Ayu's "worsening" voice?
 

I've watched all of her tours and I don't think her voice is worsening.
I love her deep voice now... it's very beautiful. :yes

Where's the evidence of her "worsening" voice that everyone is complaining about? I'm not sure I can understand what's so bad about it unless I'm not listening to the right stuff...
Even if her voice IS worsening and some people do not like her newer style, I still love her! (and yes I am one of the few who loved Guilty and NEXT LEVEL).
A link, please?

I dont get it either, I see it as her voice is maturing and that her voice is usally tired/overworked when she signs bad but I dont listen to voice complaints anymore. I almost skipped buying her CDL 01-02 DVD because I herd her voice was bad in it, and when I did get it, I thought her voice was fine in it. I think that people just complain about it because it doesnt sound 100% the same as it did when she started like other little things about ayu :P

haha nice to know you like her maturing voice as well... :]

I also love her deeper voice much more, too. But the problem lies in her singing, not her actual voice. Many people think she is screaming all the time... Which I don't find to be necessarily true. For me, she seems to be having major difficulties in breathing correctly. Her voice often sounds strained or breathy the past few years, and yes, sometimes she does scream a bit (though, that isn't the main problem, as some seem to think).
Overall, she's singing as though her voice is just worn out and overworked. Which means there's a high chance that her voice is unhealthy due to incorrect singing in one way or another. And that's the worst part of all, especially if she doesn't try to fix it immediately (though, I think she must be). Also, because of this, a main concern for most people bringing up her "terrible" voice is that she will severely affect her ability to perform as a singer (at least, I hope that's why they're expressing these thoughts, and aren't doing it just to bash her, lol...).

But really, the past few performances have been great. Rule at Kouhaku was amazing, and most of the You were... performances were wonderful, especially for what it's worth (that's a very hard song to pull off live). I think she just hit a rough patch last year, and that she's working on fixing herself up as we speak. :yes And I mean, it's not as though she sounds as bad as she did around, say, 1998-2001, lol...... As long as she doesn't sound that bad, I don't think it's the end of the world or anything.

^ I don't really have a problem with her early vocals though surprisingly. I prefer her deeper voice, but I can at least stand her early voice.

Her voice being deeper is not the problem at all. Her deep voice is great. The problem is her technique is bad and I do feel like her chords have probably become damaged. Compare a performance with her deep voice in 2003 - such as Tokyo on Music Fair or her duet with Akina Nakamori; the deep tone is great, but her technique was so much more stable and it sounded a lot better. Now almost always she is either screaming/yelling, sounding out of breath and choppy and it seems lately like she has maybe lost the ability in her vocals to do soft tones/notes; everything is overpowered and it often makes her voice sound strained. I still keep holding out hope though that it will get better.

^ Exactly this. Her voice really can sound gorgeous, but lately (since PCDL08-09, at least) she's been working so much, it's been bad form and it doesn't seem like she's focusing on taking care of her voice better. =/

Exactly. You took the words right out of my mouth. I don't have a problem with her deep voice, even if I do prefer her earlier higher pitched voice. I loved the Tokyo performance she did on Music Fair. A lot of people don't but back then her deeper voice didn't sound as bad as it does now. Her singing technique is what's bothering me. Yes she sounds out of breath and choppy at times, she can't hit certain notes anymore, and to make up for that she resorts to yelling/screaming-singing. <--Not a word. I just want the control she had a few years ago back in her vocals whether they be nasal or not. Her 'You were/evolution' performance was just subpar, she's done and can do better. I'm not sure if it's her hearing, breath control, technique, or if her vocal chords are so worn out she needs a rest-- I just hope she takes her own advice because even she noticed her voice was not at it's best. Otherwise, she wouldn't have apologized for it.

Just one thing which I feel: watch past lives, it seems it's really easy for her to sing every notes, with a clear and controlled voice. Now she is literally struggling to sing properly.
Just one random 'old' live from youtube:

Compare it to You were... lives (i think those songs are quite similar to sing) and the gap is pretty obvious isn't it?
I think that her last lives where she seems to sing well without much effort were in 2007 (A BEST 2).
It's worsening in the sense that she can sing properly nowadays.

^I :love you!

You picked my all time favorite performance of No way to say. :cry

I've been trying to figure out what happened between then and now. :shrug

if you want proof just watch cdl 09-10 from beginning to end.

It's very clear and controlled, but it's also very nasal. Up until 2004 or 2005, she'd been singing through her nose for most, if not all of her lives. I wonder if it's a lot harder for her to sing from her diaphragm, and that's why it's seemed like she's been struggling, because she doesn't want to have that nasal tone all the time. I don't know, it's just a thought and I might be completely wrong, haha.

What is that supposed to prove? That the people in charge of mixing upped the volume on PECO's microphone and everything basically drowned Ayu out except during teddy bear? If so, I agree, haha. (Pride and Because of You were rather strained, but eh, I'm willing to forgive her, haha. Because of You is a hard song to sing well...)

Haha, I came by chance on this performance the other nigt and I was like: "I wish I knew ayu before 2003 so that I could have enjoyed her voice more (yeah, I'm one of those people who think that ayu IS/WAS a GOOD singer).

I miss those days : /
Even with this performance you can tell that the voice from 1999 to 2007(?) is coming from the same person. This performance reminds me of her early lives for example. But with her actual voice, it's pretty difficult I think. Well it's not a problem in itself, but sometimes I feel it's not ayu's voice. I don't know how to explain this.

