Thoughts on COUNTDOWN LIVE 2007-2008 Anniversary II - DVD out

[zoomzoom]

Now that the DVD is out, what are your thoughts?

Visually I think it's (obviously) much better than the TV version. It really looks awesome and it's nicely edited, I noticed a lot more details than in the TV version. They also use the flying camera a lot, which gives cool effects.

On the audio part, it sounds great, everything has been balanced, like the audience, band and back up singers. Luckily they turned the audio on Peco and Princess down, so they're now what they're supposed to be - back up singers. Songs like decision now sound good, because it's not made into a horrible trio. Ayu's vocals have been slightly touched up, yet it still sounds like the TV version. It's hard to explain, but bringing out ayu's vocal from Peco/Princess hell made her sound a whole lot better. She is, however, still kinda off in some parts of songs like Together When, decision (the ne-eh parts), SURREAL, B&D and so on.

In the end, it feels a lot more polished, but not to the point of perfection like AT07 was. It has a more raw feel IMO.

One major difference was that they chose to completely mute Peco's dancer introductions during the Ladies Night into. In one shot, you can see her say something into the microphone, but you can't hear her. THANK YOU GOD! Now you can fully enjoy the extended Ladies Night intro without her destroying it.

(For those who haven't seen it, it's on it's way in the download section)

[Bad Wolf]

I'm glad someone else thought AT 07 was sheer freakin' perfection. I can't tell you how many times I watched that over and over, even though it's taking up a lot of space on my hard drive...

I'm going to use this post as a placeholder for my thoughts on CDL07-08, but what I remember from the TV version I thought it was actually quite good. I can look past the parts where she isn't always on par vocally because she puts on a good show regardless of how flawless her voice is or is not.

I'm also glad to hear that the back up vocals are made as they're supposed to be - I agree that them being louder than usual / louder than they should be takes a lot away from how Ayu sounds since she either has to compete or compare with them. Just stick to harmonizing with the "oohs" and the "yeahs," ladies, please.

[truehappiness]

Well, I think zoomzoom's point was that AT07 was a little fishy. Like, it felt as though everything was PERFECT [despite a few screwups during the final songs where her feathers fell off..] you know, like vocals were spot on, visuals were incredible.. it was as if they did it all in multiple takes and put together the best clips together..

I dunno, that's what people seemed to feel like about the DVD..

[TakaSama]

I generally agree with your thoughts, but I also think that they did something odd in order to hide some of the rough spots in Ayu's singing - they put her singing behind the music. Sometimes while watching the DVD version I got the impression that they were drowning out her vocals with the guitars, etc, particularly during songs like SURREAL where she went off key a lot. I can only watch the stereo mix though, so the 5.1 mix may give different results (at first I thought the audio was on the wrong setting because the background music seemed too loud compared to the vocals).

I'm really glad PECO and Princess are back where they belong too! That's always the worst part about seeing the TV versions, I think, because it's almost always the case that they are too loud in the initial mix.

By the way, I want to say how much I loved this set list, because she did songs like Rainbow and Sotsugyou Shashin that she hasn't done very often! And I can give her a break on the vocals considering she lost her hearing around the time of this concert. Vocally speaking though, I still like CDL 04-05 better.

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Well, I think zoomzoom's point was that AT07 was a little fishy. Like, it felt as though everything was PERFECT [despite a few screwups during the final songs where her feathers fell off..] you know, like vocals were spot on, visuals were incredible.. it was as if they did it all in multiple takes and put together the best clips together..

I dunno, that's what people seemed to feel like about the DVD..

Do you think they could have used clips from several different shows on the tour? I mean, by using the behind the scenes clips between songs, they justified cutting the transitions between some of the songs... it is possible.

[truehappiness]

It's possible, but that wouldn't have made any sense seeing as how someone probably would've noticed it. If they were going to do that, then they wouldn't have allowed the final mishap to be on the DVD, so it's entirely very unlikely that they did use other shows [other than the Asian stops' special encores and such] during the DVD..

