Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys English Dub Project.

[Burnt Lasagna]

OG: Download icon.png


Alright, allow me to introduce everyone to a project that I've been kicking around for over two years now. Today I'm finally going to announce the start of the Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys English dub project on the TurboGrafx-CD!

More infovon Voice Acting Alliance...
http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?78229-Ys-IV-The-Dawn-of-Ys-English-Dub-Project-on-the-TurboGrafx-CD-.

Auditions end on June 1.
SPREAD THE WORD!

Fully Cast!

~Cast~

~MALE~

Eldeel - Michael Hillard

Lefance - SkyeWelse

Garuda - Lawrence "MasakoX" Simpson

Grandfather Jeff - Michael Hillard

Leo - Jess Ragan

Duren - SonicShadows

Arem - DanteWahou

Goban Tovah - DanteWahou

Gadis - Jess Ragan

Lemnos - Jess Ragan

Ramess - TetsuyaHikari Replacement needed, he should've been banned from the project like Jeff Nussbaum! He's a KKKFarms stalker/harasser, ban/block this troll *immediately* ON SIGHT!

Slano - SonicShadows

Schultz - SonicShadows

Talim - Duo_R

Rady - TetsuyaHikari Replacement needed, he should've been banned from the project like Jeff Nussbaum! He's a KKKFarms stalker/harasser, ban/block this troll *immediately* ON SIGHT! (Chris Hyde AKA "Psycho DildoVizor" - This is a KKKFarms . net stalker/defamer/harasser (no regrets with his membership despite Byuu/Near's suicide and other genuine harassment/extortion/defamation/stalking...)!!! He'll be removed from the dub ASAP and replaced! Mike didn't know who this openly anime porn addict and pedophile was when he somehow slipped into the project from romhacking . net, he obviously couldn't have known! Note: Stay as far away from him as possible, the creep is dangerous, vicious, mentally unstable, and will pay to dox your phone/address!!!)

Miyu - SonicShadows

Enzo - Nitro

Keith Fact - Nitro

Dr. Flair - ParanoiaDragon

Narrator - ParanoiaDragon

Dogi - Chris Adams


~FEMALE~

Lillia - anonymous

Leeza - Mizura

Karna - Mizura

Bami - deadlyrose7717

Tim - ThatDasheKid

Lair - Haushinka

Feena - usamimi

Torie - usamimi

Aria - ThatDasheKid

Mother - usamimi

[Duo_R]

Wasn't there another one that was already dubbed? Sounds awesome though would love to try and cast for it.

[NightWolve]

Wow, you really did a hell of a job on those posts at Voice Acting Alliance! You got your shit together on all of it, exactly the person that I was looking for many many moons ago, someone willing to do the organizational grunt work that such a project entails! I didn't know though that you wanted to work on this long before our elconejotres/dub kit exchange at the MagicEngine forums, so that's cool!

Very quickly, some notes: the unreleased patch changes "Romn" to "Romun", undoing the ridiculous decision I made to sync with Falcom's "Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim." Konami used "Romun" in their PS2 localization, so I went back and changed it, so no worries, that's what it'll be with the new patch! I never released it because I wanted to wait until the dub was completed by Justus, but that never happened, so I didn't care. So if this project succeeds, the newer patch will have some minor edits such as that one! Yeah, imagine if one of the actors had to say "Romn" instead of "Romun," it'd be pathetic. Heh. Here's a list of fixes from my work text log:

Code Select Expand

** DONE List
v100

DONE - Plain => To Field. lowercase except for location save/load boxes.
DONE - Flair & Lenore Ralle (from Rall) - update speech script with "Ralle" spelling (to Duece)
DONE - Change Romn back to Romun in speech file also.
DONE - Speak to => Talk to (Konami style)