Edit: Maybe it can be part of it. I don't know much as regards singing/technical stuff ^^". But her nasal voice didn't boher me. yet I know some people doesn't like it.

I don't really understand what you're getting at here.

Her singing has changed a bit [changed technique + bad breathing] but when she speaks, she sometimes gets into that nasal KAWAII mode she had in like 2000-2001... so it's like the same Ayu as always for me, just that she uses a very different technique when she's singing.

I guess I can give you that. :/ But I still heard ayu's voice pretty well and I don't think it was all that it would have been years ago. And the dvd version is only going to disprove me because they'll audio mix it for sure.

This is actually very possible. For those who don't know how, or even simply aren't used to, singing in a professional, "correct" way, singing through the nose is much easier and enables more control, even if it limits range and sounds kinda gross (lol).
Singing correctly gives you so much more freedom with your voice, but to get that control it takes a whole lot of control to do so in the first place...if that makes sense, lol. (Like, it takes a lot of practise and control to sing correctly - from the diaphragm, and not through the nose.) And considering Ayumi never had wonderful breath support to begin with, this may certainly be making it harder than it has to be for her.

I thought that her vocals were very muted compared to previous TV versions. You could hear it, but there were obviously many things that were louder than Ayu. Like PECO. It was so weird hearing her over Ayu during certain songs...

Believe me, CDL 2005-2006 (note: this concert was 4-5 years ago) really wasn't that great until they mixed everything correctly for the DVD, haha. A lot of people didn't really love it until the DVD came out, and that's fine since the TV versions are kind of done on the fly, or whatever.

I meant that during some of her actual lives (usually not on CD) the voice I'm hearing is like not ayu's voice. Her talking voice may have not really changed (a little deeper). That's what I feel sometimes (and I'm not talking about her edited voice on some dvd *10th anniversary live!*).

Yeah, it doesn't really matter how low her voice was in the mix or not. You can still clearly hear the problems in her voice. And I still think its entirely possible that the mixers were intentionally lowering the sound of her vocals, afterall, Avex isn't going to hire such incompetent people for an Ayu concert.. Teddy Bear was definitely the best performance of the night, but even that she oversung.

She did oversing a bit, but it's not really that uncommon for her. Just look at HEAVEN at AT06. Lord, Ayu, you do NOT need to add that many aaaAaaaaAaaAaaaas to the end of that song.

Her vibrato was nearly nonexistent that night, which was nice.

It's a possibility, but with live broadcasts anything can happen. (See: various lip-sync catches on camera on accident, stuff like Ashlee Simpson's jig on SNL, etc...) I wonder if they even noticed that something was up while the show was going on. Oh you and your conspiracies~

^ haha. It's not THAT much of a conspiracy theory. :) A singer doesn't sound good, so the engineers bury the vocals in the mix; it happens quite often I think. I'm especially noticing it on more and more studio albums these days it seems. That's why I'm kinda worried about the new cm that we heard; the quality is low but it sounds like her vocals are buried in the mix not just of the cm, but the song itself. Hopefully I'm wrong on that one because otherwise I really really love the way that song sounds so far.

About Teddy Bear - I just keep going back to her AT03 performance. She had emotion on her face but at the same time her vocals looked and sounded relaxed. This time it looked and sounded like she had to put extreme effort behind pushing each note out.

I definitely see where you're coming from, but usually with CMs that end up having a lot of talking, that's what happens. (And everyone jumps on that fact and says people shouldn't like it because how inaudible the clip is) If the song does turn out like that in the end, that would be a bit surprising to me. Usually her voice is pretty crystal clear in studio versions...

Just watched a You Were CDTV...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5GOLMWshF4
I can see what you mean by the "yelling" in the chorus. It's not so bad, but only if you compare it to the younger performance, you can hear the difference.

I loved the way the new song sounded. (:
Although it is a very LQ preview.. when I heard Sparkle masked by the talking, I loved it as well.

^ And this You were... performance is much better than the others (she is really shouting in the others and easily off-pitch).

can you show me some of the others? xD

^ All the You were... performances are up for download throughout the forum, I believe. :yes (Sorry, I don't have direct links...)
But again - I know I've said this many times, but it's true - don't provide "proof" of her "constant" yelling based on the You were... lives. That song takes a lot of support, especially for somebody with a deep voice (which now applies to Ayumi). Also, it's probably that much harder for somebody who has trouble in that area to begin with, such as Ayu... It's not that she's screaming, it's that she literally has to put everything into it. It doesn't seem like it, but You were... isn't exactly her easiest song.
Also, I just want to point out (again) that sometimes when she's yelling, it's because she's really excited and getting into it, hah. Like, I think it was the last performance of Rule she did, she started to almost scream it, but it's because she was having so much fun.... This also applies to nearly every evolution, Trauma, Boy & Girls, etc. performances, hah.

I was an Ayu fan since 2001 and her voice is what drew me to her, then I found out she's also a good lyricist. Those were the days. lol I'm one of the few who liked her 98-01 voice and Duty.

I considered this possibility only recently. I have no problem whatsoever singing her older songs, or using my head voice. My range singing this way is actually greater and doesn't sound as nasally as hers. When it comes to singing in my chest and singing "correctly" I experience some of the same problems as Ayu now does. It takes way more control, breath, and effort with my voice sounding flat. It could be because its hard for me to sing lower notes, as my voice will cut off if trying to go too low. :/ For me singing through my nose is easy, but through my diaphram is way harder.

