Cylon Accent?

[RavenLX]

I noticed something. Whenever a Centurion speaks, it seems like they have a unique accent. Not what you'd expect from a robot. I don't know maybe it's me but I was wondering about that. Was it due to the voice actor's own accent? Or maybe the way he had to speak so that when vocoded, it would be understandable? Or was it on purpose to make the Cylons sound unique? Or a bit of everything?

Or am I imagining things?

[GoldCylon]

The claim of only one voice actor was used, but I can clearly hear different voices being used. Can you point out a certain episode, and sound event that was used? Post the file so we can be the judge, and jury.

[RavenLX]

Well, offhand, remember when the gold Cylon in the one where they were being attacked on Gamoray, the gold one said "Scan for identification"... (http://www.byyourcommand.net/cylongalle ... play_media) he says "identification" faster than his other words and it's pronounced in a beat-like manor, with the "I" in the word "identification" sounding like it lingered a little bit first like Eyeee...den-ti-fi-ca-tion. Sometimes they would let a syllable "linger" longer than the rest of the syllables in a word. Here's something that has them talking quite a bit and some of my examples under the video:



"Immmmmpossible" (0:13) (immm... lingers a slight bit)

"We cannn destroy the Pegasus" (0:27) (again, the "n" in "can" lingers a slight bit from normal - maybe to make it understandable? also in that one maybe Destroy sounded more like "destroeeee")

Disengate.... He says "to Gamoray" like it was one word (0:40) while the rest of his words lingered more.

At 0:53 the Centurion's "I" lingers as in "Eyeeeeee really think you should look at the other bat-tle-star" (the last word is said like as if to a music beat or something).

In the "retreat squadron retreat" clip (last of them before they dubbed in their own vocoder for the song) maybe the "n" in Squadron is lingered a bit.

Makes me wonder if that was done on purpose to make them best understandable. I'd say it's all great vocoder work. But also I think it gives the Centurions a bit of a "accent" that you don't find when the IL units are talking.

[RavenLX]

Also, in the introducing of the Imperious Leader (in your video when you were ushering in Glen Larsen), the Command Centerion had a slight accent like in his voice when he said "leader" as if he said "lead-ahr"... Maybe an actor from NYC or Boston or somewhere in that area was doing that particular Centurions voice? (No offense to those in those areas of the country... I'm just trying to find a way to explain this).

[Cylon-Knight]

Could also have been the Director for the various episodes... "Read the line ... this way... More "III" on the Imperious." etc. Trying to get more emotion out of a robot voice.

Or they may prolong certain sounds so the vocal is clear to understand. The altered voice can be hard to understand if spoken too quickly.

[GoldCylon]

One thing is Peter Berkos left Galactica about after the 5th episode or so. He went over to Buck Rogers, but did come back to redo the theatrical release for the US, and 5 others stepped in to fill his shoes. Now when each audio person stepped in the convert the spoken voice into a Cylon voice they made there own personal tweaks and to me sounded like they used a different voice actor. So with these wide range differences I am sure a a different sound cab be heard.

[RavenLX]

Thanks guys. Based on what you guys think, now I'm thinking it could be a combination of maybe trying to make sure the vocoded words are understandable (which is... understandable - no pun intended) and the actor's particular dialect.

And I have to say it makes the Cylons sound unique in comparison with other TV robots. I think the Cylon Centurions sounded best.