Voice FX
Voice FX changes your microphone voice as you speak, giving it a character such as a demon or a pixie, a place such as a cathedral or a cave, or both.
You pick two things: a Voice, who is speaking, and a Place, where they are. Keep the Natural voice and only the room changes: you still sound like you, as if you were speaking somewhere else. Pick No Place and only the voice changes, as if the speaker stood right beside the party. Voice FX runs in your browser and plays the result on a speaker or audio device you choose. Nothing goes through RollQuest, so your players hear it the way they already hear you: through your voice call, or from the speakers if you're all in one room (see How your players hear it, below).
Plan: Voice FX is on Pro, for the Game Master (GM). It works on a desktop or laptop computer, not on a phone or tablet.
Beta: Voice FX is still rolling out, so it may not be on your account yet.
Turn it on
- Open the menu (three lines, top left) and, under Game Master tools, click Voice FX. The panel opens at the side of the board.
- Under Voice, pick who is speaking, such as Demon. Leave it on Natural to sound like yourself.
- Under Place, pick where they are, such as Cathedral, or No Place for no room at all.
- Click Turn on. The first time, your browser asks to use your microphone: allow it. The button reads Starting…, then On with the place.
- Speak. The meter beside the button moves with your voice.
You can change the voice, the place and every setting while it's on. A new place fades in over the old one.
Wear headphones, or send the sound somewhere other than your speakers: speakers playing your voice back into your microphone feed back. While it's on with the default output, the panel reminds you.
Closing the panel doesn't turn it off. While it's on, a small pill sits at the bottom of the board, naming the voice and the place, such as Voice FX: Demon · Arena. With Natural it names only the place (Voice FX: Arena), and with No Place only the voice (Voice FX: Demon). Click the pill to open the panel again. Click the power button again to turn it off. Leaving or reloading the page turns it off too, and it always starts off: the microphone never opens until you click.
Choose a voice
A voice changes who is speaking: higher or lower, rougher, buzzing or wavering. Each is made live from your own voice, so it still follows how you speak.
Hover over a voice to read what it's like. The chosen voice's line also shows under the buttons.
| Voice | Pitch | What it sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Natural | Your own | Your own voice. Only the place changes. |
| Demon | Lower | Low, doubled an octave below, with a growl under every word. |
| Dragon | Lower | Vast and rumbling: speech that comes from a chest the size of a barn. |
| Giant | Much lower | Deep and heavy, every word a boulder. |
| Ogre | Lower | Thick, gravelly and a bit stupid. |
| Lich | A little lower | Dry, hollow and faintly buzzing, like a voice through old bone. |
| Construct | Your own | A golem, an automaton, a voice from a speaking stone. |
| Ghost | A little higher | Thin and wavering, with a shimmer that is not quite in tune. |
| Goblin | Higher | Sharp, scratchy and up to something. |
| Gnome | Higher | Small, bright and quick. |
| Pixie | An octave higher | Tiny. An octave up and all sparkle. |
Voice amount, under the voices, sets how far the voice goes. At 50 it reads as designed, the voice as it was made to sound. Lower brings back more of your own voice, down to 0, which is your plain voice whatever you've picked. Higher pushes the character further, up to twice as far at 100. Double-click the slider to put it back to 50. With Natural there's nothing to turn up, so the slider is greyed out and a note under it says so.
If your browser can't change pitch, a voice keeps its growl, buzz and tone but not its pitch, and while Voice FX is on the panel says This browser cannot change pitch, so this voice keeps its character but not its pitch.
Choose a place
A place puts your voice in a room: how big it is, how hard its walls are, and whether the sound comes back as an echo.
| Place | What it sounds like |
|---|---|
| No Place | Nowhere in particular: your voice, dry. Pair it with a voice. |
| Arena | A roaring colosseum: big, open, and slapping back off the stands. |
| Throne Room | A great hall of stone and banners. Grand, but you can still be heard. |
| Cathedral | Vaulted ceilings and a tail that hangs in the air. For sermons and prophecies. |
| Cave | Wet rock, a low ceiling and something answering from deeper in. |
| Dungeon Corridor | Narrow stone walls. Short, hard and a little claustrophobic. |
| Tavern | A warm, low-beamed room full of wood and bodies. Close and intimate. |
| Canyon | Open sky and far walls: every shout comes back to you. |
| Forest | Outdoors among trees, with barely any room at all: soft and close. |
| Behind a Door | Heard from the next room: muffled, boxy and just out of reach. |
| Underwater | Submerged. Dark, swaying and heavy. |
| Ethereal | A sending, a vision, a voice from beyond: thin, bright and endless. |
Place amount, under the places, sets how much room you hear. At 50 it reads as designed, the place as it was made to sound. Above that the room and its echo grow, up to double, and your plain voice drops a little, so you sound further away rather than louder. 0 is no room at all. Double-click the slider to put it back to 50. No Place has no room to turn up, so the slider is greyed out and a note under it says so.
