Nightveil Hallow: Audio Deep Dive

Greetings, Adventurers!

From voiceovers (VO) to sound design, discover how the Audio Team designed Nightveil Hallow. Once you’ve learned more about the voice and sound effects behind Baalphazu, confront the Marquis of Terror in-game for event-specific rewards before Nightveil Hallow ends on November 5.

Casting Baalphazu and Salvatore was rather unusual compared to how we typically handle that process. Starting with Salvatore, they wanted to have this voice pay homage to some of the great actors from the golden age of horror films like Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Lon Chaney. This became a rather challenging request to find just the right voice.

After reviewing dozens of reels from voice actors, I was chatting with one of our wonderful directors. They shared a general joy and excitement for the character, suggested some folks, and then later that day sent me an email out of the blue. Attached was a recording of an excerpt from The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. Much to our delight, and from the initial confusion of “yes, that’s a perfect voice,” to “if only we could find an actor to do something similar,” we had cast our Salvatore.

We were sitting on pins and needles, nervous but excited during the first recording session. As soon as it started, the entire crew was grinning from ear to ear. A few of us couldn’t help but chime in during breaks and pauses to sing our praises about how he sounded just like one of those golden age actors.

We knew from a design perspective that Baalphazu was going to be really intense and vocally very straining. So, we wanted to make sure whoever we cast for the role could handle screeches, screams, growls and more.

The voice behind Baalphazu is Molly Scarpine, an incredibly talented metal vocalist who just so happens to specialize in extreme creature vocals. Molly was recommended to us initially by our Director Maddie Stratton as a “hey, check out this vocalist and her band. They’re really cool.” After hearing Molly’s music, we knew we had to get her in for something awesome. Then this boss came around, handed to me as a lovely gift.

Molly was such a wonderful person to record with and gave us a plethora of variations for each line. I just have this vivid memory of Molly shrugging and calling out that she’s doing great after being asked how she’s feeling, and then going in for the next take. Easily one of the coolest sessions I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending.

Holiday content is always a lot of fun to work on, and I think Halloween might be my favorite. The dark and scary nature of the holiday opens up a huge amount of possibilities for sound design. You can push the envelope into weird and creative territories to enrich the experience.

Starting with great source material makes the remainder of the process an absolute joy. The unique vocal tonalities that Molly can achieve, in addition to the raw emotion that comes through in the recording, gave Baalphazu their own unique voice, even before the VO design.

We knew the voice needed to evoke terror, and strike fear into the hearts of all who inhabit the island. With that in mind, I started by splitting the voice into three separate channels for unique processing. The first layer was meant to provide clarity in the spoken line. I used very light pitch and delay processing to give it a bit of a larger than life feel, but was careful about going too far and making the lines unintelligible. This gave the voice an eerie, demonic doubling effect.

The next two layers were where I wanted to take advantage of the strange nature of Halloween and push it into something weird, horrifying, and unique. I was inspired by a sound we all know and hate, nails on a chalkboard. I found that you can get similar, but unique results from sliding a shower ring across a metal rod. I took these unsettling sounds and used an envelope follower, which mirrored the amplitude of the VO lines, to bring that texture into the voice.

The final layer was where I went nuts. I threw everything and the kitchen sink at it to see what would happen. The result ended up being a low-pitched layer with some aggressive modulation. I used a slight reversal effect along with a formant filter hooked up to an LFO to give a constant tonal shift that somewhat mimics a human voice. These three layers, along with the strong VO performance, gave Baalphazu an identity of their own.

After working with Molly’s vocals, the Audio Team had the opportunity to go into their own creative space and finish off the character’s sound scape with the sound effects (SFX).

I started with something familiar to me, the violin. The amount of emotion and expressivity you can communicate through the violin is something I haven’t experienced with anything else. But… it’s also capable of producing some of the nastiest, most unsettling screeches and scrapes to ever pierce your ears.

This was the starting point for Baalphazu’s base ability, the Wing Stab. The ability to control pitch and that nasty timbre allowed me to give the lead-up and execution of the attack the motion they needed. These recordings, along with the creaky, wooden branch foley for the wings and a splash of fire, gave this attack its voice.

Continuing my experimentation with musical instruments, I reached for a 1920s Chickering piano as source material for the Reap ability. During this attack, the ground is lit with a green flame, then Baalphazu pulls their challengers in close and summons rings of fire that damage all who are near. The piano is used in the lead-up to the pull, giving the players a tell that something is on the horizon.

I rubbed a spoon across the bare piano strings in all different directions and found that the upward direction gave a great sense of tension and anticipation. The metal spoon scraping against the metal of the piano strings provided that discomforting signature that worked so well for this character. The piano mixed with elements of fire, thunder, chains, and the souls of the Netherworld beneath, convey the sheer terror that Baalphazu encapsulates.

I had an amazing time working on all of the different aspects of Baalphazu. Each one introduced an opportunity to try something new, push the creative envelope, and come up with a unique sonic signature that fit with the character. The combination of deliberate casting, incredible performance, and the ability to explore new ideas created an environment for the team to flourish. These, along with a massive group effort from all the developers came together to create this great new experience.

Thanks for your support!

We’ll see you in the shadows of Aeternum.

SE MERE