-Misspellings
DONE - Jeva -> Jevah
DONE - Pym -> Pim
DONE - Selceta -> Celceta - Falcom/Konami style
DONE - Sara -> Sarah
DONE - Bammi -> Bami (was spelled both ways)
DONE - oppurtunity -> opportunity
DONE - swordman -> swordsman
DONE - Romn -> Romun
The other thing was actually something I wanted to talk to you about, but it looks like you already had the same idea. If the actor is looking at the waveform of the Japanese audio clip, he/she can use the spikes (and drops) in audio as cues on when to speak, that way, you'll get a better lip sync. Might mean they have to speed up or slow down their words at times, but if done properly, it can help reduce runaway lip movement/out of sync issues, etc. It's possible when/if you complete this, I could see about doing it myself with a waveform editor, moving sections of audio around to match the Japanese waveform and whatnot. I doubt I'll have the energy for that kind of fine tuning though, but I'd just be happy to put a whole patch together once and for all. I'll probably make a NSIS-type patch this time, like my PC patches, instead of just a crappy batch file!!! A more really awesome idea would be to integrate the TurboRip source code into a NSIS-type patch where it can ask you for the Ys IV disc, rip it to an ISO/WAV/CUE image file set, patch it all in one easy shot at the click of a button! It is a rather too ambitious idea, but if the dub turns out really good, I may be inspired to go that far, so you never know! =)

[Bernie]

  I think I may cry.  Glad to see this finally getting done.  If its anything like the Dracula X project, I know it will be great.

[NecroPhile]

I read that the Ys IV dub might finally come to fruition....   I can't wait, man! 

[Burnt Lasagna]

Wasn't there another one that was already dubbed? Sounds awesome though would love to try and cast for it.

No there isn't. There where two other attempted dub projects but they both got cancelled. 

I didn't know though that you wanted to work on this long before our elconejotres/dub kit exchange at the MagicEngine forums, so that's cool!

Yeah, I started getting interested in doing the project after I found that batch file on your website, in 2010, that had all the addresses for the ADPCM. I did some stupid test inserts with my brother back then and it got me thinking " I could actually finish the dub using this". I originally started the Rondo of Blood project as practice for Ys IV, but that turned into it's own separate beast  

Glad to hear that the new patch will change "Romn" to "Romun"! I remember thinking back when I first played Ys IV how the heck you even pronounce that. 

The other thing was actually something I wanted to talk to you about, but it looks like you already had the same idea. If the actor is looking at the waveform of the Japanese audio clip, he/she can use the spikes (and drops) in audio as cues on when to speak, that way, you'll get a better lip sync. Might mean they have to speed up or slow down their words at times, but if done properly,

I do have a small blurb about it in the audition page. I plan on seriously talking more about it after auditions with the selected actors. I already made dub packs for each character that have all their Japanese audio organized by the scene they go by and placed txt files that has the clips translation alongside it.

As for the patcher I was just thinking about modding the patcher I used for Rondo of Blood, but if you want to go all out then be my guest

[NightWolve]

Some more quick notes:

* The YsIVSpeech.txt in the dub kit has all the edits (Romn/Romun), so use that one if you weren't already.
* The volume adjuster value as I mentioned in the dub kit ReadMe is a problem at 15, but I think that can wait. When you test on real NEC hardware, the clip is too loud preamp-wise so it comes out distorted. Emulators don't reveal this issue as much for some reason, so tests on real hardware to get this correct will be needed.
* I just thought of another loose end. The Ys IV ADPCM batch files specify 15780 as the sample rate, which David Shadoff chose who made the utilities in the first place. But, he also showed me how the rate is set in PCE assembly, as is shown below, but that technically only allows for even values, so I wonder if you should do a find and replace of 15780 to 16000... I have to ask him about this again.

Code Select Expand

@REM Possible TG16/PCE Sample rates
@REM  [b]2000, 3200, 4000, 6400, 8000, 16000[/b]
@REM  _DH:  Sampling rate (range:  $00-$0E) (RATE)
@REM  Khz = 32 / (16 - _DH)
@REM  2000
@REM  2133.33333333333
@REM  2285.71428571429
@REM  2461.53846153846
@REM  2666.66666666667
@REM  2909.09090909091
@REM  3200
@REM  3555.55555555556
@REM  4000
@REM  4571.42857142857
@REM  5333.33333333333
@REM  6400
@REM  8000
@REM  10666.6666666667
@REM  16000

Maybe ask Bonknuts/Bonknuts? If he can do a trace when an ADPCM clip is loaded and figure out what value for the sample rate is chosen, that would help... Though, if that algorithm is accurate, there can only be even values and so there's only one answer, 16000. But yeah, I think this should be settled ASAP. I kept forgetting to ask David about it, but next time I catch him on AIM I'll bring it up.

