Reed, you are the voice behind BrainJewel. You produced the game voices of the new Brain Game on Facebook BrainJewel together with TribePlay. Player can hear you cheering them up with GREAT!, AWESOME! and INSANE! After all the time playing and producing BrainJewel, it still makes me feel excited hearing you counting down the time before each mini game. Thanks, Reed for these great sounds.

Thanks! I had fun hammering out the minutia for just the right voices you wanted. You’d told me to try a Vincent Price “eerie” voice “like an ancient Egyptian king,” then a “Darth Vader” voice also “like an ancient Egyptian king.” I’ve loved doing impressions since I first started re-telling Simpsons jokes with classmates in middle school. Mimicking voices, to me, has always been the most effective way of telling stories.

How was the cooperation process with TribePlay? Are you satisfied with the outcome – your voice in the game?

Yes. Everybody was really friendly and supportive, and most importantly, patient. It was good communicating through you, Gregor, as a personal friend, to buffer and filter varying opinions from around the office. I knew that the closer we got to the right sound, the clearer your company would be on what they wanted. In the end it sounds like we were all satisfied with the outcome of the voices in the game. Me included. It’s funny how much work went into just a few seconds of sound.

What kind of equipment did you use for recording?

Rode NT1000 microphone, pop-filter, Lambda Lexicon external sound card, Garage Band and an Apple MacBook. I’d like to thank my brother, Eric, for giving me the Lambda at a time when I knew very little about sound equipment. If I ever found myself in some other far and distant land, I’d buy the same equipment all over again for it’s clarity and resonance.

Did you have any experience in game sounds before? What exactly is your company doing here in Chengdu?

Yes. I’ve done educational-game voices for Chengdu’s Bokai Voice studio–everything from a deep-voiced, Barney-type monster from the future to a high-pitched clever mouse, to an arrogant surfer, a curious boy and plenty of authoritative narrators. Most of these were characters in an English-learning video-game. My company, Talent Flies, provides voice-recording services.

How does it feel to be potentially heard by thousands of players on Facebook? Do you think your friends would recognize you?

Good question. I don’t use a VPN in China, so I haven’t been on Facebook in over a year. I’ve only just become aware of these “millions of players” from reading your question above. I guess I won’t feel anything until I talk to people about it.

From my understanding you have already spent a long time in West China?

Yeah. I moved to Chengdu after graduating college in September 2005. I worked for a year and self-studied Chinese (my college major was also Chinese) before leaving Chengdu for two years (to work as a magazine translator in Yangzhou then a film-subtitles translator in Guangzhou). I returned to Chengdu in 2008 to open my own language tutoring school, began voice acting in 2009, bought my own recording equipment in 2010, and now am getting a Masters degree in teaching Mandarin. I have broad interests, but “language” is the overarching theme in all my fields. I’ve also studied 5 dialects of Chinese and over 15 world languages.

TribePlay was established in 2008, ever since, Chengdu has grown and developed a lot. The city still has its exotic flair but also one can see how international Chengdu became in recent years. You are owner of a small start up company like TribePlay here in West China. How did you experience the recent development?

I operate on a much smaller scale than TribePlay. I only record a few scripts per day. Ninety percent of these are industrial company “introductions”–advertisements to potential investors. These scripts can be a lot of fun to read as Chinese and English are languages which rarely translate to make much sense to the end audience. Each company, based anywhere in China, goes through a local media studio, who then sends the script to me. I record a reading, send my recording via the internet to the media company, and they send it where it needs to go. As West China’s been booming lately, so have the local media studios, and I’ve been reading more scripts for Sichuan (Western China)-based companies.

Why Chengdu and not truly international cities like Shanghai or Beijing?

Chengdu’s awesome. I studied in Beijing in 2003, finding it overcrowded and busy (I guess a bit like Chengdu today). I like how Chengdu people enjoy getting together with friends to just “post up.” They’re happy doing nothing and just hanging out. This also attracts foreigners of a similar leaning, so it’s here that I’ve made some of my best friends. I like options; when I want to chill, there are plenty of places to hang out, and when I want to step up the energy, Chengdu has that too. I also enjoy the humor and personality of Sichuan people more than I did in other regions of China.

Thank you for your time.

No problem. Thanks Gregor and everyone at TribePlay!

To learn more about Reed Riggs voice-over projects and translations visit TalentFlies.org. You can also play BrainJewel online on Facebook!