Shika's 2007 (Fall) Demo Reel (2nd!)

[Shika Megumi]

Hi everyone; I know I haven't been too active recently, as I only got back from China around 2-ish weeks ago. I've been auditioning for some things and am getting back into the voice acting routine, so I hope to become better at it, as VAing is such an enjoyable hobby for me.

Umm, I actually began to mix this demo while I was on vacation (in my free time ;D), but I didn't have enough variety in what my computer held, so it wasn't completed while I was there. I finished it only a day or two ago, and I hope that there's enough vocal variety.

I've also had the opportunity through the summer and after to be on the boards, and I apologize to the community for not providing support to others and commenting on more projects and such; many times I wasn't able to listen to anything from the computers. ^^;; Hopefully that will all change soon though.

After that long rant, I present............... MY DEMO REEL!!!

>>Stream/Download<<
Length: 1:00

>>>Stream/Download 2<< Courtesy of the pyromaster! <33

It's the second (official) demo that I've ever mixed, and I hope that it sounds all right. I'd love pointers on any of my mixing, voices and acting skills. I did my very best (smooshing audio clips together and shortening music) to make it this length, and I hope it sounds all right.

[pyromaster]

This demo is quite impressive. You have quite a wide range of intersting voices there. And I really like how you transition between the lower and higher voices, it really shows how flexible your voice is. Your lower voices reallys stood out to me. I like how you can transition between having a layed back/cool voice to having a more provocative and seductive voice. Your higher voices are also worth mentioning. I think you could work o maybe just one of em. Like the third voice in the demo seems a bit strained. Although the character is meant to be sort of annoying it looks as if you had to really strain your vocal cords to get to that range. But otherwise, you have some convincing feminine/younger sounding voices there.

I think one of the voices that really stood out to me was the one in which you say something along the lines of "Long time no see Kai-Chan, how many years has it been?" It's weird, cause I can almost imagine how the character would look like and what sort of personality she would have. I like how you also add a slight accent to that voice as well. it's very subtle however so I'm not even sure if you did that unconciously. But it rocks ^^

Some of my other favourite lines were;

"The birth of a child possessed by the rat" - Bold, mysterious and leaderlike. I love it!

"so now we can be immortal evil instead of plain evil. God that's such a turn on." - Evil and Seductive! Enough said.

"No way! It's nothing like that. It's just cause I have the time and.." - Towards the end you almost sounded like one of my favourite VAs. Jennifer Hale. I thought it was a very sweet and cute voice.

As for the mixing, I thought you had a great selection of BGM. It really set the aura well for the different characters. And the quality was also nothing to lalugh at either. So good job with puting together the demo ^^ I'd love to see some of the productions you're in.

p.s. I uploaded the file for you some place else so it's easier to play it - http://media.switchpod.com//users/py...llDemo2007.mp3

[Shika Megumi]

Pyromaster - Thank you for the wonderful and in-depth critique! I'm ecstatic that you think well of my demo because I'm not too sure if it's made well enough...

For the third voice, it doesn't feel straining on my throat at all, unless I attempt it for a long time. It just doesn't sound realistic for a child. That's also the tip of my range unless I use a half head voice child's voice (which I can't BELIEVE I forgot to add...D; )

Ahahaha; the "long time no see" line was actually one of my favorites. Not only because of the character (Mion from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni), but how it sounded; like you pointed out. The 'accent' was unintentional, but I liked how it sounded and put it in my demo reel; I'm really happy that you liked it too.

Thank you for the compliments on my mixing; I actually wasn't too sure about that because I haven't mixed very many things in the past (compared to some people xP). I actually have four (full?) original soundtracks from 4 different animes and other loose/random OSTs; I'm glad it sounded varied enough xD;;.

Thank you so much for uploading on your site; it's awesome! 4Shared does provide streaming though (last time I checked...?). You wait until the "download" button shows up, but don't press it; instead press the play symbol on the picture. If that makes sense...xD;; But still, thank you so much for taking the time to upload it; it means alot to me.

[Hane Moon]

Kyaaaaa, this was awesome!!! Y'see, this is why I'm a fan of you; you're so incredibly talented.


And everything else I would want to say, pyromaster already beat me to the punch, wan~!



By the way, do you like to be called Shika or Megumi for short...? o.O

[AnjitheBeast]

Wow. You are officially what I want to be when I grow up....


[/awkward]

So, yeah. I loved your voice, my favorite line probably being the whole 'Immortal evil' thing. Also the InuYasha! at the end made me think "Kikyo?" lol, is that who you were going for?

