1918 Flu Pandemic - Emergence - Extra History - #1

Bill Lemmond

I don't mind Matt's voice at all. I enjoyed the cartoony voice that your previous narrator used, through some kind of electronic distortion, and I miss it, but I'm fine with you going forward this way. But watch reaction and viewing patterns. If more people respond better to the cartoon-style, unrealistic voice, then go with what gets more people watching. Keep Matt, but run him through the synthesizer. The main thing, always, is to educate as many people as possible. I'm thinking of the song from "Mary Poppins": "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down...."

blueneuron.net

I think that "serious" Matt is a definite improvement over the hyper video game Matt, but I'm struggling with his voice nonetheless. It just sounds very commercial and distant - feels like he's always trying to sell me something.

blueneuron.net

I really don't mean to put down Matt, but his voice doesn't fit EH at all. I tried very hard to get used to his voice with the gaming videos, but it just isn't my kind of narrating voice, so I stopped watching those. Is he going to keep narrating EH? I'll see if I can get used to it, but I might drop Extra Credits altogether at this point, at least until I hear about them picking up a new narrator.

Marc Langlois

Good point about "serious" history-Matt and over-enthusiastic video-games-Matt

jesyspa

Yeah, I had a similar reaction. Especially around the 1:00-1:30, the tone felt like it was trying to emphasise how terrible the whole thing was, but with a tragedy of such scale, "this will blow your mind!" just doesn't sound right, especially compared to the solemnity with which earlier episodes handled such cases.

Will y’all do the Texas revolution

Lily Bushell

Why did I get the notification email for this post AFTER the video released on YouTube? Anyway, I think I prefer "serious" history-Matt to over-enthusiastic video-games-Matt, but It's going to take a while before I'm used to these not being narrated by Dan.

Hayden Tuff

wow

Jorlem

I wonder if it might just be the editing or voice modulation, but something just felt [i]off[/i] about the voice. The pauses between sentences often felt just a hair too long or too short, giving a sort of choppy feeling, and that combined with something else in the cadance/pitch/tone of voice that I can't quite put my finger on, that ended up giving me an almost (but not quite) uncanny valley sort of feeling.

Joo-Hwan Jun

Ooooooh, we going for a darker tone now! Nice! *sees early 20th century doctors dabbing of all things, process to glare judgmentally*

Kitteninja

I think his voice was a little fast, but had the right depth for the subject. Good job!

Darren Loo

I liked this voice, to be honest

Extra History

That's an interesting take, I know Matt wanted to give this subject all the due seriousness it deserves so he changed his voice from the 'pep' it's had in other videos he's narrated thus far. --Belinda

Cindy Franklin

It will take me a little while to get used to the new voice. Seems to lack empathy for the subject matter, but that's something to work on. Welcome aboard, Matt! All the best! ^_^

F. P. P.

Great topic! Looking forward to watching this series as sb who is professionally interested in epidemiology (... next week, with the time to really enjoy it) :)

Justin M.

I like Matt, he's definitely got a more professional, commercial announcer kind of voice... my only criticism is that he's too 'same' throughout the video. Maybe it was the voice modulation but I'm used to more expression, more tone. When he was talking about Welch's prediction of an epidemic, and then heel-turn into Welch's concern about measles, I didn't notice it like I did with Dan. Or when he presented the stats of casualties, he just seemed to be rattling off numbers almost like it didn't matter what he was talking about. Other than that criticism - a job very well done. I hope to listen to Matt for a long time.

Erich Blume

I like Professor Matt! I could tell they were going for a different timber or something, it was good!

Xenin

I will admit, it will take some getting used to listening to Matt narrating, but I wish him the best of luck. :)

Extra History

Tiffany Roman is a friend of the Kiners, who recommended her to us when they got a lot of new exciting music projects on their hands and weren't able to do the music for this series. We were planning to formally introduce her on Patreon next week :)

Jason Fox

Two things: 1: Really like the Professor Matt design, especially moving the hat design into the cufflinks. 2. End credits music not being done by the Kiner Bros? Don't tell me they were a package deal with Dan...

Cifer

Already, I've got the feeling I will come away from this series hating anti-vaxxers even more...

Martin Verran

"In Flanders Fields the Poppies Blow beneath the Crosses Row on Row, that mark our Place and in the Sky the Larks still Bravely Singing, Fly." There are 53 Villages in England and Wales Called "Thankful Villages" because all the Men in those Communities who went off to Fight in 1914 came Home again after the Armistice of 1918. In Normandy, France, there is a Village Called Thierville, which is Remarkable because all of the Men who went to Fight in the First World War AND in the Second World War, France's Bloodiest Modern Conflicts, came Back Home. The Village also Suffered no Losses in the Franco-Prussian War.