Baked alaska 🔥

It's me, the gorgeous arts Simone.

And if being gorgeous, talented, brilliant and showstopping wasn't enough, there's something else. I'm also incredible at being an investigator kind of. I've been finding very average, every day looking people who live remarkable lives. It might be their job, Bobby, or a dirty little secret that makes them interesting. But whatever it is, I will find them and I will uncover what they're concealing.

This is concealed with me, art Simone.

Let's meet a very average, everyday looking person, Rowl the type.

I'm Jackie Presgratz. I live in Pacifica, California, which is about five miles south of San Francisco on the coast, with my partner and my two daughters. I'm a vocalist and cellist for a few rock and metal bands in San Francisco. But I am concealing something interesting about my day job.

Oh my god, how Jackie, how are you?

Hey?

I'm great?

How are you?

I'm doing very well. We are across the world, from down Under to the United States.

What's it like over there? How's the weather?

It was beautiful yesterday but today is very foggy. Can I live about a black and a half from the coast from the ocean, so it's definitely I get a lot of the ocean fog.

Oh, okay. Do you like to go and dip your toes in a bit of the water every now and then?

Definitely? The water is very cold here though.

See I'm close to the water, but I just like to look at it, you know. I'll walk past and be like, that's nice.

Good for you, that's nice over there.

Yeah, that's really nice. I really like that.

All right.

Now you're in front of me. You've got a beautiful gold chain on. I'm seeing some tats on those arms.

Stunning.

We're dressed in black, my favorite color, which is wee because I'm dressed in pink. But anyway, some things behind you. I'll see a nice landscape painting thing of a bob. And is that you said you played electric cello? Is that I do an electric cello on the roll? Or is that just a cello.

There's an acoustic acoustic guitar, a banjo, and a bass ukulelely.

Okay, or so does that mean you play a lot of things?

Yeah. My husband and I both are musicians, so we play all these instruments in the house. But my main instrument.

Is cello, okay, and middle bands electric cello?

What?

Yeah? What? Electric cello? And boice?

Howd you get into, you know, a little middle band, be like, hey, I've got a cello.

Do you think this will work?

You know? Yeah, pretty much. My parents are classical and musicians, so I started playing in orchestras, and then when I got into my twenties and I graduated college, I wanted to just play music that was more the kind of music I like to listen to.

Okay, so why not?

So I'm going to ask you three questions, and from the answers to those three questions, I have to try and determine what it is you're.

Concealing from me. Okay, are you ready?

Yes?

Okay, So first question I have for you is what is one food you could eat for the rest of your life?

Baked Alaska?

Baked Alaska Alaska? Well, is that like a that's a dessert, isn't it.

Yes, it's a very hard to make dessert.

Yeah, I don't know. I haven't had baked Alaska. Can you describe it to me? What flavors are there?

You know? Is in nice sense?

So it's difficult to meet because it has ice cream in it, but it also goes in the oven to cook the marinue. Oh so it's a kind of complicated dish that you can mess up very easily.

Okay, well that sounds beyond my limit.

You know, I can only cook things with a microwave and that just involves heating up a can. But you know, have you met successfully made a baked Alaska before? I have not, But when other people are doing it, you're into it all right, yep?

Okay.

Question number two, what is a conspiracy theory that you think is wild?

That we are all living in a simulation?

Okay? Now is that that you just hate?

That idea that people going, oh, we're all like having a little nap at the moment, you.

Know, I mean, it's not that far fetched, right, Okay, that's true. So it is a wild theory.

Okay, yes, simulation.

You know, sometimes I wish that could be true because you're like, can we reset this again?

I want to go back.

And the question number three and a half for you is what is something you usually like to avoid.

Swimming pools that don't have ladders?

Ah? Okay, I'm picking up some things. I'm picking up some things. Lets me recap. Okay, baked Alaska hard to cook, Okay, then you know simulation sim sim hmm, sim serious and then I'm getting swimming pools without ladders, which also brings me back to one of my favorite pastimes in a little game called The Sims, which is which you put put bill and peel and take out the ladder and see what happens, and then you're very musical.

Okay.

So I've previously guessed something on this podcast where I thought I was meeting the creator of Simlish, and I feel like I'm being pointed in the direction of something in that realm.

Okay, Now I don't know.

I know, I don't want to guess that again, or I want to say that actually I'm going to adjust that and say do you.

I don't know.

Do you compose and write like the music for the Sims? Am I clothes your clothes?

But no, I am the voice director slash Craft lead for a voice for the SIMS franchise, and I direct the voice actor speaking Simlish and translate lyrics into Simlish for licensed music plays in the game.

Yeah, firstly, how did you track this bitch down? Oh?

My god, this is so cool.

Surprise.

Oh she is. She is the voice director of the SIMS. She knows all about Simlish.

Well yeah, all right, so here with Jackie, who is the voice director for the SIMS. Now, before we get into it, if you don't know what the SIMS is, it is a game that has been going for many, many years where you know, you create, your sims are your people. It's a simulation of the world. So you can build a house, you can have a baby, you can go to work, you can do everything in the SIMS.

