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Hayden Kurosaki
Guest
^I feel you man, I know this thread is for positivity but I just can’t with Yuuka.
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FictionJunction Kalafina
Guest
I like nowhere, I'm here, Akatsuki no Kuruma, Cazador del Armor, Romanesque and personal favorites "El Cazador", "Margaret", "She's Gotta Go"
Overall I like her music and enjoy it, I still listen to her every now and then and there isn't any hard feelings.
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Seasonreaper
Guest
Yuuka's voice is pretty good, but she still has nothing on the other Kala/FJ girls and her songs just aren't that interesting to me. That said Cazador del Amor is goddamn wonderful, and still one of my favourite YK Vocal works overall, just a pity the rest of her songs aren't even close to it.
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Hadi_sama
Guest
1- Keiko Kubota: Well her alto is just out of this world, I don't think I've ever heard anything like it. She ties everything together whenever she harmonises. She provides that dark mysterious vibe for Kalafina and FJ, but I don't really like it when she tries to sound cute.. I don't think it suits her voice. One more reason to adore Keiko is that I can totally relate to her.. I'm a bass-baritone and I've always been asked to sing higher and no one appreciated my lower range, so seeing Keiko and what she's capable of really gave me some self confidence and reassurance. Plus I'm tiny and sound way lower than what my look suggests, so yeah xD
2- Wakana Ootaki: The voice of a goddess, I love the magical, smooth, silky, milky (xD) qualities of her voice! When we talk about vocal technique, she has the most of the trio (Kalafina). Her voice makes everything sound tragic and sad, that's why I don't like her in happy bright songs, she doesn't fit. Sure she might sound honky at times, but she's a great vocalist overall. Oh and I don't really care for "old-Wakana", she still sounds solid AF.
3- Hikaru Masai: At first I REALLY used to hate her voice.. I thought she didn't fit with the other girls and that they were waaaay beyond her. She sounded like any other average anisong vocalist to me. BUT, when I heard her sing using her REAL voice (ie chest voice), I fell in love with her!! (examples: DU, Magia, Neverending, Sandpiper, Hanataba etc..) She's the most versatile, she can rock the stage, and can also touch your heart (Sprinter 2012 acoustic performance). She indeed went through some vocal crisis, but from what I'm seeing, she's recovering and getting better. I wish she would ONLY use her chest voice, but oh well we all know that won't happen.
And am I the only one who feels cringy whenever Maya gets mentioned? I mean she's a solid vocalist sure but come on ppl she only "half" sang 2 songs and her leaving didn't affect the band one bit xD.
2- Wakana Ootaki: The voice of a goddess, I love the magical, smooth, silky, milky (xD) qualities of her voice! When we talk about vocal technique, she has the most of the trio (Kalafina). Her voice makes everything sound tragic and sad, that's why I don't like her in happy bright songs, she doesn't fit. Sure she might sound honky at times, but she's a great vocalist overall. Oh and I don't really care for "old-Wakana", she still sounds solid AF.
3- Hikaru Masai: At first I REALLY used to hate her voice.. I thought she didn't fit with the other girls and that they were waaaay beyond her. She sounded like any other average anisong vocalist to me. BUT, when I heard her sing using her REAL voice (ie chest voice), I fell in love with her!! (examples: DU, Magia, Neverending, Sandpiper, Hanataba etc..) She's the most versatile, she can rock the stage, and can also touch your heart (Sprinter 2012 acoustic performance). She indeed went through some vocal crisis, but from what I'm seeing, she's recovering and getting better. I wish she would ONLY use her chest voice, but oh well we all know that won't happen.
And am I the only one who feels cringy whenever Maya gets mentioned? I mean she's a solid vocalist sure but come on ppl she only "half" sang 2 songs and her leaving didn't affect the band one bit xD.
Lorde-Kowz
I have reached Yuki nirvana
Oh god no.
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Seasonreaper
Guest
Maya only sang properly in one song and whilst she did have a good voice, she's overall pretty irrelevant to everything.
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Hadi_sama
Guest
That's a proven fact. Show one song from the Red Moon Live to any music teacher and he'll tell you that too (I picked Red Moon Live cuz all 3 were in top shape).
Lorde-Kowz
I have reached Yuki nirvana
That was like 8 years ago before the vocal decline, and we all know their official releases of concerts are edited to sound better. And even then her technique wasn't anything to brag about.
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Hadi_sama
Guest
Sure they’re all edited, the editing tho is mostly for pitches/mixing etc, you can’t really edit vocal technique. Take for example their fan footage of “Serenato”, both Wakana and Keiko don’t need editing of any sort. And I will still brag about her technique lol, I still stand by what I said; cleanest vibrato, smoothest transition from chest voice to falsetto, proper control on falsetto. It’s up to you in the end, this is how I see it as a musician.
Lorde-Kowz
I have reached Yuki nirvana
None of that applies to current Wakana. And with old Wakana it was still very inconsistent.
Which one? I only remember one from their Red Moon Asia tour, and it was poops.
Westkana
HA! I live in her CLOSET!
