Mai Otome Fandub

[KanaKaishou]

that was...unbelievable, considering it's a fandub. If only all fandubs were this excellently done.

[Chinomi]

Originally Posted by Orchunter226

Sorry, wasn't trying to be impolite, just giving my thoughts on it. I would doubt u guys could be as good because the actual singer is in a studio with voice enhancements, etc making her voice much better than it actually is.


I think you guys do a good job.

I didnt think you were impolite at all. An honest opinion is an honest opinion which I respect!
Thank you for taking the time to comment!

[Flarey]

Originally Posted by KanaKaishou

that was...unbelievable, considering it's a fandub. If only all fandubs were this excellently done.

Thanks glad ya think so ^_^ I always do try and make them as good as possible

Originally Posted by Orchunter226

Sorry, wasn't trying to be impolite, just giving my thoughts on it. I would doubt u guys could be as good because the actual singer is in a studio with voice enhancements, etc making her voice much better than it actually is.

It's wasn't impolite, but honestly you can't really compair the 2 cause they are singing in 2 differnet languages.

[Captain Picard]

That was so good that when I first turned it on, before anything in English had been said, I thought that there had been a bad link and I was listening to the original audio track. Big congratulations to whoever voiced Arika. Some of the others weren't as great, but I figured I'd hear the vocal quality of a Halo 2 game on LIVE.

I must say, and I add that I am one of the apparently few people who really did think the HiME dub sounded very good, I doubt Arika's official dub voice will be much better, if at all.

[Tremalkinger]

Firstly, HUGE congradulations to whoever did the voicing for Arika. You nailed her character perfectly, and even managed to get down the small noises she makes when agreeing / disagreeing / complaining / happy. Excellent excellent job. I would be floored if her dub voice is half as good.

Mashiro's VA's manages to nail exactly how whiney and childish this character is. This might not seem like a compliment, but I assure you it is Seriously, good job

Akira's VA does a great job of blurring the gender, and maintaining that gruff yet occassionally caring tone.

Nina's VA is pretty solid. She sounds a bit too old for the role, but not much you can do about that. (Actually, there probably is, since the Japanese VA's do it... but I have no idea how to accomplish it, so don't ask me )

Shizuru's VA doesnt' seem very into her character, but has a very nice voice.

From the Mai HiME stuff:

The guy who does Tate's voice has a beautiful voice (much better than the original, Seki Tomokazu ), but sometimes sounds like he was dragged in front of the microphone. Some lines sound great, but there are decent amount where the emotion is misplaced or absent.

Mai's voice is a solid performance.

Enjoyable to listen to... thanks to whoever did the editing too.

As a final note... I appear to be in the minority, but I commend you for keeping the -chan, -san or -kun endings. Name suffixes are integral part of character interactions, and show the character's familarity levels with each other. I'd definately recommend keeping them. If I have to listen to the DNAngel dub, where the main male lead refers to crush, whos in the same grade, as 'Miss Harada', I'll go bonkers.

[Flarey]

Originally Posted by Tremalkinger

As a final note... I appear to be in the minority, but I commend you for keeping the -chan, -san or -kun endings. Name suffixes are integral part of character interactions, and show the character's familarity levels with each other. I'd definately recommend keeping them. If I have to listen to the DNAngel dub, where the main male lead refers to crush, whos in the same grade, as 'Miss Harada', I'll go bonkers.

I didn't use them in my dubs of this, those were the stuff topleka did (I have used them before) but there are real dubs out there that use them as well like Nuku Nuku TV's dub used Chan & san stuff so I don't see why some people find it odd or don't like it. Some japanese as you pointed out with the "Miss Harada" (I too hated that one) just doesn't come out right in another language so there's not much ta do other than keep it the way it was or change it ta something stupid like Sir or Miss.

[-KarumA-]

i would have to say Mashiro's voince doesnt fit 100% she sounds more hyper then childish, it should sound childish

Arika's voice is good but.. a little too high pitched but that could just be saying it.. or the quality of the recording that makes it sounds funny
Chiie voice is perfect, i must say that
Nina's fits to someone as her but you still have to keep notice that Nina is a child trying to act like an adult while talking, i think her voice is too.. how do you call it.. too adult like, it doesnt sound like the voice of someone her age at all

ooh yeh cut the san and chan and please say the names with the normal accent, though for americans it is hard since they say letters in such a way (not trying to get you donw or anything with this, sine it always happens in dubbed versions)

but i would like to say that you did a good job with it
i enjoyed the parts thats for sure

[Chinomi]

Originally Posted by -KarumA-

i would have to say Mashiro's voince doesnt fit 100% she sounds more hyper then childish, it should sound childish

I disagree.
It all depends on the clip.
Mashiro, for the most part, is hyper. It depends on her situation.

Say, when Mashiro is yelling, you think it would be better to hit the childish voice and be monotone?

What you expressed were two different things:

Voice type and Emotion.

She HAS to sound hyper in the clips, AND her voice is childish. I personally think I did a horrible Mashiro in one of the clips but I am very proud about how well I did her voice in the other clips.