[Rosegirl18]

My goodness, I didn't know we had such talent. Your demo reel was awesome - I really enjoyed listening to it. Keep up the good work, Shika! ^o^

[Lucien]

Nice voice! My main issue with this demo is that while the clips themselves were mixed nicely and were easy to understand for the most part, I found the assembly of the lines to be rather jarring, with some lines being much too short to get a grasp of what was going on, then to be startled by the successive voice. Was a bit hard for me to follow. Ideally what you want to happen is to assemble the lines in a way that creates some sort of connectivity, so that you're seemlessly led from one character to the next. Taking out the short spaces between characters would probably help bridge this gap, not allowing the ear to ask "where did the story go?" and not allowing the 'through-line' to lose momentum. It also just kind of.. ends. Like.. oh, is it over? I'd have preferred something a bit more conclusive.
Your characters themselves though are pretty good, containing good energy and direction. A couple sounded a bit 'put on' like your Sakura voice, but for the most part your acting was quite decent all through out. I like that you went for some lower voices (+10 points for taking the risk of doing a boy) and not just the cutesy ones, which seems to me to be your selling point.

[Shika Megumi]

Kyaaaaa, this was awesome!!! Y'see, this is why I'm a fan of you; you're so incredibly talented.

And everything else I would want to say, pyromaster already beat me to the punch, wan~!

By the way, do you like to be called Shika or Megumi for short...? o.O

Thank you so much! Seriously though, there are so many other amazing VAs on the boards that you could easily overlook me...xD" I'm so surprised; I hadn't noticed that there had been more posts since Pyromaster, so thanks. ^^ (And calling me 'Shika' is just fine, if you like. )

Wow. You are officially what I want to be when I grow up....

[/awkward]

So, yeah. I loved your voice, my favorite line probably being the whole 'Immortal evil' thing. Also the InuYasha! at the end made me think "Kikyo?" lol, is that who you were going for?

xD Thank you! Though again, there are so many other great VAs from this forum that I look up to as well so...>D" I'm so glad that you like my voice (and that 'immortal' line... I was laughing so hard while recording it >D"). And yes; that last line was Kikyo from Inuyasha, does it sound like her? ;O

My goodness, I didn't know we had such talent. Your demo reel was awesome - I really enjoyed listening to it. Keep up the good work, Shika! ^o^

Thank you for taking the time to listen, Rosegirl! And I'll definitely try! ;D

Nice voice! My main issue with this demo is that while the clips themselves were mixed nicely and were easy to understand for the most part, I found the assembly of the lines to be rather jarring, with some lines being much too short to get a grasp of what was going on, then to be startled by the successive voice. Was a bit hard for me to follow. Ideally what you want to happen is to assemble the lines in a way that creates some sort of connectivity, so that you're seemlessly led from one character to the next. Taking out the short spaces between characters would probably help bridge this gap, not allowing the ear to ask "where did the story go?" and not allowing the 'through-line' to lose momentum. It also just kind of.. ends. Like.. oh, is it over? I'd have preferred something a bit more conclusive.
Your characters themselves though are pretty good, containing good energy and direction. A couple sounded a bit 'put on' like your Sakura voice, but for the most part your acting was quite decent all through out. I like that you went for some lower voices (+10 points for taking the risk of doing a boy) and not just the cutesy ones, which seems to me to be your selling point.

I'll definitely work on the mixing and believability for my next demo; thank you for your review! I'm not very experienced in mixing yet (especially demos), so your critique will definitely help me out a lot. I mostly use lower voices in auditions/projects, but I'm hoping to change that and perhaps use (non-straining!) higher and boy voices. =)

[xholysugarrr]

WOW, YOUR VOICES ARE PERRRRRFECTT!!!! O.O
I LOVED ALL OF THEM!

GOSH, I WISH MY VOICE ACTING CAN BE AS BEAUTIFUL AS YOURS!
KEEP UP THE WONDERFUL WORK!! <33

*WORKS HARD* TEEHEE. XDDDDD
[[~~Abzy]]

[Shika Megumi]

WOW, YOUR VOICES ARE PERRRRRFECTT!!!! O.O
I LOVED ALL OF THEM!

GOSH, I WISH MY VOICE ACTING CAN BE AS BEAUTIFUL AS YOURS!
KEEP UP THE WONDERFUL WORK!! <33

*WORKS HARD* TEEHEE. XDDDDD
[[~~Abzy]]

Aww, thank you so much for listening! ^^ And welcome to the VAA; good luck with your future voice acting!