August 14, 2023 • 22 mins
Jackie is a musician based in the SF Bay area in the US. By night she's shredding it on the electric cello, but by day her job is much different...
It’s the reason she's wary of pools, and the reason she's almost fluent in another language that only a tiny percentage of humankind speak. What is her day job? What is she concealing?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's me, the gorgeous arts Simone.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And if being gorgeous, talented, brilliant and showstopping wasn't enough,
there's something else. I'm also incredible at being an investigator
kind of. I've been finding very average, every day looking
people who live remarkable lives. It might be their job, Bobby,
or a dirty little secret that makes them interesting. But
(00:32):
whatever it is, I will find them and I will
uncover what they're concealing.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
This is concealed with me, art Simone.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Let's meet a very average, everyday looking person, Rowl the type.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm Jackie Presgratz. I live in Pacifica, California, which is
about five miles south of San Francisco on the coast,
with my partner and my two daughters. I'm a vocalist
and cellist for a few rock and metal bands in
San Francisco. But I am concealing something interesting about my
day job.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Oh my god, how Jackie, how are you?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I'm great?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm doing very well. We are across the world, from
down Under to the United States.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
What's it like over there? How's the weather?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It was beautiful yesterday but today is very foggy. Can
I live about a black and a half from the
coast from the ocean, so it's definitely I get a
lot of the ocean fog.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Oh, okay. Do you like to go and dip your
toes in a bit of the water every now and then?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Definitely? The water is very cold here though.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
See I'm close to the water, but I just like
to look at it, you know. I'll walk past and
be like, that's nice.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Good for you, that's nice over there.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, that's really nice. I really like that.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
All right.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Now you're in front of me. You've got a beautiful
gold chain on. I'm seeing some tats on those arms.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Stunning.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
We're dressed in black, my favorite color, which is wee
because I'm dressed in pink. But anyway, some things behind you.
I'll see a nice landscape painting thing of a bob.
And is that you said you played electric cello? Is
that I do an electric cello on the roll? Or
is that just a cello.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
There's an acoustic acoustic guitar, a banjo, and a bass ukulelely.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Okay, or so does that mean you play a lot
of things?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah. My husband and I both are musicians, so we
play all these instruments in the house. But my main instrument.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Is cello, okay, and middle bands electric cello?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
What?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah? What? Electric cello? And boice?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Howd you get into, you know, a little middle band,
be like, hey, I've got a cello.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Do you think this will work?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
You know? Yeah, pretty much. My parents are classical and musicians,
so I started playing in orchestras, and then when I
got into my twenties and I graduated college, I wanted
to just play music that was more the kind of
music I like to listen to.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Okay, so why not?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I'm going to ask you three questions, and from
the answers to those three questions, I have to try
and determine what it is you're.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Concealing from me. Okay, are you ready?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Okay, So first question I have for you is what
is one food you could eat for the rest of
your life?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Baked Alaska?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Baked Alaska Alaska? Well, is that like a that's a dessert,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yes, it's a very hard to make dessert.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, I don't know. I haven't had baked Alaska. Can
you describe it to me? What flavors are there?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You know? Is in nice sense?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So it's difficult to meet because it has ice cream
in it, but it also goes in the oven to
cook the marinue. Oh so it's a kind of complicated
dish that you can mess up very easily.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Okay, well that sounds beyond my limit.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
You know, I can only cook things with a microwave
and that just involves heating up a can. But you know,
have you met successfully made a baked Alaska before? I
have not, But when other people are doing it, you're
into it all right, yep?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Question number two, what is a conspiracy theory that you
think is wild?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
That we are all living in a simulation?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Okay? Now is that that you just hate?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That idea that people going, oh, we're all like having
a little nap at the moment, you.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Know, I mean, it's not that far fetched, right, Okay,
that's true. So it is a wild theory.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Okay, yes, simulation.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
You know, sometimes I wish that could be true because
you're like, can we reset this again?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I want to go back.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
And the question number three and a half for you
is what is something you usually like to avoid.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Swimming pools that don't have ladders?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Ah? Okay, I'm picking up some things. I'm picking up
some things. Lets me recap. Okay, baked Alaska hard to cook, Okay,
then you know simulation sim sim hmm, sim serious and
(05:00):
then I'm getting swimming pools without ladders, which also brings
me back to one of my favorite pastimes in a
little game called The Sims, which is which you put
put bill and peel and take out the ladder and
see what happens, and then you're very musical.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So I've previously guessed something on this podcast where I
thought I was meeting the creator of Simlish, and I
feel like I'm being pointed in the direction of something
in that realm.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Okay, Now I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I know, I don't want to guess that again, or
I want to say that actually I'm going to adjust
that and say do you.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Do you compose and write like the music for the Sims?
