Minipost: I found Anub'arak's voice!

A few posts ago I talked about Anub'arak's quasi-father figure relationship towards Arthas. In that post, I sort of gushed about how much of a man/bug-crush I have on Anub's Warcraft III voice. There was just something chilling and superbly creepy about his sepulchral, warbling speech.

In contrast, I found his Wrath of the Lich King voice very lacking and disappointing. It's not as deep or rich in timbre, and definitely not as commanding. The Anub'arak we fight in Azjol-Nerub and the Crusaders Coliseum sounds almost whiny and cowardly - nowhere near the presence and character of his previous rendition!

Compare for yourself:


Anub'arak in Warcraft III.



Anub'arak in Wrath of the Lich King


There is no comparison! Wrath-Anub'arak sounds weak and sniveling. I always lamented that his awesome voice seemed to have disappeared into the nether.

Disappeared, that is...until Cataclysm! I was grinding through the torturous Deepholm quests on my Priest (not so bad really, except when you are ONLY doing them to get the damn shoulder enchants!), when I came across one of Therazane's children, Felsen the Enduring.

He wanted me to go kill some rock worms, free some rock elementals or go slaughter some cultists, I don't really remember. I was too busy /boggling at his voice. It sounded oddly familiar!


Felsen the Enduring


That rumbling resonance! That reverberating, slightly echoing delivery! Sure, the pitch isn't exactly the same, and Felsen is pretty monotonous and droning, but it's the closest voice I've encountered to my old Crypt Lord buddy. >8<

5 Responses Subscribe to comments

  1. gravatar
    The Pink Pally

    Ah, Rades. What would I do without you to help me see the world (of warcraft) in a new light on a regular basis? I now hate Deepholm just a little bit less. /hugs

    May 15, 2011 at 9:01 AM

  2. gravatar
    NoFuneral

    Ok, I'd like to weigh in on this, if the court will allow my testimony as an expert on digital audio effects and doing voices.

    Exhibit A.) Anub'arak in WC3. If I had to recreate this, I'd use a vocoder, for that slightly oily sound in his voice. It doesn't sound like any pitch changing was used, but possibly the voice actor was using a yoda-esque voice drop. It also sounds like they used a bit of what we call narrow-pipe reverb.

    Exhibit B.) Anub'arak in Trial of the Crusader raid. Definitely a vocoder. The vocal range is noticeably higher, and less gravely (that's gravel y not grave ly) than the WC3 sample.

    Exhibit C.) Felsen the Enduring. This guy very well may have been the voice actor that did Dr. Claw on the Inspector Gadget cartoon, because that's exactly what it sounds like to me. Furthermore, I hear no vocoder, but instead plain and ordinary reverb, which you can hear echoing for about a full second.

    Verdict: ToC Anub'arak is definitely guilty of being less creepy than his WC3 counterpart. Felsen is cleared of all charges, but is ordered to stop claiming to sound like Anub'arak circa WC3.

    May 15, 2011 at 9:03 AM

  3. gravatar
    Glorwynn

    NoFuneral is clearly a phylumist.

    >8< SPIDER PRIDE!!!

    May 15, 2011 at 8:18 PM

  4. gravatar
    Rades

    @Pink Pally - Haha, I share your loathing for the place. I stopped questing there soon after discovering Felsen, as I had unlocked the Therazane tabard and have just resolved to dungeon-grind the rep to Exalted.

    @NoFuneral - Felsen really does sound like Dr. Claw! The reverb/echo in his voice was the closest I'd heard in WoW to the similar pattern in Anub'arak's WCIII voice, though. It's not perfect but it's somewhat close? ;)

    @Glorwynn - CLEARLY a phylumist.

    May 16, 2011 at 10:36 AM

  5. gravatar
    skinnemuva

    The Anub'Arak voice in Wrath is very weak. It is really disappointing that they changed it, though it seems like they changed how badass he was from WCIII to Wrath; maybe he was neutered during his break in action?

    Something that the rock dude reminds me of is the Balrog in the LotR movies. If you watch the special features on the DVD they talk about what they did to create the sound from his roar with sliding two concrete blocks together with a tiger roar or something. It is awesome and it would be really awesome if they put that much work into sound at Blizzard!

    May 19, 2011 at 7:50 AM