
Voiceovers
Salvatore
Casting Baalphazu and Salvatore was rather unusual compared to how we typically handle that process. Starting with Salvatore, they wanted to have this voice pay homage to some of the great actors from the golden age of horror films like Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Lon Chaney. This became a rather challenging request to find just the right voice.
Baalphazu
We knew from a design perspective that Baalphazu was going to be really intense and vocally very straining. So, we wanted to make sure whoever we cast for the role could handle screeches, screams, growls and more.
Baalphazu Voice Design
Holiday content is always a lot of fun to work on, and I think Halloween might be my favorite. The dark and scary nature of the holiday opens up a huge amount of possibilities for sound design. You can push the envelope into weird and creative territories to enrich the experience. Starting with great source material makes the remainder of the process an absolute joy. The unique vocal tonalities that Molly can achieve, in addition to the raw emotion that comes through in the recording, gave Baalphazu their own unique voice, even before the VO design.

Baalphazu Sound Effects
After working with Molly’s vocals, the Audio Team had the opportunity to go into their own creative space and finish off the character’s sound scape with the sound effects (SFX).Violin
I started with something familiar to me, the violin. The amount of emotion and expressivity you can communicate through the violin is something I haven’t experienced with anything else. But… it’s also capable of producing some of the nastiest, most unsettling screeches and scrapes to ever pierce your ears. This was the starting point for Baalphazu’s base ability, the Wing Stab. The ability to control pitch and that nasty timbre allowed me to give the lead-up and execution of the attack the motion they needed. These recordings, along with the creaky, wooden branch foley for the wings and a splash of fire, gave this attack its voice.Chickering Piano
Continuing my experimentation with musical instruments, I reached for a 1920s Chickering piano as source material for the Reap ability. During this attack, the ground is lit with a green flame, then Baalphazu pulls their challengers in close and summons rings of fire that damage all who are near. The piano is used in the lead-up to the pull, giving the players a tell that something is on the horizon.Spoons and Strings
I rubbed a spoon across the bare piano strings in all different directions and found that the upward direction gave a great sense of tension and anticipation. The metal spoon scraping against the metal of the piano strings provided that discomforting signature that worked so well for this character. The piano mixed with elements of fire, thunder, chains, and the souls of the Netherworld beneath, convey the sheer terror that Baalphazu encapsulates.