JaShinYa's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Acting Contest 11]

JaShinYa:
"Acting Contest 11" by Zolen
Acting - 21/50
Range- 12/25
Fit - 11/25
Mixing - 7/20
Originality - 10/15
Writing- 3/15
TOTAL- 64/150

Comments: You're overloading the mic. Try backing up more from it. You also have something like a fan running in the background? At times it seemed like you were scripted and recorded your lins separately, but other times it sounded improvised and like you recorded without cutting. Script the entire thing with just a bit of improv here and there and always record each line separately. This skit was very hard to follow. Partly do to the audio/mixing quality, but also because the script seemed all over the place. I didn't see how this was related to the first time for anything. I read your description and saw it was the first time for the kid to be kidnapped, but he wasn't even the main voice and the only mention of anything being the first time was the kid driving a robot(?) which he didn't even do. The voices were very similar in range except the kid's which just sounded like an older guy trying to do a kid's voice. The acting was lackluster. I could tell you were trying, but I could tell you were reading from a script. It should make me believe you are the character and not think about the fact it's someone else acting as one. Overall, I know this is pretty much all negative, but don't take it as a "you suck so give up" type of thing. You do have to start somewhere. Hang around voice acting forums and talk to people who have been doing it a while for tips and obviously keep practicing.
ZipZipper:
So, I had no idea what was the beginning, middle, or end. I had no clear indication of who the characters were as characters. Yes, you could do a higher-pitched voice, but that was about it as far as range goes. The lines sounded like you were saying them as they came along; there was a lot of open space and lines that dragged on. I was not really sure what sort of first time this was for anyone in this story. Overall, it just sounds like you didn’t put much clear thought into this submission. Maybe next time.
FeliciaAngelle:
The voices were really difficult to distinguish, exept for the few whose tone you completely changed. Your diction made it nearly impossible to understand what was happening in the scene.
You did try to show a wide range, but the execution was poor.
The main voice you used could be a very nice one to have in your arsenal with some work, but the others did nothing to showcase your voice.
There was significant ambient noise as well as some mouth noise and plosives.
What I could understand of the concept sounded like it would be fun to explore.
Most of the lines sounded like improv, which affected the pacing and overall storyline, leaving it feeling like you weren't sure where the plot was going.

[Meeting Aunty]

JaShinYa:
"Meeting Aunty" by Orias1992
Acting - 30/50
Range- 16/25
Fit - 22/25
Mixing - 11/20
Originality - 11/15
Writing- 9/15
TOTAL- 99/150

Comments: There was a lot of distortion in the audio. The acting was a little uninspired, especially with the "normal" voice. Tommy and the normal character were very similar save for the gayness. At times it sounded like you switched between voices without cutting. When you did cut, there were pauses that were just a little too long between lines. Also, I'm kind of assuming this was supposed to be the first time he met the aunt, but it was never eluded to. Your audio is distorted either because of your mic or you used some sort of noise reduction. When you listen to your acting, you can tell you were just reading a script instead of becoming the characters. Put yourself in that situation. When you looked for the cat, would you just say "oh no. fuck that". Probably not. You'd more likely say "*Gasp* Oh... oh nooo... FUCK that!" You had some very overused tropes for voices. The aunt and uncle weren't bad. The uncle was probably my favorite. Overall, the audio needs cleaned up and I think you'd do a lot better if you spend some time before recording, really getting into the characters. Scream, jump around, physically act it out, make faces in the mirror... whatever you need to do to get into it.
ZipZipper:
This could have seriously benefitted from at least some underlying victrola music to keep the wonky mood going. Some of the lines I thought were quite funny and I actually thought your range was pretty good, especially with aunty and uncle. The mixing was probably the biggest problem, as well as the pacing. It mostly sounded like you were acting through the entire piece in one recording. Recording lines separately and occasionally having them overlap one another keeps realness to the conversation. The story itself was okay, a little disjointed but I got the general gist. It could have been a little more creative as well, but overall I thought this was pretty complete as a story; all it needs is more technical work. Nice job!
FeliciaAngelle:
The pacing was off throughout, which is a shame because the actual lines were quite funny. More energy was needed overall to sell the absurdity of the scene. The straight man character especially fell flat.
While the range was wide, the execution was not solid enough to sell that many characters.
Many times you fell out of character, or lost the vocal qualities that should define each character.
The audio was quite distorted. It sounded as though you may not have been using a pop-filter. There were many plosives, and many of your breaths seemed to hit the mic hard.
I really enjoyed the scene and the idea you were going for.
The writing was great! Very funny moments,great cast of characters

[Voice Acting Contest 11 Entry]

JaShinYa:
"Voice Acting Contest 11 Entry" by Synectics
Acting - 40/50
Range- 20/25
Fit - 18/25
Mixing - 19/20
Originality - 5/15
Writing- 8/15
TOTAL- 110/150