[zoomzoom]

With AT07, I do think it was all from the same show and I don't think they tampered with it in ways that would make it all fake. They just cleaned up the sound and background noise so much it was so clear compared to other tours.

As I said, this seems more raw. It feels like a countdown live, with both sound and editing, Tour of Secret just seemed different somehow. But it was obvious ayu had a great deal of fun here, it's really a party. She was laughing her way through the ending of SURREAL, lol.

[truehappiness]

Tour of Secret, to me, was an example of a really really good show. Like it seemed almost like it was a huge theatre production from Broadway or something. A perfectly executed entertainment extravaganza.

[alternarist]

i haven watch the dvd yet.. but so far regarding the opinions on ayu's vocals.. i mean we ALL DO KNOW that ayu's vocal will be touched up on the DVD right? lol

[truehappiness]

Her vocals weren't touched up as much as people thought though... They were made louder and more balanced with all the other audio that went on at the concert, but other than that, she still kinda goes offkey and all that like at the original performance we saw months ago.

[majrakun]

I haven't watched the DVD yet so I wanna ask, did the scene that made Ayu laugh in the beginning of Humming 7/4 shown? In the TV version, the angle was at Ayu looking at them, can't see a thing. Could it be the same tiny guitar gimmick they had during AT07?

[TakaSama]

Originally Posted by majrakun

I haven't watched the DVD yet so I wanna ask, did the scene that made Ayu laugh in the beginning of Humming 7/4 shown? In the TV version, the angle was at Ayu looking at them, can't see a thing. Could it be the same tiny guitar gimmick they had during AT07?

They show her laughing, but you can't really see what she's laughing at still. It seems like it has to do with the hat tricks the dancers are doing though, not with the guitar.

[Melrose]

Originally Posted by TakaSama

I generally agree with your thoughts, but I also think that they did something odd in order to hide some of the rough spots in Ayu's singing - they put her singing behind the music. Sometimes while watching the DVD version I got the impression that they were drowning out her vocals with the guitars, etc, particularly during songs like SURREAL where she went off key a lot. I can only watch the stereo mix though, so the 5.1 mix may give different results (at first I thought the audio was on the wrong setting because the background music seemed too loud compared to the vocals).

I'm really glad PECO and Princess are back where they belong too! That's always the worst part about seeing the TV versions, I think, because it's almost always the case that they are too loud in the initial mix.

By the way, I want to say how much I loved this set list, because she did songs like Rainbow and Sotsugyou Shashin that she hasn't done very often! And I can give her a break on the vocals considering she lost her hearing around the time of this concert. Vocally speaking though, I still like CDL 04-05 better.

Actually, she didn't SUDDENLY lose her hearing I think. It went pretty gradually. So she shouldn't have had trouble with CDL07-08 because of her hearing.

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Well, I think zoomzoom's point was that AT07 was a little fishy. Like, it felt as though everything was PERFECT [despite a few screwups during the final songs where her feathers fell off..] you know, like vocals were spot on, visuals were incredible.. it was as if they did it all in multiple takes and put together the best clips together..

I dunno, that's what people seemed to feel like about the DVD..

Yea, the vocals are too perfect, I dont really like it too much. ^.^ The dancy songs should have kept more raw vocals (aka REAL live vocals lol).

[freedreamer]

Wooo..so many many people thought AT07 was perfect..and lacked that raw feel...(wonder if it's good or bad...)
I think its very gd but...still that RAW feel makes it very natural and even better..

Im still waiting for my copy..but seeing how it isnt editted much...(which is a gd thing)..yet hearing lots of offtunes..may become a bad thing...

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by Melrose

Actually, she didn't SUDDENLY lose her hearing I think. It went pretty gradually. So she shouldn't have had trouble with CDL07-08 because of her hearing.

