Voice changer modification to fix the Kylo Ren Black Series helmet

UPDATE: There is a MUCH better solution for a Kylo Ren voice changer – check it out here.

So I just picked one of these Kylo Ren voice-changer helmets up today since I saw it available at Target. Luckily the wife obliged!   Yes, it’s not superhero related but Star Wars: The Force Awakens was just awesome!  And I loved Kylo Ren – so I’ve gotta do the costume.  

The helmet itself is very accurate, lightweight, inexpensive (relatively), and has a voice-changer!

While I’m not impressed with the voice changer itself, it’s still kinda fun and I’m going to try to leave the electronics in if I can.  If I find I need more room for padding, even pulling the electronics out of the black “encasement” and moving the battery pack somewhere else would help.  That way I could keep the voice changer. 

When I first tried on the helmet (after adding batteries), I immediately found that the voice changer is absolutely terrible.  It reverberates throughout the helmet and completely garbles the speech.  My wife couldn’t even tell what I was saying at all — just sounded like a mess.  The only time it worked well was when my head was outside of the helmet … ?  Looking at the helmet it was pretty clear it would need some changes, and a voice changer modification seemed like a good place to start with a fix. 

 

Reading through different threads on theRPF, it really seems like no one has found a voice changer that actually works the way they want it to.  For now the stock one will stay and I’ll pad / modify around it.

While working on the helmet today, I did find these voice changer modifications helped:

  1. Remove the parabolic disc that’s just behind the mic
  2. Remove the mic, and turn it around to face mouth
    • this requires taking the assembly apart and re-gluing together
  3. Add a small piece of fabric between speaker and helmet to catch reverberation through the helmet
  4. Pad the helmet so that the mic isn’t so close to your mouth – maybe 2″ away (if you can)

Check out this video to see how it turned out:

 


It’s not perfect as I can still hear my voice through it, but not entirely terrible either. I’ll keep working on it all and will keep posting!  UPDATE: There is a MUCH better solution for a Kylo Ren voice changer – check it out here.

What voice changer modifications have you done to this helmet or otherwise? 

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