Am I clothes your clothes?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
But no, I am the voice director slash Craft lead
for a voice for the SIMS franchise, and I direct
the voice actor speaking Simlish and translate lyrics into Simlish
for licensed music plays in the game.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, firstly, how did you track this bitch down? Oh?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
My god, this is so cool.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Surprise.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Oh she is. She is the voice director of the SIMS.
She knows all about Simlish.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well yeah, all right, so here with Jackie, who is
the voice director for the SIMS. Now, before we get
(06:44):
into it, if you don't know what the SIMS is,
it is a game that has been going for many,
many years where you know, you create, your sims are
your people. It's a simulation of the world. So you
can build a house, you can have a baby, you
can go to work, you can do everything in the SIMS.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I'm very excited. I'm very excited. That's a full circle
moment for me.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Okay, I feel like I manifested this, but by manifesting it,
I mean I said it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I need to ask them all things like this more often.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I'm like, yeah, I really think this person is someone
who loves to give money to people. And then maybe
next season we to know. But the first question I
have for you is how did you get into it?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah? So, actually being a musician is what got me
into it. I never really considered game audio as a career,
and I did a lot of audio just in my
own music. So I started as a voice editor in
two thousand and six ish, so almost twenty years ago.
And at that time it was SIMS two. So I
was I started as a voice editor on SIMS two.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Wow, And could do you explain what a voice editor does?
Does that mean they just like collate the recordings and
you know, like clean them up and blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yeah, So we basically take the files, lots of files
come out of a full day recording session, and we
clean up all the pops and the I don't know,
mouth sounds, yes, and and it clicks pops mouthsounds and
sync them to the animations. Yeah, and then we put
them in the game. And you know, you play the
SIMS so you know, every time a sim does our thing,
(08:08):
they don't always say the same thing. Yes, if they
only had one voice file for every time they did
a thing, then it would start to sound very unnatural
and robotic. So we put lots of variations in. So
when they take a drink of water and they say, oh, refreshing,
they're not saying the exact same thing every single time.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So let's talk about creating the sounds of the game.
When does it start? Do you go, like, all right,
So we need a whole bunch of new things. Let's
start listing up what they're going to be situations? Do
you map out and be like every single different option
that could happen and then be like, all right, we
need to make noises for all of these, Like how
does it work?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Pretty much? Or maybe the audio team is like ninety
percent driven by animations. When the sims move and when
the sims do things, and when the sims say things
that requires audio. So when animations come in, we scrub
animation and kind of break it down. Okay, we want
them to say something here, we want them to see
something here. We want a sound of a can being
(09:09):
crunched on this frame.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Oh yeah, because it's not just voices, it's like all
the sounds, right.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, it's all the sounds, so clapping hands or you know,
rubbing their face or whatever it may be. And then
we have a list, a long list of you know,
every sound that's needed for every animation for the game.
And then I have a cast, a cast of like
ten people, so if something needs voice, you have to
record it with every single actor.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So let's talk about Simblish, which is one of my
favorite silly things.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Ever.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's as whole entire language. Obviously that started like right
at the beginning, is there like someone that we go, oh,
the creator of Simlish? Is this person or do we
you know who sat down and went all right, this
yes means this and that means that? And how much
do you have to honor moving forward when you're like
creating new sounds for mute games, you know?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Right? So, so I didn't create Simlish, but I know
that it was originally kind of workshopped with the original
actors and audio people for SIMS one. And I think
the desire originally, which is still relevant today, is to
be able to have the Sims convey emotion and feelings
(10:21):
but without actually speaking words. And as every game has
come about, I think the language evolves a little bit.
So at first it sounded very you know, gotga Google
almost in a way. But now if you don't speak English, say,
and you're listening to a SIMS game, you might think, oh,
(10:42):
this game is in English, Like it sounds like a language.
It's more complex, The words have more syllables, there's more
repetition of words, phrases that are identifiable. Those kinds of
things can make the language evolve and just sound more
like a language and less like you know.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Goco goo.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Does that mean that there kind of is a similarsh
word for everything now at this stage or do some
of the actors still just like improvise some noises.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, I'd say about eighty percent of the time. The
actors are improving, but they are looking at we have
these extensive lists of like upwards of five hundred words
that are just similish words, and they're listed out on
a page and there's like, you know, ten pages of
these words, and the actors look at that, but they
use those words to improv and then I'd say maybe
(11:30):
the other twenty percent is scripted similish. So those are
words we call them lexicon. It's not always one to one.
