What do you think of Ayumi's voice now?
 

Is it just me or has her voice been sounding really low lately... o.o
Maybe even kind of nasally? She's sounds kind of funny during her live perfomances...

Yes, her voice has gotten much lower over the years. Which is good. She's maturing vocally.

I wouldn't really call her voice now nasally. It seemed more nasally in the past.

Personally, I like her voice more NOW. Deep voices = better than voices that sound like dying chipmunks.

But to me her voice sounded a "beautiful low voice" in around 2005 now it sounds "nasally low" to me in my opinion... e.e

2005 on her CDs still sounded slightly high to me, but her tour voice that year did sound nicer than this year... :/

*leaves*

glitter for sure wasn't low! It also has something to do with the style of songs she makes, she has quite a vocal range.

I like how her voice has changed over the years. But I have to say that I really like her voice as of lately. Definitely a more mature sound.

yea her voice's gotten lower but I like it more that way. Her voice in the 2005 songs and 2006 arena tour was good.

Yes I think it is sexy when she sings deep. She used to only sing with that deep voice in her tours as had mentioned and I always looked forward to it and then she started recording with her deeper voice and I LOVED IT! However, as of late, I have been missing her voice in such songs as "is this LOVE?" - Secret was mainly rock and the "talkin' 2 myself" single was rock as well and both used the "deep" rocker chick voice the entire song. I love it but I am sort of nostalgic for a mix between the two voices instead of singing the entire song in the lower range.

I agree, but her voice sounds nasally in the recent live perfomances (the ones recently not the ones during arena tour 2006), her voice sounds fine on CD though. o.o

i love her voice...

her voice got lower but at least its not in a bad way. Anyways it isn't even that low like in Glitter XD it was still pretty high. I think her voice now is jsut as good as before =)

i've also noticed this change. Startin' and Born to Be... were definately songs that fit perfectly with her range. Since then, I believe her songs have either been on the higher end of her vocal range or on the lower end...unfortunately this probably makes singing live more difficult

i've noticed and i've been very happy about this. i can listen to most of her new songs now without my ears bleeding from her high pitched voice!

i mean, compare any song from secret to any song from asfxx...the difference is amazing.

Her new deep voice is amazing, i love it. Her perfomance on A-nation 07 were awesome, especially glitter and fated.
Though maybe she's getting low sales now because of her new voice? But imo, it's different compared to others which makes it nice and nice :)!

I definitely luv her new voice now. Back when she first start----nevermind, let's not go back that far...anyway, Ayumi has songs that are match with tone and sound of her voice. I think that glitter and HEAVEN are excellent examples of what I'm talking about. She held perfectly beautiful notes in those songs which is very appealing to me into liking them. I hate to say but her vocals in talkin' 2 myself was poor. It's like she was tryin' to hard to sing it...for what...I don't know but I wish she had a little more time to perform her vocals better for it (t2m).

i like her voice now.. ayu can sing a whole range of octaves.. :) and it sounds sexy!!

the only thing that bothers me about her voice is the over using of vibratos. NEVER EVER from Best of CDL 06-07, anyone? ^.~

Much better now. About You at AT05 was hot! The way her voice just sounded low and husky. I like the fact that throughout the years of her career, you can really hear her improvements. She really worked hard on herself. Unfortunately some fans ended up not liking this new voice as well.

it's not as sweet as it used to be. it's much lower and husky... i liked her voice best during her (miss)understood era, especially during AT05 (i think, when she had her dark brown hair)... it sounded so sexy and soothing, not too shaky like "a~a~a~" (LOL!!!)... ;P

how many octaves can ayu hit by the way?

I don't know about lives, but I think Ayu had the best voice during A BEST times. those re-recordings on A BEST really showcase her skills :yes

but I'm not really complaining about her current voice either, it's all good.

I personally really like heavy vibrato & unconvential voices. to me it's more interesting than a pure "perfect" singing style/voice

Her live performances get subsequently better.

Just look at talkin' 2 myself! A Nation? Bad. Music Station Special. Absolutely fantastic. I think you just need to give her more time. Normally, her vocals still do come out top notch. At least you can be sure she's singing LIVE! I like hearing her live rather than having CD quality all the time. I mean, seriously, what's the point?

Studio version's are OK (As they should be what with layering, ironing out glitches etc etc) Extensive live's though ... Does she sing now? CDL 06/07 from the 'Here we go' of Ourselves onwards she just shouted her way through 2 hours.
Methinks the out of sight tabs have caught up with her.