I read that the Ys IV dub might finally come to fruition....

Hahaha! At first I thought an ad was starting, then I realized it was a music video! That was my first laugh of the day, danke!

[Burnt Lasagna]

Thanks for the heads up!
The volume adjuster value must of been the problem I was getting when I was making that April fools patch. The problem is I don't own a legit a TG-CD. Though Wii-Mednafen is able to pick up the distortion when the clips are to loud so I'll be using that to test (I used it to test a majority of Rondo of Blood for the same problems).

As for the sample rates I'm not really sure. I did a find and replace for 16000 on the GET batch file and the clips came out the same, only they where 2 seconds shorter. I'm guessing this is normal? Ordinarily I would ask Bonknuts (AKA tomaitheous) but the last couple of times that I've been in contact with him he seems to be pretty busy with real life and other projects, so I don't know if he can.

[Burnt Lasagna]

I just thought of another loose end. The Ys IV ADPCM batch files specify 15780 as the sample rate, which David Shadoff chose who made the utilities in the first place. But, he also showed me how the rate is set in PCE assembly, as is shown below, but that technically only allows for even values, so I wonder if you should do a find and replace of 15780 to 16000... I have to ask him about this again.

Wait it just hit me! 15780 should work fine since that was the same sample rate that I used in Dracula X.
...or I'm I missing something?

[NightWolve]

Hah! I thought I had this conversation with David before!!! I did, back in Jan 11 19:54:52 2005 via MSN:

Sephiroth: Ok, I looked at the docs about the adpcm play routine.
Sephiroth: According to what I found, sample rate is computed like this:
Sephiroth: _DH:  Sampling rate (range:  $00-$0E) (RATE)
Sephiroth: Khz = 32 / (16 - _DH)
Dave Shadoff MSN: yeah
Sephiroth: Going thru 00 - 0E, odd values outputted are:
Sephiroth: Err, even values I mean:
Sephiroth: 2000, 3200, 4000, 6400, 8000, 16000
Sephiroth: The rest are fractional.
Sephiroth: Below 16k is 10666.
Sephiroth: Does that mean that our using 15872 or whatever for YsIV should've been an even 16000?
Dave Shadoff MSN: yeah, it's not exact
Dave Shadoff MSN: take the NTSC colorburst clock frequency
Dave Shadoff MSN: of whatever it is - 3.579MHz or something
Dave Shadoff MSN: and then divide by 2's (and maybe a 3
Dave Shadoff MSN: )
Dave Shadoff MSN: until you reach the magic numbers
Dave Shadoff MSN: you will find that it's almost exactly 15870
Dave Shadoff MSN: which they call 16KHz
Sephiroth: Ooooh..
Dave Shadoff MSN: it's all done with divide-by-2 counters

Dave Shadoff MSN: 3.579545 MHz
Dave Shadoff MSN: I'll do the math now
Dave Shadoff MSN: wait - that looks a bit weird
Dave Shadoff MSN: um, that math doesn't quite work
Dave Shadoff MSN: I had the math once
Dave Shadoff MSN: but it looks bad now
Dave Shadoff MSN: hmmm
Dave Shadoff MSN: oh wait a sec
Dave Shadoff MSN: there are 32 steps in a wave
Dave Shadoff MSN: no wait - wrong sound generator
Dave Shadoff MSN: actually, now I think I remember
Dave Shadoff MSN: it's all coming from the video clock
Dave Shadoff MSN: that was historically the clock generator for the whole system
Dave Shadoff MSN: so the CPU clock was also the same clock
Dave Shadoff MSN: the main system clock on this machine was actually 21MHz
Dave Shadoff MSN: so, divide by 3 for the main chip
Dave Shadoff MSN: (CPU)
Dave Shadoff MSN: and divide by another 2 for colorsburst video
Dave Shadoff MSN: and all other clocks descneded from those
Dave Shadoff MSN: now, the horizontal sync frequency is 15780 or so
Sephiroth: It's like 8000-(8000/3/2) ?
Dave Shadoff MSN: I'm trying to remember if ADPCM is hooked into that, or something else
Dave Shadoff MSN: I have it written down somewhere but it'll take forever to find
Sephiroth: Well, s'alright.
Sephiroth: Don't worry about it.
Dave Shadoff MSN: whatever reason I was using 15780 (or was it 15870 ?)
Sephiroth: Yeah.
Dave Shadoff MSN: just multiply by 2 to get the "32KHz" number
Dave Shadoff MSN: and then divide by various integers
Sephiroth: 15780
Dave Shadoff MSN: but seriously
Dave Shadoff MSN: 15780 is almost the same as 160000
Dave Shadoff MSN: er, 16000
Dave Shadoff MSN: it's only 1.4% different
Sephiroth: Darn.
Sephiroth: Well, I thought it would be something easy to compute.
Dave Shadoff MSN: I could have sworn I had the actual clock speed somewhere