Sometimes it is like love. The similish word for love
is love, and we try to use that word. Anytime
they're talking about love or heart or flirting or anything
like that, we'll try to use that word. So there's
(11:51):
like twenty percent i'd say, of what the sim say
in the game is actually scripted words where we have
the idea of what the meaning is.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
How do you cost a voice actor to be as seme?
You know, what's the process you go through to be like,
all right, can you just get on the phone love?
And you know it spitball some sounds, you know. Do
you give them an emotion and they have to improvise
you say yeah, happy, you know?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Or how's it got?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Pretty much we do open calls and we get a
lot of different types of interpretations of what gibberish is.
But the actors that we cast, like we've always had
them in for a directed audition and it's exactly like
what you said, to see how they can improv to
see how much emotion they can put into their words
(12:37):
so that it sounds like they're actually saying a thing,
but it's not. There's no actual definition of what they're saying.
And some actors are great at it, and some actors
are not great at it because you're you're doing a
lot of things. You're watching the animation, so you're having
to do timing, you're having to sound natural, you're having
to make up the words, you're having to have emotion.
So they're they're they're juggling a lot of balls at
(12:58):
one time. And you know, the act that really pick
up on it, they're just they're naturally good at improving how.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Long do you think a recording session with one actor
would be.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yeah, we usually have two actors in at a time
because they have more fun working together and they can
riff off each other. If someone says a funny word
that the other actor can like say that same funny word.
It just kind of keeps the keeps the fun energy
up in session. So we have two actors in at
a time, and we can get through about sixty animations
(13:29):
in a six hour session. Okay, and then you know
we'll have like anywhere from one to three days with
each actor to record all the boys.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Do you have to start from absolute scratch for a
new game or can you bring back some sounds and
things from previous versions?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Sounds, yes, Voice no, because voice we recast, so SIMS
three had a totally different cast than SIMS wore, So
we can't use any of the actors from that previous game.
And so for you, once you make your sim and
cass and create a sim and you choose a voice,
and you maybe choose what pitch you want to hear
that voice, that is the voice that your sim has
(14:11):
for forever. More So, we can't just you know, use
other people's or older content from past games.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So out of the formal language, what are some common
words or phrases that people would hear that sims say
but might not understand what they mean.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Well, we have a really dedicated and fun audience that
plays the game, so they would probably know a lot
of the lexicon words that get repeated a lot, So
like sooolsool and dag dag are common words for like
hello and goodbye. Love I mentioned is something used for love?
Yaller vu? Is I love you? Yabougaroo? Is I'm hungry?
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I just love it?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
What would it seems say when they're angry? Like what
type of words come out of their mouth when they're
angry or that you know, there's.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
A couple of words that are like cuss words. But
recently in session, we have a couple actors that really
like to say f yoiber, which kind of sounds like you're,
you know, telling someone to f off in a way,
but it's like a few but you know, and they
say it with like passion and meaning and anger, and
it really does sound like they're cussing you up.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I feel like in a recording session your brain would
turn to mush by the end because you wouldn't know
what you're saying or what you're speaking, or what language
is happening, you know, and be like I now, who
am I?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
I think the actors probably can get especially if we
have a lot of sessions in a row, they probably
start dreaming and Simlish and maybe even the voice editors
because they're like listening to it so much.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
There's been songs translated into Simlish and been featured in
SIMS games.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
How does that process work?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Oh? Yeah, So the development team works with the Worldwide
Music Group from EA. They're the group that basically does
all the licensing, and we'll give them themes of like
what we're trying to go or for a specific pack,
like oh, we want to add a country music station,
and they'll go out and try to find, you know,
(16:07):
up and coming artists that we think are like on
the verge of getting really big. And when those licenses
get put in place, the music group hands me a
bunch of English lyrics and sometimes not even in English,
which those translations are really hard, but I'll get English
lyrics and the music, and I listened to the song
(16:28):
over and over again in English, and then I just
set about getting to work and translating it and similish
so that the original artist can re record the vocals
in Simlish. And a lot of times they're singing in
a language they've never spoken before. So it's my job
to make sure that the lyrics are as close to
(16:51):
the English as possible in terms of any kind of
lyrical strategies they may have used, like if they use
a lot of alliteration, like sell seashells by the seashore, right,
I have to make sure that I am writing Simlish
words that all start with the letter S and s
h so that when the vocalist gets it then it's
not so foreign. And also it kind of captures the
(17:13):
same vibe that the English lyrics have.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
It's that thing with some of the current you're like,
if you're not paying attention, sounds exactly the same, it's like,
and then you're like, wait a second, what are the
it's just in English?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So you're saying, you sit there and you can like
translate it a lot and make it up. Does that
mean are there's some like words that you can credit
to you? Like you said, I made that up? You
know that's mine, that's my word.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
There's so many. I mean I have the sheet of
like five hundred words of Lexicon words, and of that sheet,
i'd say seventy five percent I probably wrote.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm really is there a word you're really proud of?
