Yep, usually by manipulating his voice to make it really high or really low. He played Orco and many others on He-Man (a show which, incidentally, used a ton of TOS sound FX thanks probably to TAS).
R.I.P. Lou Scheimer (1929-2013) (Producer of TAS)
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Sometimes his voice was processed, yes; for instance, his Batcomputer voice on the '77 New Adventures of Batman was slowed down to sound deeper. But a lot of the time he was just varying his own vocal pitch within its natural range, e.g. as Dumb Donald on Fat Albert or the narrator on countless Filmation shows.
At the time, there were dedicated companies that provided sound effects for many different shows, using their own standard libraries of effects. Filmation's sound effects and music editing were usually provided by the Horta-Mahana Corporation, although they weren't credited on TAS. TOS's sound effects were provided by Glen Glenn Sound. But I think there was some overlap between the sound effects libraries.
Dreadfully underappreciated legend of televised animation. He and his associates (Prescott, Sutherland, et al), set the course for the film/TV industry realizing there was great potential in adapting live action properties for decades, and their model is still going, as seen in the Clone Wars series. Scheimer's productions had heart, and a sluck edge that was lacking in the often corny work of Hanna-Barbera, or the hit and miss work of DePatie-Feeling, Krantz Films, Ruby-Spears, Fred Calvert, et al.
Relevant to this board, Scheimer and his colleagues were undeniably responsible for driving TOS forward with a series that successfully illustrated that there was more to love and expect from that world--beyond the 79 live-action episodes. TAS--and the creative minds behind it--deserve much respect for keeping Star Trek alive.
Scheimer will be missed in this world.
Relevant to this board, Scheimer and his colleagues were undeniably responsible for driving TOS forward with a series that successfully illustrated that there was more to love and expect from that world--beyond the 79 live-action episodes. TAS--and the creative minds behind it--deserve much respect for keeping Star Trek alive.
Scheimer will be missed in this world.
Must have been. Seemingly every sound effect used in TOS was on He-Man: photon torpedoes, transporter beam, red alert klaxon, even, I think, TOS bridge sounds. Until recently when my kids got the e-Man DVDs, I didn't realize just how many effects were reused.
^Most of those sound effects have been used on many different shows, and some of them predate TOS. I know the bridge sound effects were used in an episode of The Twilight Zone years before they showed up in Trek. And the phaser sound effect is the same sound used for the levitation of the Martian war machines in War of the Worlds, just sped up to give it a higher pitch (usually).
And Filmation had previously used those SFX in other shows like Jason of Star Command and Flash Gordon. Hmm, it's possible, I suppose, that Horta-Mahana licensed or bought them from Glen Glenn or Paramount or whoever for use in TAS, and thus was able to use them later in other shows.
But Trek sounds seem to be in pretty general usage now, showing up in things like Futurama. Maybe the copyright has lapsed?
And Filmation had previously used those SFX in other shows like Jason of Star Command and Flash Gordon. Hmm, it's possible, I suppose, that Horta-Mahana licensed or bought them from Glen Glenn or Paramount or whoever for use in TAS, and thus was able to use them later in other shows.
But Trek sounds seem to be in pretty general usage now, showing up in things like Futurama. Maybe the copyright has lapsed?