Well, that explains why I left the frequency at 15780 back then.

15780 should work fine since that was the same sample rate that I used in Dracula X.

Yeah, cause of my batch files I assume, but I dunno, I still have some uncertainty... This is about the sample rate that the audio clip was actually recorded in which I would guess was an even number, no ? But because 15780 is close to 16000, we can't tell the difference audio-wise, but the clip does come out shorter as you found... Yeah, I still think we need someone with more expertise to clear this up! Just to remove all doubt.

ccovell is active, maybe him, and I did see tomaitheous/Bonknuts active not too long ago in the #mednafen IRC channel.

[Burnt Lasagna]

Alright, thanks for digging up that old MSN.
So to sum up, 15780 (16KHz) is safe to use?  

EDIT: I just saw your edit.
I'll try and PM tomaitheous to see if he has the time to shed some light on the situation. 

[NightWolve]

So to sum up, 15780 (16KHz) is safe to use?

Well, if we go by David's quote:

Dave Shadoff MSN: but seriously
Dave Shadoff MSN: 15780 is almost the same as 160000
Dave Shadoff MSN: er, 16000
Dave Shadoff MSN: it's only 1.4% different

it is... but that part reinforced my uncertainty... ;)

[Burnt Lasagna]

Yeah I know what your saying.
Tom was last active on "May 01, 2012, 07:03:30 PM" here on pcenginefx.
I'll ask if he can share his words of wisdom...

[SignOfZeta]

Well, good luck with this.

[Arjak]

Sent my audition!

[Burnt Lasagna]

Thank you!
(Email sent)

[ParanoiaDragon]

Something I just thought of, you mention maybe Leo having a french accent.  In the Ys world, the Romuns are litterally Ys version of the Romans, so maybe an Itallian accent would be better?  And now that I think about it, I believe Ys is basically around France, so any native Esterian's should be speaking with a french accent...guess we'll have to redub Ys 1 & 2!

[Keranu]

Ys Book I & II: Oui! Oui! Edition

[Burnt Lasagna]

Something I just thought of, you mention maybe Leo having a french accent.  In the Ys world, the Romuns are litterally Ys version of the Romans, so maybe an Itallian accent would be better?

Duh, I should of thought of that. Leo is even an Italian name.
I've added it to the VAA page. Though I'm still up for any kind of accent as long as it sounds good and fitting.

[NecroPhile]

Something I just thought of, you mention maybe Leo having a french accent.  In the Ys world, the Romuns are litterally Ys version of the Romans, so maybe an Itallian accent would be better?

It'sa me, Mario Leo!

[TurboXray]

I'll try and PM tomaitheous to see if he has the time to shed some light on the situation.  

I'm out of town at the moment, but I'll be back home this weekend. I can trace the pin of the 5205 ADPCM chip to see what clock signal is driving it. I don't remember off hand and Charles MacDonald's doc doesn't give any specifics about it. I also don't have the source code to mednafen with me to look at (I'm sure the emulator has the exact rate other wise audio would slowly get out of sync in HuVideo stuffs).

[NightWolve]

It'sa me, Mario Leo!

Nooooo! If that happens, I will withdraw my support of the project... Hehe.

I'm out of town at the moment, but I'll be back home this weekend. I can trace the pin of the 5205 ADPCM chip to see what clock signal is driving it. I don't remember off hand and Charles MacDonald's doc doesn't give any specifics about it. I also don't have the source code to mednafen with me to look at (I'm sure the emulator has the exact rate other wise audio would slowly get out of sync in HuVideo stuffs).

