I listined to the full cast audio version of Harry potter and the philosophers stone and these are my opinions about it.
1: Noisy. Just starting the book my ears are asulted by music, birds singing, bikes going past, a dog barking, someone walking, and the narrator. It is to much and I almost stopped listening there.
2: There is to much background noise. I was expecting to hear the sound of what was happening in the story, someone is walking, or getting into the car. Not playing the radio as well as turning on the blinkers and grunting. I mean it sounds like the Dursley’s kitchen chairs are about to fall apart at any moment they are creaking so much.
3: Character noise. Omg the character noise. Why do they have to be so noisy. Grunts that go on longer than the scene, panting that makes one wonder if they have a breathing problem. Just cut down on it please, it's not funny.
4: Narration. I don’t hate having a new narrator, but there are words missing. If a voice actor says their line the Narrator doesn't read "Said Harry" or "said Ron" leaving it up to the listener to guess who said what. And I'm sorry but I'm as voice blind as I am face blind at times. Adress the lines thank you.
5: Directions. Whoever directed the voiceactors, including the narrator, caused lines to sound forced, make weird pauses, and the emotions to jar with the emotion of the scene. And dont get me started on all the whining we get from Neville or Malfoy's lack of a drawl. It's just laughter and back ground noise that shouldn't be there. Like the scene where Dudley offers to flush Harry’s head in the toilet and we get a snarky remark from Harry. The scene should end with the sound of running footsteps as Harry runs away but they have Dudley laughing instead of allowing the imagination make up Dursley’s reaction.
6: I can't hear what they are saying. Ever heard of a stage whisper? Yeah use that instead of a real whisper because I can't tell what is being said some times. Like the scene at Christmas. Harry is hiding from Filch who met up with Snape, and I have no idea what they said on the other side of that door.
Those are my biggest problems with this production. Here is what I liked.
1. Accents. The characters have proper accents fitting where they come from. I love Neville’s and Wood's accents.
2. Well placed soundefects. We can hear Marcus Flint making his five goals in that game. And we can hear the different sounds the quidditch balls are making before they are named.
3. Voice actors. Every character gets a unique voice and can act out the emotions.
4. The cover art. It's new. I like it to a point.
Yeah that's about it. I'm going back to the original version and probably won't spend any money on these new full cast ones, I don’t find it relaxing to listen to them sadly.
