Ayu's lives sounds flat?
 

I really don't know much about the fundamentals of singing. But hasn't Ayu's live performances sound flat to you guys? Like she can't hit all the notes like the actual recording soundtrack?

I don't know. Recently she sings a lot lower. I can live with that. But now I feel like she can't even hit the notes right and it comes out all...funky. While in the past her vibrato was soft, now it's really hard and a bit over exaggerated. (is that how a vibrato suppose to sound???) I can't appreciate much of her lives anymore. :( I love her recordings but find that I can't listen to her lives, which is really sad.

Anyone else feel the same? Maybe just me...

Still can't wait for the upcoming album tho!

maybe she's just too emotional?
yea, i also felt that her lives recently for Together When... on the high notes, she sounded off key..but quite ok..
and i still think her vibra is still OK..

not every live is perfect, you know -.-;


though i don't think her vibratos should be that loud. live or recording.

Perhaps she has developed 2 different singing styles?

Together When at Music Station was the worst! I couldn't even finish watching the live because of how flat the song became. Maybe her earphones weren't loud enough or something because I felt that she had to strain to hit those high notes (even though they aren't even really that high).

Ayu's live performance are always crappy unless they're released on DVD by avex so they have time to be altered.

Maybe her new singing style. Like her new voice lol (tlakin' 2 myself).

Go see her live for real, before you say that. :irked:irked:irked:irked:irked:irked

indeed. ASIA TOUR was flawless when i saw her. was pretty amazed. perhaps the song made so emo that she cant sing properly.

Pretty much. I liked most of her performances and they sounded pretty close to the studio version. At least she didn't lipsynch.

I love when she does bold and delicious live!
She really doesnt even have to sing that song!

as long as she doesn't lip sync, i'm completely fine with how she is live.
like someone previously said, not every live is perfect.
imagine having to perform the same [emotional] song over and over and over again.
don't you think it'd lose it's emotion and sound sometimes? ^^

Agreed. :yes

I'd rather have a crappy live performance than a lip synched one. Some of her performances are better than others, but I never thought she was crappy.

i always satisfied with everything that ayu have done..so no complaint

hm I think her TW... lives is not bad really, just a tiny bit here there in a few perf.s, not all either,
a HUGE improvement compared to JEWEL lives imo~ XD

I think her TW... are probably her best lives this year XD

Except for some lives I don't ayu ayu had really horrible singing lives.
The latest Together When... TV perfromance-s are really amazing vocal-wise.

Ayu does really differently in different lives. She sometimes does really well, but other times, her voice may be more strained than usual. I thought some of her Together When... performances were better than the others. But that's the way Ayu has always been. ^__^

Together When is a really hard song to sing, Ayu performed it really well in my opinion. I'm sure if you got someone like -insert band with voice altered in the studio so much it's unreal here- and they would struggle really hard, Ayu is a really talented singer and that talent is real.

Yeah, lately she sounds like she's forcing it. :(

^Better thsn just stand there and sing bad ^-^

She's not really forcing it though she just sings emotionally...

forcing it and singing emotionally are two really different things.

Ayu sang TW very nice at Music Japan and Domoto Kyoudai.

Her singing for Together When in Music Japan is good

I liked her singing better in general when she sounded more high pitched and cuter. But her lives were worse before. Now I think they're in general nice and adds a lot to the song. A live is not supposed to sound like a recording... Then they might as well lip synch.

Me too :)

She is most certainly flat at various points in many of her lives. Unfortunately she just isn't as vocally gifted as some singers and has to work a little harder in order to perfect her live vocals, at times ultimately resulting in performances that seem overly emotional. I did not watch a single talkin' 2 myself live that I thought was impressive because in most of them she was out of breath due to using too much energy. Overall, she's quite a mixed bag when performing live. However, like Beyond the Sea said, her DVD released lives are always of a much higher quality, which could very well be (at least in my opinion) due to editing in order to make her sound better. After all, concert lives usually need to be at least partially edited for any artist to, at the very least, remove the insane amount of noise coming from the crowd (or so I've heard).

