The Sound of Hellfire? (Ghost Rider's Voice)

[FlameHead]

With the movie finally being released in a couple of years, I guess I'll finally get a life long question answered; what does hellfire sound like?

For those who are not in the know, hellfire is what surrounds Ghost Rider. It's not like any fire known on earth and it's from another dimension... and most definaly must have a different sound.

Now, I'm not so much refering to the sound of the fire burning itself (which is going to be hard to do on screen becuse it may be distracting.. unless they use a soundless burn) as Ghost Rider's Firey voice. Those who know Ghost Rider know that he had his words written is a special flaming box. A box which resounded to me power and fear. Ghost Rider's voice is one of the keys to the success of this film.

And....discuss.

[WarBlade]

There was a mention of how he sounded somewhere in the comicbook (Dan Ketch days) which spoke of his voice being something like a rasping fire . . . I wish I could recall exactly, but all I have is the sound that the phrase sparked in my imagination. The sound effects team working on Fellowship of the Ring actually gave voice to something very similar, making it easy to suggest the sound of Ghost Rider's voice could be a mix of three parts: A recorded voice, a throaty bonfire and a cobblestone dragged on concrete. Unlike the Balrog's roar, I imagine the effects on Ghost Rider's voice as being far more subtle, especially seeing as it would make a frequent part of the audio mix, but enough to give us the "wow" factor that most of us want.

[BIGGUN]

i read a long time ago that there might be voices of "humans wailing in agony" in the background for the fire effects that surround GR. would be very faint though. the sound of a howling wind or raging fire would help too

for the voice ive always imagined it as being sounding very ticked off....but the voice would be very rough and maybe sound something like the corpse from the short "fathers day" in george romeroes early 80s flick "creepshow". and give the voice a complete surround sound effect as well.

[3dman27]

maybe it'll sound like two voices in unision


like the ghost did in the animated iron man armor wars episode? maybe a spooky echoing voice is in order as to the hellfire flames i think they'll be silent

[FlameHead]

Wow... I start a thread and just forget about? Geesh.

Originally posted by WarBlade
Unlike the Balrog's roar, I imagine the effects on Ghost Rider's voice as being far more subtle, especially seeing as it would make a frequent part of the audio mix, but enough to give us the "wow" factor that most of us want.

I'm not sure how subte it should be. I mean, I would much rather have the Balrog's roar than the soundless blue fames in Hellboy... no matter how distracting it would be.

Originally posted by BIGGUN
...for the voice ive always imagined it as being sounding very ticked off...

Of course he's ticked off. His only purpose is to hunt down and punish those who spill the blood of innocents. I'm sure he enjoys his work... just not enough to make him smile.

Originally posted by MarvelMovies
As long as they don't go the "Hulk cartoon 90s cheesy voice" that Ghost Rider had in the show..

That didn't strike fear sound like rasping fire, or humans wailing or anything..

Sounded like a mouse with a bad muffler or something..

I didn't even know Ghost Rider was in the Hulk cartoon. I thought that this film incarnation would be the first time we would actually hear Ghost Rider. Damn, I got to get my hands on that. Muffler Mouse sounds hilarious!

Originally posted by 3dman27
maybe it'll sound like two voices in unision

That's a sound idea... as long as neither one of those voices is Nic Cages. If they make the voice of Ghost Rider the same as the voice of Johnny, I'll shoot someone.... in the foot.

[FlameHead]

... ah yes, eventually. I know all about the eventually. I have far to many eventually. Trust me, the 2nd thing on my list of things to do is quit procrastinating. I kid, I kid. There's just not enough time in the day is there?

[spideyboy_1111]

ghost rider will be sweet.. im excited

[FlameHead]

As many of us are. To a point where I'll bust if this get's delayed anymore.

[Kable24]

I saw a movie once and I can't think of what it was where the character when he would talk you'd hear a little bit before and then he would actually say it and then it would trail off. I wish I could remember the movie it was from. It was a cool creepy effect.