Excellent! Thanks! It'd be good to clear this up, and not just for this, for other dubbing projects as well (although it's a very minor difference in value, you do want precision). Shadoff's judgement is excellent, but a 2nd opinion won't hurt and maybe you'll likely just wind up verifying what he used. Oh, I'll see if Charles is hanging around on IRC and raise the issue. I met him a few weeks ago, pretty cool guy.


EDIT: I got a response from Charles and it looks like we will need to change that sample rate! He pointed me to a document that he wrote long ago that's only available through a wayback internet archive so I uploaded it to my site, and linked it below. I highlighted the table row in question:

https://www.ysutopia.net/special/MSM5205.htm#MSM5205_timing

The value would have to be somewhere around 16,043.75 Hz! We are gonna need some changes made to the batch files after all! It appears the info I ran into back in '05 (Khz = 32 / (16 - _DH)) about a divider and only 16 possible sample rates was on to something. Problem is Shadoff's ADPCM tools don't handle decimal points and a possible audio tool that developers used at the time (SOX) doesn't either! Which brings us to that:

http://sox.sourceforge.net

Charles says the ADPCM format of the Oki MSM5205, which is what NEC gaming systems were using, is identical to the Intel/Dialogic VOX format which this 'Sound eXchange' utility ('sox') supports! Meaning, the ADPCM tools that Shadoff made may not have been necessary! I downloaded SOX and am currently reading the documentation on its use. Example:

; Convert WAV file to 32 KHz ADPCM data
sox music.wav -r 32000 music.vox

Thinking about it some more, if developers couldn't use a decimal point when encoding to ADPCM format, then this raw 16,043.75 Hz can't be the value that was used! I would have to assume that at the commandline, they ran, "sox music.wav -r 16000 music.vox" or "sox music.wav -r 16044 music.vox" perhaps ???

Well, we still need your help, Bonknuts!! I'm glad I never forget about this issue, I thought that there still might be a minor problem here.

[Burnt Lasagna]

Oh gosh, the plot thickens

[Burnt Lasagna]

Quick note!
I just added a "Length" section to every characters description on the VAA page that says the amount of minuets/seconds of spoken dialogue that character has. This should help you to get an idea on how much time commitment each role will have. Some of you might be surprised on how short most of the roles really are

[burn_654]

I might look into auditioning, going through some life stuff right now (moving) but I'll send you something if I can. I have professional gear I can use.

[Burnt Lasagna]

I have professional gear I can use.

That's good!
That alone gives you good chances of getting some kind of part!
Though it goes with out saying that acting quality still counts.

[Burnt Lasagna]

(Mirror from my VAA post)

I've decided to leave out the timing requirements for auditions, since this is just to get a feel for the voice and for me to get an idea of your acting abilities.

Now with that being said I would like to make relevant that I'm still in dire need of auditions! More specifically in the female department.
There is literally zero competition for anyone of the female roles.

Most of the roles are not that long either. With the longest being ~7.7 mins (Leeza).
If you think this project sounds interesting please try to audition or inform someone who you think might be interested. I would greatly appreciate it.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Well, you can knock down the Bami role if need be, since you techinically have all her lines, but I don't know if I like the way it sounds(& I believe you expressed similar sentiments).  I guess you could consider it a last ditch if no one pegs the Bami role.

[Burnt Lasagna]

but I don't know if I like the way it sounds(& I believe you expressed similar sentiments).

I'm considering Bami as a fully recorded audition for now. My plan B, so to speak.

[Arjak]

My little sister is wanting to try out for Leeza, so you might get an audition from her at some point.

[munchiaz]

This is pretty awesome for someone who is getting into Y's. So far i have played books I & II on the tg-16, and i loved them. I just picked up Y's 3. I want to play all these versions before i play the PSP ones. So this is great. Best of luck to you

[Burnt Lasagna]

Quick Note For Anyone Interested in Auditioning!
Auditions end in 2 weeks and 2 days!

[cabbage]

How are the auditions coming along? I just borrowed a mic from my friend, but not really sure of its quality. Guess I might try out if you're still in need of male voices.