You know, like, let's a word I'm really proud of.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Well, let's see hoogaroo I did make up, which was
the I'm hungry. The word for cow is mule, which
we kind of based after, you know the fact that
cows moo. Chicken. The word for chicken is cluxing. Baby
chick is cheap, cheap.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It's like it's kind of giving me like Pokemon vibes,
you know, where they're like naming Pokemon and they're like
the snake one they just saw it snake backwards.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I mean, it's got to be catchy. I mean that's
that's that's my whole thing, Like, it's got to be catchy,
especially when you're doing the lyrics. Yeah, it still has
to have a hook, even though it's not in English, it's.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Gonna have flow, right.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
You know, if the words are too hard to like
get your mouth around, then you know they just you
can't have a conversation. Yeah, you'd be like do b
doo dah doo do but doo see that's that's great.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Say did I say anything? Did I accidentainly say anything?
I know.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Maybe it seems one who said something, But.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I wonder do you ever like hang out with some
babies and go, oh, actually they're like speaking in full
Simlish at the moment, I should I should hire them.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
I sometimes hear things out in the world, or my
daughter will see something, or a baby will see something.
I'm like, that'd be really good. So much work.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Write that down, get the nopad get thenpad. That's going
to be good. SIMS five were working on that. All right,
let's add some words in Oh my God. Instead of
like the urban dictionary, there's like the Simless dictionary. Do
you deal much with like the fandom? What's the fandom
of the sims?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Like?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Do they make their own dictionaries with all the words
and translations and things?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Do you sometimes flick through and be like wrong? Wrong?
Actually doesn't mean that I don't really flick.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Through, but I do know that some of those dictionaries
are wrong, some of them are right. Yes, But you know,
like I said that the actor's improv eighty percent of it.
So you know, if you really wanted to get down
to looking at the game and being like, oh, they're
obviously saying I'm hungry here, but yab hugaroo is not
what comes out of their mouth.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I think I'm going to be wholesome for a second,
because yes, like the SIMS is fun and silly and
you can, like you know, mess up people's fake lives
and you know, be a little deckcad. But it's actually
such a fun and creative tool. Like I learned how
to decorate a house way before I even had my
own apartment. Like I used to just enjoy just building
(20:07):
the houses, you know, saving up my dollars, Similions, Somolians those, yes,
saving up those.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
There are a lot of players, that's all they do.
They're just builders, or they just do create a sim
or people that really love like generational play. So there's
a lot of I mean, it's a big soundbox. It's
a big fun soundbox.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So going back to you translating, you know, songs into
the world of the SIMS, I actually have a song.
I've got a couple, but you know, my latest song
out at the moment is called No This Will Matter
When We're dead so like, if I were to audition
with it in simlish, now, would you consider putting it
in one of the future versions of the Sims, Like,
you know, like if I do a really good job
singing it for you in simlish, m that's beyond my
(20:51):
peg grade, but maybe even to blow your socks off
so well.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I'd love to hear you're a similar version though, Oh gosh,
you really put I put myself on the spot, haven't
I here. I'm gonna I'm a translate for you right now.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, it's a workshop. We've got a workshop.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Happening, neighbor zoop, sir, meet and then let's see when
we're dad weshwodmud.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
All right, this is the world debut of none of
this will matter in simlish. I'd like to welcome to
the stage myself auditioning for the role of sim number two.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Thank you, Thanks leaders, Zeep Doo Doo leaders, Deep Do
Do Leavers, Dip doo Doo leader Zooper Debo Flip Lisa.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So Jackie is the voice director of the Sims and
I I'm claiming this one as of a victory. Put
it on this scoreboard for me here and concealed ha
I can't wait to go and bake some Alaska go
in a poodle. You've been listening to an iHeart Australia
and Kiss Production Concealed with Simone. Listen to more of
(22:16):
what you love on iHeart and to check out two
Wabbadi Badu's check us out on the socials. Oh by
the way, that's the end of season two of Concealed
with Artsimone.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Now don't worry.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
All the episodes are still there for you to have
a little listen in the meantime. But you know who's hoping.
