Dreamflow Productions ▶ Final Fantasy IX Fandub ▶ Alexandria ~ Chapter III

[Sapphira]

Alexandria ~ Chapter III

The princess is missing and it's up to the proud and ever honorable Adelbert Steiner, Captain of the Knights of Pluto to save the day. If only his lazy soldiers were as enthusiastic. Can they rescue the elusive princess before the thieves carry out their plan to kidnap her? Or could it be that it's exactly what she wants? CAST: (In order of appearance) Hawkeye_GGK as ADELBERT STEINER Matt Alan as BLUTZEN, PLUTO KNIGHT II Drawn as KOHEL, PLUTO KNIGHT III Wintermoth as MOSH Erica as KUPO Jerry-kun as MULLENKEDHEIM, PLUTO KNIGHT IX Jooostin as DOJEBON, PLUTO KNIGHT V shadowsvoice as LAUDO, PLUTO KNIGHT IV TamTu as BLANK Ben as HAAGEN, PLUTO KNIGHT VIII Drawn as WEIMAR, PLUTO KNIGHT VII AderuMoro as ALEXANDRIAN SOLDIER Drawn as BREIREICHT, PLUTO KNIGHT VI Sapphira as PRINCESS GARNET Tony Wang as ZIDANE TRIBAL AderuMoro as RUBY Dilasc as CINNA - and - AderuMoro as EXTRAS Missed Episode I or II? Click here to catch up! 10 years ago when I first joined the voice acting community, my very first production was a Final Fantasy IX radioplay. Although it was short lived, I met new people and gained new friends, most of whom have stuck with me in one way or another over the last decade. When I decided to return to voice acting late last year, I wanted to do a tribute to them and all of the good memories that we shared together not just as friends, but as a community. The project that started it all for me - featuring my favorite game, story and characters - naturally seemed like the perfect place to begin again. I am thrilled to have so many of my old friends and a new generation of voice actors joining me for this project. A huge thanks goes out to my amazing cast for going above and beyond my expectations. Thank you again for your patience, as we had a few delays. I also want to personally thank each and every one of you who left feedback on the previous episodes. The majority of Ep III was finished in April, but I went back in and made a lot of tweaks while I waited for a few last minute lines, so I hope everything came together for the better. Of the three currently mixed, this is the one that I feel like I could keep on mixing forever, but at some point you just have to call it done. Let me know what worked/didn't work. Your critiques and advice are very much appreciated and can only help the cast and I get better at what we do in future episodes. Thank you in advance and of course... enjoy! Join us on the following networks:

[Ben]

Woooahomg~ It's finally out! Expect a review from me soon! Congrats, Sappherino!

[Rhapsody~Duskbane]

oijverpgfer YESSSSS It's out! Honestly, this was one of the best fandubs I've ever been in. Everything seems very crisp and clean to me. Can't wait to see more!

[Erica]

The nostalgiaaaaa *_* I love this so so so so so much!

[Wintermoth]

I didn't get to watch all of it yet, I'm getting dragged off to get ready for prom (SAVE ME!) but from what I seen so far... WOOOOO!!!!!!!!!1

[AderuMoro]

Ah man everyone did such a great job! The mixing is great. Even though the lines overlap in some places, it's fitting and adds to the realism of the piece. It's more like watching a movie instead of playing a video game Like I said on the video, I really like the atmosphere you set up. The voices fit the environment, like the echoes of the flashback, the echoes on the rooftop, the lower volume of the background characters. I like the random lines everyone spouts out as Vivi passes them.

The lines also nicely fit the timing of the text boxes

I think the only thing that bothered me throughout the entire video was that there were no bird sounds when Garnet opened the window...

I also laughed when Baku said, "Not my sword!" ...But he was still carrying one, haha.

And Blank's "It's over!" reminded me of Cloud. Blank has a hot voice.

Anyway, I really hope Chapter Two won't take too long to complete I wannaa waaaaatccch.

[Dilasc]

I haven't made it through fully yet. I'm almost afraid to hear myself... I usually am.

I have no doubts it's probably golden. My finger looms around that pause and play button. It trembles in excitement and [self] fear, more excitement though.

[Hawkeye_GGK]

Outside of feeling like there should have been some more bird flight SFX in the scene with Garnet, I can't think of anything else that could be changed to make it better. Love eet. @_@

Next time...Shiz is about to get real.

[Sapphira]

Long post is long...

Woooahomg~ It's finally out! Expect a review from me soon! Congrats, Sappherino!

Thank you, m'dear! Couldn't have done it without you. I'm looking forward to your review.

oijverpgfer YESSSSS It's out! Honestly, this was one of the best fandubs I've ever been in. Everything seems very crisp and clean to me. Can't wait to see more!

I do think that's the highest compliment a producer can receive, so thank you very much! More soon.

The nostalgiaaaaa *_* I love this so so so so so much!

Thanks, Erica! I'm glad it gives off a nostalgic feel to people who were around for the RP. I'm pleased that you came back to voice Kupo again. You were beyond adorable!

I didn't get to watch all of it yet, I'm getting dragged off to get ready for prom (SAVE ME!) but from what I seen so far... WOOOOO!!!!!!!!!1

Thanks sweetie, I hope you got a chance to finish it once you got back. I'm happy you liked what you saw!