I'm very excited. I'm very excited. That's a full circle moment for me.

Okay, I feel like I manifested this, but by manifesting it, I mean I said it.

I need to ask them all things like this more often.

I'm like, yeah, I really think this person is someone who loves to give money to people. And then maybe next season we to know. But the first question I have for you is how did you get into it?

Yeah? So, actually being a musician is what got me into it. I never really considered game audio as a career, and I did a lot of audio just in my own music. So I started as a voice editor in two thousand and six ish, so almost twenty years ago. And at that time it was SIMS two. So I was I started as a voice editor on SIMS two.

Wow, And could do you explain what a voice editor does? Does that mean they just like collate the recordings and you know, like clean them up and blah blah blah.

Yeah, So we basically take the files, lots of files come out of a full day recording session, and we clean up all the pops and the I don't know, mouth sounds, yes, and and it clicks pops mouthsounds and sync them to the animations. Yeah, and then we put them in the game. And you know, you play the SIMS so you know, every time a sim does our thing,

So let's talk about creating the sounds of the game. When does it start? Do you go, like, all right, So we need a whole bunch of new things. Let's start listing up what they're going to be situations? Do you map out and be like every single different option that could happen and then be like, all right, we need to make noises for all of these, Like how does it work?

Pretty much? Or maybe the audio team is like ninety percent driven by animations. When the sims move and when the sims do things, and when the sims say things that requires audio. So when animations come in, we scrub animation and kind of break it down. Okay, we want them to say something here, we want them to see something here. We want a sound of a can being crunched on this frame.

Oh yeah, because it's not just voices, it's like all the sounds, right.

Yeah, it's all the sounds, so clapping hands or you know, rubbing their face or whatever it may be. And then we have a list, a long list of you know, every sound that's needed for every animation for the game. And then I have a cast, a cast of like ten people, so if something needs voice, you have to record it with every single actor.

So let's talk about Simblish, which is one of my favorite silly things.

Ever.

It's as whole entire language. Obviously that started like right at the beginning, is there like someone that we go, oh, the creator of Simlish? Is this person or do we you know who sat down and went all right, this yes means this and that means that? And how much do you have to honor moving forward when you're like creating new sounds for mute games, you know?

Right? So, so I didn't create Simlish, but I know that it was originally kind of workshopped with the original actors and audio people for SIMS one. And I think the desire originally, which is still relevant today, is to be able to have the Sims convey emotion and feelings but without actually speaking words. And as every game has come about, I think the language evolves a little bit. So at first it sounded very you know, gotga Google

Goco goo.

Does that mean that there kind of is a similarsh word for everything now at this stage or do some of the actors still just like improvise some noises.

Yeah, I'd say about eighty percent of the time. The actors are improving, but they are looking at we have these extensive lists of like upwards of five hundred words that are just similish words, and they're listed out on a page and there's like, you know, ten pages of these words, and the actors look at that, but they use those words to improv and then I'd say maybe the other twenty percent is scripted similish. So those are words we call them lexicon. It's not always one to one.

How do you cost a voice actor to be as seme? You know, what's the process you go through to be like, all right, can you just get on the phone love? And you know it spitball some sounds, you know. Do you give them an emotion and they have to improvise you say yeah, happy, you know?

Or how's it got?

Pretty much we do open calls and we get a lot of different types of interpretations of what gibberish is. But the actors that we cast, like we've always had them in for a directed audition and it's exactly like what you said, to see how they can improv to see how much emotion they can put into their words so that it sounds like they're actually saying a thing, but it's not. There's no actual definition of what they're saying.

Long do you think a recording session with one actor would be.

Yeah, we usually have two actors in at a time because they have more fun working together and they can riff off each other. If someone says a funny word that the other actor can like say that same funny word. It just kind of keeps the keeps the fun energy up in session. So we have two actors in at a time, and we can get through about sixty animations in a six hour session. Okay, and then you know we'll have like anywhere from one to three days with each actor to record all the boys.

Do you have to start from absolute scratch for a new game or can you bring back some sounds and things from previous versions?

Sounds, yes, Voice no, because voice we recast, so SIMS three had a totally different cast than SIMS wore, So we can't use any of the actors from that previous game. And so for you, once you make your sim and cass and create a sim and you choose a voice, and you maybe choose what pitch you want to hear that voice, that is the voice that your sim has for forever. More So, we can't just you know, use other people's or older content from past games.

So out of the formal language, what are some common words or phrases that people would hear that sims say but might not understand what they mean.

Well, we have a really dedicated and fun audience that plays the game, so they would probably know a lot of the lexicon words that get repeated a lot, So like sooolsool and dag dag are common words for like hello and goodbye. Love I mentioned is something used for love? Yaller vu? Is I love you? Yabougaroo? Is I'm hungry?

I just love it?

What would it seems say when they're angry? Like what type of words come out of their mouth when they're angry or that you know, there's.

A couple of words that are like cuss words. But recently in session, we have a couple actors that really like to say f yoiber, which kind of sounds like you're, you know, telling someone to f off in a way, but it's like a few but you know, and they say it with like passion and meaning and anger, and it really does sound like they're cussing you up.

