The Energon Pub

So I'm trying to replicate Soundwave's voice. I can do the Dr. Claw/Evil Barry White voice OK, and I'm using the TAL II Vocoder plugin for Audacity, but I can't seem to get the sound right. IIRC it depends on the sampled "noise" and I've tried white noise, square waves, sawtooth waves and the like but nothing gets that Soundwavey voice. What am I doing wrong?

I tried to do this once for a Twincast episode and I learned that the original Soundwave effect is a forgotten art. As in the engineers that made it happen aren't around, or don't remember, and they never made an equivalent for digital recording formats.

I wish I had a better answer, and hope someone else posts to let you know about a good solution!

Super late response I know, but thanks for the reply Scotty. A bit of a shame, but oh well.

I actually reckon Samuel Hayden's voice modulation from the new DOOM game would make a great Soundwave voice effect. Not only is it modern and thus not a lost art (though given the craziness that went into DOOM's sound design, including a Soviet synthesiser, a vuvuzela and a CHAINSAW it might not be as easy as one might think) but it actually sounds pretty cool.

still disappoints me how they didn't use the Vocoder in Revenge of the Fallen for Soundwave's voice.

Agreed! Same goes for Welker's single line as Soundwave in TF Prime!

That "Soundwave superior, Autobots inferior." just didn't have the same effect on me without the vocoder.

I would've still been happy with one more SW speaking part using the Dr. Claw/ ROTF voice in Soundwave's confrontation with Airachnid, though.