Podfic Critical Feedback Exchange, for cookiemom6067

[superstitiousme.livejournal.com]

Reader: cookiemom6067
Podfic: Woobie'verse by elayna
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Length: 5:46
MP3
M4B

I'm so sorry this is late!!

Tone/Pacing: I thought the pacing was good. The natural rhythm of this reader is not too fast or too slow, flowed nicely at a good speed for the story and the tone was good.

Reading: I think overall this reading was very good. I especially liked the reader's voice for Timothy, but found her John voice to be a little less laid back then I would have liked. Her Rodney was pretty dang good too, and I really liked the Ronon voice.

Volume/Sound Quality: The overall volume was perfectly loud enough and the sound quality was very good.

Editing: This was a problem area for this story. I think if the reader were to go back through and re-edit the whole story, it would be beneficial. There were numerous spots where the wrong name *almost* came out and the reader caught herself mid-word and corrected, but somehow that 1/2 of a wrong name stayed in the podfic. If those errors were cleared out of the podfic, along with the stumbles over words it would be a much tighter, cleaner reading. I also think that many of the story breaks (where sound effects were used) were way too short! I needed more silence and a greater fade-in/fade-out for those story breaks as I wanted to spend a few seconds compiling the last section before plunging into the next one.

Intro/Exit: The intro was perfect, imo; it contained the name of the story, the author's name and reader's name. Short and sweet. I liked the ending because she said, "the end" which is sorely missed by me when it is not said in a podfic as it doesn't cue me to hit pause before another story starts blaring through my headphones too loudly, destroying the mood of the ending I just listened to.

Musical Additions/Sound Effect/Other Special Effects: Okay. I have heard very few stories which had music and/or sound effects in the past. I have seen meta on this around the podfic fandom lately and wasn't sure where I fell on the spectrum. This podfic has left me firmly in the camp that music and sound effects can in fact be used to enhance a podfic. I can't say I agree with *all* the sound effect choices, and I will say that a few of them were way too loud, etc, however; for the most part I found the sound effects to be really great audio clues of each section break. I really loved the Mr. Roger's Neighborhood theme throughout, though I wish the section at the end had been a rock cover of it, (LOL) or a better quality recording, since it sounded really strained at the end.

Fic Choice: Okay. *hides* I am a total, TOTAL angst whore. Part-way through this Woobie!verse podfic, I was kind of overloaded on schmoop. :( However, I found the reader sucked me in until I was very invested in the story. I probably wouldn't ever have read this story, but I'm glad to have experienced the podfic. :)

Additional Comments: I recommend breaking the story into more sections next time; it is really hard to find your place in a 2+ hour section. :(

Comments

[cookiemom6067.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for your thoughtful, thorough critque. I was going to go through a fix a few things already, but I'm now convinced that a complete re-edit would be a very good idea. (now to find a rock cover of Mr Rogers!)

Thanks for the suggestion to break it into smaller sections. I've kind of come to the conclusion that an hour/hour and a half is about max for what a podfic "chapter," so I'm right on board with that.

I really was proud of the sound effects, not knowing beforehand how many people truly dislike them, and I agree about the volume. Should I do sound effects in the future (and I confess to being a little spooked, honestly), I would definitely release both a no effects and and effects version.

Thanks again for the helpful critique.

[cybel]

Aw, don't be spooked about sound effects if you feel like adding them! Practice makes perfect, and, well done, music and effects can add a lot to a podfic!

[superstitiousme.livejournal.com]

don't be discouraged about sound effects/music. it may not be everyone's bag, but as I said, it can provide a really helpful audio clue about the upcoming section, etc. I think you did a damn good job with them in this story!

♥

[cookiemom6067.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you, that means a lot ocming from you!