Chapter 224: Trying Female Voices
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
[Professional Manga Artist] required the completion of two tasks. One was to sell 100,000 copies, and the other was to publish ten single volumes.
As for sales, with “There’s A Spirit Underground” skyrocketing, Meng Fan didn’t have to count on “Guide to Campus RoMANce” anymore. He just needed the experience from publis.h.i.+ng the three individual volumes.
“Why are you in such a rush?” Qin Jiao asked. “Alright. I’ll take them over for you now, but since you’re here, don’t expect to leave so fast.”
She clapped her hands and called everyone over, temporarily arranging a manga tutorial cla.s.s with Meng Fan as the instructor.
When he finished the lecture, Qin Jiao had returned just in time to eat.
“Everything went smoothly, and I’ve brought the contract as well.”
Meng Fan received the contract Qin Jiao handed him and asked her where to sign before putting down his name without even reading the contract.
Although he always spoke of Qin Jiao trolling him, he trusted her with this kind of task. He also believed Qin Jiao would try to find him the most profitable solution.
Qin Jiao took back the signed contract, grumbling. “I’ve become your secretary.”
Meng Fan chuckled. He didn’t have the b.a.l.l.s to make any secretary related jokes with Qin Jiao.
Seeing there was nothing left for him to do, Meng Fan left Da Mei studio. He wanted to go home but still ended up wandering to Chocolate Factory, which was nearby. Maybe he could pick up a few roles.
“Iron G.o.d!”
The big bearded Lou Lan’s eyes lit up when he saw Meng Fan arrive. He pulled Meng Fan indoors as he said, “You came at a good time. There’s an emergency!”
“What’s the situation?”
Meng Fan immediately knew it had something to do with voice acting. Could this be the metaphysics of +1 luck?
“It’s like this. There’s a group of voice acting commissions that I accepted, basically some soundtracks for characters for a mobile game. I’ve already submitted my recording several days ago, but today the opposite party called me and said that for some unforgiving reason, the demos for the characters can’t be reviewed, and they are telling me to redo them.” Lou Lan dragged Meng Fan into an empty recording studio. “Although they are paying more, the time limit is very tight, and if I don’t finish this, I won’t get the final payment. The contractor doesn’t make sense, but I have no choice!”
He poured a gla.s.s of water for Meng Fan. “Before, the recordings were done by a group of CVs I gathered, but I don’t have the time to gather everyone now! I don’t know what to do, but thank G.o.d you came. Are you sure you weren’t sent by G.o.d? You have to help me!”
“Are there a lot of roles?”
Meng Fan’s eyes lit up.
Lou Lan saw Meng Fan’s expression and felt his heart rate calm down. “There are quite a few roles, nine of which that require a male voice. You should be okay to do them all.”
It was easy to a.n.a.lyze the roles, for each one contained an introduction in addition to the lines.
Meng Fan took a look. “Alright, let’s begin.”
“Alright!”
Lou Lan didn’t need to find an a.s.sistant or a director. In the last few days, he had been entranced by Meng Fan’s dubbing skills, so he didn’t give him any critique.
Since he was the one who took the job, Lou Lan could only act as the a.s.sistant, even though the commission was for the studio.
Meng Fan gestured an “OK” sign with his hands and entered his zone, starting to record for the first role.
This was a romantic style mobile game. The script was a bit cringey, so it wasn’t hard to understand why the original script had been censored, but Meng Fan still felt the current script was still very dangerous.
Although he didn’t have the complete description of the game, he could tell based on the clips that it was a rather roughly made mobile game. He guessed that the soundtrack must have been the highlight of the game.
“You’re not a human. You’re a love letter sent to me from this earth.”
“I’ve been frozen on this earth for decades just so I can look back and see you.”
“What I want is simple. Time exists, so you exist.”
“When you’re here, you’re my everything; when you’re not here, everything is you.”
“Everywhere you go, the city rains, just like how I think of you everywhere I go.”
These mushy lines were considered not bad. There were some provocative ones that couldn’t even be described.
“Ding!”
After Meng Fan finished about five characters, the alert finally went off in his mind for completing task phase 2 of [Studio Bug].
Before this, Meng Fan had already completed 47 roles, while phase 2 required 50. Basically, out of these last 5 roles, the System had accepted 3. Meng Fan didn’t know if it was because the other two would be censored and was deemed unusable.
After completing [Studio Bug] task phase 2, he received +50 points and +1 voice acting skills.
The 4 remaining roles were completed quickly. This round went better; he gained 3 experience out of the 4.
“Done?”
“Done!”
Lou Lan looked at the time. He was no longer shocked by Meng Fan’s G.o.d-like efficiency. He gave him a thumbs up and said, “Incredible! That’s what Director Charlie said upon hearing all the applications you gave him including auditions for male leads, and he almost missed the goldmine you turned out to be. I’m still curious what you sound like when you play a male lead though, but now I can say I’ve seen it all. It feels like you can just about dub all the popular male lead styles on the market right now!”
It was true. The roles that Meng Fan just dubbed were all different types of males created by game makers for girls. There were all kinds of tropes, like the mature type, elegant, sunny, warm, overpowering… And the skills Meng Fan just showcased provided full coverage for all of these personalities!
And Lou Lan knew that once he submitted this task, it wouldn’t be any worse than the voices of the protagonists beforehand. At least in terms of emotional expression, Meng Fan was surely the winner.
Meng Fan walked out of the studio while smiling. “Next time you have these kinds of jobs, please call me.”
“Okay. Oh right, this listing is from the company, so you’d get paid through them as well.”
Meng Fan nodded but then asked curiously, “Didn’t you say there’s a female voice that needed to be recorded? Did you find someone?”
Lou Lan smiled bitterly. “I’ve contacted two, but they canceled in the last minute.” Suddenly, he stared at Meng Fan. “Uhm, Iron G.o.d, would you by any chance want to try voicing a female character?”
In voice acting, it was way too common for females to dub male characters. Like animations and video games, where many male characters are voiced by females. But for a male to dub a female character… There were a few but very little.
Mostly, people just did it for fun. As for commercial voice-overs, there were very few, at least in Huaxia. There were a few well-known guys who did it in j.a.pan, though.
However, they were done by people who had a naturally mid-tone and metros.e.xual voice that was more feminine. But for Meng Fan’s masculine voice to dub a female character, even if she was the rough and burly kind, Lou Lan had never heard of such a job.
“Either way you can’t find someone, so I’ll help you test it.”
Meng Fan was ready to give up everything for some experience.
After the singing skill attribute brought him an enhanced sound range, better sound quality, tone, and control, Meng Fan did not cease to practice in private.
Humans were naturally curious, and when Meng Fan had already dominated the male vocal range, of course, he would think of trying out some female roles.
Especially after receiving all these voice acting attributes. Strictly speaking, Meng Fan went in harboring a curious mindset for the spirit of exploration and had indeed tried out some female roles in private. Like some lolitas, domineering seductress, queens… He had tried them all.
As for the result… Well, at least it was better than a voice changer.
He counted it as dedicating his ‘voice’ to the arts.