Hopefully that snippet wasn't the final version of the song. I think they'll probably do a bit of editing before the actual release. From what I could hear, it wasn't that bad.

sorry, a bit off topic but i see discussion about you were and vibrato

ayu doesn't know how to control her hands. Not only is her vibrato out of control during almost every song, but her hands don't know how to keep to her sides. There's no problem with wanting to stand there and sing into a microphone.
http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u...aFamilyGuy.flv

ok not that bad but you get the idea of the hand/vibrato thing.

actually her voice didn't make me like her at all. I liked dearest and no more words and all (without knowing who she was) but when I first intentionally heard a song by her "is this love" I thought she had the worst voice ever. I hated that "Hey hey yeaaaaaaah yeaaaah lalala lalai lalalalalai yeah yeah yeaaaaaaaaH" It sounded super 80s to me. lol Which is why I came to love the karaoke version of it. :D

I would say that her vibrato is under control after CDL09-10... she barely did anything of the typical "aaaaAaaaAAaas or IiiIIiiiiiiiiiiiiIIiis" which is an improvement. As for her hands, I think it's just something she does because that's how she rehearses certain songs, and also because it's boring as hell when artists don't move. I've watched all of her making of documentary things and she almost always does some sort of diva hand flourish when singing ballads. Other artists are rather guilty of this too... I'm looking at you, Ken Hirai.

^ken hirai is one big snore factor for me. I've seen a few lives and haven't really seen him do it. but again I"m not a fan of him so I don't pay attention.

Maybe she does it out of habit but if an artist's voice is amazing enough they shouldn't have to waver themselves around stage. I think it looks very classy and proper to be able to stand there and belt out all those notes instead of being over this side of the stage with your body while your hands are on that side of the stage.

A singer will move their bodies around (specifically, the hands, of course) for different reasons. Like you pointed out with Christina Aguilera (lol at the clip, by the way XP), many singers use their hands as an outlet of focus when trying to hit really high or low notes, or when needing to hold a note for a good length. But a lot of singers also just move around due to emotion. I believe this is Ayumi's case. She's a very emotional person in general, so that's brought over into her singing, of course. She....flails [lol] about only because she's getting into, not because it's a vocal technique....... It doesn't look like it is, anyhow.

And I agree, I think she's definitely working to improve on that vibrato... Thank goodness. >_>'

She used to just stand there in some of her earlier performances, and then the hand/vibrato combo came along. It's probably done out of habit by now.

Those songs were my firsts for Ayumi, it brings back memories... Inuyasha. lol I didn't know those were by her at the time either, but I knew I liked them. A friend had shown me a picture of her and I thought she was really pretty, but I couldn't remember the name, just the face. So I hear this beautiful song on Inuyasha and I look it up online, and it turns out to be the girl I'd been looking for--Ayu! I've been a fan ever since.

I've only recently began to like "Is this love" a tinge.

Yeah, I don't remember which interview it was but one in 2009 she said something about how it's hard to control her screaming sometimes because she gets so excited on stage, lol

I'd say to watch the "because of you" performance at CDL 09-10 to hear how bad her vocals can be. But she does not sound like that all the time now and even her worst performances lately aren't as vocally bad as CDL 07-08 tv version or most of AT08 so I'm not sure why people think she's getting worse live, as I see a bit of an improvement in her voice. :S It just seems like she used to be lost in a sea of vibrato and it made her voice sound awful, but lately she has toned it down and when she does use her vibrato it actually sounds nice, not like HEAVEN @ AT06 or Dearest @ AT08 lol.

Also I loved all of the You were... lives and thought she sang most of them very nicely. I originally expected way way worse and for her to not be able to reach any of the notes. She wound up only having a couple of messups, and one of the lives sounded almost identical to the original recording.

Talking about the hand move movements, it can be used to help a singer keep in tune too. Chihiro Onitsuka does it, a lot.

Boku taaaaaaachiiiiiiii waaaaaaaaa *sway sway sway* lol

Oddly enough, Is This Love is one of my favorites just for that part you didn't like!
& lol at the clip...

re the hands: It's especially very common in Japan for female singers, which isn't surprising because hands are historically considered very "sexy". I haven't seen many performances by any female artist where hands aren't moved constantly to some extent.

Oh my gawd, the HEAVEN performance...... I remember the first time I saw that, I totally started busting up laughing. :laugh She unhinges her jaw like a freakin' snake and lets out this wave of aaAAAHhhhaaAAAAHHHhhhhAAAaaahhhhhhhh, and it's like WHOA!!!!! :thud Totally made me giggle...

:roflmao


And man, everybody keeps talking like the newest Because of You performance was super-terrible, eh heh....... That makes me very sad. D:

It's not super terrible, but it was by far one of her worst vocal performances of the night. Because of You is a kind of hard song to sing well anyway... so I forgive her for it.

The hand thing is one of my ultimate pet peeves. :) But not with Ayu though because she is on the low end of offenders when it comes to that.

As for the You Were and Rule performances being "good." Are they considered good because she sounds similar to how the recording does? Because imo, that just means that her studio vocals have problems too. Both songs are very shouty and choppy sounding in their studio versions and they sound that way live too. I love the melody and music of both songs but her vocals are the weak point of the those tracks for me.

I agree. As she sung a lot of old songs in PCDL, I liked them much better here, than her old performances. I didn't really like her old voice, so about the MY STORY era it just got so much better, but just this year it seems that it's going down again. I think CDL wasn't really good, because she made a tracklist of songs that she couldn't sing.