The announcement that her hearing was gone was a few days after COUNTDOWN LIVE had passed, so I believe that she found out some time around then.

I know this because I remember people being complete *******s about Ayu not singing well, and then the news that her left ear wasn't working anymore came out..

Originally Posted by Posted on January 4th in Japan:

The truth is, last year, I had an ear check-up, my diagnosis being that my left ear has completely lost all function and that there is no treatment.

The remaining 10% of her hearing gradually disappeared after DOME TOUR 2001 made the 90% go away.. D:~

So by last year, she'd probably been like, on the very edge of hearing loss [A BEST 2 era]~

[ayumisrael]

I still didn't watch the DVD one so I won't say much.
But I spoiled myself with 2 MP3s off the DVD and ayu's vocals sound awesome!
Where she went off key they just edited it in a way you won't hear it, and the voice just continues normal so not much off keys in the DVD (from the 2 MP3s) I heard it seems.
So vocally it's great.

You can hear how the off key parts were edited pretty well in decision's performance end, where she does wow~ yeah~, on the TV version she was so off doing it but on the DVD it sounds like the studio version's right keys with her live voice so they did amazing job editing it which is not bad at all and I love it. I couldn't care less about the whole editing part as long as it's her live singing and sounds good. I'm even happy with it if it goes well.
I don't think that people should hate it just because it's edited (like every other DVD), the editing makes things better so it's a bit double standart to not like it just because of editing even if it's heavy imo.

I think that the CDL will be a 100% enjoyment now, I'm looking forward to watch it.

[Melrose]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

The announcement that her hearing was gone was a few days after COUNTDOWN LIVE had passed, so I believe that she found out some time around then.

I know this because I remember people being complete *******s about Ayu not singing well, and then the news that her left ear wasn't working anymore came out..

I know, I was around when it happened lol it was freaky. But come on, she didn't SUDDENLY find out she was having hearing problems. I thought I read that she did doctor check ups but never wanted to have surgery, and that recently she found out that she couldn't cure it anymore? And not that she found out she has hearing problems? I think she had trouble with it before the CDL, but didn't know that she couldn't cure it yet. I thought her disease was chronical (sp?) anyways.

I'm happy untitled~for her~ is still off key.

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by Melrose

I'm happy untitled~for her~ is still off key.

Only at the parts where she was crying in (which is most of the song)
That's something the editing team couldn't do anything with =P
but that was the only song that her key-offness sounded actually awesome imo lol
I mean this whole untitled ~for her~ live though I still prefer the DVD version because they cut off all the noises and got back the back up singers.

[Bad Wolf]

Originally Posted by Melrose

I know, I was around when it happened lol it was freaky. But come on, she didn't SUDDENLY find out she was having hearing problems. I thought I read that she did doctor check ups but never wanted to have surgery, and that recently she found out that she couldn't cure it anymore? And not that she found out she has hearing problems? I think she had trouble with it before the CDL, but didn't know that she couldn't cure it yet. I thought her disease was chronical (sp?) anyways.

I'm happy untitled~for her~ is still off key.

No, but it's just as much of a shock to hear that you don't have any hearing left at all. Just because you know you have the problem doesn't mean you're exempt from feeling surprise when you hear the condition has worsened.

There's been nothing said that I can recall that said Ayu didn't want to have surgery. What HAS been said is that there was no way to treat what she has.

[zoomzoom]

The DVD is just about finished uploading.

One really neat feature in the making of is how they show how ayu gets around to the different locations inside Yoyogi. They show this funny map with the A-logo representing her location and then it moves around.




After that, there is a segment where she talks about Shu-ya I assume, since they show a lot of footage of him as she's talking. I wonder what she's saying..

Oh, and they also show her dogs in christmas outfits

[benslave4u]

I LOVE THE DVD!!!! I can't wait to get it now!!! it's one of her best live yet! But does anyone know what she was talking about with the dancers?? She was like crying??