YouTubers around the world create a wide variety of content for their channels, such as product reviews, daily life vlogs, how-to tutorials, gaming videos, and more. In recent years, YouTubers have been utilizing voice disguisers to add a bit of uniqueness to their videos.
What is a voice disguiser?
Have you ever watched a movie scene where a hacker uses a distorted voice to speak to the victim? By disguising his voice, he hides a major part of his identity that could expose him to the victim or worse the authorities.
The anime/manga series, Death Note, features a unique detective, named “L”, who uses voice distortion to speak to Giovanni – a member of the Special Provision for Kira. The output of his voice sounds like a robot. By using the voice disguiser, he keeps his identity secret from authorities as well as Kira who is after him.
Voice disguisers work on the same principle i.e. they change your voice, but the intention of using a voice disguiser is not always nefarious!
YouTubers often use voice cloning software for entertainment purposes i.e. create anime-style voiceovers for gaming videos.
Others don’t feel comfortable using their own voice publicly, so when making videos for YouTube they can mask their voice through a voice disguiser.
A win-win situation!
​​Voice disguisers come in various shapes and forms – ranging from offering hardcore robotic voices to engaging anime character voices, chipmunks, and girl voices.
Voice disguiser vs voice changer
Both voice disguisers and voice changers embody the same concept. The purpose of each is to conceal the speaker’s voice and change it to a different voice.
Voice disguisers and voice changers work on the principle of manipulating the sound of the speaker’s voice using various voice modulator techniques such as pitch shifting and distortion.
However, with AI advancements, you may not have to always record your voice, rather, you can feed a written script to the software and it will convert the script into an audio file.
How to use a voice disguiser for YouTube videos?
You can use Typecast which provides AI voice services to change your voice to an animation, education, or promotion voice.
- Visit the Typecast website.
- If you already have an account, click Sign in to access your account. If you don’t have one, click Sign Up.
- Sign up using a Google email account or Facebook.
- In the dashboard, click View all characters located on the right side of the screen.
- From the menu on the left:
- Under Visual Type, check the box for either Virtual Human or Animation. Virtual humans are characters that look like humans while animation characters are mostly cartoons or animated characters.
- Under Speaking style control, choose either emotion, tone, or intonation. The speaking style defines how your character will express themselves.
- You can also choose the gender of your character from the menu.
- Voice age defines how you want your character to sound e.g. child’s voice, elder’s voice, etc.
- You can also sort based on the type of content you want to create, e.g. documentary, education, music, or entertainment.
- Lastly choose a mood from among the list e.g. playful, cold, emotional.
- When you are ready, hit Create.
- In the editor window, add a paragraph to include the content you want your character (e.g. Athena) to speak.
From the menu on the right:
- Under Emotion, select presets such as normal, shout, cheerful and sad.
- Choose the speech pace: slow, normal, or fast depending on your content. For example, anime related content is typically loud and engaging.
- Add pauses in speech as needed. You can add pauses between 0 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Intonation is the rise and fall of your character’s speech. Adjust intonation to 0, 1, 2, -1, -2, or auto.
- Tempo is the speed of your character’s voice. Adjust between 0.5x to 2x.
- The pitch can be adjusted to lower, normal, and higher scales.
- Play your audio clip to check if everything looks good.
- Click the Download button from the bottom right corner. Your audio file will be downloaded to your computer. If you want to save your project and come back to it later, click the Save Project button located at the top right corner.
Use your audio file as a background or voice-over for your YouTube videos, gaming live streams, video games, and more.
Is it legal to use voice disguisers and voice changers?
Voice changers are legal to use. Just like any other technology, if voice disguisers are used for criminal purposes or for harassing or bullying someone, the user will face consequences.
It is also important to ensure you are not using someone’s voice without their permission. Celebrity voices are often used in content creation, and YouTubers must seek permission and credit the original creator.
Vtuber software
Over the last couple of years, Vtuber software has become popular in various countries, especially in Japan. The rise of Vtubers culture in Japan has led to more people joining the platform as virtual YouTubers.
Vtuber software allows users to create digital avatars, anime characters, or cartoons. Vtubers often use these avatars in live streams to interact with their audiences. The avatar can be controlled through motion capture technology that mimics the movements and expressions of the Vtuber.
Difference between a Vtuber and a YouTuber
A YouTuber is typically a human creating videos on YouTube e.g. educational videos and gaming, etc. A Vtuber, on the other hand, is a virtual character designed by a human or software.
The voice behind a Vtuber is typically that of a human. Vtubers use AI-generated voice-overs for their characters e.g. anime voice of a girl, a boy, a child, etc. audio.
The purpose of Vtubers is often to entertain their viewers through singing, dancing, answering questions, and playing games.