I don't think it's SO bad, as many people say, but her Sunrise, some Rule and some You were... performances (NOT to forget evolution) was just too.. crappy. I just think she should take a break and try to relax a bit more on the scene (not screaming)

But a lot of old songs are better today. TO BE and evolution, just to name some

i actually don't understand why Ayu has problems with her voice...

because she can sing.when i watched early performances or those when she was a teenager her voice seems to be alright

i don't know of these things but maybe it's due to her ear...

Well her deeper voice is really good I think
You know, it's just creepy to see a woman in her 30s with a very high pitched voice right ?
That's why I'm really ok with her current voice
It's just there are some bad performance like what PinkShinigami said, but maybe it's just because she's tired or something

Ayu clearly improved vocally overall until the end of 2005, then slowly worsened and hit rock bottom around CDL0708(when her hearing on one ear completely vanished), but she is slowly but surely climbing back up. Her songs are getting harder again, her range is expanding(GREEN and Rule had notes in it she didn't sing since M!), she holds notes longer again, controls her vibrato better, some performances of CDL0910 were really good(momentum, You Were...), better than everything she did after Together When... at CDL0708(which was her last really good vocal performance and a big exception to the rest of that era).

You can actually even say her voice in some aspects began worsening in 2002, Duty is probably her hardest song so far, yes, Duty, might sound weird to some people, but it requires an impressive range for a pop singer at nearly 3 octaves WITHOUT headvoice and falsetto, fewest popsingers can do that, Ayu butchered the song trying to sing it again in CDL0405. However at that time(~98-01/02) she damaged her voice by trying to sing higher than what's natural for her which is usually inrepairable damage.

I had no idea Duty was such a difficult song to sing, but I did notice she couldn't sing it well at CDL0405.

Duty is incredibly hard, I'd say 99.8% of all pop songs are nothing compared to that, even some songs from great voices are fairly easy compared to it.

It's no wonder then why it hurts my throat to sing along then. This raised my respect for the song that much higher. XD

Duty is kinda hard to sing, never really thought about it though. (me and my alone at night karaoke sessions ^^; ) I think if anything still alone is her hardest to sing, isn't it her highest pitched song?

still alone? no way! xD still alone isn't very high, she has at least 10 songs with higher notes, her highest pitched song is kanariya, Duty is only a note lower and requires a much bigger range

can you tell me her top 10 songs with the highest notes? these are interesting!

anyway, about her voice... I only have a problem with the quality of her voice. Like many of you have mentioned and discussed, her voice has changed many times throughout the years. Nevertheless, what I feel is the problem isn't her vibrato, or her voice going lower... if anything I feel these are positive changes to her voice.

But the fact is that the quality of her voice has gone downhill ever since late-2007. I just watched JEWEL Orchestra version @ FNS in 2006, and I could still... enjoy it to say the least. Nowadays I cringe at her live performances... most of Future Classics were like these.

And since teddy bear was brought up... I can't deny that teddy bear @ Future Classics was easily the best performance, but seriously... that compared to teddy bear at AT 03-04? It's kinda obvious that a negative change has occurred in her voice, right?

Like what SunshineSlayer has mentioned... her voice now is just way too choppy, strained, breathy and weak as compared to say 2003-2006. I remember being REALLY hyped about hearing Days in PCDL, but when I started, oh God. She was singing really choppy and staccato-ish that... it almost doesn't sound like the Days I know. That's the extent of how bad she could sing.

I don't mean to sound rude, trollish or harsh, but the fact is that her voice has gone downhill since late-2007. I don't know what contributed to that; maybe it's drinking... I mean I secretly suspect she drinks to herself every night in her house after break up with Nagase, so... :shrug

yeah it would be nice to up the difficulty of her songs nowadays but i dont want her voice to just flat out die

but what are her most highly pitched songs

cdl 09-10 was rough on some performances. . .like because of you as it seems to be mentioned. but i just hope she is working on it. i really love her deeper voice. its nice. she just has to control it better

Can't tell you the top 10, I'm far from having absolute pitch(being able to recognize the height of notes just by hearing them), but I can list some songs that are higher than still alone:
kanariya
TO BE
Connected
M
Duty(I just noticed I talked crap about Duty being lower than kanariya, Duty, kanariya and TO BE all feature her highest note)
I am...
Dearest
A song is born
GREEN
Rule
all these feature a highest note between an E5 flat and an F5
i'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I can think of right now

^ Seems like her range hasn't fallen short at all. :) but if you ask me... she probably had more difficulty pitching the high notes in GREEN & Rule than in ... M and Dearest lol

I really love Ayu's voice and also the Guilty CD, it's awesome same as the DVD from TAIPEI 2008.
It's true that sometimes she has problems with singing like the last CDL, it wasn't as good as the year before but I still love all from her so much.
I believe that everything is okay and it's just some mistakes sometime.

well, comparing her singing Connected and GREEN in the studio recordings she seems to struggle only a little more, she had vocal classes when she rerecorded her old songs in 2008 making her hit these notes again, I think for the most part her worsening is her not hearing herself on stage, when it's quiet she sings much better and M and GREEN have the exact same highest note and I hear her struggle a little in both.

wow I never knew M and GREEN's highest notes were the same cos it always sounded like M was the 'screechy' mode of Ayu aka Dearest, M, SEASONS, Connected, kanariya etc lol.