Comments: Your diction needs a little work. You had a good amount of voices and I could differentiate them all. I would have liked to heard a voice that disguised your own more. I think this was more noticeable to me since most of these were impersonations. When you do them, they need to be pretty spot on and while yours were decent, they weren't exactly right. I also didn't really hear a lot of originality from the voices you did to your mixing which had only the reverb effect. Normally, simplicity in mixing would be fine, but it really just seemed like you sat down, recorded and exported instead of taking the time to come up with something. Also, this started with the central theme of "My First" and came back to it once, but it would have been better to have stuck with the theme through most of it. Overall, you had a nice sound quality and the mixing was fine since there wasn't much, but it seemed pretty tame, creatively. You have a nice voice for acting casual characters from what I could hear between the impressions. I really think you have the talent to voice act. Just next time, spend extra time on your script and mixing and use some original voices.
ZipZipper:
Hmmm...I have to say the concept seemed like a good idea at first, but then I noticed it derailed in many directions. Without any concrete plot, it was hard to tell what character was being portrayed. It makes it difficult to have to analyze each individual line for its own merits within its own context rather than listening in connection to a story. Of course, some of your voices I thought were pretty cool. It sounded like you were trying to do some impersonations, most evidently the Scooby-Doo at the end, but they weren’t exactly spot-on, which is understandable I mean I can’t do any impersonation to save my life. But your mixing was very clear, and you had a great walking out effect at the end that I really liked. I could tell you put work into creating these character voices, but there were too many to keep track of for trying to do a farce on the theme like this. You have a good voice for voice acting, now I think you just need work focusing it. Good work!
FeliciaAngelle:
Watch your diction and breath sounds. A little more energy would have served you well, since the chaos of the situaion was the root of most of the humor.The overall energy of the piece just fell flat, and killed the momentum. The characters' interactions felt disconnected, and as a listener I was aware that you were talking to yourself.
All of the characters felt appropriate, branching from your natural sound. Their execution left a little to be desired.
Many of the characters were inconsistant, and I could hear your natural voice come through the characterization. In this case, I would have preferred three spot on characters you can nail, rather than many characters you can do ok with.
The characters coming in and out were nicely mixed. I would have liked some music or SFX to help sell the scene. There was some ambient noise, as well. Nothing too crazy, but worth noting.
The actual dialogue was orignal, but the concept is pretty standard for showing off a range of characters.
It sounded more like improv than writing, especially in the beginning. You started to find your stride toward the end.

[Lilin's First Blood]

JaShinYa:
"Lilin's First Blood" by AderuMoro
Acting - 43/50
Range- 23/25
Fit - 21/25
Mixing - 19/20
Originality - 15/15
Writing- 15/15
TOTAL- 136/150
Comments: I really liked starlight's voice and her acting. Glenora was a bit annoying and I think could have been toned down just a bit. You had some slight pops into the mic, especially with Glenora's voice. Other than that, the mixing was excellent. The weakest voice was noggy (sp?) simply because I couldn't really believe I was listening to an older woman. It sounded like a younger woman doing an older voice, which is exactly what it was, but I shouldn't be able to tell that. Also, the writing was good and it was very original. You had me say "shit just got weird about 5 times" and probably gave me a complex for when my daughter gets to "that age", but it was all cohesive with good transitions. Overall, I was pretty impressed with the quality of this. Some minor things you could improve an and I don't see why you wouldn't be one of the strongest competitors in the next contest. Get a pop filter or a better one if you have one already and work on softening your P's. Your nice seems to be in younger girls to young women so try and find other ways to show off your range other than age. And lastly, Glenora could be dialed back a bit. Great job and I can't wait to see you next contest as well!
ZipZipper:
I chuckled a couple times hahahaha. That’s quite a creative story to make of this theme. The mixing was perfect with the music choice being questionable at some moments but still able to work. I thought the eldest fairy could have used more character to her voice, some real heavy rasp or maybe even some vibrato. A weird vibrato could have really differentiated her from your other characters as the rest of the fairies had crystal clear tones. I do think the general gist of this story could have been boiled down to less time; some lines droned on for me. But overall, this was a really fun plot and some great acting, perhaps you could be even more extreme with the acting next time. Nice job!
FeliciaAngelle:
Your young Lilin was gold! The voice and acting were spot on, and could easily have been lifted from a number of currently airing kids' shows. The little fairy toward the end was cute as could be, also, and obviously was a comfortable voice to perform. Glenora's overall sound was ok, but in execution did not work very well. The crisp articualtion and flexible tonailty of her voice caused you to struggle and stumble through lines. The hard "t" sounds especially seemed to hang you up, and you occasionally got caught in a repetitive speech pattern with her that caused all of a line's words to have the same inflection. The elder fairy was well acted, though I'll have some notes on her in the "fit" section. The breathy quality given to Succubus Lilin affected your copyreading for the worse. While you did try to showcase a wide range, several characters did not work in execution. The biggest fit issue was the elder fairy. Her voice sounded more like a teenage boy than an older woman, despite the inconsistent tremble put into her sound. The succubus Lilin was so close to being a fit for you, but you need to add more breath support so that the voice doesn't sound forced and you have enough air to get your line reading where you want it. It may have helped to try to take her a smidge higher, rather than forcing your voice to unnatural lows. The mixing was very well done! This world and concept were quite unique, and I was left wanting to know what would happen next! Great job! The characters were well written, the scenes flowed nicely, and overall it created a world I was interested in learning more about.