This is a wonderful project, regardless, and I'm really looking to playing through Ys4 again, this time totally in english ;)

[Burnt Lasagna]

Auditions are going well. I've actually received some pretty impressive auditions so far! Though only seven people have actually sent in auditions...
As you might imagine I'm always in need of new auditions! There's still a large sum of male roles that no one's auditioned for yet, so please don't feel threatened to try out.

If I can't fill up the entire cast before June first I'll probably host a second audition for the left over characters.

[OldRover]

I'll send one when I get everything set up... looks like it'll be a few more days. Oh, and if you have female roles to fill, I have a female. lol

[spenoza]

I think the challenge for some of us is access to a quiet place and decent equipment. I'm pretty sure I'd be great for a couple voices, but I don't really have anything but cheap crap around to record myself with, so it doesn't really matter.

[Burnt Lasagna]

Oh, and if you have female roles to fill, I have a female. lol

Yup, there are plenty of roles ready to be filled

I'm pretty sure I'd be great for a couple voices, but I don't really have anything but cheap crap around to record myself with, so it doesn't really matter.

If your interested in getting a relatively cheap high quality mic, suitable for voice acting, then may I recommend the Snowball mic. 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EOPQ7E/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
I've been using it for about two years now for all my voice acting needs and it works great!

[spenoza]

If your interested in getting a relatively cheap high quality mic, suitable for voice acting, then may I recommend the Snowball mic. 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EOPQ7E/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
I've been using it for about two years now for all my voice acting needs and it works great!

I'm afraid I don't have $80 ATM to spend to volunteer my efforts to an unpaid project, but I do wish you well in this project nonetheless.

[NightWolve]

I'm afraid I don't have $80 ATM to spend to volunteer my efforts to an unpaid project, but I do wish you well in this project nonetheless.

But, but, you'd be apart of history... ;)

[Burnt Lasagna]

I'm afraid I don't have $80 ATM to spend to volunteer my efforts to an unpaid project,

But, but, you'd be apart of history... ;)

George Washington is already on board

/George%20Oproves.png

[spenoza]

YEah, in that picture he looks kinda bored  ; )

Hey, I just had a thinky! I work at a university, and they have equipment to loan at the library. I bet I could borrow a microphone... I'm pretty sure that's cheating, but who cares, right?

[Burnt Lasagna]

YEah, in that picture he looks kinda bored  ; )

Ha, got to love those Homonyms...but sadly spell check doesn't...

Hey, as long as the library's microphone is good quality and your able to borrow it for long enough then it doesn't really matter.

[Burnt Lasagna]

1 more week left in auditions!

I've noticed allot of the auditions that have been sent so far have been for only a select number of characters. At the moment there is a big competition for most of the main roles, so I thought I would list some of the less auditioned for parts. Most of which no one has auditioned for yet, so there's literally zero competition for most of these parts.

MALE ROLES

Grandfather Jeff
Arem
Goban
Ramess
Eldeel


FEMALE ROLES

Bami
Tim
Aria

For anyone else that want's to audition please consider some of these more minor roles. It would be much appreciated!

Thank you.

[Burnt Lasagna]

(Mirror from my post on VAA)
WARNING! 2 days Left in Auditions!

After evaluating all of my auditions and making a preliminary casting sheet I realized that I don't have suitable actors for the following people...

~Male~
Talim
Rady

~Female~
Bami

If anyone wants to make a last minute audition please do it for the following roles!
Thank you.

[OldRover]

I'll send you an audition for the two remaining male roles tomorrow... I don't know if there's enough time, but I might have someone to do Bami for you too.

[Burnt Lasagna]

I'll send you an audition for the two remaining male roles tomorrow... I don't know if there's enough time, but I might have someone to do Bami for you too.

That's great! Make sure you mask your voice well between the two characters. Since they both talk in the same scene at the end of the game.

[OldRover]

Are you going to apply vocal effects of any kind? Or is that kind of thing to be done by the actors? I would imagine spirits would have some kind of effects applied.

[Burnt Lasagna]

All effects to the audio are going to be done by me.
Now with that being said I am going to be adding some slight effects to the 5 disciples clips, but nothing voice changing.

[Duo_R]

auditions emailed!

[Burnt Lasagna]

Thank you last minute hero!

Auditions have ended! I'll be posting a cast sheet soon (The project is fully cast)!