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How to change your voice in Skype

Posted by MN Farani at 10:54:00 am
f you fancy having a bit of fun next time you use Skype then why not try out a voice-changing app? You’ll be able to do all sorts of cool things, from prank-calling your pals as Darth Vader to faking a sore throat in order to get a day off work. There are a number of software tools around that can change your voice in Skype, and none of them are particularly difficult to use.

Skype Voice Changer is a free app that does exactly what its name suggests. Install the application on your PC, open up Skype and agree to the permission request. You’ll then be presented with an effects panel that lets you alter your voice. There are a range of presets and you can tweak each of them using the sliders to change various aspects of the sound.

A more comprehensive and easier to use solution is MorphVOX Pro. The program has some really cool preset voices, including a demon, robot, woman, kid and even a dog! You can also apply background noises to your voice as you’re talking, such as a shopping mall or a traffic jam (perfect for a call to your boss saying you’ll be late for work). Another great thing about MorphVOX Pro is the ‘Voice effects’ section, where you can apply various filters to your dulcet tones, including nasal, growl, underwater and monotone. All of the presets can be customized using the ‘Tweak Voice’ control panel. The downside of MorphVOX Pro is that it costs $39.95, although you can try the program free for 30 days.

Funny voices are easy with MorphVOX Pro

If you really want state-of-the-art then check out AV Voice Changer. This app is loaded with a multitude of options that let you really fine-tune your fake voice. There are lots of preset voices to make you sound young, old, sexy, patronizing, joyful or sarcastic. The program includes a ‘Parady Mixer’, which lets you sample celebrities voices before calling people up and pranking them. The tinkering you can do with AV Voice Changer is more akin to a professional audio production app, including a formant morpher (to alter acoustic resonance), voice equalizer and noise reduction settings. The only trouble with AV Voice Changer is the trial is pretty limited, and the program is more expensive than MorphVOX Pro.

If you really want an idea of the fun you can have with voice changers, then you must watch this video of a guy using MorphVOX Pro with some hilarious consequences.


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Ad blockers: Are they harming the websites you love?

Posted by MN Farani at 10:42:00 am

A while ago, I reviewed a program called AdBlock Plus, a popular Firefox add-on that nukes the annoying ads that get in the way when you’re browsing. It is super-effective, stripping ads from the screen and leaving only clean, white space in their place. As anyone who has ever spent more than 30 seconds on the internet knows, you’ll soon be assaulted by blinking, buzzing and flashing ads, my personal favorites being the ones that slide out and cover whatever it is you’re trying to read.

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I thought AdBlock Plus was really cool and gave it a great rating, but just the other day I read this article by Ars Technica which made me stop and think. Could blocking ads be hurting my favorite websites?

Once you think about it, it’s obvious that websites that don’t charge for content have to make money some other way. One of these ways is advertising, and if we get rid of that advertising with an ad blocker, it can’t generate the revenue that maintains the website. As the article points out, some argue that they never click on ads anyway, so there’s no harm in getting rid of them. Well, the truth is that many large websites are paid by advertisers on a per view basis, not per click. Surely once you realize that, it changes everything.

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I wonder how many people will get rid of their AdBlock Plus after reading the Ars Technica article? There’s a problem here, and its the same one I see when people get into the illegal download debate. We have spent a long time taking full advantage of the internet and all the free and accessible stuff it offers, and old habits are hard to break. The internet broke into the mainstream more than 15 years ago, but back then content providers, vendors and producers didn’t think of the future and what would happen if they gave users (or allowed them to take) their products for free.

Most users don’t think of the consequences unless we’re made to - downloading, watching and reading online are too ingrained. You turn on your computer and there it is. We expect to get lots of our content for free and see nothing wrong with sweeping ads aside in order to get it. Likewise, if users feel that advertising is too intrusive, for example, they don’t think twice about complaining. But think about it: it’s a bit like being invited around to somebody’s house for dinner and then complaining about the food.

If content providers want people’s attitudes towards paying (however they do - or don’t- do it) for their content to change, it’s going to take a lot of effort. An internet-wide change would never work, so it is going to require the long, hard slog of educating users and appealing to their better nature. Do you think it will work?

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