Hey, have you ever wondered if the voices you hear in Halloween animatronics are actually real people or if they’re just creating using technology? Well, I can tell you that they are real people, how do I know this? Because I recorded the voiced for one, and come Halloween of 2020 I will be in an animatronic sold in hundreds of Home Depots.
I have a family member who has a recording studio and one of their clients is a major toy company in China that specializes in holiday animatronics. The entire process of getting the voices recorded is quite simple: The toy company sends over the sketch or picture of the what the “toy” will look like; they send over what they want the animatronic to say and how they want it to sound; whoever is chosen to do the recording is called into the studio; they go into the sound booth to record the dialogue, this usually takes a few tries; then once it sounds like they have what they need it is edited with music and background noise.
Photo by Lydia Parker
For the animatronic, I had to record for it is a young dead girl that sings “Ring Around the Rosie,” then has one line of dialogue one the singing is finished. My family member who is the boss of the recording part had me listen to the recording of another toy before to me doing my recording so I could get a sense of how he wanted me to sound. It took a couple of tries and some vocal direction from him but after about three takes we got it!
Photo by Lydia Parker
Once he has the take he likes he adds the music, and background sounds. If need be, he also plays with the pitch of the voice to make sure it sounds as young as needed. To also assist with making sure it sounds perfect he has a voice box in the studio to hear it will sound in the actual animatronic before sending it to the toy company.
After everything seems perfect the finalized recording to the toy company and they will either say it is perfect or ask for some tweaks to be made. Luckily my audio didn’t have to be tweaked or redone; the company said it’s perfect. So, I make some money and get to be in a Halloween animatronic.
What’s even cooler I’m not the only member of my family who will be in an animatronic in 2020: My aunt is going to be a skeleton bride, my dad is going to be a grim reaper, and I’m going to be a dead girl. So some families are good cooks, or musicians, my family is made up of voice actors for holiday animatronics.
So lookout for a grim reaper, skeleton bride, and a girl with a blue face in a white nightgown cause right there you’ll be meeting me and two of family members. #Hauntedfamilyreunion