Personally, I like high voiced Ayu better than low voice Ayu, but I don't mind low voice if it is done right. Lately, it seems, like she goes super flat and is screaming a bunch. She sounds tired and worn out. I don't really mind too much, as I know live is hard to sing and sometimes Ayu has amazingly beautiful live performances. 2007, to me, has been her worst vocal year. Still not horrible, just could use some work. :thud Seeing a live performance can really influence someone to buy the single and the t2m lives have not really been too great... But yeah, this is all up to opinion. :yes

I really like Ayu's voice, it's different from the past so she has evolved as an artist since she is doing something else with it. I enjoy how it goes with her songs lately, and I really don't mind if she keeps doing it, if it's one thing she should keep working on is her music, I like the rock stuff but too much just makes it stale, she needs to work out of the box, maybe not something out of the ordinary like my constant nagging for her to make a jazz song but I would like a warm Winter-themed or even Christmas themed song, like Close to You or even something like Voyage, two amazing back to back songs xD. Yeah ^^ She's doing good, her next single will really determine if she's back at full power. (IMO of course)

i think ayu's voice is really good now!its deep,not like before where it was all...high pitched and stuff

I definetely like it alot better than her ASFXX sqeaky voice!
And in my opinion, I think Ayu sounds the best when she sings
in her lower voice. She seems more comfortable and gives a better
performance when she sings low.

ex:
heartplace
because of you
memorial address
fated
duty
heaven

GIRLFRIEND I SO AGREE. During most of 2006 she kept her singing gusto from 2005 as well and sounded great. Then when she started performing JEWEL live her voice went all weak and nasally again. I have yet to see a performance of talkin' 2 myself that I find absolutely amazing...I like her voice better low but during the t2m lives she tries too hard to make it low and it ends up punctured and off key.

And don't get me started on the trainwreck that was "fated" at a-nation 2007. I never want to see her "sing" like that again! :thud

As said, its not as cute or sweet like before. But well, she matured, and so her voice does. I do not blame her or anything, i mean what can we do? We should appreciate her present voice. and uh, the JEWEL song really rocks :D

X_________________________________________________ __x
This is what I get for not being specific. Peoples are comparing her voice from too far back. Maybe I should have said doesn ayu's late 2006 - 2007 voice sound bad compared to her 2004-2005 voice. lol everyone is comparing the sqeaky voice voice to the better voice whatever you want to call it, and we all know that 'THAT" voice is better then the sqeaky voice, but it's my fault I should have been more specific. lol Oh wells... :thud

Thank you, for some reason Ayu's sounds kinda funny this year...

OH GOODNESS SOMEONE REALLY UNDERSTANDS ME!
I TOTALLY AGREE! ^_^

Yes Yes Yes! This is exactly what I am talking about.
Gosh I am so horrible at explaining. ;_;

Well, Ayu's voice really got lower, I guess during the ARENA TOUR 2005.
But her voice actually got much deeper during the RAINBOW era.
I still love her voice, but she her older songs doesn't sound that good anymore as before.
I mean, come on guys the BEST of CDL was kind of cruel.

OH. OKAY THEN.

Her 2004-2005 voice was better than now. Back then her vibrato wasn't made of death and Japanophail.

i love her voice because it's clear and smooth i think...
then ayu's voice the best for ballad songs....

but her voice not very high and she's bad in falseto...

i completely agree about her vocal skills maturing over the years. it is a welcomed change.

i'm interested aswell ;D

this is such a good thread =)

well, definitely prefer ayu's present low and husky voice..her voice started changing at around 05 right?..i feel that during 05 and 06 her voice sounded great..

However during secret era..i was sometimes put off by her jewel performances..in some p. she really sounded very flat and she sometimes ended her sentences abruptly without vibrato or too much vibrato..

but after that everything when smoothly again after secret era IMO...congrats to ayu and like what extepan said..it's a welcomed change.

I actually always loved her voice and the voice changes, I even love the beginning squeeky voice ^_^.

I like Ayumi with the deeper voice.. the MS performance of T2M was awesome i thought..

i love how her voice has gotten lower, her voice has much more power because of it. i was blown away by the decision vocals.

Her voice was super screechy in the beginning, then it got stronger and more listenable to over the years. However, IMO her voice is really starting to burn out. She can't perform live anymore =(...Personally, I think her career as well as her fame is definitely on the wane. But I'll always <3 her :3

I love her mature voice!! But on some songs, like Audience and evolution, you can still here some of her 'highpitchedness' in it, so it shows she can do different styles in vocals. I don't think her voice is anywhere near bad in performing. She used to suck at performing in her older days, she could barely move on songs like evolution or boys and girls. She can do awesome lives in both movement and singing.

