Narrator guide

Thanks for thinking about lending Lore Forever your voice. This page covers what to record, how to record it, how to name the files and how to send them in. You don't need to know anything about add-ons.

Download the clip list Send your recordings Ask on Discord

What a voice pack is

A voice pack is a small add-on of its own, installed next to Lore Forever, that holds a set of recorded narrations. Players pick a voice in Options › AddOns › Lore Forever › Narration voice.

When a player picks your pack, every narration you recorded plays in your voice. Anything your pack doesn't cover plays in the default Lore Forever voice, and anything without a recording at all is read aloud in the game voice. So a pack never breaks anything by being incomplete.

The clip list

The clip list is a spreadsheet (CSV) with one row per narration. Open it in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice. It's rebuilt with every Lore Forever release, so it always matches the lore text in the latest version: download a fresh copy when you start a new batch.

Each row has:

id

The narration's ID, for example zone:stormwind or zone:stormwind#faq3 (the third question about Stormwind).

file name

The exact name your recording must have, for example zone_stormwind.mp3.

suggested narrator

Which people the narration suits, for example dwarf for Ironforge. It's a suggestion: one narrator can record everything, and several people can share a pack.

text

The exact words to read.

hash

A short code that identifies this version of the text. You don't need to do anything with it.

Reading the text

• Read the text exactly as written. Don't add, drop or reword anything, even small words: players see the same text on screen while they listen.
• If you're unsure how to say a name, ask on Discord.
• The lore text is sometimes corrected or rewritten. When the text of a narration changes, your recording of it is marked out of date and the default voice takes over for that narration until you record the new text. Everything else in your pack keeps playing.

Recording settings

• Mono, 44.1 kHz.
• MP3 at 64 kbps or higher, or OGG Vorbis.
• Loudness about -16 LUFS integrated, with peaks at or below -1 dBTP. Most audio editors (Audacity, Reaper, Audition) have a loudness normalization option that does this in one step.
• At most 0.3 seconds of silence at the start and end of each file.
• Just your voice: no music, sound effects or background ambience.
• Record in a quiet room. Soft furnishings help; a closet full of clothes works surprisingly well. Watch for fans, traffic and computer noise.

Not sure your setup is good enough? Record one narration and send it in first. You'll get feedback before you do the rest.

Naming the files

Name each file exactly as the file name column says, all lower case, for example:

• zone_stormwind.mp3: the Stormwind intro
• zone_stormwind__faq3.mp3: the answer to the third Stormwind question (note the two underscores)

If you record OGG, keep the same name with .ogg at the end. Put all the files in one folder, with no subfolders. Files that don't match a name in the list can't be used.

Partial packs are welcome

You don't have to record everything. A pack with a handful of narrations is useful, and you can add more later. A good first batch is the capitals and starting zones (Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, Orgrimmar, Undercity, Thunder Bluff, and the zones and first areas where each people starts): they're what most players hear first.

Rights and credit

• When you send your recordings, you agree to the narrator release: a short, plain-language page that lets us ship your recordings in Lore Forever voice packs.
• The lore text is adapted from the Warcraft Wiki under CC BY-SA 4.0. A recording of it is an adaptation of that text, so voice packs are released under CC BY-SA 4.0 as well.
• You choose your credit line. It shows in the voice picker and on this site, for example "Narrated by Jane Doe", your handle, or a link to your channel. You can also stay anonymous.

Sending your recordings

1. Put the files in a Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive folder and share it so that anyone with the link can view it.
2. Fill in the submission form: the folder link, your credit line, a name for the pack and a way to reach you.
3. We build the pack, listen to every file and get back to you if anything needs another take.
4. The finished pack is published on the Voices page with your name on it.

Players: installing a voice pack is covered on the Voices page.