Is this possible (elaborate costume mask idea)

Reznik

Okay, so I have this idea for a full face creepy clown mask. That is fairly easy to make since I've done something similar before (papercraft + resin + bondo + clay)

Where it gets complicated is: when I made the last mask, it was very hard for people to understand me when I talked because it horribly muffled my voice. And also, I don't have a very intimidating voice so the costume kind of loses something when I talk. SO! I am basically looking at a way to amplify my voice (tiny microphone + tiny speaker?) as well as possibly some method of altering my voice (some kind of electronic gizmo between the tiny microphone and the tiny speaker?)

As you can see, this is not my area of expertise. So any suggestions or alternative solutions would be quite welcome. I had considered constructing the mask so that it had a movable mouth, but I think it will look loads creepier without a moving mouth and creepy is what I'm after.

Thanks in advance.

(I don't need this until October but seeing as how I've decided to complicate things I figured I would get a head start).

matt has a problem

How about a voice changer?

:edit: Or if you wanted to construct your own to be a little more flexible with the design - http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/MK-171/Voice-Changer-Kit/1.html
You'd just need to wire a speaker to it.

Skoal Cat

Mic to a guitar distortion pedal can do some weird things

Reznik

Awesome, that voice changer is exactly what I'm looking for.

Looking at speakers on that site, do you think something like this http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/SK-230/20-MM-32-OHM-SPEAKER/1.html would do?

I'm hoping to fit everything in or on the mask, but do I have to worry about feedback or anything like that if all the components are in such close proximity to each other?

matt has a problem

Putting them close would be fine, as long as the speaker's pointed away from the mic of course. With that speaker, I'd say wire two, a 20mm speaker is about headphone size. Since 2 is the minimum order anyway it's no big deal. You're not going to be getting a lot of bass or anything from them, obviously.

Sir Headless VII

A word of warning, I made on of those voice changer kits before and it was extremely difficult to understand what I was saying when it was done. It may just be my lack of soldering talents but you might want to go with a premade one.

Reznik

Sir Headless VII wrote:

A word of warning, I made on of those voice changer kits before and it was extremely difficult to understand what I was saying when it was done. It may just be my lack of soldering talents but you might want to go with a premade one.

Do you think it had anything to do with whatever settings you had, or was it just the kit in general?

Clarity is pretty much the whole point of this so, hmm... Although the kits are fairly cheap so it wouldn't be a great loss to buy one to test out.