I actually agree with @Hadi_sama that Wakana, currently, has the best vocal technique in Kalafina. She seems to be the most consistent nowadays (yeah yeah there's editing but after all 6 lives they've released since her voice got better in 2014, the consistency shines through). She doesn't sound strained on higher notes anymore, nor does she look in pain while singing them on stage. All of her higher notes now are super smooth and well executed, whereas before they weren't. I think she was singing with an incorrect technique beforehand, and changed that in 2012 (To me she sounds drastically different between the to the beginning & moonfesta singles). It took her a couple years to get used to her technique, that explains why it wasn't that great right away. Case in point of incorrect technique: Parallel Hearts live. In the live from vol. 4/2009, she sounds quite strained imo, her voice sounds a bit forced. In the live from vol. 11/2014, her voice now sounds much smoother and less forced. oblivious is this way too. Sure, it may not be what people want to hear (in fact I prefer the earlier lives of these songs), but from a technical perspective it's much better.
**[RANT]**
The reason why I argue that Keiko isn't the one with the best technique despite being overall the most consistent is mainly because of her higher notes. She can't belt for the life of her, and anything above an A4 sounds strained. Yes, she's an alto, but altos can belt too, and A4 isn't that high a note. Her lower register though does sound really well developed (for good reason obviously, since most of the time she sings in it)
Hikaru's vocal technique has sort of always been terrible. Sure, there are definitely moments where she gets through that, but her higher notes have always sounded forced from anything Kagayaku and later. I think at this point, the reason why her voice took a real downturn in 2014/15 is because of this improper technique catching up with her (vocal nodules). To be perfectly honest I didn't really buy it when Hikaru said "my voice from back then is gone". Though that is indeed partially true, as mezzo soprano's voices naturally lower throughout their life, that's not an excuse for ignoring her obvious vocal problems. She needs to get this addressed soon or else she will lose her voice completely.
**[/RANT]**
**[RANT]**
The reason why I argue that Keiko isn't the one with the best technique despite being overall the most consistent is mainly because of her higher notes. She can't belt for the life of her, and anything above an A4 sounds strained. Yes, she's an alto, but altos can belt too, and A4 isn't that high a note. Her lower register though does sound really well developed (for good reason obviously, since most of the time she sings in it)
Hikaru's vocal technique has sort of always been terrible. Sure, there are definitely moments where she gets through that, but her higher notes have always sounded forced from anything Kagayaku and later. I think at this point, the reason why her voice took a real downturn in 2014/15 is because of this improper technique catching up with her (vocal nodules). To be perfectly honest I didn't really buy it when Hikaru said "my voice from back then is gone". Though that is indeed partially true, as mezzo soprano's voices naturally lower throughout their life, that's not an excuse for ignoring her obvious vocal problems. She needs to get this addressed soon or else she will lose her voice completely.
**[/RANT]**
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Kirito
Guest
lol wall of text incoming so I'm putting it in spoiler tags
Wakana has the best technique by a pretty wide margin. As with most vocal groups, the one taking the highest parts generally has the most developed voice since Wakana uses both her chest and head voice pretty much all the time. Keiko almost never uses it and Hikaru uses a light falsetto instead of head voice, meaning Wakana (by far) has the most vocal development out of the three. Despite being a soprano, she can hit fairly low, actually, down to a G3 in I have a dream. While it isn't nearly as supported as Keiko or Hikaru's, it's still pretty good considering she sings mainly in the upper 4th/lower 5th octave.
Only shame is that she uses her falsetto in Kalafina, while in FJ (like in Liminality) she ops for her, IMO, much more beautiful, resonant and weighty operatic head voice.
I wouldn't say pre-2012 Wakana's voice was better in a technical sense, nor was it worse. She was definitely more open with her throat, but it was chesty and pushed (which often presented problems with pitch since a pushed voice is often flat). Now she sings with a much lighter mix, and has a much easier time with chest to head voice transitions, and her pitch is way more accurate, except that she closes her throat more now.
Only shame is that she uses her falsetto in Kalafina, while in FJ (like in Liminality) she ops for her, IMO, much more beautiful, resonant and weighty operatic head voice.
I wouldn't say pre-2012 Wakana's voice was better in a technical sense, nor was it worse. She was definitely more open with her throat, but it was chesty and pushed (which often presented problems with pitch since a pushed voice is often flat). Now she sings with a much lighter mix, and has a much easier time with chest to head voice transitions, and her pitch is way more accurate, except that she closes her throat more now.
I'd consider Hikaru to be the second most technical vocalist if not for her vocal regression. 2010-2012 Hikaru had a naturally light mix (meaning more head dominant than chest dominant from A4-E5) with excellent control over how much chest to mix in. Hikaru had an excellent grasp over vocal dynamics as well, being able to effectively sing de/crescendos, piano, forte, mezzo forte, staccato up to C5. Yeah she had pitch issues, but they weren't that bad, at least not as bad as Wakana's. Not using head voice at all though means that her upper range received little to no development, and any note above C5 is pushed and strained with her throat. This effectively means that she would regress eventually since vocal cords can only take so much abuse.