Thanks for the comments.

[Flarey]

Yeah and you also have ta remember that she hyper and crazy in Otome compaired to the sweet, soft spoken and caring version of her in HiME.

[Sakuya]

I agree that the person who played Shizuru (in the scene with Akira) fared the best. She sounded so professional, very realistic, strangely it fit the character nicely even with no accent, and it fit the scene and mood well. When I heard her, my ears perked right up.

[kitsunesqueak]

I personally love Mashiro's voice. Perfect level of insanity.

[ShinigamiRukia]

Meh, its not too bad, i think a shizuru with no accent is bettre than a shizuru with an accent that eveyone claims to be horrible...but i bet its as awful as everyone around here claims XD. It sound better than this tokyo mew mew fandub i saw once. The intro could have been done better tho.

[MissDeth]

Oh my god! I'm so excited to see people still produce fandubs I did some Sailor Moon stuff yeaaars ago (like 97, 98?) It's nice to see people still have fun with this.

I do want to add some input, if you don't mind. I appologize in advance if it's too critical, but I personally feel that fandubs can be fun to produce but also retain a high level of quality. Things a lot of fandubbers didn't do "back in my day" were add the music and sound effects. I'm really happy to hear Arika "flop" on the bed when she does! And omg, what is this? You do have bgm! Very cool

I think having your cast invest money into some microphones wouldn't be a bad idea. You can get a a good studio mic for what you guys are doing for about $30 (so, don't buy that artbook or dvd set from Hong Kong .

Here's a Behringer for $32. http://cgi.ebay.com/Behringer-C1-C-1...QQcmdZViewItem

It's not supreme studio quality, but it beats the hell out of any headset or other mic you get at your local Best Buy. And a quick trip to Radio Shack will get the converters you need to put it into your computer.

Also, if you can procure AudioVault, it's a very good recording and mixing program for mid level prodution. You can remove a lot of the hisses and pops with it (though having a condenser mic will help a lot).

Seriously, most of the "problems" you have are technical and don't even have to be "solved". I'm just offering some input in case you are curious.

I have noticed some of the "whiney" traits girls tend to have in AVAing has remained. I think this is due to trying to sound too much like the original VA and not putting their own spin on it. I personally did not like Mashiro's voice at all. It wasn't that she was too childish, she just wasn't bratty enough IMO! As it went along, Arika's got better. But exploring the character and producing a range that you feel the character should have, not what the original video has, helps a long way in doing voice overs. Sometimes it really helps to not even know the original production - in voice over work for animations I am given a script, drawings and a peek at the animation to get a feel for her. I develop my own personality based on the visuals and words and am not tainted by prior audio.

Also, the original artist who did the opening theme is a trained singer in a professional studio with all sorts of effects and mixing going on. Even if your girl made it to round 3 of American Idol and is star of her home town singing choir, she cannot compare to someone with professional producing behind them. So chin up on that!

Overall, I'm glad you guys are having fun at this and sharing it! You do a good job and maybe it will give you an idea of what you want to do later on in life. When I was doing fandubs, I was also on my highschool's local radio station. I knew then that I loved radio, acting and had a huge knack for production. Since then I had my own talk show in the Orlando market (it went on for 4 and a half years until I quit to go back to school) and now work as a model and voice artist. For some reason I can't get the two to work together, not looking awkward without sounding wierd in front of the camera, so no "real" acting work for me... yet - but I've got a coach and we're working on it! I probably never would have explored these areas if I hadn't gotten a taste for it working on silly anime projects with my friends.

[-KarumA-]

Originally Posted by ShinigamiRukia

Meh, its not too bad, i think a shizuru with no accent is bettre than a shizuru with an accent that eveyone claims to be horrible...but i bet its as awful as everyone around here claims XD. It sound better than this tokyo mew mew fandub i saw once. The intro could have been done better tho.

true, you guys did do bter then most dubs i know ^^ a compliment for that

[shikamarufoo]

Originally Posted by xat

Sounds official right down to the wierd pronounciations >_< -- "oto-may"

Whoever did Arika isn't too bad; I think one of my real issues with dubs is that the characters don't sound their age. Mashiro and Nina in that fandub seems to be a prime example IMHO.

^Agreed...I think Arika was okay and so was Akira...Nina was way off though.

[Flarey]

Originally Posted by MissDeth

Oh my god! I'm so excited to see people still produce fandubs I did some Sailor Moon stuff yeaaars ago (like 97, 98?) It's nice to see people still have fun with this.

Yep we still do them! there's tons of people out there that still do them...eee never mention SM fandubs, I've seen and done far too many of those (lately it's fianlly stopping again).

Originally Posted by MissDeth

Also, the original artist who did the opening theme is a trained singer in a professional studio with all sorts of effects and mixing going on. Even if your girl made it to round 3 of American Idol and is star of her home town singing choir, she cannot compare to someone with professional producing behind them. So chin up on that!

Really though you can't truly compair the 2 cause they are singing in 2 differnet languages which causes the pitch and tones of your vocals to come out different while singing.