I dunno.. She has been singing like that (sounds flat) since talkin' to myself. She wasn't like that during glitter/fated or even the A BEST 2 era. Personally I dun believe she's struggling or forcing to hit higher notes. It's just that her voice is very very flat lately. Together When... at musicstation is an obvious example. I was like, "what's going on?"
I dunno. She might sounded flat during probly 5 or 10 seconds during a live performance back then, but not like this time. Her voice was so flat for 80% of TW... weird.. :no

only thing that bugs me most is her vibrato for the last few years ..
i wish she wouldn't go all out on those vibrato .. really ruin her lives

Really?? Where did you watch the ASIA TOUR video?
well, imo, she's not the best live singer, her voice is sometimes un-control, but it's better sing live than lip-sync...

She sang Glitter soooo well during A nation. She didnt start with a low pitch and she was back to her chirpy voice ^^ Only for glitter, though.

she meant that she saw ayu singing live on her asia tour concert..

and yea me too. she sang great in her tour..i attended her asia tour concert too and i sat quite near to loudspeaker..so kinda heard her voice pretty clearly..

Yeah, and ayu @ a-nation sang really nice except T2M.
Fated n glitter was sung very good.

^yes! a-nation was a surprise for me...it sounded quite bad in the preview, but the TV version was very gd...and her TW... live at Music Japan was great too!

of coz we all love it when she sings close to the Studio version, but i think AYu has her own way singing live...sometimes she goes deeper (which im not that fond of but as long as its not too much), and sometimes, her emotions may make her go a bit off...well, to some it may be disappointing given her status..many expect the best from her..but thats rather impossible..

talkin' 2 myself is REALLY HARD to sing..its so energetic and Ayu had to have some action and keep up with the tempo...and the song itself, Ayu sang with her newer deeper vocals unlike Together When..., which is higher-pitched..

and its great that people who went to ASIA tour said she sang very well coz thats very promising...speaking of that, WHERE IS THAT DVD?!?!?! omg

I have to agree with you guys that her singing for concert is way better than she sounds in TV performances. I attended ASIA tour and her voice there was undeniably good.

But sometimes things sound different at different scenes. I know someone who went to Hey!*3 to saw her singing Together When. That person actually commented that her vocal there was flawless. But when he watched it again on TV, the vocal sounded different. Or may be that's the problem with post-processing...

Most of the time, Ayu can't hit the high notes but I think it's normal. On recordings, she gets to have more than 1 chance to hit the note. Ayu isn't exactly the greatest singer and she doesn't have the strongest voice. I think she still manages to pull it off quite well depending on the songs. Songs like "Voyage" and "RAINBOW" are good for her. They really show her soft beautiful voice. "Close to you" also. But with songs like "TW..." that has a lot of low and high notes, it can be difficult.

I agree with some that Ayu shouldn't sing such loud vibrato though. It gets annoying at times and she does it with all of her songs lately.

Sounds like someone needs to go check Ayu's "forgiveness" performance @ MS.

What year?? I would love to see the performance

and btw, yeah fated @ a-nation was amazing! and so does TW @ Music Japan!!

It really depends on the song. Personally, I like her lower voice after the Rainbow era better. And when she's at the studio, she has a music sheet in front of her, so it's much easier to be on key.

Just a thought, would this have something to do with her ear?

maybe it has something to do with her ear
she has problems to hear the instrumental if it isn't loud enough (in ballads for example)

^ It could be...Dunno.

By no means am I saying she's a bad artist. I still LOVE LOVE ayu's songs and feel alittle dumb that her songs continue to appear on my playlist, annoying my sister quite a lot I'm sure. But I can't help but notice ayu's lives going lower..and lower and eventually flat. I hope it doesn't become a pattern!