Clean up your microphone
The Clean-up section works on your microphone before any voice or place is added. Both boxes are ticked to start with.
- Tame "S" sounds softens the sharp hiss of an "s" or "sh", so neither the voice nor the room makes it spike.
- Quiet the gaps eases background hiss and hum down between your words, so the room never picks them up and turns them into a drone. If your browser can't do it, the box isn't shown while Voice FX is on.
Turn it on and off from the Shortcut Bar
Open the Shortcut Bar at the bottom of the board, click an empty slot and, under Game Master, pick Voice FX on/off. Clicking the slot, or pressing its key, then turns Voice FX on and off mid-scene without opening the panel. The slot reads Voice FX: on with a red ON, or Voice FX: off. See Shortcut Bar.
If it can't start from the slot, the slot stays at Voice FX: off: open the panel to see why. On a phone or tablet the slot turns nothing on, and a message says Voice FX is desktop only.
On a phone or tablet
Voice FX is for a desktop or laptop computer. On a phone or tablet, Voice FX is still in the menu, but the panel shows Desktop only and a short explanation instead of its controls, and the microphone never opens. It goes by the device, not the size of the window: a narrow window on a computer works, and a phone turned on its side doesn't.
How your players hear it
The panel's How do my players hear it? link explains this too.
- On a voice call (Discord, Zoom and the like): install a virtual audio cable, such as VB-CABLE on Windows or BlackHole on a Mac. Choose the cable under Play my voice on, then choose it as your microphone in the call app. Turn off the call app's noise suppression (Krisp, for example), or it strips the room away again.
- In the same room: choose the table's speakers under Play my voice on, and keep your microphone away from them.
Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere by RollQuest: it all happens in your browser.
The Voice FX panel, part by part
The panel opens with Set the scene with your voice: pick who is speaking, and where. and an Experimental badge, then the power button, then four boxed sections: Voice (who is speaking), Place (where they are), Clean-up (before any effect) and Output (where it goes).
| Control | What it does | Default and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Power button | Turn on starts it; while it's on, it reads On and the place, and a click turns it off. It reads Starting… while your browser asks for the microphone. | Off |
| Meter (hover: Output level) | How loud the effect is coming out. It moves only while the panel is open and Voice FX is on. | |
| Voice | Who is speaking (see Choose a voice). | Natural |
| Voice amount | How far the voice goes. as designed at 50; otherwise it shows the percentage, such as 70%. Double-click to reset. Greyed out with Natural. | 50; 0 to 100 |
| Place | The room your voice is in (see Choose a place). Changing place while it's on fades from one room to the next. | Arena |
| Place amount | How much room you hear. as designed at 50; otherwise it shows the percentage, such as 70%. Double-click to reset. Greyed out with No Place. | 50; 0 to 100 |
| Tame "S" sounds | Softens sharp "s" sounds before the effect. | On |
| Quiet the gaps | Eases hiss and hum down between words. | On |
| Output volume | How loud the effect plays. | 100%; 0 to 100 |
| Microphone | The microphone to use. Until you've allowed microphone access, your browser doesn't share names, so they show as Microphone 1, Microphone 2 and so on. | System default |
| Play my voice on | Where the effect plays: a virtual cable into your voice call, or the speakers for players in the room. Names show as Output 1 and so on until you've allowed microphone access. If your browser can't choose, it says This browser always plays on the system default output. | System default |
| How do my players hear it? | Opens the short guide above. Hide folds it away. |
Under the sections, a tip suggests putting Voice FX on/off on your Shortcut Bar. Your choices are kept in this browser for next time, but Voice FX itself always starts off.
What the messages mean
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Microphone access was blocked. Allow it from the address bar, then try again. | Your browser was told not to share the microphone. Allow it from the icon in the address bar. |
| That microphone is not available. Pick another input and try again. | The microphone you chose isn't connected any more. |
| The microphone is busy in another app or tab. Free it up and try again. | Another app or tab has the microphone. |
| This browser cannot process audio. Try a recent Chrome, Edge or Firefox. | Use one of those browsers. |
| Voice FX could not start. Check your microphone and try again. | Something else stopped it starting. |
| A message that the output device isn't available | The device you chose under Play my voice on went away. It switches to the default output, so put your headphones on. |
| This browser cannot change pitch, so this voice keeps its character but not its pitch. | Your browser can't shift pitch. Try a recent Chrome or Edge, or pick a voice that keeps your pitch, such as Construct. |
| A message that Voice FX is desktop only | You pressed the Shortcut Bar slot on a phone or tablet. Use a computer. |
Good to know
- Your microphone's own noise suppression stays on before the effect. Its echo cancellation and automatic volume are off: they mistook the effect for an echo and cut your voice in and out on loud words.
- Low mains hum is filtered out before the effect, and loud words are evened out gently rather than clipped.
- Without Pro, Voice FX in the menu has a crown: click it to see what it does and the upgrade.