General Voice Changer: Voice Synth App (iOS 7)

Sni9er

Active Hunter
Morning Gents

I wanted to share my experience so far setting up my Voice Changer, Standing on the shoulders of Fett's who have gone before me (DeathProof to name but one)

It started when a buddy of mine knew i was on the hunt for an old iPhone to try out the app he gave me his 3GS which i later learned unfortunately is incompatible with the app so anyway here is my list of Gear you'll need to set yourself up and a rough cost:

£20 Aker 1505 - This needs no introduction to most of you i'm quite sure, it's a great 12W Voice amp that's pretty cheap to get I paid £20 on Amazon UK and it came with a charger, UK adaptor, Line in cable and a Mic
£0 - Mic 3.5mm
£0 - Line In Cable 3.5mm
£4.64 - Y Headset Splitter - This will require some modification for durable troop use as i will explain later
£6.99 - Voice Synth Pro App - Pro app required for background audio

So as i mentioned earlier i couldn't run the app on the 3GS my friend was very kind to offer me his 4S on the proviso that if his iPhone 5 broke hey could have it back haha, either way i only intend to use it on troops

so i set up the app and set about making my voice profile, after getting a great starting block from DeathProof i made my own additions, listening to the recordings of fett on the film, i noted he was certainly compressed similarly to telecom/radio compression so using the apps 24 band EQ I ran the Telecom EQ Preset and adjusted the range slightly

this gave me a pretty great profile. so off to my first troop i went, excited to run my first troop with my new Fett and my Voice Changer but on the day disaster struck plugging in the splitter resulted in an ear destroying feedback loop that i could not solve on the day, i was to put it lightly Gutted!

When i got back i looked closely on the app and noticed it was still preferring the built-in mic even though for days it had worked flawlessly, so i searched around and found it's a common issue to have strange issues with non apple Jack/TRRS sockets i checked the tolerances and was sure everything was in spec then it hit me .. the input must be isolated (on the image below you can see a small black isolating black plastic ring between the jack input and the rest of the chassis

View attachment g6Y5XoZ.jpg

on all iphone jack you'll notice the sleeve and the base of the jack are plastic, now compare that with 99% of all other jacks and we have a difference, on close inspection of the Jack input on the phone you can see a small black plastic isolation ring that separates the jack from the rest of the case so my jack was shorting on the case, and seemingly this problem that has plagued many third party apply accessories could be easily mitigated with some insulation

If i cared more for apple i'd report the issue on the apple forums and make a big splash but TBH i'm not Apples biggest fan but if this can help out my Fellow TDH buddies I'm glad to share the knowledge

this is what i found

Without insulation (see input mic on app, bottom left)
View attachment cM6yOMu.jpg

with Insulation (satin gift tape for now haha)

View attachment hcjwr8M.jpg

So anyway that's what I've found i will share an example of my profile later this evening and will happily send it to any Fetters out there !

many thanks to those who have gone before me gave me the idea & to Deathproof for his great starting point

not bad for £30 total


View attachment cM6yOMu.jpg

View attachment hcjwr8M.jpg

View attachment g6Y5XoZ.jpg
 
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Hey man! Glad to hear you got it working. I'm very eager to hear the changes you made to the profile as I know it could use some tweaking - I still use a little rasp in my voice to get it just right.

I made an update to the thread (my personal thread, and the one all about the voice changer), about all the crazy audio issues I had like the ones you explained. After changing everything about the setup, even the phone, it was the splitter. So I bought another splitter from a place called KVConnection.com (actual link will be in my thread now). It's more money than the startech, but I didn't have any audio issues at all.
 
Hey man! Glad to hear you got it working. I'm very eager to hear the changes you made to the profile as I know it could use some tweaking - I still use a little rasp in my voice to get it just right.

I made an update to the thread (my personal thread, and the one all about the voice changer), about all the crazy audio issues I had like the ones you explained. After changing everything about the setup, even the phone, it was the splitter. So I bought another splitter from a place called KVConnection.com (actual link will be in my thread now). It's more money than the startech, but I didn't have any audio issues at all.

Will be posting a short video this evening ^^

you are correct a new splitter could fix the problem if it was an insulated base but its an easy fix if you cant source one ^^ the only struggle i'm having now is eliminating my Geordie accent from Fett haha

- - - Updated - - -

Very interesting! I would imagine that this is the case for iPhone 5 and 5S as well, then.
looking at the top of the 5/5s i'd imagine so yes !
 
You're a Geordie Fett too? Oh dear. XD

'Why aye, man, he's no good to uz dead, like.'

I wish I had an iphone, it all looks so much simpler with one. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to try and figure out how to wire an Aker into one of cheapo voice changers.
 
