Official™️ Swell Reads™️ Tier List™️ 2021

Instead of the mixtape or whatever that I did last year, I'll be going through all the audios that I did over the course of 2021 and put them on a list of which ones I think came out the best:

• Certified Hood Classic tier entries should be the creme-de-la-crop of audios. The ones I point to if someone asks "can I see some examples of your work".
• Nice Nice tier entries are ones that are almost deserving of the above, but have some very minor issues.
• Mid tier entries are exactly what the label says: middling posts that I don't have any strong feelings toward. They're alright, but not something 
• This Ain't It 🥺 tier doesn't mean like, "oh this is doggy doo doo and I hate it it's fucking bad this trash story" or anything. I'm not that type of person. Just that they have some more pronounced issues than everything else in the other tiers. It's basically like the C tier on a regular tier list, with the others being S/A/B tier.

You can also make your own list here! Not included are my sound edits and the occasional comic dub I do, because those can't be compared to audio stories as easily.

anyway, behold my objectively correct opinions 😎

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Bounty Hunter Initiation -- Jan 25th 2021

This one I'm honestly kinda surprised I even accepted. Popular video game becomes a huge and destroying a planet, sure. That's nothing new for me. But the viewer turning into the popular video game girl? That's a bit strange, isn't it? 

That said, I think I stuck the landing on this one. Some parts could've done with a few more/few different SFX, "atta girl" should've probably been like "there ya go" to keep it more gender-neutral, but generally it all sounds good.

One of these days I'll make an Samus audio based off the actual Metroid series and not Snarky-Smash-Bros-Parody-Samus.

Weight of the World -- Feb 7, 2021

This was my swing at making a bit more moody audio. Like, she still eats a ton and gets fat, but the stakes are slightly higher than "oh noes i am teh big 😮" with 9S' disappearence hanging over 2B's head the entire time. 

That said, I think the angst-to-fat ratio might've been a liiiittle much. It's nothing super-egregious, but it sure pushes it with the amount of exposition between each eating scene. 042's voice filters are also is a tiny bit muddy, but nothing major.

The Blueberry's Dilemma -- Feb 18, 2021

Some of my audios (prior to around September-Octoberish when I upgraded my setup) have this weird thing where they'll "pop" slightly. I don't mean that in a "haha funny inflation joke" way, I mean that you'll hear just the tiniest crackle here and there. In particular, when the bass sounds get a little too intense.

That's where my issues end with this one, because I really like how I depicted the character's interactions here. Yeah yeah I know Evangelion is the poster boy for "ooOOoo deep broken characters!!" and all, but Misato being blissfully upbeat while Asuka berates both of them for being dopes and idiots is something I enjoyed. A+, no wonder this got a bunch of updoots on dA.

Air Cash Flow -- Mar 6, 2021

And then there's this one. I like the sound effects and voices and stuff, just that... it seems a little avant garde compared to the other ones I've made. Not to diss the guy I worked on this on (you should follow him btw he draws good pics)

Expansion Pack -- Mar 22, 2021

This is another one that blew up (heh) on dA, but honestly IDK why. Mixing is all over the place for a lot of Amanda's lines- most are too quiet. No real background ambiance too other than the ~gaming~ and final scenes. Really could've used some sort of white noise to help sell that it's an empty room in the dead of night. Oh well.

On the bright side, I do like how Amanda's lines are delivered.

The Faerie Faux Pas of Y'shtola Rhul -- Apr 10, 2021

Hey didja know that the "pixie" sounds here are mostly just the beetle guards from Risk of Rain 2 mixed with some bee sounds?

I think this one came out alright given the fact I know nothing about Final Fantasy lore. Back-and-forth is playful if a bit lengthy, Urianger's lines could've been louder. The creaks sound... suspiciously fart-like. That last one alone is probably enough for me to place this in this-aint-it tier, lol

The Curse of Route 14 -- Apr 22, 2021

Between the slowed down BGM and wind SFX, I This one I like for how atmospheric this one is. Same goes for the hallucination/ear-ringing scene! It really gives you a good sense of Hex Maniac losing her grip on reality. 

Y'know.

Like a Maniac.

Cuz that's in her name.

Don't get why Lass has such a quieter voice compared to Hex though... skill issue on my part maybe? Ear issue??

All In -- May 24, 2021

Yeah on second though I'm thinking definitely ear issue, because this one has a weirdly quiet narrator. The left/right speaker gimmick makes up for it though, I wonder if people noticed that?

That, plus the fact that "legally ambiguous underground operations" are an aesthetic that I absolutely love. I have a whole bullet-point list of this multi-part cyberpunk dystopia story I wanted to do, but eh... maybe some day.