[WarBlade]

Originally posted by Kable24
I saw a movie once and I can't think of what it was where the character when he would talk you'd hear a little bit before and then he would actually say it and then it would trail off. I wish I could remember the movie it was from. It was a cool creepy effect.

"Preverb"

You take a straight dialogue track, run it forwards as per usual and use it to generate a standard reverb track, then you run the dialogue backwards and record another reverb track from it and finally add the two reverb tracks along with the original sound.

You hear effects like that on inventive music albums sometimes. I know there's an example in Anthrax's Sound of White Noise on track 1 nearly a minute in. Queensryche applied a similar idea with about a 1 second delay in their song "Empire" in one place.

You're right though. The otherworldly result of putting a reversed reverb effect on voice could be quite effective for Ghost Rider.

[FlameHead]

WarBlade, you are a man of many answers. Well said my friend...
... If I had any idea what all that mean't in english I probably would try to mock up a few samples. I have an intimate knowledge of a few sound programs.

[WarBlade]

Well it's quite simple really. Every sound has an attack and a decay. If you dive under a pile of blankets and snap your fingers the sound is muted and most of what you hear is just the finger snap. If you walk into a tiled bathroom and snap your fingers you get a series of room reverberations and slap back echoes.

You can also simply record a finger snap simulate those bathroom reverbs electronically, and there's the key. Normally you just run the sound and attach a reverb effect and you're done. Under normal circumstances you hear the sound and then you hear the reverb following. The thing that Kable24 was referring to however is hearing those reverbs occuring before the sound itself and to do that you just run the sound backwards, add the reverb, then run it forwards again.

[FlameHead]

Ahhh... makes sense when you say it that way. When you're using a program to create music or sound effects, you don't really know how it works. You just press a button or turn a nob and the sound changes.

All I know is that it sure is going to be stressful on the creative team for this one. I mean, that voice has to be perfect.

[Kable24]

It'll probably be Frank Welker doing it with his Malebolgia/Shao Kahn/every monster movie voice he has ever done. If Nic Cage is Johnny Blaze then they should augment his voice as Ghost Rider.

[FlameHead]

I disagree. Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze are two different beings. There is no way that Ghost Rider should sound like Nic Cage in any way. I don't care how much reverb there is.

[FlameHead]

It's getting close until we finally find out.

[3dman27]

Originally Posted by FlameHead

Wow... I start a thread and just forget about? Geesh.






I didn't even know Ghost Rider was in the Hulk cartoon. I thought that this film incarnation would be the first time we would actually hear Ghost Rider. Damn, I got to get my hands on that.

the hulk episode in question is titled innocent blood it aired on the recent legends unite marvel marathon on abc family if you know someone who taped that you might be in luck

[Hunter Rider]

You could probably catch it on Fox kids as they rerun the Marvel cartoons over and over

[3dman27]

actually hunter rider it's been abc family for ayear or two now

[FlameHead]

Originally Posted by 3dman27

the hulk episode in question is titled innocent blood it aired on the recent legends unite marvel marathon on abc family if you know someone who taped that you might be in luck

Now that I know the title of the episode (and I thank you for that) I'll just try and download it. I don't have cable, so I wouldn't be able to see it that way.

Thanks!

[3dman27]

you're welcome, maybe you could ask around to see if any of your fiends has it on tape

[FlameHead]

Not many of my friends are as interested in comics and such as I am... and I know they don't have it.

[Uzumaki_Naruto]

I taped it... along with the rest of the marathon. it was pretty disappointing. heavy on hulk, spider-man, and the fantastic four. they didn't even touch the iron man or x-men cartoons

[3dman27]

they could have used the "old soldiers story from x-menlogasans team up with captain america istead of half the daredevil spider-man team up

[FlameHead]

So, I mentioned Balrog in another thread... do you think ol' Ghosty will sould like that sorta?