Let's cross our little bits for season three. Maybe see
you then Bye.
It's me, the gorgeous arts Simone.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And if being gorgeous, talented, brilliant and showstopping wasn't enough,
there's something else. I'm also incredible at being an investigator
kind of. I've been finding very average, every day looking
people who live remarkable lives. It might be their job, Bobby,
or a dirty little secret that makes them interesting. But
(00:32):
whatever it is, I will find them and I will
uncover what they're concealing.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
This is concealed with me, art Simone.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Let's meet a very average, everyday looking person, Rowl the type.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I'm Jackie Presgratz. I live in Pacifica, California, which is
about five miles south of San Francisco on the coast,
with my partner and my two daughters. I'm a vocalist
and cellist for a few rock and metal bands in
San Francisco. But I am concealing something interesting about my
day job.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Oh my god, how Jackie, how are you?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I'm great?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm doing very well. We are across the world, from
down Under to the United States.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
What's it like over there? How's the weather?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It was beautiful yesterday but today is very foggy. Can
I live about a black and a half from the
coast from the ocean, so it's definitely I get a
lot of the ocean fog.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Oh, okay. Do you like to go and dip your
toes in a bit of the water every now and then?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Definitely? The water is very cold here though.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
See I'm close to the water, but I just like
to look at it, you know. I'll walk past and
be like, that's nice.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Good for you, that's nice over there.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, that's really nice. I really like that.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
All right.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Now you're in front of me. You've got a beautiful
gold chain on. I'm seeing some tats on those arms.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Stunning.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
We're dressed in black, my favorite color, which is wee
because I'm dressed in pink. But anyway, some things behind you.
I'll see a nice landscape painting thing of a bob.
And is that you said you played electric cello? Is
that I do an electric cello on the roll? Or
is that just a cello.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
There's an acoustic acoustic guitar, a banjo, and a bass ukulelely.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Okay, or so does that mean you play a lot
of things?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah. My husband and I both are musicians, so we
play all these instruments in the house. But my main instrument.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Is cello, okay, and middle bands electric cello?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
What?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah? What? Electric cello? And boice?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Howd you get into, you know, a little middle band,
be like, hey, I've got a cello.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Do you think this will work?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
You know? Yeah, pretty much. My parents are classical and musicians,
so I started playing in orchestras, and then when I
got into my twenties and I graduated college, I wanted
to just play music that was more the kind of
music I like to listen to.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Okay, so why not?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I'm going to ask you three questions, and from
the answers to those three questions, I have to try
and determine what it is you're.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Concealing from me. Okay, are you ready?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Okay, So first question I have for you is what
is one food you could eat for the rest of
your life?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Baked Alaska?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Baked Alaska Alaska? Well, is that like a that's a dessert,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yes, it's a very hard to make dessert.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, I don't know. I haven't had baked Alaska. Can
you describe it to me? What flavors are there?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You know? Is in nice sense?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So it's difficult to meet because it has ice cream
in it, but it also goes in the oven to
cook the marinue. Oh so it's a kind of complicated
dish that you can mess up very easily.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Okay, well that sounds beyond my limit.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
You know, I can only cook things with a microwave
and that just involves heating up a can. But you know,
have you met successfully made a baked Alaska before? I
have not, But when other people are doing it, you're
into it all right, yep?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Question number two, what is a conspiracy theory that you
think is wild?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
That we are all living in a simulation?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Okay? Now is that that you just hate?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That idea that people going, oh, we're all like having
a little nap at the moment, you.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Know, I mean, it's not that far fetched, right, Okay,
that's true. So it is a wild theory.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Okay, yes, simulation.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
You know, sometimes I wish that could be true because
you're like, can we reset this again?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I want to go back.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
And the question number three and a half for you
is what is something you usually like to avoid.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Swimming pools that don't have ladders?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Ah? Okay, I'm picking up some things. I'm picking up
some things. Lets me recap. Okay, baked Alaska hard to cook, Okay,
then you know simulation sim sim hmm, sim serious and
(05:00):
then I'm getting swimming pools without ladders, which also brings
me back to one of my favorite pastimes in a
little game called The Sims, which is which you put
put bill and peel and take out the ladder and
see what happens, and then you're very musical.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So I've previously guessed something on this podcast where I
thought I was meeting the creator of Simlish, and I
feel like I'm being pointed in the direction of something
in that realm.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Okay, Now I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I know, I don't want to guess that again, or
I want to say that actually I'm going to adjust
that and say do you.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Do you compose and write like the music for the Sims?