I think her range has been pretty stable... that's good to know lol

I bet she'd have an easier time if she swayed back and forth and used "spirit fingers"

I still think still alone is a pretty high pitched song ^^; Too bad some of those listed as the highest pitched are some of her best too. hell, with the exception of asib, those are all some of my favorite songs. I wish her ear didn't deafen. But atleast she tries. A for effort. D:

She sings the exact same way in all her songs now and that forced vibrato is such garbage. So yes, it's not necessarily her voice, but the way she sings, which has become garbage.

I love her deeper voice now; it sounds very mature, and she is still a singer, even though many people are complaining, I still think her voice is amazing, and not many people can pull off an amazing voice with only one ear working... I mean, she does have a bit of trouble in some preformances hitting the right notes, but it doesn't have a huge impact on the preformance, imo. I still love to listen to her lives, and I think that her voice is simply getting older and maturing, not worsening :)

Well it's not really about being bored. Ayu's voice is a serious issue if she's going to continue on as a singer.

The only thing I see happening, which I expected, is that she has trouble hitting high notes now, though her current voice is beautiful to me.

I agree, I've just been wondering what the reason for the complaining is!

idk for her concerts, but in her recordings, to me, she sounds best than ever.

I would say that the change in teddy bear was more because of the fact that she changed her singing technique around 2006 or so after the release of (miss)understood. She also recorded Startin' in the same studio at the same time as the album tracks for (miss)understood and mentioned "but this is the first time I've challenged myself with a vocal style like "Startin'"! While I was singing, I felt "You can sing like this too". What really brought out that new vocal style was doing the recording in the New York studio with such good sound and nice atmosphere." I would say that her vocal styles in Startin' was only the beginning.) Because of this, I don't think it's fair to compare her vocals from back around 6-7 years ago to her vocals now. It'd be like comparing Kaori Mochida's pre-2002/2003 vocals to her voice now. It's changed so much that people might not even think it was her singing the songs anymore.

As for her breathing issues, I have no idea why she's been running out of breath so easily in some lives like during the Sunrise TV promotion, but at various times since then, she's done pretty well live. Specifically certain performances at CDL09-10 and a-nation '09. Ugh, she did so amazingly at a-nation '09 and no one ever brings it up because they're too busy harping on her bad vocals during -insert performance here-... it's just sad that when she does well, people are quick to say that she's not really singing or something, and then when she does terribly, people say that her vocals have gone down the tubes. I think people complained to no end starting with the CDL05-06 live version, and every year since then, people have been bagging on Ayu's vocals because they're so much more polished than in the live TV broadcast version, but isn't that obvious? It's live/raw! Of course the DVD is going to sound better!

I think if people doesn't talk about a-nation '09 TV vocals is because they're edited and then there is no point to do so? :shrug

So what if they're "edited"? It's not like they replace her vocals or anything after editing them. A lot of people seem to think that when they edit the DVDs, they add some sort of pitch correction to live vocals and slip in some previously recorded studio vocals when needed.

I think that her vocals probably weren't changed all that much... but all we have to go on really from news clips is a small snippet of July 1st.


News clip vs. TV version

If you compare an edited performance with a non-edited one (for example a bad one) you'll see that they can do magic tricks! Of course it's based on her voice, but there is actually pitch correction. Even when she is going off-pitch because of crying they fix that (and I hate it!).

From the video, I can barely hear something (which doesn't seem great). : /

My point is not to say that 'she sounded great because it's obviously edited' no. I just wanted to say that you can't judge with edited lives.

Well bad singing never hurt her career or stopped her from singing, she was actually most popular when her singing was at it's worst in 2000. Ayu is going to be just fine, I wouldn't be too concerned about it

I wonder where their audio came from for the news clips that came out...



Mmm, July 1st.

Oh yeah, I just found an audio rip of Rule from the 8/23 concert.
http://since1997.tistory.com/1884

There's a music player if you scroll down a bit and you have to use the drop down menu to listen to the "Hamasaki Ayumi.mp3" track. It sounds a little weird/too loud, but I think that's bound to happen since it's a fanrecording from the speakers at the concert.

Well, for most overseas fans, all that we can really judge are edited lives. (I would say a-nation '09 isn't as heavily edited as say a concert tour anyway) She's never been too amazing when it comes to TV lives post-2004ish, so I tend not to count those because for whatever reason, she always sounds like she doesn't rehearse.

The only other option would be to see her live, but some people say that the experience is different and vocals tend not to sound as "bad" when they're seen live...? I'm trying to see if anyone from AHS saw a-nation '09 live and said anything about her vocals, but I don't think anyone posted any reviews.

If seeing her live or watching DVDs of her lives isn't good enough to judge whether her vocals are good enough, then just how are fans supposed to rate her voice? Just TV performances? Knowing Ayu's history with them, I'm not so sure that they're the best material to work off of. It's basically like forcing people into thinking that she's got terrible vocals! Or at least forcing them into thinking good vocals = edited and bad vocals = she sucks and doesn't practice. Even if she does well, a group of people always manage to shoot her down because ~the performance was edited~. Is she not allowed to sing well nowadays or something?

I think that a lot of people loved her vocals in 2000, or else she wouldn't have peaked then. So I think your argument is quite invalid. Some of her most technically challenging songs, as we've seen in this thread, are from that era. :P

Watching some videos from around that time, people do say that they loved her voice and that she could sing really well. Of course, sometimes I'm like, rolling my eyes as they say that because she really wasn't that great of a singer at the time.

Darn, need to find an English version. Looks like NO ONE has the English version of this... time to go hunting for it.