I think she's managed emotional and on-key before so I don't think it's cuz it's too emotional that she can't hit the note. I hope she's just been working too hard and her voice wasn't in top shape.

she wouldn't be called ayumi if she has great vocal and sings lives well ^_^

^ I hope you don't consider all of her 400 (concerts not included in this count) live performances bad? :D

Indeed now she sounds like it costs SO MUCH effort. And the result's not too good. She sounded perfect in 2004 and now she's over that. Ever since part of Me she sounds different and I don't like it, ...... everyone else seems to love it ... but, there's also those people that'll go :luv2 at anything she does anyway cos "ayu is their queen" haha.

Wait, what? I'm so confused by your comment. I'm sure not everyone with the name Ayumi is a poor singer.

But after thinking about the topic more, I guess her live singing is always differing throughout each period of her career. Personally, I think she was at her vocal best during the RAINBOW period, at least in terms of TV lives. Her concert lives have been consistently good post the 2000 dual concert DVDs. I rewatched the Together When... performances and though I originally thought her Domoto Kyoudai performance was very impressive, I'm now thinking it was just passable. The other lives weren't any better or worse really. They were all just kind of shaky and particularly unstable by the end where she went to be all emotional but ended up sounding quite off pitch and sharp.

i can bet more then 300 of them are off-key or major pitch-problem etc...

she's not perfect, guys...accept it!

I don't see who isn't accepting that. Hello! Read the entire thread and it's pretty plain to see that just about everyone in here thinks she has had plenty of problems with her live vocals.

i don't know, she was awesome at asia tour @ hongkong...except for secret which she couldn't manage well

I wonder how the other artists in Japan sing Live? Do they always good ? just want to know . . no offense . .. is she the only one who is not good at singing in studio live?
Anyway , i love her tour performances . . . she is my Japanese favorite singer . . :)

^ I think Leah Dizon is horrible live.. same with Kumi, it sounds weird.

Um, I dont see anyone in this thread going "oh she never fails, she's always perfect, why would you think such". Some people just want to think that ayu fans are in denial.

Most realize though, that ayu never wanted to be a singer, never aspired to be one. She is not the best singer in Japan voice wise, but she tries hard and does her best. Then you can't ask for any more. She's come a long way.

I think her lives aren't as great as they were. Well, at least this year.

Honestly, her "Together When..." peformance at DK was horrible. She stuggled, whether or not she was supposed to sing it emotionally or not. At lot of people were also saying how we "talkin' 2 myself" performance at a-nation was flat; one of her "fated" performances was horrible at the low notes. It could be that she's trying to put emotion into everything due to the break-up, but I think it's unnecessary.

Her vibrato, live and in a recording, is becoming horribly and noticably fake. Vibrato is not supposed to come out like that at all; it's not good for your voice at all. Trust me, I've been told.

THANK YOU. *bows down* I am not worthy. I am not worthy ...

There's a difference between saying that she's not perfect and saying that the majority of her singings of off-keyed and having major pitch problems. Most Ayu fans knows that she's not perfect (there will always be fanatics, but that's with every artist).

Personally, I've seen her earlier lives and her vocals on generally flawless. Sure there were a few times when they sound weird, but she's not a robot. Please don't make that judgment about her vocals unless you heard all of her lives.

Well, I guess it depends on taste. Some people like her higher voice, other people like her lower voice, and etc. There are some fanboys/fangirls who will love whatever she puts out, but to be honest, they're still within the minority.

Sometimes, she records the songs "out of her vocal range" (probably because of either really hard strain or long recording sessions; for example- fairyland, momentum, Secret, kanariya), so those lives will sound either really off or too technical. But the case with Together when... is the emotion. It's hard singing a sad song when you're really happy, right?

she did well enough in live shows.. but it seems like she is singing quite low.hmm..

Agreed!