I feel like in a recording session your brain would turn to mush by the end because you wouldn't know what you're saying or what you're speaking, or what language is happening, you know, and be like I now, who am I?

What's going on?

I think the actors probably can get especially if we have a lot of sessions in a row, they probably start dreaming and Simlish and maybe even the voice editors because they're like listening to it so much.

There's been songs translated into Simlish and been featured in SIMS games.

How does that process work?

Oh? Yeah, So the development team works with the Worldwide Music Group from EA. They're the group that basically does all the licensing, and we'll give them themes of like what we're trying to go or for a specific pack, like oh, we want to add a country music station, and they'll go out and try to find, you know, up and coming artists that we think are like on

It's that thing with some of the current you're like, if you're not paying attention, sounds exactly the same, it's like, and then you're like, wait a second, what are the it's just in English?

What's going on?

So you're saying, you sit there and you can like translate it a lot and make it up. Does that mean are there's some like words that you can credit to you? Like you said, I made that up? You know that's mine, that's my word.

There's so many. I mean I have the sheet of like five hundred words of Lexicon words, and of that sheet, i'd say seventy five percent I probably wrote.

I'm really is there a word you're really proud of? You know, like, let's a word I'm really proud of.

Well, let's see hoogaroo I did make up, which was the I'm hungry. The word for cow is mule, which we kind of based after, you know the fact that cows moo. Chicken. The word for chicken is cluxing. Baby chick is cheap, cheap.

It's like it's kind of giving me like Pokemon vibes, you know, where they're like naming Pokemon and they're like the snake one they just saw it snake backwards.

I mean, it's got to be catchy. I mean that's that's that's my whole thing, Like, it's got to be catchy, especially when you're doing the lyrics. Yeah, it still has to have a hook, even though it's not in English, it's.

Gonna have flow, right.

You know, if the words are too hard to like get your mouth around, then you know they just you can't have a conversation. Yeah, you'd be like do b doo dah doo do but doo see that's that's great.

Say did I say anything? Did I accidentainly say anything? I know.

Maybe it seems one who said something, But.

I wonder do you ever like hang out with some babies and go, oh, actually they're like speaking in full Simlish at the moment, I should I should hire them.

I sometimes hear things out in the world, or my daughter will see something, or a baby will see something. I'm like, that'd be really good. So much work.

Write that down, get the nopad get thenpad. That's going to be good. SIMS five were working on that. All right, let's add some words in Oh my God. Instead of like the urban dictionary, there's like the Simless dictionary. Do you deal much with like the fandom? What's the fandom of the sims?

Like?

Do they make their own dictionaries with all the words and translations and things?

Do you sometimes flick through and be like wrong? Wrong? Actually doesn't mean that I don't really flick.

Through, but I do know that some of those dictionaries are wrong, some of them are right. Yes, But you know, like I said that the actor's improv eighty percent of it. So you know, if you really wanted to get down to looking at the game and being like, oh, they're obviously saying I'm hungry here, but yab hugaroo is not what comes out of their mouth.

I think I'm going to be wholesome for a second, because yes, like the SIMS is fun and silly and you can, like you know, mess up people's fake lives and you know, be a little deckcad. But it's actually such a fun and creative tool. Like I learned how to decorate a house way before I even had my own apartment. Like I used to just enjoy just building the houses, you know, saving up my dollars, Similions, Somolians those, yes, saving up those.

There are a lot of players, that's all they do. They're just builders, or they just do create a sim or people that really love like generational play. So there's a lot of I mean, it's a big soundbox. It's a big fun soundbox.

So going back to you translating, you know, songs into the world of the SIMS, I actually have a song. I've got a couple, but you know, my latest song out at the moment is called No This Will Matter When We're dead so like, if I were to audition with it in simlish, now, would you consider putting it in one of the future versions of the Sims, Like, you know, like if I do a really good job singing it for you in simlish, m that's beyond my peg grade, but maybe even to blow your socks off so well.

I'd love to hear you're a similar version though, Oh gosh, you really put I put myself on the spot, haven't I here. I'm gonna I'm a translate for you right now.

Yeah, it's a workshop. We've got a workshop.

Happening, neighbor zoop, sir, meet and then let's see when we're dad weshwodmud.

All right, this is the world debut of none of this will matter in simlish. I'd like to welcome to the stage myself auditioning for the role of sim number two.

Thank you, Thanks leaders, Zeep Doo Doo leaders, Deep Do Do Leavers, Dip doo Doo leader Zooper Debo Flip Lisa.

Excellent.

So Jackie is the voice director of the Sims and I I'm claiming this one as of a victory. Put it on this scoreboard for me here and concealed ha I can't wait to go and bake some Alaska go in a poodle. You've been listening to an iHeart Australia and Kiss Production Concealed with Simone. Listen to more of what you love on iHeart and to check out two Wabbadi Badu's check us out on the socials. Oh by the way, that's the end of season two of Concealed with Artsimone.

Now don't worry.

All the episodes are still there for you to have a little listen in the meantime. But you know who's hoping. Let's cross our little bits for season three. Maybe see you then Bye.