Looks/sounds great!! I definitely think for your voice, Temuera Morrison's voice is a better match (with your accent). I hear ya on listening to the same voice over and over again. I think I may account for half of these views of the Jason Winegreen voice:


I'd like to play around with your profile just to see what you came up with! Again, great stuff!
 
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Hi Jendor, thanks for pointing us in the right direction. Watched the video and tat's probably the closest Fett voice simulation I've listened to so far. I bought the app but have completely no idea what to do with it and the voice profile download you posted. Can you help a dummy out?
 
This is great! But I can't seem to figure out this crazy voice pro synth app. Any pointers?


I have a minor update on my setup for thoose interested !!


I discovered by close examination and experimentation Apple in there infinite sneakiness have added in a little trip up for all 3rd parties making TRRS 3.5mm connectors I've discovered the base perpendicular to the actual jack shaft of the TRRS connector on all Apple approved devices is insulated if its not insulated the mic line can short to the chassis/GND on the iPhone which and MIC to GND activates Siri.

what I've done is wrap the base of the jack in a single layer of 0.2mm Kapton tape a suitable alternative would be well cut gift tape (electrical tape cant be cut that accurately and moves) the issues have now gone for me although the y-splitters I've all tried don't seem to survive more than 6/7 troops and yes jesuit any knock will cause pickup seemingly as any momentary drop in connection is amplified by the voice synth app making it sound wayyy worse. I'm not convinced any 3.5mm female jack will be immune to this as they are all more or less constructed in the same manor with floating contact pins that move when the jack is inserted and as both the socket and the jack can be in motion as opposed to just the jack in the phone there just seems more scope for failure. due to this effect if the iPhone decides the disconnect was long enough it can decide to revert to the internal mic which is feedback city (as my phone and amp sit in the same pocket and total game over as i'm sure you've probably experienced yourself.

Soo going forward

I've been evaluating all sorts of alternatives I think I might have cracked the setup but i'll feedback this week once I can confirm below details what I've tried so you can learn from my mistakes:

My first experiment was to buy a Y-Splitter and solder it direct to a 30-pin dock connector in hopes of a better connection the Audio out was immaculate but i just couldn't work out why the audio in didn't work until I tried my next line of attack..

Then i experimented with the 30-pin edition of the Blue Mikey 2.0 (condenser mic with a 3.5mm line in feed to the dock connector) but quickly found apple hobbled this and my audio in dock connector attempt on iPhone 4 (it still works on the iPhone 3 but the voice synth app doesn't haha .. so that route is dead)

Apple killed the analog lines on the 30 pin connector meaning all audio in via the 30-pin must have its own internal self powered A/D converter and make use of the data feed and as the iPhone 4 was replaced with the 5 there seems to be only one on the market the Fostex AR4i that was build that way I've avoided this as for the time being as it just looked too bulky to be troop friendly but could certainly be a worth while experiment if my next avenue of experimentation should fall through

CURRENT SET-UP:

Using a FiiO Dock connector to pump the audio out of the iPhone into my Aker and a Rode Lavalier Mic designed for the iPhone which uses a TRRS 3.5mm jack which will eliminate a connection point getting shot of flakey Y Splitters


IMHO the two troop friendly set-ups are:

iPhone 5+ setup: (UNTESTED)

Mic/Condenser Mic 3.5mm

Blue Mikey Digital: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Microph...+mikey+digital

IPhone 5+

Voice Synth Pro

3.5mm out into Aker/Amp


iPhone 4 Setup: (testing in progress)

FiiO L9 Right angle line out dock cable - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ilpage_o00_s00

iPhone 4

Voice Synth Pro

Rode SmartLav+ - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ilpage_o00_s00
(FYI choose the smartlav+ not the regular smartlav the new + model has a better SNR, better for us helmeted types ^^)

the sound quality is great ! i'll post a video real soon !!

 
i just downloaded this app and bought an AKER 1505 Amp, can't wait to try this out...oh and btw, this is my 50TH POST!!! can't wait to be an official member wtih you awesome guys! :cool
 
iPhone 4 Setup: (testing in progress)

FiiO L9 Right angle line out dock cable - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ilpage_o00_s00

iPhone 4

Voice Synth Pro

Rode SmartLav+ - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ilpage_o00_s00
(FYI choose the smartlav+ not the regular smartlav the new + model has a better SNR, better for us helmeted types ^^)

the sound quality is great ! i'll post a video real soon !!


Pardon if this is a dumb question, but does this setup still require a y-splitter? I haven't received my Aker yet, so I'm having a hard time envisioning what this looks like.

Also, have you determined if this is a worthy setup?
 
hello,

I'm new to TDH and if I have missed this question already then sorry.... I watch your video on YT and bought the Aker 1505 with splitter.... but I have an android phone, and cannot seem to find the voice synth pro app on their store.

does anyone know of a similar app that works for android.......... any advice would be great.

thank you

Simon
 
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