[Official Message] ayumi hamasaki 『Just the beginning -20- TOUR 2017』

[kotora]

I have a love and hate moment about her current voice.

She can perform certain songs with her current voice very well. On the other hand, some songs like M sounds awful with her current voice, especially at the beginning when she sings "Maria"...

[Cahz-]

I think M is one of the old songs that she should keep singing, for me her current voice suits this song very well.
One thing I don't like about her current voice is that in the past what you got on the cds will most likely sound almost the same on live, nowadays her voice on live doesn't match the studio versions of the songs (i.e FLOWER, Mad World, Summer love, Out of control etc)

[kotora]

Originally Posted by Cahz-

I think M is one of the old songs that she should keep singing, for me her current voice suits this song very well.
One thing I don't like about her current voice is that in the past what you got on the cds will most likely sound almost the same on live, nowadays her voice on live doesn't match the studio versions of the songs (i.e FLOWER, Mad World, Summer love, Out of control etc)

I think her current voice for FLOWER is very good, but IMO, not M.

[Deep snow]

Originally Posted by Cahz-

I think M is one of the old songs that she should keep singing, for me her current voice suits this song very well.
One thing I don't like about her current voice is that in the past what you got on the cds will most likely sound almost the same on live, nowadays her voice on live doesn't match the studio versions of the songs (i.e FLOWER, Mad World, Summer love, Out of control etc)

Please fill me in on technicalities, but does this have something to do with her basically screaming the songs out loud during her live performances? With pitch correction, this scream-singing sounds fantastic (it makes her already strong voice sounds so much more powerful, e.g. do it again in CDL 11-12), but I don't think it's good in the long run. If this is true, then it's probably due to the fact that she can't really hear as well as before, so she had to scream-sing just in order to hear her own voice amidst what I suspect must be pretty loud music.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by Cahz-

I think M is one of the old songs that she should keep singing, for me her current voice suits this song very well.
One thing I don't like about her current voice is that in the past what you got on the cds will most likely sound almost the same on live, nowadays her voice on live doesn't match the studio versions of the songs (i.e FLOWER, Mad World, Summer love, Out of control etc)

Oh, I don't like to even remember how bad her cutesy voice destroyed a super strong song like walk

[rainbow_smile]

For me personally she usually sounds much better live irl that on the TV broadcast/DVD

[CatGirl]

I can't stand the scream-singing. For some songs it works very well, but for others, like ballads, it's just... eh. I also feel like she enunciates her words strangely a lot of the time when she sings live now. Hard to explain, but maybe someone here will know what I'm talking about lol

[Chibi-Chan]

Ayu always had a bad vocal technique, but back then she simply sung like most jpop singers do. Today she screams and screams and screams. It's no excuse that she performs in big arenas, a lot of people do. They still don't scream.
I don't care what exatly she does to stop screaming, but she should do something. Otherwise she ruins her voice/vocal cords completely.

[YUKARI]

some people really enjoy her current voice. they say it's deeper and not so high-pitched as it used to be.

I'm glad that I'm not alone thinking she screams sometimes and goes off-tune so obviously.

well, I guess it's all because of her Minniere disease.

[SunshineSlayer]

I don't think there is any question that her vocals this past year have been pretty off and down right bad for a fairly significant portion of time.

But we also have to remember that this is nothing new AT ALL. Her voice has been declining since 2006 and was really bad in 07/08, because it seems her hearing got worse, but by 2010 it seems that she learned how to work around that and her vocals go better. Since then she has definitely had peaks and valleys with the quality of her voice. 14/15 I thought she sounded pretty great. And I do agree that overall her voice is much more powerful now and sounds great in particular on the newer ballads.

'16 though, I feel was overall a bad vocal year every TV live that we got was subpar imo. I saw her live at the end of November and I would have classified her vocals as okay -- she did do significantly better during the accoustic section. From there till the end of December they obviously got worse though. The CDL is definitely cringeworthy and it's not because of the mixing, editing etc. She has had plenty of tv broadcasts before that did not sound that bad. Sure better mixing can help you sound better, but it's not going to change the quality of your actual voice.

[TeamAyu2004]

Every time I have heard her live she has been fine. I enjoyed it very much.
I think the main problem now a days is that there is so much mixing and computers involved with music that we don't really know anyones true voice till we hear them life and its just NOTHING like what we are used to (via radio, cd, tv broadcast) and it messes with our perception of their voice.

[thinkingoutloud89]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

Every time I have heard her live she has been fine. I enjoyed it very much.
I think the main problem now a days is that there is so much mixing and computers involved with music that we don't really know anyones true voice till we hear them live and its just NOTHING like what we are used to (via radio, cd, tv broadcast) and it messes with our perception of their voice.

very well said. Listen to an Adele concert - quite and loud parts are all on the same level. there are a few artist that break away from that, but most pop songs are mixed that way. Our ears got used to it and we can't shake it off, when we listen to live-music.

[Ad Eternam]

I've seen her twice in live and her vocals were amazing.
I really don't think her voice is always edited and autotuned. I've studied a bit of sound design and when you use too much filters on a voice, it's getting almost robotic (Cher for example... Or worse, Madonna when she tries to sing live). .
And sometimes, you just can't sing right. It happens.

I also think that Ayu re-recorded her vocals for the CDL 2015-2016 and that's why it took so long to come out on DVD. The best example is "Many Classic Moments". They couldn't edit her vocals that well. It would have sound robotic.
But that's a theory. I'm maybe wrong.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by Ad Eternam

I've seen her twice in live and her vocals were amazing.

I don't know, I think the only vocals that I saw live that I would put in the amazing category were AT 05, AT 06, and AT 10. Even when her vocals aren't amazing though, I still think her shows are great to go to and can be enjoyed even when her vocals are off, I just wish she would take better care of her voice.

[Aokani]

About the screaming, she has always done that. It's just that it sounds so much better if you sing like that with high pitch. The problem is that Ayu tries to sing the same way now, but with lower voice, thus it sounds like she's screaming.

The only thing I can't stand is the cutesy voice she has used more recently. It doesn't sound genuine when she does that.

[RealLight]

Originally Posted by Aokani

The only thing I can't stand is the cutesy voice she has used more recently. It doesn't sound genuine when she does that.

Same, that ruined A LOT of perfomances to me.

[Chris85]

Originally Posted by Aokani

About the screaming, she has always done that. It's just that it sounds so much better if you sing like that with high pitch. The problem is that Ayu tries to sing the same way now, but with lower voice, thus it sounds like she's screaming.

I completely disagree. She used not to scream/shout. It has nothing to do with low/high voice. The way of her singing definitely changed. I don't remember the exact year when she started screaming, but for sure it's been going on for not less than 6 years already.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by Chris85

I completely disagree. She used not to scream/shout. It has nothing to do with low/high voice. The way of her singing definitely changed. I don't remember the exact year when she started screaming, but for sure it's been going on for not less than 6 years already.

It was around when GUILTY was released.

[TeamAyu2004]

^every time i roll my eyes when i hear this. lol

[RealLight]

^ Why?