Actually, I have to agree with Identity on this one. Just, she was so popular because she was this hot new thing, and then that was when her music went from really catchy and cool to pretty much amazing, hah. She was starting to take on a different image as the cute fashion queen Ayu. It was the start of the "Empress" and her peak. I believe her vocals were terrible and everybody realised that, but because she had so many others things going for her at the time, people didn't really care.
And if people really did say, 'ooh, she sings sooo well!! :luv2', it was only because they loved her so much, lol. We all know how it is, to exaggerate on even the weakest points of our favourite artists, just because we love them and see them as nearly perfect beings.

^ Yeah, you make a good point there. We all get kinda biased and blind when we're total complete fans...including me, lol XD

Maybe they're so challenging because it's so hard to be able to sing them as bad as she did :shrug loljk. But I can't imagine anyone saying they love her vocals in both concert tour 2000's. Well, maybe you because you seem to think there is nothing wrong with the TV version of cdl 07-08.

Ah yes, I forgot about that rip. Well, it's fine, yet far from being very good (troubles with controlling her voice, maybe due to her hearing). She usually does fine with Rule I would say.

This is the impression I have too. But they are nevertheless a good indicator (with one performance she can focus more / she can hear herself better than in her tours...). I also think it's quite hard to judge vocals during concerts because you're into the atmosphere and so on... you're there to enjoy.

In the past, her Tv live broadcasts weren't edited so it was great to judge her vocals. Now everything is edited apart from her Tv lives. So it's the only time one can really judge her vocals, a lot of rehearsal or not, I don't care it's her job and after evolution's issue she said she will rehearse more :).
I (like the other) don't want to force anyone to think that she has terrible vocals. IMO, it's almost the case actually. And you can't deny that she has troubles singing. If tomorow she put an awesome performance (and that I will be sure it's her real unedited voice) I will be the first to say "People who say Hamasaki isn't good at singing are morons" :D.

EDIT: If you're looking for "the face on every billboard" in English, I have it.

I think her voice improved but at the same time because of overused it became strained.
Try to watch her 2000- lives she sounded so pitchy then watch her lives around 2003 then watch her lives now you can definitely see improvement but at the same time you'll notice how strained her voice is and that's natural because she's been singing for a really long time.

Well, funnily enough Concert Tour Vol. 1 is my favourite Ayu concert. XD
About CDL0708, of course her vocals aren't terrific, but for all that was going off on that concert they were decent.

That is what I am looking for. If you can upload it and post it to the downloads section, it would be great. AHS used to host it and it was taken down a while back.

She does have trouble singing, but I don't think that it's something that should always be focused upon. Yes, she's a singer, but she's not exactly a normal act. She came up from basically being "nothing" in terms of fame to becoming a pop icon within a matter of years. Her debut is probably one of the most true-to-life Cinderella stories that I have ever seen... a girl who thought she had no talents whatsoever beginning her life as a singer at the age of 19 and turning into one of the most successful Japanese pop artists the country has ever seen. She's never been strong vocally, and I think she would agree if you asked her, but I think that the emotion/heart/soul she puts into performing and getting her feelings out there in her songs more than makes up for whatever she lacks technically when it comes to her voice.

Ok, I'm trying to put it on a file sharing website (hope there won't be any error message at the end -_-)

I agree with you, but as I think she is a good singer, it's a bit difficult for me to accept her actual voice. I'm not making a drama out of it haha, just that it's a bit sad.

If we want to talk about a-nation '09... BLUE BIRD was horrible choppy in its chorus. Compared to the recording in Secret, the one in a-nation '09 was extremely staccato-ish in her articulations and execution of the notes... that's just not very good imo.

Anyway, about her peaking when her voice kinda sucked... well sorry but from her debut-2000 her nasal-screechy voice was that kind of voice that Japan loved. I don't have it with me now, but I remember an article mentioning about her monochrome in the "A" single, and she was praised for that style of singing in monochrome.

Of course I'm not saying it's bad that her voice changed; when her voice went a little lower and added the vibratos in 2002.. that was wonderful, no? In fact 2003 had some of her best vocal performances, particularly in TV. 2004-2006 was her best years in terms of vocal performance to me, cos she had everything - tone, technique, control and quality.

And I mean, I'm not picking on her or whatever. But hey she's a singer. And behind all the sexy get-ups, cool gimmicks, singers do one thing - sing. It's like... being an artist an using the best canvas and most brilliant colors but sucking at drawing. What's the point again?

Ayu CAN sing honey. In fact I believe 2002-2006 was the period where she really proved she's not that "random girl Max picked up at a bar". But things have gone downhill ever since late-2007... and it's a fact. Nothing to be ashamed of seriously, because even Ayu herself knows and recognized it. I'm glad she's trying to make it better, so that's all that's enough for me.

Things and people change, and I know it'll be hard for Ayu to return to that period where her voice just blew me away. But it's all right... nowadays my standards for Ayu have dropped tremendously anyway, and I would say most of her recent performances in the current Ayu standard is fine.

Can We Go Back to where we used to be? Guess not.

Sorry, don't call anyone honey if you're trying to prove a point, and don't use some crappy song title to try and make light of this situation.

I would say she did prove herself, but it took years for her to get to that point. Just like from 1998-2002 was her period of "training" vocally, she has probably started all over from the beginning when it comes to her vocals. You can't just suddenly just revert to the way you used to be. It's like how people have to go through therapy to begin learning how to walk again if they've lost use of their legs. It takes time, and it doesn't seem like you acknowledge that at all. I mean what if you were an artist and people kept complaining about how choppy your vocals were 3 years after you released a track even though you were performing as best as you could at the time?