Yeah but Ayu's been doing bad consistently this year. I've tried to think up every excuse I can for Ayu but when it all comes down to it I think it's just that Ayu is not quite the singer she used to be (and please don't 'duh' me because not all of you are noticing this). Yes, there where times when she struggled in the past...but at least she had a lot of good performances as well. But now, she's almost always off-key and her vibrato is over-used. It's almost as if her voice is nothing BUT vibrato. And not only that she tends to yell when she projects on the chorus parts. She's had a couple OK performances but for the most part Ayu has been having a bad year.

Someone needs to listen to the TV versions of her concerts vs the DVD versions. The editing they do on her voice is somewhat embaressing on her part.

i thought her "part of me" performance at music station is one her best performance, i think she sings onkey and really controlled...but i don't know, everybody has their own opinion

not all are perfects

Sincerely her TV performances aren't the same as before :( I don't want to think that her DVDs are edited (Including a-nation) but there is a big difference between TV and DVD performances...

Btw I love the loud vibrato thing :D

^The TV-version of a-nation 07 was great to me

Yeah but I was at her concert, and it was fine.

The TV versions will always suffer no matter what.

Concert Speaker->Recording Mic-> Your Speakers -> Your Ears

DVD:
Direct Audio -> Your Speakers -> Ears!

I'm sure they do some editing, but I guess I can't say how bad it can be. All I know was that her concert was very good for the most part (minus Secret).

Exactly. Audio suffers when it's live feed, there are many things to consider in audio which can be handled later when the dvd is being produced and not on the spot, as to lowering audience noice, hall echo, etc. That said, I'm sure they touch up her voice for the dvd, but not to the point where it's not her anymore.

She probably sounded flat because her voice was just flat in general for that day since the quality of our voices are different everyday. It's also probably because she didn't do vocal exercises before singing like she would normally do so before recording or a concert.
I think Together when.. is quite a hard song to sing and control. Like what others have said, as long as it's not lip synched, it's all good~ XD

I dunno...I've never heard her like LIVE live. Her TV lives usually sound a bit off to me, even her some of her older performances. Her vibrato is being used a ton these days, but I like it most of the time ^_^ Her lives this year have been really off, but I think it's okay to have an 'off-year'. Ten years is a long time, after all. And I'm pretty sure we all know she's passed the peak of her career. Hopefully she'll have a LONG descent. As long as she tries her hardest, then I'm okay.

I liked the Together When live performance XD! lol I think she is a hit or miss XP lol sometimes I LOVE her live and sometimes I REALLY hate it lol

mina , do you all still like Ayu? as for me . . I like her no matter what is happening to her . . .

^agreed

Wow, I just watched some 2001 live of evolution, and oh my god it was... scary. D:

She's so much better now compared to 6 years ago. D:

Well, to add it on, in concerts she has her 2 back up singers (can't remember the names). They don't sing the whole song but you know they do sing at certain parts of the song. The two of them have completed the " 1 3 5" or better known as Doh Me Fah Chord with Ayu. Though I'm not certain if it's 1 3 5, 1 4 6, 1 5 7 or something else, her back up singers do complete some chord with her. As such, she won't sound very flat or anything.

...you mean peco and princess?...








they're usually in almost every live with her...

^ ... and they add scary "aaaaaahh aah ah aaaahhh~" sounds :dead2

Okay, Ayu does not exactly have the greatest voice in the world. (It's unique though I must add, her old singing voice anyway...) and she's not very good at singing live. She does have good performances, but overall she's kind of shaky, especially on her tv show performances.

Haha, no worries. Glad someone agrees, too. I also agree with your post about the vibrato sounding fake now. It's like she goes into vibrato and then it's like FORCEFORCEFORCE and it comes out like.... sometimes she sounds like a sheep going MEEEEHHHHhhHHHh XD I don't know how to describe it? It doesn't sound fancy at all though. I think how she sang forgiveness a few times in 2003 and the 2003~2004 concert was AWESOME. It came so naturally then, or at least that's how it came across for sure. Do you think so too?

the 'together when' live on domoto kyodai sounded excellent to me, even after hearing the HQ mp3...