Droid Voices

I had some questions about the droid voices. The only droids we've seen talk in SW are C-3PO and TC-14, and they both had different voices- but they were different genders. Does this mean that all male Protocols sound like 3PO and all female protocols sound like TC-14? And where did that voice come from? Is it the voice of their maker? Thanks

 

Don't forget the protocol droid that told 3PO to "eat chunta" (I think) just before he got shot in ESB. His voice was different than the others.

 

E chu ta

 

The droids can make themselves sound like a variety of species and gender, if equipped they can also imitiate the vocal patterns of sentient beings. Threepio's imitated Han and Leia's voices in the EU.

As for other droids, EV-9D9 had a female voice.

 

The droids we hear talk in the Star Wars movies:

TC-14 (or whatever that droid in TPM was)
C3PO
The battle droids in TPM (Sorry, I know this is a Classic Trilogy forum, but it's just to get a fair accounting)
The waitress droid in Dexter's Diner
In a cut sequence, the Jedi forensics droid in AOTC.
The 3PO unit at Cloud City
Even though he's not speaking english, that gold droid in the Sandcrawler.
2-1B
EV-9D9

I think that's everyone. Man, I am a sad, sad individual with way too much useless information in my brain.

Probably when you purchase a droid, I bet you can select different voices, like when you select a ring tone for your cell phone.

What does everyone think IG-88 sounds like? I bet he sounds like Michael Clarke Duncan. How intimidating would that be? Not only is he a deadly assassin droid, he sounds like the wrath of God personified. Though it would be funny if he sounded like, say, Howie Mandell instead. I think 4LOM sounds like Pierce Brosnan.

 

You can hear IG-88 (one of them ) in the Shadow of the Empire Game. He sounds like a talking dial-up-modem.

Do the riksha droids count as talking? Well, it does say "dokey-okay". Or Dooku's ship-droid.

 

R2-D2 talks, so does R5-D4, the power droid, the Falcon's computer, the mouse droid on the DS, the treadwell droid Solo talks too,,,,


I would imagine the voice for a droid comes from a program installed when it is built. Also, Threepio demonstrates a large vocal range in ROTJ when he's telling the story to the Ewoks. As far as Threepio and Anakin, Ani didn't build him from scratch. He found a broken protical droid and restored it to fuunctionality.

 

Thanks, but what about R2 droids? They all have different pitches of beeps...

 

I would imagine you can buy a droid, and when it talks, you can tell it to change it's voice to whatever you want it to sound like. C-3P0 only sounds like that because Anthony Daniels does...

 

i hear george wanted c3po to sound like a used car salesman but the voice actors that tried out never hit the mark so he settled with the english butler....

 

Ug, that would have been bad. Prissy 3PO is great - it gives Han and Leia reason to ignore him all the time even though he has a bunch of answers.

I figure all droids have to look and sound a bit different from one another. Imagine if they all sounded alike and there was a risk of confusing whose droid was whose when you got in a public place!

 

Just like distinctive ring tones for a telephone! Make every phone in an office sound distinct so people know whose phone is ringing, or having a cell phone have its own distinct ring so if you're with a group of friends you know it's your phone ringing.

By the way, C-3PO as proper English butler was a great move. He just a protocol droid but he keeps getting thrown into all these dangerous situations, and his reactions make him the "everyman" of the heroes, the guy who expresses the emotions WE would all feel if put into those situations. His persona also makes him funnier than he would have been if "generic" or the planned "used car salesman".

 

One of the orignial concepts for Threepio's voice was a nasaly Jersey twang.

 

So, could I get an R2 unit with really deep beep tones, like Barry White?