No offence, but that was uncalled for.

I actually agree with waterballoon here.

Well I had to, considering the, "She was never a good singer..." excuse came up again a few replies back, when that wasn't the case unfortunately? I feel like people are undermining Ayu for her singing abilities for God knows what reason.

And you don't like Kelly Clarkson? O_O" + :O

Well, I do acknowledge that, which was why I said it's all right even if she can't be as good as she was, because I know she's trying. And fine I would say that after losing her hearing completely she would have to re-train everything from the basics (If she did). Doing that is difficult, and more so if you have tons of lives to do at the same time.

But maybe it's just me... but would your voice go all raspy and choppy just because you lost your hearing on one ear. I don't mind if she goes out of tune or whatever because I can understand that; but seriously, raspy and choppy voice? I can't attribute that to her loss of hearing, sorry. And if she's breaking her notes up so she can "listen" to how it sounds like, then firstly it isn't working, and secondly it obviously isn't helping much.

And I don't mean to sound harsh.

I agree I mean we can't expect her voice to just come back because that's impossible considering her voiced is so strained right now and the fact she's growing old. I think that she is constantly improving but it's just that her voice is strained.

For me I always loved Ayu since I found her out and I always will her voice doesn't matter to me I love Ayu and that'll never change.

They're "undermining" them because some people treat them like they were godly or something when at their best, she was probably only better than the average idol singer. I think that Ayu's voice is amazing and unique, and no one else in the world can sound like her without sounding like a complete idiot, but as for her vocal ability compared to people who are classically trained/have always strived to become singers since they were young, she cannot hold a candle to them. However, this doesn't matter to me because despite that, she is able to express herself through the songs/performance even though her vocals are not incredible, like I said before, she makes up for it with her passion.

It's a combination of her losing her hearing in one ear along with the new singing style. Just singing in a different way is hard for some people, and Ayu has to do it with only one working ear. She could sing nasally if she wanted to, and it'd be easier since that's what she's used to, but instead she chooses to use the more difficult technique. It quite possibly explains why everything sounds so different from the way things used to sound because she's completely outside of her comfort zone vocally. For someone like Ayu, I'm sure she's having Kome [her vocal supervisor or whatever] tell her what she's doing wrong and such. If she was singing badly without trying to fix it like some people seem to suspect (which I think of as complete bull) someone would've told her she wasn't doing things right. Ayu is the singer here, and I'm sure she knows wtf she's doing after 11 years in the business even though some people want some forumgoers to believe that they "know what's going on behind the scenes" when they really don't. I don't know either, but I have faith that she's trying as hard as she can to give everyone who listens to her music the best performance possible even if her voice isn't 100%. This is the woman who performs with broken fingers, a sprained ankle, a severe cold, a lost voice, and so on. I think like many (normal) people, Ayu will have her off days when it comes to her voice, and there just isn't anything she can do about it once she goes on stage. Do you expect her to just stop singing because her voice isn't working properly? The show must go on, after all...

Still, that is a fact that she had decent singing abilities for a period of time. Of course it's gonna be unfair to compare her to other female solo singers, because everyone is all different, but I've always been comparing based on Ayu herself over the years.

If she has sung well in 2002-2006, then what's so wrong in admitting that and think, "She can sing".?

You might think so, but looking at the disgusting photos that Kazuyoshi Shimomura shot for a period of time, I can safely say that no one really tells Ayu off for the **** she does. I mean, if you're her staff and you feel her singing sucks, would you go and tell her, "Hey Ayu your singing sucks. Spare us."? It's insensitive and kind of stupid cos you'll obviously lose your job.

What I'm trying to say is that... she might have made singing mistakes, but no one could have told her, you know? Like you never know... sometimes people just :) and :yes to everything so they can keep their rice bowls...

And yes I know she's a woman who tries to give the perfect show all the time; I don't deny that, and I salute her for that. But her giving her all in her performances =/= her vocals have gone worse. In particular, the raspy and choppy tone of her voice is hardly because of "technique" because God how can there be a singing technique that makes your voice suck? :shrug

Because her singing voice is just average. Yes, she can sing. But so can like 50% of the residents in Taiwan.

I think the raspy/choppy thing is something that SunshineSlayer has drilled into your head. I've only seen her and maybe a few other people complain about that. But anyway, it seems like she's just running out of breath for whatever reason and things end up getting not so pretty in the end. Her breathing control definitely needs to be worked on in the coming weeks for AT10, and we should be able to hear it in the first concert since quite a few AHS members are going. So it's not really the singing technique that's making her voice sound bad, but that she's not breathing correctly while using such a technique. I mean put yourself in her shoes and try singing in the same manner and I think you might understand just what is going on.

She depends on her staff (I think) to tell her when things are going wrong, so if something is up with her voice, Kome seems to be the one who is behind it. She's always talking about how he's the one who keeps her voice in tip-top shape, after all. Sure, I think Ayu in 2001-2002 would've bitten your head off if you mouthed off to her, but as a friend/as a comrade reaching for the same goal, she'd probably take your criticism into consideration. I mean she did realize the less than stellar nature of her evolution performance, so I suppose she's able to realize her own faults without being "blind."

Of course. Her staff wouldn't say it like that because they aren't five years old. I'd expect them to say that her vocals don't seem to be okay and if something's wrong since things don't sound too good or something as opposed to: "Oh, Ayu, by the way, you sucked tonight" like some jealous snobby fan of some other artist trying to get under her skin.

