How 2 turn Reg. Lines into 8/16bit

[RedHarvest]

I'm trying to turn some plain old regular recorded lines into 8bit - - so they sound more at home in an 8 or 16 bit environment

I linked a video in this newspost of what I'm talking about

I only have garage band and audacity - but any and all help is seriously appreciated!

[RobSoundtrack]

Sounds like more of a process than a button-push.
First thing tks come to mind is a bitcrusher and lots of EQ.
But I'd wait for someone to chime in that's done this.
I don't do a lot of sample degradation

[midimachine]

yeah a bitcrusher might work but the one in garageband isn't great, you could also use some kinda conversion tool to turn the sample into a nastier wave format. if famitracker works on mac you could use it to turn your sample into 1-bit DPCM which can be played back on a NES, super nasty!

[RampantMusik]

BitCrushing would be my first suggestion, but the sound quality will be terrible: it works for music because it clips and distorts and mutilates the sound like crazy. And while it sounds cool applied to, say, a growly bass synth, any noticeable amount of BitCrushing will probably render your lines incomprehensible.

If you want to really emulate the 8-bit style, then you're probably best off going with subtitles or text boxes instead.

[midimachine]

multiband bitcrushing would be pretty good for vox (i.e less bitcrushing on high bands = more legible voice).
just remembered bitspeex - which is a kind of bitcrusher specifically designed for vocals. never used it personally though, dunno if it's free or even very good :v

[jarrydn]

At 8/29/12 07:34 PM, midimachine wrote: multiband bitcrushing would be pretty good for vox (i.e less bitcrushing on high bands = more legible voice).
just remembered bitspeex - which is a kind of bitcrusher specifically designed for vocals. never used it personally though, dunno if it's free or even very good :v

bitspeek isn't free, but it is very good for what it does!! it resynthesizes the input and basically sounds exactly like a speak n spell. good stuff \m/