Why does the response back from Spirit box not sound like a ghost?

[StevieZ]

One would think a ghost/spirit/whatever wouldn't respond in a basic human voice... "I'm behind you". I'd rather hear a bone chilling response in a monsters voice.

[Rotpar]

Because the spirit box is the spooky Speak and Spell; it's a digital voice repeating what it picks up.

[StevieZ]

Meh. Where does it say/explain that? I would expect it to respond back scary as hell to make the game that much more frightening.

[Rotpar]

It's already an unnatural voice, what more do we need? Bleeding letters to fart out of it accompanied by "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor"?

[Chocolate Goomba]

It isn't stated anywhere to my knowledge, but I imagine it's just synthesizing electronic signals it picks up to then be converted into perceptible speech. It is not a ghost walkie-talkie, more like a digital "parrot" repeating in audible format what we as humans cannot perceive. In my opinion, it's actually creepier because of the lack of emotion or pitch, especially when the ghost says something as fundamentally emotionally charged as "kill," or something.

[Josefumi]

It's a lot better now than it was in the trailer, nothing made me laugh harder than when the ghost just said in the most basic british voice "demon"

[Settings]

Originally posted by StevieZ:

Meh. Where does it say/explain that? I would expect it to respond back scary as hell to make the game that much more frightening.

It doesn't say that because these items exist in real life and people who are fans of ghost hunting just know what they are. Granted ghost hunting in real life is a crock of ♥♥♥♥ and this is a video game but still, the items do exist in the real world.

[Serath]

Originally posted by Rotpar:

Because the spirit box is the spooky Speak and Spell; it's a digital voice repeating what it picks up.

The actual Speak and Spell is more disturbing than the Spirit Box.

[Settings]

Originally posted by Serath:

Originally posted by Rotpar:

Because the spirit box is the spooky Speak and Spell; it's a digital voice repeating what it picks up.

The actual Speak and Spell is more disturbing than the Spirit Box.

Spook and Spell

[Leji]

Spirit boxes IRL are normally constantly channeling different frequencies; so they pick up things such as radio stations etc in order to allow spirits and the such to use them frequencies in order to respond; hence why they some somewhat robotic as well.

at least that is from what I remember from what was said on ghost hunting shows such as Ghost Adventures.

[󠁳⁧⁧ N1ght_Gu4rd]

Originally posted by StevieZ:

One would think a ghost/spirit/whatever wouldn't respond in a basic human voice... "I'm behind you". I'd rather hear a bone chilling response in a monsters voice.

What monsters voice? Ghosts are/were people. Their voice is human but is disturbed because of the radio (spirit box) changing frequencies.

[Stone Cold Steve Ebola]

I think a misconception that many people playing this game have about the spirit box is that it is used to talk a ghost like a walkie talkie, which is not the case. You do not need to be using a spirit box for the ghost to hear your question, what the spirit box does is detect the ghosts response or a part of it and play it at frequency that a human can hear.

[King]

Think of the spirit box like bumblebee from transformers. They can't directly speak to you, but their emotions, feelings, thoughts, and answers are jumbled through the EM spectrum that the box picks up.

[Flip_Light]

Originally posted by StevieZ:

Meh. Where does it say/explain that? I would expect it to respond back scary as hell to make the game that much more frightening.

I...you understand a spirit box is a real tool, right? I own one.

The way it works in theory is it cycles through RADIO channels and ghosts can manipulate which channel it "lets through" to respond to you. Hence the "ch ch ch ch ch" noise followed by an eventual response.

It's a real tool, the psb-7 is a popular model of it in fact.

[Markus Reese]

And the fact it isnt spooky makes it scarier as a game. Death rattles, heartbeats, breaths, and all the other sounds associated with haunting. If spirit box is overly complex, it would overshadow and reduce long term immersions. Subtlety is one of the best tools of horror.

[Serath]

Originally posted by twistedmelon:

And the fact it isnt spooky makes it scarier as a game. Death rattles, heartbeats, breaths, and all the other sounds associated with haunting. If spirit box is overly complex, it would overshadow and reduce long term immersions. Subtlety is one of the best tools of horror.

Exactly. In fact I heard this from a few Youtubers, saying in how they changed the "flat-lining" sound from hospitals to something of a more pleasant tone when someone passes away. The intent was to make it not sound as horrifying, but yet ended up doing the exact opposite, because you still know what the tone represents, so to hear something more pleasant to the ear being used to associate with death makes it all the more disturbing.

You may not find the movie that scary as a whole, but the same concept goes for that now infamous ringtone from Jurassic Park 3, and before that, the water ripple of the first one. The same thing also with why some people are afraid of clowns: the overly cheerful expression and colors give a false impression of safety; it's the "fear" or "doubt" of something more sinister lurking behind the mask, as opposed to the killer just being "there," where the doubt is over already and it's just in your face.

It's the transition when Silent Hill entered the gaming industry in a Resident Evil dominated horror genre: the scariest thing is not always what you can see, but what you "can't" see, or concepts/ideas you can't understand. (e.g. why did the school turn to a rusted and depraved version of itself, etc.)

Case in point, when the ghost was finally closing in on me, the initial "boo" moment was over, and I almost wanted to die just to see what would happen. At that point, I wasn't "that" scared anymore, (okay well, that's some VERY big quotation marks) in fact actually laughing when it happened.

A jumpscare is the final climax, but it's over before you know it. The build up however to that moment can last as long as the artist wants it to, and it tortures you the entire time.