There's also the fact that, as a mezzo, her voice would get naturally weightier over time, and it does. Her voice has so, so much more weight to it now that before, but since Kalafina songs were meant to be sung in a certain way (aka her folksy, nasal style), she'd be struggling a lot more with songs that required her lighter voice. You can see that her "nasal" singing style is completely forced and unnatural for her current voice weight, and she struggles way more using that voice than her naturally weighty voice.
By placing so much of her voice in her nose, she's trying to sound like her old self, unlike Wakana who knows that her technique has changed and doesn't try to go back to old habits. As such, she doesn't nearly project as well as she did before.
There's also the fact that, as a mezzo, her voice would get naturally weightier over time, and it does. Her voice has so, so much more weight to it now that before, but since Kalafina songs were meant to be sung in a certain way (aka her folksy, nasal style), she'd be struggling a lot more with songs that required her lighter voice. You can see that her "nasal" singing style is completely forced and unnatural for her current voice weight, and she struggles way more using that voice than her naturally weighty voice.
By placing so much of her voice in her nose, she's trying to sound like her old self, unlike Wakana who knows that her technique has changed and doesn't try to go back to old habits. As such, she doesn't nearly project as well as she did before.
Keiko, to the surprise of many, actually has the least technically correct voice out of the three, yet struggles the least and has the most accurate pitch (go figure). Her voice is in way better shape than Hikaru now though, so as of now, she's number 2.
Her deep, dark tone is actually forced. She lowers her larynx to achieve that sort of tone not unlike male opera singers. Technically speaking, Keiko is a mezzo soprano, but sings in in the contralto range. Like @Westkana said, anything above A4 is strained because she almost never sings above it. if she does, it's only for very brief moments. She does have a beautiful mix (door, believe acoustic) but it's unexplored. She has the potential to be the most technical vocalist, but her current role does limit her to a large degree.
But where she does sing, she does it with much better proficiency than the other two, if only because of her beautiful tone and her great sense of pitch. She's in charge of lower harmonies, so having an ear for pitch is an absolute must. She does go slightly sharp at times, but to the untrained ear, going sharp is much better than going flat since it still blends well with the rest of the song.
Her deep, dark tone is actually forced. She lowers her larynx to achieve that sort of tone not unlike male opera singers. Technically speaking, Keiko is a mezzo soprano, but sings in in the contralto range. Like @Westkana said, anything above A4 is strained because she almost never sings above it. if she does, it's only for very brief moments. She does have a beautiful mix (door, believe acoustic) but it's unexplored. She has the potential to be the most technical vocalist, but her current role does limit her to a large degree.
But where she does sing, she does it with much better proficiency than the other two, if only because of her beautiful tone and her great sense of pitch. She's in charge of lower harmonies, so having an ear for pitch is an absolute must. She does go slightly sharp at times, but to the untrained ear, going sharp is much better than going flat since it still blends well with the rest of the song.
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Lorde-Kowz
I have reached Yuki nirvana
@Westkana There's more to technique than high notes, and she still strains, they're not smooth at all. Add to that her terrible almost goat-like wobbly vibrato that she doesn't use consistently, operatic technique is awful and can barely hold notes when using it (Liminality is cancer now).
Did Winter acoustic and Lisani 2017 not exist in your minds or what? She's better than in 2012, but to call her the most consistent is just whack.
Did Winter acoustic and Lisani 2017 not exist in your minds or what? She's better than in 2012, but to call her the most consistent is just whack.
Westkana
HA! I live in her CLOSET!
Nice point @Kirito about Hikaru's voice getting weightier over time. I hope she ends up deciding to abandon trying to sing with her faux-nasally voice soon because all it's doing is hurting her. And who wouldn't want to hear ARIA with a heavy voice belting the chorus
), but one bad performance out of many doesn't mean she's forever a bad vocalist. I disagree that her performance at LisAni 2017 was bad though, I thought she sounded pretty good.
I kinda like this vibrato... How else would you like her to sing it? (I mean that as a genuine question, not rhetorical)
Yeah, I agree that she wasn't the best in the Winter Acoustic (especially Alleluia
), but one bad performance out of many doesn't mean she's forever a bad vocalist. I disagree that her performance at LisAni 2017 was bad though, I thought she sounded pretty good.
Lorde-Kowz
I have reached Yuki nirvana
At least like she used to, back in 2008-2010. Ideally, like Lady Gaga.
I thought both Hikaru and Wakana sounded bad whenever they had their solos. Plus Wakana singing worse than LiSA in This Illusion. I absolutely despise LiSA, so that performance was just embarrassing.
Westkana
HA! I live in her CLOSET!
I actually thought both Hikaru & Wakana sounded great in both the collab solos and the Kalafina songs (minus identify). Sure there are a rough patches here and there but overall they sounded pretty solid. Hikaru on träumerei chorus could sound a bit better but her parts in the verses are fantastic
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Hadi_sama
Guest
Lorde-Kowz
I have reached Yuki nirvana
"""Facts""" on studio magixed recordings, lel.
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