Some 'ware questions, Voice Modulator Options

[Pavlov]

My face character is going well, thanks to all the people here who helped build him. You can find his sheet at the end of this page.

One of the aspects of the character I really like is the B&E stuff. I have .2 essence to spare in terms of future cyberware enhancements and I was thinking about a Voice Modulator for those "My voice is my passport, verify me" situations. Sadly, this will probably kill my efforts to keep all his gear permit-friendly. But, onto the question: Do I need the playback if I get a secondary pattern? Assume I record some wageslave's voice, then plug it in via my datajack. If I have a secondary pattern, but no playback, can I say whatever I want in his voice and match my rating vs. the voice recognition rating? Or do I need a playback for that? Or (final question, I swear) can I use the playback and a good sound editor to piece together whatever the password is and pipe it through the playback?

[Kagetenshi]

No time to look up your answer before exams. Quickly, though: do you by any chance play Uplink?

~J

[Pavlov]

Not sure if that's a game or a character in one of the ongoing pbp games here, but either way, the answer is no. :D

[Kagetenshi]

Fair enough :)

It's a computer game, and the only instance when I've ever seen a voice password that was actually "My voice is my passport, verify me".

~J

[Pavlov]

Ahh...no, it was a reference to Sneakers, a pretty good Shadowrun-esque (a little on the clean side) movie.

[Kagetenshi]

My favourite voice password, if a tad short, is still "Hello, Navi"

~J

[Ol' Scratch]

Secondary Pattern is, indeed, what you want. You're not actually uploading someone's words then repeating them, you're duplicating their vocal patterns. Everything you say will sound just like them (using the Secondary Pattern's rating for any tests). Playback is just used if you want to act like a speaker, such as playing back a recording you put into headware memory or entertaining a crowd by slipping Concrete Dream's latest MiniCD into your datajack.

Playback is the poor man's Secondary Pattern if you can manage to get a clean recording of the target saying the exact phrase you need (or having a decker or other talented character mix several different recordings into a single one). You won't be able to improvise with it, however.

[Pavlov]

Alright, I lied, one more question.

If I buy the Voice Modulator as alphaware, does the price of the secondary pattern increase as well? It's listed as cyberware, but has no essence cost.

[Ol' Scratch]

Yes, it's an accesossory of the Vioce Modulator as opposed to its own implant. The only time you don't have to buy accessories in the same grade (that I know of right off the top of my head) is when dealing with cyberlimbs.

[Pavlov]

Thanks, I wasn't sure if it was an implant (thus needing to be alpha) or if it worked like a program added on to the modulator, independant of what's using it; Sleaze-2 runs the same in a Sigma and an Excalibur.

[mfb]

uplink, it should be noted, is an insanely cool game. the "my voice is my passport" in uplink is, itself, a reference to Sneakers.

you'll want to route your voice modulator to your headware memory, so that you can store multiple patterns and switch between them at will. i don't think there's any data on how many Mp a pattern is; i would give it a program rating equal to the rating of the modulator, and a multiplier of 1 or 2.

[Traks]

[Pavlov]

Would a retinal mod make more sense? I figure I can get fake fingerprints somewhere, but I don't have the essence to buy both the Voice Modulator and Retinal Duplication unless they're both beta, in which case I don't see me getting that kind of money ever. My initial plan was to get the fake thumbprint, the Voice Modulator and then buy a pair of goggles like the ones used in the movie Entrapment (with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones). General rule of thumb being you can buy a non-cyber version of something at half price.

What sort of locks do you have to overcome in your campaigns?

[Kagetenshi]

That's why you don't just have a voice password, you have a voice password and another password.

Or, if you're playing Uplink, you have a voice password, a password, and an elliptic-curve cipher.

~J