[My First Time Being A Hero]

JaShinYa:
"My First Time Being A Hero" by KirbzVA
Acting - 47/50
Range- 24/25
Fit - 24/25
Mixing - 17/20
Originality - 14/15
Writing- 14/15
TOTAL- 140/150
Comments: Turn down the gain or back up from the mic. A little puffy into the mic which could help if you back up. Good acting with the "normal" voice. Sounded like you switched into Ziggy's voice without doing a separate take once or twice and it was a little confusing as they blurred between each other. Other than those couple of moments, the voices were nicely ranged. Around 4 min, I think Wesley was thinking to himself? It wasn't very clear who was talking because at first it was some new random character since the voice was deeper. Next time try using an echo effect or something like that. I'm still not really clear as to why the doctor was interviewing Wesley, but the story telling you did was well done and the twist was pretty cool. Overall, Great voices, acting and range with decent range. I'd say the doctor was the weakest voice since he was very flat emotionally and didn't catch my interest. To progress his voice in your repertoire, maybe tag something a bit quirkier to him. Lastly, just needed a very small amount of polish in the editing and writing, but it was minor. Great job and I'm very happy to see this as an improvement!
ZipZipper:
Your work with creating a soundscape during fights by use of sound effects and voice acting was really cool, I could visualize the scenes unfolding. As such, the overall mixing was also very good with an effective balance of what things were happening in the foreground and what things were happening in the background. But the pacing was sort of slow to me, even though I did really like your transitions. I just thought some lines could have either been sped up or cut out. I also thought your character range could have been wider. For example, I thought Ziggy could benefit from being a few pitches higher in tone to really differentiate from your Wesley voice. And that narrator at the end telling me what actually happened in Wesley’s head threw me off, but I got to understanding what that voice was in the end. But, the story was interesting, it spun off what the title was and did not match with what I initially thought it would be, and your acting in general had some meat to it. Great work!
FeliciaAngelle:
Wesley -great voice, but lacked suffcient energy given the situation. The moments of stuttering/sputtering/finding the words didn't land on point consistently, so instead of a character quirk, it sounded like you forgot your lines. The other characters were distinct and well acted. Excellent use of range. Most of the characters sounded very natural, even your older voice, which for a lot of people can sound too cartoony. You found the sweet spot with the older voice. The emporer, however, was just out of your reach, sounding forced. Moments with a little reverb helped, but overall, that character was too deep/rough for your natural tone to handle. Some static surrounding spots of audio. The rest was well done! Clever scene, and it came to a nicely played ending. Well done! It was only a few minutes long, but the story felt full and had depth. Each character was fleshed out, the scenes went at a good pace, and the climax/denoument were both excellently done.

[VA Contest 10 - outtakes]

You had me crackin' up! Douche-baggery is in your blood. :p

[Cat in a dryer]

Good. My weekly cat budget will be put to better use now!

mrbipolar responds:

Glad I could be of some assistance!

[Night to Remember - Voice Act]

"Night to Remember - Voice Act" by doctorrapture*

Acting- 39/50
Range- 24/25
Fit- 24/25
Mixing- 15/20
Originality- 13/15
Writing- 13/15
TOTAL- 128/150

Comments: You've got some background noise or maybe static from the mic itself as well as some reverb going on. This sounds like you did speed before you turned on your mic. Everything kind of runs together. your voices aren't bad, I just wish you would have slowed it down and really concentrated on acting instead of sounding like a speed reading of a script. Recording in one take usually ends up being a bad idea. Next time, I'd love to hear something from you where you did some post-production and went all out with your acting.

[A night to remember]

"A night to remember" by desierto*

Acting- 33/50
Range- 24/25
Fit- 22/25
Mixing- 13/20
Originality- 13/15
Writing- 3/15
TOTAL- 108/150

Comments: First, it sounded like you were recording inside of a fish tank and you had some dead air. Honestly, I'm not really sure what's going on in this skit. Are these your voices coming out and talking to each other? You actually have a pretty good vocal range and your acting has potential. Lastly, adding SFX and background music could have helped you out. Overall, work on really pumping up your character acting and save up some money for a better mic and find a better recording space.

[This One Night]

"This One Night" by MrBiggsProductions*

Acting- /50
Range- /25
Fit- /25
Mixing- /20
Originality- /15
Writing- /15
TOTAL- DQ/150

Comments: You've got a lot of dead air in your recording. I would also suggest lowering your mic level down a bit to get rid of some of that and to keep your sound from distorting. Background music would have helped a lot too. The first 2 voices were very similar. As far as your acting is concerned, it wasn't bad and felt pretty natural, but I would have liked to have heard a broader emotional range. Also, more of the third voice would have been nice. Lastly, the "Cheers" theme music is not royalty free which is why I have to DQ you.