Another fun factoid is that some of the audience sounds are pulled from an old bargain-bin game called Robot Arena 2. If any Gametechmods oldheads are reading this feel free to hit me up lol

Apex of the Belly -- Jun 1, 2021

Ok so I thought this one slapped personally, but it never gained the traction that I wanted. Pretty good mixing, appealing scenario, each of the 4 characters are juggled pretty coherently... did I post it at the wrong time of day or something? Dunno. I guess dA disagrees with me sometimes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ms. Fortune in: "Fat'" Burglar -- Jun 17, 2021

This is one that I just kinda did and then immediately forgot it existed afterward. Everything about it is fine enough, just that... it doesn't stand out at all. I'm sure it's somebody's favorite.

The Reflection Behind the Door -- Jul 11, 2021

I like the slower pace of this one. There's not a ton of SFX, sure, but you can tell that there isn't really intended to be (unlike Bounty Hunter Initiation, for example). Points off for taking half the damn script to get to the "she gets fat" part though. :V

Expansion Pack 2: Continue? -- Jul 23, 2021

Now this one is what I had in mind when making the Certified 💯💯💯 Hood 💯💯💯 Classic 💯💯💯 tier. Maybe I'm just biased because of the extra little bit of music I made for it, but this is such a glow-up from the first Expansion Pack. There's just a lot of stuff going on (the glass tubes, the bajillion other girls in this competition) without feeling too cluttered. Nicely balanced.

Code Bloat -- Sep 11, 2021

This is the part where I make a poor-taste joke about the date it was uploaded, because boy will I "never forget" how much of a uphill struggle this one was to write. She's like 2B but with an added layer of "literally who" that gave me basically nothing to work with. So... I just kinda did it in that same style. Mixing is a little better than Weight of the World, but idk it kinda suffers from that sort of "nothing sticks out" issue I mentioned earlier. 

Dirty Y___ -- Sep 25, 2021

This one I can't say the full name of, because Patreon gets uppity when I say the Y-word. Even if it's someone's name. Literally beyond parody.

This is easily one of the cheesiest audios I've ever done (not written, I'd thank trm_tum for that), considering the entire thing is just spent circlejerking the MC lol. That's not a bad thing, though. It's a nice departure from my usual "2-4 characters bounce dialogue off each other for 5-8 minutes" style of script. Fits the source material well, being a waifu VN and all. No issues with this.

I also got to cheat the poll by making the other girls fat, so that's nice :^)

Mrs. Midoriya's Workout Session -- Oct 9, 2021

So I'll be the first to admit that this is literally just a slice-of-life sketch with Obligated Fetish Themes sprinkled in. And that makes sense, Inko isn't a character who'd say stuff like "oh i'm so fat i love being fat i wanna eat more food" or anything. This was also around the time that "Hello, fetish artist?" meme was making the rounds and I thought it'd be a nice schtick to base this off of. 

There are some very very minor SFX that I'd probably adjust, but it's nothing significant enough to pull this out of top tier.

Swelling Regalia -- Oct 23, 2021

This is the kind of scenario that you can't do too often because it'd get stale quickly, but I think this has enough quirky moments (the flashback and drumming, specifically) to help stand on it's own if I do decide to make another "villain's perspective"-type story.

Gravity Swell! Act 2 -- Nov 6, 2021

This and acts 3/4 honestly shouldn't be on the list given that they were in development hell since 2020. Not "oh it's from december 31st so it's technically 2020" like these are from middle-to-early 2020. I should put these down at the bottom for that, but this is a "how does the finished product sound" list and not "how much did it make my life a living hell" list.

That said, this feels like a slightly clunkier version of act 3. Not much to say outside of that, this probably could've not existed in favor of just beefing that one up some more.

Gravity Swell! Act 3 -- Nov 20, 2021

Ah, my most melodramatic audio yet. If you're listening to these in order, you don't know that Midnight can just have all the characters un-popped yet. So as a result, you're thinking "oh crap Toga just blew Tsuyu up permanently". I was almost considering giving Ochaco more of a devastated reaction to this, but thought that might be a little too sad for my humble little Balloon Kink Audio Page.

There are also some of those weird stutters on certain Ochaco lines, but nothing a re-render can't solve.

Gravity Swell! Act 4 -- Dec 18, 2021

This serves as a very nice crescendo to the Gravity Swell mini-series. Midnight just kinda sitting back and flinging pot-shots at Ochaco worked very well IMO. The tension of "is Midnight going to give Ocacho her just desserts" builds for the entire thing and is aided by the background music.

Dragon's Night Out -- Dec 26, 2021

You know, for a premise as simple as "girls drink a lot" this one had a surprising amount going on. It was around the time of making my MHA audios (and Swelling Regalia) that I saw the light of adding anime SFX, and it really helped out here in particular. There isn't as many here, but the few there are really help break up any monotonous moments.

That said... this might end up being another one I forget about as time moves on. Such is life.🥴

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This is the part of the post where I make some sort of "New Year's Resolution", and in 2022 I'd really love to learn some sort of 3D software. I've used Rhino in the past, but it's... not ideal for anything outside of "let's design a car engine"-style CAD. So, right now I'm in the middle of beginne-level Blender tutorials. Maybe I'll get serious about it, maybe I'll get distracted and drop it. Let's hope!