer, I'm hoping my mod will make a convert out of you!  Haha, plus, I'm much more of a Marvel fan than my current workload would let on, so I definitely appreciate all the work you do!

Thanks Thor, I will DEFINITELY take you up on those!  Perhaps when I finish a release-able version of my mod, I'll pick up where I left off.  I'll have to see what my schedule is like when I start classes tomorrow.

[Revenant]

Awesome.. I'm gonna try to get these to work (I have notoriously bad luck installing voicepacks.)

[BentonGrey]

Haha, well Rev, if you need any help don't be shy with the PM's.

[Panther_Gunn]

Thanks guys!  I really appreciate the support.  I was beginning to think that no-one had noticed these two releases! ^_^ 

I notice *every* post in this forum.  I just don't always comment on them.  Kinda like Uatu.  :P

One of these days, I gotta start gathering up some of these newer VP's.  Oh, where does the time go?

[Sledgehammer]

Sledgehammer, I'm hoping my mod will make a convert out of you!  Haha, plus, I'm much more of a Marvel fan than my current workload would let on, so I definitely appreciate all the work you do!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a pro-Marvel, against-DC kinda guy. It's a bit childish to think that way. I think Batman is a very complex character, dark and interesting. And his cast of villains (the biggest one alongside Spidey's, I presume) are mainly focused on the intellectual aspect, which is quite appealing.

Besides that, I have always enjoyed teamwork, and that's why the Justice League is an obvious choice. I played JLH and it was a lot of fun, and I particularly enjoyed playing with Zatanna. Zee's sense of humor is perfect when mixed with Batman's dark tone, Supes' leadership, WW's ready-for-anything attitude, or Manhunter's calm demeanor. And I personally consider a nice thing that some characters are aware that they are sexy and decide to show it. Zatanna is one example, She-Hulk is other one. I'm not talking about just being sexy, or writers using that aspect as an excuse to show underwear/nudity. I'm talking about adding that element to their personalities. For example, Rogue's flirtatiousness is something that I truly think suits her, and, if well-written, it makes the whole I-can't-touch-you issue more dramatic.

Well, I'm talking about anything BUT your VPs, so I'll just say I'll download whatever new creations you add in the future.

Keep it up!

[Panther_Gunn]

Well, I've finally had some time to d/l a couple of these packs & listen to them.  Unfortunately, for my taste, there's too much background noise (sound effects, music, etc).  I *wish* there was an easy way to strip all that stuff out.  *sigh*

Other than that, I do have a couple of observations.  I've noticed that some of the clips seem to have quite a degree of digitization sound to them, as if they're meant to sound like they're coming through a comm system, or some alternate means of communicating (I noticed it on the Flash & Martian Manhunter packs).  It's not all the clips for the pack, but more than just one or two, and it's enough of a change to be noticable. 

Also, for some reason, over the course of a couple different clips in a pack, it almost sounds like some clips are done by a different voice actor.  The Sinestro pack, it seems like they all came from the same episode (judging from some of the lines & background music), but it still sounds to me like enough of a vocal change that it's not the same person.  Could be just me, though.  ;)

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I *wish* there was an easy way to strip all that stuff out.  *sigh*

I found a program that's supposed to do that.  Don't remember what it is, but I think I put it on a thread somewhere around here. . .

Other than that, I do have a couple of observations.  I've noticed that some of the clips seem to have quite a degree of digitization sound to them, as if they're meant to sound like they're coming through a comm system, or some alternate means of communicating (I noticed it on the Flash & Martian Manhunter packs).  It's not all the clips for the pack, but more than just one or two, and it's enough of a change to be noticable.

Also, for some reason, over the course of a couple different clips in a pack, it almost sounds like some clips are done by a different voice actor.  The Sinestro pack, it seems like they all came from the same episode (judging from some of the lines & background music), but it still sounds to me like enough of a vocal change that it's not the same person.  Could be just me, though.  wink

I think Benton said that he got most of the clips from Youtube.  That might explain it.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks for the feedback PG.  Cat's observation is correct, all of the JLU packs come from Youtube, so that affects the sound quality, but also many of the 'digitized' sounds are the results of me doing noise removal from particular clips.  I had a choice of A) Not using a clip at all, and therefore oftentimes not having enough clips for a pack.  B) Using a clip with heavy background noise/music and just ignoring that (which I did with some of my earlier ones before I figured out the noise removal system), or C) Trying to remove as much of the noise as possible without ruining the line.  I'm afraid in trying to walk that line I've probably stepped over it as often as I've tread it, but alas, it's a delicate process.

Some packs do apparently include work with different voice actors.  In my Aquaman pack there are actually lines (not used) by a fellow who's work I like A LOT better than the one who is included, but they are too few to make a new pack and too different to include.  With a few of them I thought the difference in sound negligible enough to include, but perhaps I made the wrong call.  The Sinestro pack actually came from around eight different episodes, one in Superman: TAS, one in Static Shock, and several in JLU.

I'm afraid that pulling voice samples from a TV show like this is just an imperfect process.  Ideally, I'd be a zillionaire and just be able to employ all of these voice actors to give us nice, pristine packs that would suit our purposes to the nth degree.......however, I'm afraid I'm far from super rich. :P  Given time and energy, I'll finish my sampling from the remaining four seasons and change of JLU and, not only produce many new packs, but also really improve those I'm not happy with (Flash and MM being prime examples).  However, I'm rather hoping that Sledge's work with JLH will save me some effort, most notably a Hal pack and...well...all of them really.  I just wish Hawkamn was included in the game for oh so many reasons. 

Well, I suppose that's about all I can say about it, but trust me in that the shortcomings of these packs are of greater concern to me than to anyone else. :wacko:

[Panther_Gunn]

I wasn't sure if the digitizing was the way the clip originally sounded, or was from step in the process.  I was *afraid* it might have come from attempting to pull out background noise, as I might be trying that with some other things (I remember cat's post about a program too), but just hadn't gotten around to it yet.  I know that working with sound files for long periods can get tiresome, and it's easy to miss something that you would normally catch.  That's one of the reasons my yet-to-be-finished animal voice packs are still yet-to-be-finished.  :P 

I knew these were coming from the TV shows, but had forgotten about the YouTube source for many of them.  I suppose one of the reasons I didn't d/l any right at the beginning was my reticence about background noise, and perhaps I was unconsciously hoping that you had found a good way to clean it up.  I agree that there are choices that have to be made, and certain threshholds that need to be considered.  Even if I don't find them to my liking, it looks like many, many people are perfectly happy with them, so it's obvious that you chose wisely in releasing them.  Even if you were dithering on whether to release or not, and no one else had heard them yet, I'd still tell you to do so, as long as *you* were happy with it.  It's better to have something for people to decide if they want to use or not, than not have anything at all.

...also really improve those I'm not happy with (Flash and MM being prime examples).

I *would* randomly pick two to check out that you weren't happy with.  :doh:  :rolleyes:

[BentonGrey]

PG, I'd suggest you try the Aquaman, Freeze, and Robin packs.  They're probably my best, and some of my favorite characters so I spent more time on them.  They still have issues, but perhaps less than some of the others.  Martian Manhunter and Flash were both unfinished packs that I released because I knew it would be a long time before I could get around to working on these again, so they are likely some of my worst.

Ohh, and I suppose I may as well say: If anyone feels that they'd care to improve on my work, that would be fine with me.  Just give me credit in the final product.

[steamteck]

Your voicepacks are wonderful! They add so much to my experience! Thanks again. Another huge JLU fan here of course.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Steamteck, I'm thrilled that you enjoy them! ^_^