Am I clothes your clothes?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
But no, I am the voice director slash Craft lead
for a voice for the SIMS franchise, and I direct
the voice actor speaking Simlish and translate lyrics into Simlish
for licensed music plays in the game.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, firstly, how did you track this bitch down? Oh?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
My god, this is so cool.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Surprise.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Oh she is. She is the voice director of the SIMS.
She knows all about Simlish.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well yeah, all right, so here with Jackie, who is
the voice director for the SIMS. Now, before we get
(06:44):
into it, if you don't know what the SIMS is,
it is a game that has been going for many,
many years where you know, you create, your sims are
your people. It's a simulation of the world. So you
can build a house, you can have a baby, you
can go to work, you can do everything in the SIMS.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I'm very excited. I'm very excited. That's a full circle
moment for me.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Okay, I feel like I manifested this, but by manifesting it,
I mean I said it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I need to ask them all things like this more often.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I'm like, yeah, I really think this person is someone
who loves to give money to people. And then maybe
next season we to know. But the first question I
have for you is how did you get into it?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah? So, actually being a musician is what got me
into it. I never really considered game audio as a career,
and I did a lot of audio just in my
own music. So I started as a voice editor in
two thousand and six ish, so almost twenty years ago.
And at that time it was SIMS two. So I
was I started as a voice editor on SIMS two.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Wow, And could do you explain what a voice editor does?
Does that mean they just like collate the recordings and
you know, like clean them up and blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yeah, So we basically take the files, lots of files
come out of a full day recording session, and we
clean up all the pops and the I don't know,
mouth sounds, yes, and and it clicks pops mouthsounds and
sync them to the animations. Yeah, and then we put
them in the game. And you know, you play the
SIMS so you know, every time a sim does our thing,
(08:08):
they don't always say the same thing. Yes, if they
only had one voice file for every time they did
a thing, then it would start to sound very unnatural
and robotic. So we put lots of variations in. So
when they take a drink of water and they say, oh, refreshing,
they're not saying the exact same thing every single time.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So let's talk about creating the sounds of the game.
When does it start? Do you go, like, all right,
So we need a whole bunch of new things. Let's
start listing up what they're going to be situations? Do
you map out and be like every single different option
that could happen and then be like, all right, we
need to make noises for all of these, Like how
does it work?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Pretty much? Or maybe the audio team is like ninety
percent driven by animations. When the sims move and when
the sims do things, and when the sims say things
that requires audio. So when animations come in, we scrub
animation and kind of break it down. Okay, we want
them to say something here, we want them to see
something here. We want a sound of a can being
(09:09):
crunched on this frame.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Oh yeah, because it's not just voices, it's like all
the sounds, right.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, it's all the sounds, so clapping hands or you know,
rubbing their face or whatever it may be. And then
we have a list, a long list of you know,
every sound that's needed for every animation for the game.
And then I have a cast, a cast of like
ten people, so if something needs voice, you have to
record it with every single actor.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So let's talk about Simblish, which is one of my
favorite silly things.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Ever.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's as whole entire language. Obviously that started like right
at the beginning, is there like someone that we go, oh,
the creator of Simlish? Is this person or do we
you know who sat down and went all right, this
yes means this and that means that? And how much
do you have to honor moving forward when you're like
creating new sounds for mute games, you know?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Right? So, so I didn't create Simlish, but I know
that it was originally kind of workshopped with the original
actors and audio people for SIMS one. And I think
the desire originally, which is still relevant today, is to
be able to have the Sims convey emotion and feelings
(10:21):
but without actually speaking words. And as every game has
come about, I think the language evolves a little bit.
So at first it sounded very you know, gotga Google
almost in a way. But now if you don't speak English, say,
and you're listening to a SIMS game, you might think, oh,
(10:42):
this game is in English, Like it sounds like a language.
It's more complex, The words have more syllables, there's more
repetition of words, phrases that are identifiable. Those kinds of
things can make the language evolve and just sound more
like a language and less like you know.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Goco goo.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Does that mean that there kind of is a similarsh
word for everything now at this stage or do some
of the actors still just like improvise some noises.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, I'd say about eighty percent of the time. The
actors are improving, but they are looking at we have
these extensive lists of like upwards of five hundred words
that are just similish words, and they're listed out on
a page and there's like, you know, ten pages of
these words, and the actors look at that, but they
use those words to improv and then I'd say maybe
(11:30):
the other twenty percent is scripted similish. So those are
words we call them lexicon. It's not always one to one.