Wane? how come? xD she's still one of the best selling female artists in Japan!
There are a lot of female artists that their career are already got longer than ayu and they never got to anything she did... I think it's just stable.
I do personally think that a lot of her present performances vocals ar way better than before, her voice on the whole a-nation '07 was pretty awesome ^_^.

I simply adore her vocal abilities now. At the beginning she could only sing high tones, now she sings lower songs but she still has ability to sing high. I really love the way she does now vocally. On her first albums i loved her singing but i could only listen for 15-20 minutes and i needed kind of break. Now it's just amazing. She has really mature and great voice.

btw haters, fated @ a-nation 07 was AWESOME!

Honestly I kind of miss the "screechiness" she had before - to me it made the songs sound more raw and emotional live.(take End of the World at CDL 00-01 for example) I like her low voice too, but I think her best combination of the lower voice and higher voice happened during 2003 - that year I thought was her best vocally. Honestly I would probably rank 2007 as her worst vocally.

Does anyone else think this year that her voice sounds for lack of a better term, "alcohol scorched." (Ayu herself admits to drinking quite a bit) Like it is too deep and low all the time (from what she has released this year I don't even know if she is capable of doing high notes anymore) and she seems unable to hold a solid note for a prolonged period of time. It's something I started noticing around last December. I went the CDL and remember thinking her voice was good, but maybe waning or starting to drop out a bit. Maybe it's just me, but I've definitely noticed that the songs this year seem to be very shortly phrased (from Glitter on so far) maybe it's just coincidence that none of the songs have notes that she really has to hold (and not drop into her vibratto after a couple of seconds) or maybe I'm overthinking. But I know for sure that the A-Nation performance I went to was the worst vocally by far of the times I've seen her live in person and she also lip synched at A-Nation more than I've ever seen her do before.(1 Love and Until that Day were for sure lip synched), so that just added to my suspicion that something might be going on with her voice.

Don't get me wrong, I love fated, Talkin' 2 Myself, and Decision. But I am worrying about her voice a bit.

I like it 'now'. I don't like that highness in ASfXX and a bit to LOVEppears ....

funny thing though, you can hear her nasally singing in Concert Tour 2000/Dome Tour 2001 but then it doesn't seem to be 'there' again til AT05 (?)

So-so. I don't think she has been controlling her voice very well. I prefer when she sings like in RAINBOW, Close to you, or theme of a-nation '03. Her voice was a lot better between LOVEppears & Memorial address.

Yeah, her high voice never was her natural voice. (Her talking voice was always low.) But I think it sounded better than how it is now. Especially in her 2007 TV performances. :dead2

Ayumi sometimes sounds like an old woman. I do prefer this voice because it's a lot deeper and mature, but there's also a lack of energy in her voice. Hmmmmm maybe she should take a break and get some voice training :shrug

I don't like her current voice. Eversince like... part of Me, she sounds meh. As if it suddenly takes SO MUCH effort to hold a tone or whatever. It's as if she can't do it anymore. Esp with those performances of evolution and Dearest(?) somewhere earlier this year, she sounded totally blah. SHe sounded the best around 2003-2004. The lives for forgiveness and RAINBOW totally rock there.

as I said above! glad someone also thinks this XD aren't those lives amazing? esp my favourite song's live Close to you!! <3

So true!!

That sums up my opinion of her new voice.

I totally agree.
And I still think her voice sounded the best during her I am/Rainbow period. But that's just me and you didn't want us to compare with ancient history.

I like her voice more now. Except live. I haven't been able to listen to a single live since.. 2005? It's really bad, LOL. Still love her, (In the studio). x]

<3

Studio technology is amazing, that's what I think of Ayu's voice now!
It never sounded so good imo, but I don't know how much merit she deserves for it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing her, just being honest. I love Ayu and always will.

Actually the change started back in 2002 with Rainbow and was extremely noticeable from 2003 on.

I don't think her voice becoming deeper = her voice becoming more mature. Her deep voice is really good, especially in 2003 and 2005 I thought. But ever since the Jewel performance I've thought her voice was starting to sound like it was being damaged, not being more "mature."

I like 'decision' as a song I guess.. but I'm iffy about the vocals. A lot of you feel that she tries too hard to put on the high voice, but I think 'decision' proves that she tries too hard to pull off the low voice. She sounds like she's in an uncomfortable key in most of the song (especially the chorus). Compare it to the kiss o' kill chorus, she sounds much more comfortable and the deepness sounds less forced.

I think talkin' 2 myself has flawless studio vocals though.

Haha, yeah I agree with this. Although, I think she is giving more of a variety now, and not just focusing on "cute" voices. I think the reason I became an Ayu fan is because of her newer music anyway :D