What's very interesting is, the "Dr. Claw Voice" is fairly common as a generic evil voice in the industry. But what makes Frank's version of it unique, is how low and huffy it sounds. It's gruff, but soft at the same time. It's a very difficult "sweet spot" to manage. I frequently roleplay as an...admittedly very crass and rude Soundwave in VRChat, and I frequently find myself unable to maintain the same calm 'breathiness' that Frank seems to manage almost effortlessly. The dude's larynx is powerful.
I have the entire Inspector Gadget collection. One of my favorite cartoons growing up. I have a bunch of collections. Voltron, SilverHawks, Batman TAS, He-Man, Thundercats, Gi Joe, Transformers G1, Battle of the Planets (G-Force) Speed Racer. Can’t wait to retire so I can revert to my 12yr old self! 😅
Exactly. Michael Bay's team didn't vocode the voice, but instead synthesised like all the other characters. Every Bot and Con had their voices synthesised, and Bay's Soundwave was no different.
Ever play the first Fallout? He voices General Maxson in the Brotherhood of Steel, and he sounds like a light-side Megatron. It was where I first noticed how Frank was in everything. 😊
Fun fact: Frank Welker's voice as Soundwave, which he also used for Doctor Claw and the Cave of Wonders, was born when Frank was a stand up comedian and was doing an imitation of Barry White.
I never knew what Frank Welker looked like. He's listed as "additional voices" in the credits of practically every animated series in the past 60 years.
@@skyvipers The testament reciter sounds quite different from Frank Welker’s soundwave. I’ve tried impersonating both, and they’re both quite different vocal techniques. The testament reciter has a simple false chord voice, done in a quiet, talking fashion. Soundwave’s voice is far more difficult- way more airy, much more distorted. The slayer testament reciter was also heavily amplified and down-pitched, soundwave’s voice is just the vocoder added over this base Dr. Claw voice. Both are impressive, but I think Soundwave is far, far more difficult. P.S. I will be uploading my impression of the first slayer testament in a few days
The Voice of DR Claw in Inspector Gadget meets Megatron ,Well done to Frank Welker behind the Voices of Megatron,Soundwave with the Vocoder without it sounds like Dr Claw ❤️Great Childhood memories 🤣
God, I'd give almost anything to live in an alternate reality where Welker was allowed to reprise Megatron in the first '07 movie. Michael Bay would've been beloved by the fans FOREVER if he had taken that last step. They would've even forgiven Devastator's giant metal balls.
He was great in Age of Extinction! but yeah it's a shame he didn't get the role on the first ones. Hugo Weaving did great though, even if he apparently didn't care about the role at all.
Welker didn't have a deep-enough voice for Megs at the time, and it clearly shows in the movie game tie-ins, which was why he was seen at too light at the time. He improved it much better in Transformers Prime as well as AOE and TLK, especially in TFP where that was my favorite Welker voice. Speaking of wishing Welker reprised his role, there's radio silence on Welker not being in the High Moon Studios games, the Machinima Prime Wars Trilogy (since Cullen came back in Part 2), and in Bumblebee as Soundwave. Makes you wonder...🤔
@@QuantumSurge64 Michael Bay just didn't have enough faith in Welker's vocal talent. Had he been able to audition in person for Michael, like Peter Cullen did, he could've easily convinced him that he can modulate Megatron's voice to anything that was required, as TF:P proved.
@@TheBermudaMan I said his voice was seen as too light for what they wanted, which would mean he _did_ make an audition and later have a compensation for the first two movie games and the Beginnings motion comic
In the g1 episode "roll for it", there is an error where soundwave says "excellent ravage", just after chip is captured. They forgot to add the vocoder and you can here frank in his full 80s dr claw glory.
Even if you haven't seen the film series, it's not hard to tell it's the same voice he used for Inspector Gadget's Dr. Claw and half the creepy things in The Real Ghostbusters.
Frank Welker is God tier voice acting. He's had a heck of a career doing what he does and has lended his talent to so many roles. I praise him for his outstanding work in animation and film alike.
dude i always wondered how he sounded with out the vocoder and this was perfect now my soundwave voice is gonna be great especially with my voice changer
Adding a vocoder pressing the harmonic keys and talk with a mic making it sound more G1 soundwave. I remember Imogen Heap using it for a song Hide and Seek for vocoder effects.