Sometimes it is like love. The similish word for love
is love, and we try to use that word. Anytime
they're talking about love or heart or flirting or anything
like that, we'll try to use that word. So there's
(11:51):
like twenty percent i'd say, of what the sim say
in the game is actually scripted words where we have
the idea of what the meaning is.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
How do you cost a voice actor to be as seme?
You know, what's the process you go through to be like,
all right, can you just get on the phone love?
And you know it spitball some sounds, you know. Do
you give them an emotion and they have to improvise
you say yeah, happy, you know?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Or how's it got?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Pretty much we do open calls and we get a
lot of different types of interpretations of what gibberish is.
But the actors that we cast, like we've always had
them in for a directed audition and it's exactly like
what you said, to see how they can improv to
see how much emotion they can put into their words
(12:37):
so that it sounds like they're actually saying a thing,
but it's not. There's no actual definition of what they're saying.
And some actors are great at it, and some actors
are not great at it because you're you're doing a
lot of things. You're watching the animation, so you're having
to do timing, you're having to sound natural, you're having
to make up the words, you're having to have emotion.
So they're they're they're juggling a lot of balls at
(12:58):
one time. And you know, the act that really pick
up on it, they're just they're naturally good at improving how.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Long do you think a recording session with one actor
would be.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yeah, we usually have two actors in at a time
because they have more fun working together and they can
riff off each other. If someone says a funny word
that the other actor can like say that same funny word.
It just kind of keeps the keeps the fun energy
up in session. So we have two actors in at
a time, and we can get through about sixty animations
(13:29):
in a six hour session. Okay, and then you know
we'll have like anywhere from one to three days with
each actor to record all the boys.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Do you have to start from absolute scratch for a
new game or can you bring back some sounds and
things from previous versions?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Sounds, yes, Voice no, because voice we recast, so SIMS
three had a totally different cast than SIMS wore, So
we can't use any of the actors from that previous game.
And so for you, once you make your sim and
cass and create a sim and you choose a voice,
and you maybe choose what pitch you want to hear
that voice, that is the voice that your sim has
(14:11):
for forever. More So, we can't just you know, use
other people's or older content from past games.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So out of the formal language, what are some common
words or phrases that people would hear that sims say
but might not understand what they mean.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Well, we have a really dedicated and fun audience that
plays the game, so they would probably know a lot
of the lexicon words that get repeated a lot, So
like sooolsool and dag dag are common words for like
hello and goodbye. Love I mentioned is something used for love?
Yaller vu? Is I love you? Yabougaroo? Is I'm hungry?
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I just love it?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
What would it seems say when they're angry? Like what
type of words come out of their mouth when they're
angry or that you know, there's.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
A couple of words that are like cuss words. But
recently in session, we have a couple actors that really
like to say f yoiber, which kind of sounds like you're,
you know, telling someone to f off in a way,
but it's like a few but you know, and they
say it with like passion and meaning and anger, and
it really does sound like they're cussing you up.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I feel like in a recording session your brain would
turn to mush by the end because you wouldn't know
what you're saying or what you're speaking, or what language
is happening, you know, and be like I now, who
am I?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
I think the actors probably can get especially if we
have a lot of sessions in a row, they probably
start dreaming and Simlish and maybe even the voice editors
because they're like listening to it so much.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
There's been songs translated into Simlish and been featured in
SIMS games.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
How does that process work?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Oh? Yeah, So the development team works with the Worldwide
Music Group from EA. They're the group that basically does
all the licensing, and we'll give them themes of like
what we're trying to go or for a specific pack,
like oh, we want to add a country music station,
and they'll go out and try to find, you know,
(16:07):
up and coming artists that we think are like on
the verge of getting really big. And when those licenses
get put in place, the music group hands me a
bunch of English lyrics and sometimes not even in English,
which those translations are really hard, but I'll get English
lyrics and the music, and I listened to the song
(16:28):
over and over again in English, and then I just
set about getting to work and translating it and similish
so that the original artist can re record the vocals
in Simlish. And a lot of times they're singing in
a language they've never spoken before. So it's my job
to make sure that the lyrics are as close to
(16:51):
the English as possible in terms of any kind of
lyrical strategies they may have used, like if they use
a lot of alliteration, like sell seashells by the seashore, right,
I have to make sure that I am writing Simlish
words that all start with the letter S and s
h so that when the vocalist gets it then it's
not so foreign. And also it kind of captures the
(17:13):
same vibe that the English lyrics have.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
It's that thing with some of the current you're like,
if you're not paying attention, sounds exactly the same, it's like,
and then you're like, wait a second, what are the
it's just in English?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So you're saying, you sit there and you can like
translate it a lot and make it up. Does that
mean are there's some like words that you can credit
to you? Like you said, I made that up? You
know that's mine, that's my word.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
There's so many. I mean I have the sheet of
like five hundred words of Lexicon words, and of that sheet,
i'd say seventy five percent I probably wrote.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm really is there a word you're really proud of?