I'm not saying she's perfect or anything, but I think that some people really don't give Ayu enough credit (or perhaps they are giving the Ayu of the past too much credit) and they continue to compare to things done 4 years ago as opposed to simply being concerned with what's happening now. Her vocals at CDL09-10 weren't that great, but according to people who actually saw her at the two shows [12/30 and 12/31] she was perfect on the 30th and on the 31st, she'd had problems with Because of You and I am... and that's it. It's just... strange.

Yes, but she is trying as hard as she can. I don't think anyone can expect more from her because she's already giving her all and yeah, her voice isn't quite "up there", but what can we do about it? Just sitting around complaining about it isn't going to help. I have faith that she's doing all that she can to fix whatever went wrong with her vocals that night/for all of December/whatever and I think as fans, that's all we can do. Just believe that she's working as hard as she says she is to put on a perfect show. It's just that it seems like she puts so much into the lives and people just love talking smack about all of her efforts.

Somehow, I feel like this is going to end up like one of those "Wait, we aren't allowed to have opinions? threads, but I guess for me, things have always been like this with Ayu. She's never been strong/consistent vocally, so I have never felt that when CDL or a tour came around that things were out of the ordinary. From my experience as an Ayu fan, her performance (usually bad) always seem to be blown out of proportion when they're compared to how past Ayu was. It's a little depressing when some fans are ashamed to say that they like something from Ayu because they're afraid to be jumped on by people who aren't so in love with whatever she's doing. It's looking like one of Ayu's biggest obstacles as an artist is herself and she basically has to outdo herself with everything she does to satisfy some fans and I don't think that's possible after 11 years. Can't people just be satisfied/happy with the way things are?*

*even if some things could be better, but she's working on it! Look at Kazuyoshi -> ND CHOW!

(I think I'm gonna stop here. Haha.)

i think her voice is just overworked...plus the eye problem is affecting her pitch as well

eye problem ? whats with her eyes? i thought ear.
i don't care if ayu's voice have worsen over the years & i will still love her for who and what she is.

i agree with you :yes i watched all her lives too and with the past few years she seems to have more and more diffculties to sing correctly her own songs.

sometimes all the" lalala" and the "yeah yeah" are overdone or she try to go higher than the actual song and music which make it sounds not as good .

i wonder however if her loosing of her capacity to hear on one ear have something do to with it ?

I can't believe the amount of crap some people in here write when I clearly outlines the evolution of her vocals in an earlier post of mine. 1998-2002 wasn't the time with her "horrible" vocals, she had a little problem with her breathing through her nose, but that's it. The songs on LOVEppears, Duty and I Am... are the hardest in her discography and she sang them very nicely live especially in her earliest performances, people like to call it bad because they don't like the high pitched voice of that time.
Her vocals changed but stayed on around the same level until 2005, she managed to start breathing properly around 2003 and develop a controlled vibrato, however her range shrinked(probably due to her straining her voice too much in her early career)
Around the beginning of 2006 her hearing started to affect the control of her pitch, she started getting shaky in live performances and began to stop notes early because she felt that she would go offtune(JEWEL performances showed that very obvious).
Her vocals were worst around CDL0708 when her ear completely went deaf, the performances of fated and Together When were good because she was far away from the main stage for the most time and therefore heard herself better on her in-ears + she was very focused as seen on her face.
At that time she struggled to hit notes and therefore lost control over her vibrato and had problems breathing properly. These problems still are there today, but she constantly improved over the last two years, CDL0910 had some performances showcasing good vocals and even the performances ruled "bad" most people on a technical level weren't even that bad, she had a way better control over her voice, her breathing, her vibrato. Her range began getting bigger with her hitting notes in Rule and GREEN she hasn't sung since M! She will never be back to her old vocals entirely, you can't sing that good with one deaf ear, hearing yourself is the most important part of singing by far, but she is improving. I would say she is back to her vocals in late 2006/early 2007 by now.

I hope this is understood now, I don't want to write a long essay about this next time xD

PS: Ayu never changed her vocal technique, what she talked about when she wrote about Startin' wasn't really a different technique, but just singing more forcefully with more air.

^ Yeah you wrote is greatly noidea ;)
Totally agree with every single word :D

I agree this craps have to end...
I haven't been an Ayu fan for a year yet and I think her vocals have somehow improved but at the same time it sounds much more strained. I mean try recording singles then an album then tour in just a year those can strained your voice.

I don't sing or something but yeah hearing does affect your singing. Yeah you can probably still sing well but you need training for that (I think Ayu is working on that).

I also love her deepening voice. When I got into Ayu, the first song I ever heard was Dearest, from the ending of the InuYasha anime.. About two years later (2009) I decided I'd listen to her live, so I found the clip of Ayu performing Dearest in her Asia Tour 2008.. and omg my jaw dropped. It sounded so different, but when I searched for others, I noticed her voice really had changed from the early 2000s and onwards. And I really don't mind. Her voice sounds really different, but still so so good! That's what I love about her :)

You guys, now I just found out why Ayu's voice is changing over the years:

She wants to get rid of her nasal tone!

I discovered it when I tried to get rid of mine, and I failed~ (sigh)

It's so hard, I sounded so harsh when I tried to speak like "normal"-------

Nevertheless, I think Ayu tries to sing from the diaphragm and not her "nose" anymore,

but then she loses her control because she wanted to maintain her tone nasal-free!

I prefer her nasal tone any day, because she sounds so great with it!

I mean, it's not that nasal ~ it's actually pretty nice, (^v^)b

So that where she is today--I think.