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

[TeddyGrahams]

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

And I LOVE her current voice, much more mature.

If it's it on cd, then I agree. There are some strong vocals in a lot of her newer songs, but live? Pls no. She sounds so terrible now live.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by TeddyGrahams

If it's it on cd, then I agree. There are some strong vocals in a lot of her newer songs, but live? Pls no. She sounds so terrible now live.

She does not. Just depends on the song.

[Evan Odinson]

^Agree, actually Arena Tour 15 and 16 were amazing imo.

[Chris85]

Originally Posted by TeddyGrahams

If it's it on cd, then I agree. There are some strong vocals in a lot of her newer songs, but live? Pls no. She sounds so terrible now live.

I wouldn't say terrible, but bad? Yeah, definitely bad most of the time. If pitch correction wasn't invented, she'd be in a serious trouble, she would probably have to rerecord vocals for DVDs.

[Party_King]

Originally Posted by Evan Odinson

^Agree, actually Arena Tour 15 and 16 were amazing imo.

Yeah... 2015 was amazing, but for me 2016 sounds a bit off...
Both ARENAs weren't as bad as the CDLs (15-16 / 16-17) were...

[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.

[TeddyGrahams]

Originally Posted by Chris85

I wouldn't say terrible, but bad? Yeah, definitely bad most of the time. If pitch correction wasn't invented, she'd be in a serious trouble, she would probably have to rerecord vocals for DVDs.

They are definitely bad. It's pretty telling nowadays one of the first post for her lives is her voice being okay/decent/listenable. Lol. When has this become a norm? She used to kill it so often.

I will stand by my statements of terrible, because I compared to her past and what she's capable of singing. I just feel like she's just shouting all the time now.

[Idealist]

Originally Posted by TeddyGrahams

They are definitely bad. It's pretty telling nowadays one of the first post for her lives is her voice being okay/decent/listenable. Lol. When has this become a norm? She used to kill it so often.

I will stand by my statements of terrible, because I compared to her past and what she's capable of singing. I just feel like she's just shouting all the time now.

You...understand that for a live, there's only so much control the sound people have over the mixing of the various channels, right?

[rainbow_smile]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.