Ah man everyone did such a great job! The mixing is great. Even though the lines overlap in some places, it's fitting and adds to the realism of the piece. It's more like watching a movie instead of playing a video game Like I said on the video, I really like the atmosphere you set up. The voices fit the environment, like the echoes of the flashback, the echoes on the rooftop, the lower volume of the background characters. I like the random lines everyone spouts out as Vivi passes them.

The lines also nicely fit the timing of the text boxes

I think the only thing that bothered me throughout the entire video was that there were no bird sounds when Garnet opened the window...

I also laughed when Baku said, "Not my sword!" ...But he was still carrying one, haha.

And Blank's "It's over!" reminded me of Cloud. Blank has a hot voice.

Anyway, I really hope Chapter Two won't take too long to complete I wannaa waaaaatccch.

I'm so glad the environment came to life for you the way it did for me. It was a challenge. I'm relieved that you thought the vocal effects fit each location throughout the video. This was my first time mixing in the program I'm using and the vocal effects had me stumped. I worked so hard on each one, so if they sounded natural... victory is mine!

As for the "Not my sword!" line... in hindsight I should have had one of the Tantalus brothers make a reference to him not needing two swords at once or something. Writing additional dialogue is definitely something I want to get better at, so thank you for pointing that out.

Oh no, I didn't notice that about the lack of bird foley! Almost all of the SFX used were pre-mixed with the music that I recorded directly from the game. In fact, the only additional SFX I added to this episode was the thunder at the very beginning of the video. However, I did have to lower the main track quite a bit so we could hear the voices, so that's probably what happened. That's definitely something I'll try to pay more attention to in future episodes. Great catch!

Uh oh, I think I hear TamTu's ego starting to inflate again... haha! I'm sure he will appreciate your comment.

Chapter 2 has actually been complete for almost two months. I just need to bring it to a more polished state before release. Working on that now, so... soon.

Thank you so much for the time you took to review!

I haven't made it through fully yet. I'm almost afraid to hear myself... I usually am.

I have no doubts it's probably golden. My finger looms around that pause and play button. It trembles in excitement and [self] fear, more excitement though.

Aww, I hope you've made it all the way through by now. Someone commented on Youtube that the voice you used for Cinna was exactly how they imagined he would sound. So you see, drinking all that tea after recording was worth it! ...I still owe you a box. :E

Outside of feeling like there should have been some more bird flight SFX in the scene with Garnet, I can't think of anything else that could be changed to make it better. Love eet. @_@

Next time...Shiz is about to get real.

Birds? What birds? I don't know what you're talking about. >_> Really though, that's a good catch. I watched this scene hundreds of times while mixing - both through headphones and through speakers - and never noticed that. Of course, it probably all started sounding the same after so many times. So thank you for pointing that out! I'll try to keep my eyes peeled in future videos for any missing foley. Though I think in this case it may have actually been there, but ended up too quiet once I lowered the volume on that track. But in any case, I'm glad you liked it!

And hellz yeaaaah it is! I can't wait for everyone to hear your Steiner. Although I don't think anyone would dispute that your Stiltzkin was adorbs.

[Seishiro17]

Alright, let's do this. pleasedonthateme

When it comes to people's performances, I have no issue, all the characters sound believable and everybody turns in a believable performance, which is awesome. There were moments where I stopped listening for familiar voices and just got sucked in to the portrayals. I -BELIEVE- these characters. Nothing else I can say will compliment the production more than that last line. I want to especially point out how much I loved all the walla in this. It, it's just so good and it breathes so much life in to otherwise flat scenes that I can't really express how much I adore the creativity and use of it. More than anything else, this is what makes me jealous when I look at this production. It's so good I'm seething.

Moving on to the mixing, first let me preface this by saying I am blown away by how good this whole thing is, this is a high-quality production, and of course that means I can really critique it (run). I think a nice figure here is 95. I am 95% happy, and impressed, and blown away, and freaking JEALOUS. So I am going to rip that 5% apart!!!

BEGIN THE NITPICKING!

Spoiler:     

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Within small sections, the volume levels for BGM,SFX,VOX tend to be consistent, but when comparing larger sections there are issues, and I found myself turning that volume knob up and down at times. This wasn't because scenes got too loud/quiet, but because the balances for BGM,SFX,VOX volumes from scene to scene weren't as consistent as I like. There are sections where lines are louder than what follows even though they are said within the same conversation, or BGMs that start out fine, but start to take over the scene as they continue to build. This amount of unevenness happens on all three fronts (BGM,SFX,VOX) and that causes a listening problem. My main advice here would be to balance these small sections, then to compress and treat them so things come out more even across the production. It's a pain, but it can be done. Honestly this is a non-issue when it comes to listening on like, computer speakers at a reasonable volume, but when you crank it like I do it does get noticeable.

It's somewhat been touched on with the birds, but I will take that further. You should just use more SFXs. This is a great production, but adding more SFXs will help balance out that soundscape and paint the world in a more vibrant way. I really think adding some more to the opening storm would have helped there especially. This is more the point I want to stress. You do such a great job with extras and bystanders and the SFX just don't come into play enough to match that high standard.

Please do something to Tamtu's lines, I don't care, EQ them or something. He's always had this problem, he's always either too compressed or too bassy and he cuts through the mix in a really present fashion, and that's fine for like, ultra dramatics, but in regular conversation it's just distracting.

That's all! Really looking forward to the next episode!