You know, like, let's a word I'm really proud of.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Well, let's see hoogaroo I did make up, which was
the I'm hungry. The word for cow is mule, which
we kind of based after, you know the fact that
cows moo. Chicken. The word for chicken is cluxing. Baby
chick is cheap, cheap.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It's like it's kind of giving me like Pokemon vibes,
you know, where they're like naming Pokemon and they're like
the snake one they just saw it snake backwards.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I mean, it's got to be catchy. I mean that's
that's that's my whole thing, Like, it's got to be catchy,
especially when you're doing the lyrics. Yeah, it still has
to have a hook, even though it's not in English, it's.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Gonna have flow, right.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
You know, if the words are too hard to like
get your mouth around, then you know they just you
can't have a conversation. Yeah, you'd be like do b
doo dah doo do but doo see that's that's great.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Say did I say anything? Did I accidentainly say anything?
I know.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Maybe it seems one who said something, But.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I wonder do you ever like hang out with some
babies and go, oh, actually they're like speaking in full
Simlish at the moment, I should I should hire them.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
I sometimes hear things out in the world, or my
daughter will see something, or a baby will see something.
I'm like, that'd be really good. So much work.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Write that down, get the nopad get thenpad. That's going
to be good. SIMS five were working on that. All right,
let's add some words in Oh my God. Instead of
like the urban dictionary, there's like the Simless dictionary. Do
you deal much with like the fandom? What's the fandom
of the sims?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Like?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Do they make their own dictionaries with all the words
and translations and things?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Do you sometimes flick through and be like wrong? Wrong?
Actually doesn't mean that I don't really flick.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Through, but I do know that some of those dictionaries
are wrong, some of them are right. Yes, But you know,
like I said that the actor's improv eighty percent of it.
So you know, if you really wanted to get down
to looking at the game and being like, oh, they're
obviously saying I'm hungry here, but yab hugaroo is not
what comes out of their mouth.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I think I'm going to be wholesome for a second,
because yes, like the SIMS is fun and silly and
you can, like you know, mess up people's fake lives
and you know, be a little deckcad. But it's actually
such a fun and creative tool. Like I learned how
to decorate a house way before I even had my
own apartment. Like I used to just enjoy just building
(20:07):
the houses, you know, saving up my dollars, Similions, Somolians those, yes,
saving up those.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
There are a lot of players, that's all they do.
They're just builders, or they just do create a sim
or people that really love like generational play. So there's
a lot of I mean, it's a big soundbox. It's
a big fun soundbox.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So going back to you translating, you know, songs into
the world of the SIMS, I actually have a song.
I've got a couple, but you know, my latest song
out at the moment is called No This Will Matter
When We're dead so like, if I were to audition
with it in simlish, now, would you consider putting it
in one of the future versions of the Sims, Like,
you know, like if I do a really good job
singing it for you in simlish, m that's beyond my
(20:51):
peg grade, but maybe even to blow your socks off
so well.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I'd love to hear you're a similar version though, Oh gosh,
you really put I put myself on the spot, haven't
I here. I'm gonna I'm a translate for you right now.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, it's a workshop. We've got a workshop.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Happening, neighbor zoop, sir, meet and then let's see when
we're dad weshwodmud.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
All right, this is the world debut of none of
this will matter in simlish. I'd like to welcome to
the stage myself auditioning for the role of sim number two.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Thank you, Thanks leaders, Zeep Doo Doo leaders, Deep Do
Do Leavers, Dip doo Doo leader Zooper Debo Flip Lisa.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So Jackie is the voice director of the Sims and
I I'm claiming this one as of a victory. Put
it on this scoreboard for me here and concealed ha
I can't wait to go and bake some Alaska go
in a poodle. You've been listening to an iHeart Australia
and Kiss Production Concealed with Simone. Listen to more of
(22:16):
what you love on iHeart and to check out two
Wabbadi Badu's check us out on the socials. Oh by
the way, that's the end of season two of Concealed
with Artsimone.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Now don't worry.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
All the episodes are still there for you to have
a little listen in the meantime. But you know who's hoping.
Let's cross our little bits for season three. Maybe see
you then Bye.
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