Back Track; Solo Version [Part 2]

Writers~

Izumi [faraBANG] / Hikki [DisturbedStrawberry]
Belly [Rasubelly] / Kappa [xmikipinkux]
Ayu [ChiiAyu] / Aya [MiriuOniaya]

[Reviewed by Izumi] Aaah, here I am again! / Aruiteru by Kassia [industrialxstrength] / Before listening, I was really excited. I've worked with industrialxstrength quite a bit as of late since she's one of the members of IKPs newest generation, and I really love her voice. I also really love this song. Not many people like it because of the repetitiveness, but I think its a very uplifting song, and I feel happy when I listen to it! So lets get started! :3

I had a feeling that this would be a very strong dub because of my previous experience with Kassia, and she certainly did not disappoint! I love hearing dubbers with deeper, more mature voices. Its a great contrast to the higher-voiced original singers! In particular, I really love her vibrato here, it makes her sound incredibly mature. I especially loved her "negatte at 2:40. I could be a little biased because I love Kassia's voice, but I'm happy to hear her singing this song!

As far as specific lines go, I love all of her "na na na" bits at 1:29, 2:50 and 4:24. My favorite part of this dub HAD to be the bit right after the musical interlude, the "sha la la" bits at 3:28. The whole dub has a great amount of emotion that you can easily hear when you listen to it, but I think it REALLY showed right there.

The mixing here is pretty good to me! I REALLY love her echoes here! That was one of the first things I noticed when I heard this was that she took the time to echo all of those lines (especially the "aruiteru"s at the ends of the choruses)! The echoes give the dub depth. On the same vein, I'm not sure if she hand-recorded the harmonies or if she ripped them from the original, but they sound really good with her voice!

With some dubs I've seen, you can tell that the harmonies were ripped from the original, but I had to listen a little bit. And I'm STILL not sure if these are ripped or not! You blend really well with them either way! So good job for keeping me guessing, Kassia! The only thing I could say about the mixing here is that it seems like the vocals could be turned up a little bit. It seems like the instrumental overpowers her voice at times, but it doesn't distract me because I can still hear her strong vocals!

I really had a great time listening to this! She has such a strong voice that I truly enjoyed listening to. I'm really honored that her and I get to work together, and I hope we can do more together in the future! I'm happy that I chose this dub, and (if you read this) I hope my insight means something to you! Thank you for letting me hear!




World is Mine by Chii [Chiidoki] / Review by Hikki / Whoo! World is Mine, the first vocaloid song I ever listened to. So I'm excited to review this! Anyway, I have heard Chii's voice before and it's probably the cutest thing you'll ever hear on a planet. Right below a puppy's whimper. Ahaaa, I'll stop making lame jokes like this, and get right on to the review.

First thing anyone will notice is the amount of static, which is really unfortunate, because Chii has such an adorable voice, and the static tends to take away from her vocal ability. Anyway, you can hear her strain her voice at the long notes ("Kokoro ete.."), but I've personally attempted to sing this song, so I give her props for not cracking her voice.

Oh my gosh! This dub is oozing with kawaii-ness. And you know when I say 'cute' in japanese, it's cute! At 1:16 there seems to be a bit of a timing or pronunciation fumble, but it wasn't that obvious. Speaking of timing, there seems to be little timing and pronunciation problems throughout the dub, but that's only if you're really picky. The scream at 1:40 is adorable though. I really need to find different words for 'cute'. Let me get my thesaurus.

The video for this song, by the way, is so....delicious...? (What the hell, my thesaurus stinks.) [Aya: lol, I use the dictionary-tool thing from my word processor for it's thesaurus] I just want to know what happens after the kiss. DARNIT. SHOW ME MORE. Okay, let's get back to the dub, the "Ah, Hey Baby" at 3:48 is super sexy. And then one last cho cho kawaii scream!




*NOTE: This dub has been removed by the user, enjoy the
review anyways, lol* (Thanks to Buggy letting me know)

Mr. Moonlight ~Ai no Big Band~ by Emily Lemons4Evryone / Review by Belly / This solo really made me regret that I've never listened to this song. Its so funky and peppy! And exactly that was her voice (Aya: exactly what Emily sounded like too). I really have no clue how the original sounds, but this one was totally fine with me. Her deep and mature voice suits this song just perfect. The only thing I would criticize is that she becomes silenter on some parts. So she could've controlled her volume a little bit more.

Aya: I agree with what Belly says *nodnod* Emily did a good job on putting the funky attitude into her singing, that's half of the fun of singing the song right there; getting to sing like Natsumi, Gomaki and Yossi sing it, lol. Funky. Her voice suits this song perfectly! She had a little strain on the opening higher solo, but the rest of the dub is really fun.




Weeeek by miyuki002 / Review by Kappa /YES YES YES I LOVE THIS SONG. I had to grab it up right away when I saw this was one of the solos Aya wanted us to review.

I love Miyuki's voice and she's got awesome emotion and personality in this dub, just like the song demands. It sounds like she had some trouble with the lowest notes and went pitchy on a couple before she raised the pitch on the second half of the lowest lines--I think she would have been better raising her pitch on the whole solo. But props for trying, and I do LOVE how she sounds when she brings the pitch up like at 2:02. My favorite part from here is 1:41-1:45--sooo cute, and that's such a hard solo to pull off because it's kind of half-spoken.

I would have loved to hear this with a real instrumental and without her voice being overlayed on the group parts, but nonetheless I super enjoyed this. Her harmonies were preeeettty. Right on. I am laskd;fjalsdf that someone did this song, you don't even know.




SHIROI KOKORO by Miya [Tokyostarx] / Reviewed by Ayu /This song gives me a sense of peace, and that’s why I think it needs a cute voice, with the ability of doing really high and long notes without sounding strained or forced. Miya’s voice is really sweet, she can go really high and sound peaceful at the same time; I am loving the way she mixes chest and head voice in some parts. She has good pitching overall, and I LOVE the audio-mix.

First "Yume ga" at 0:28 gives me chills. First high note at 0:39 is very powerful, but cute at the same time. 1:04-1:06 is very kawaii!! I love the way she sings that phrase, it is really high and it sounds very natural to me. The "dare ka no" parts (first one at 1:11) sound very catchy. Love the treatment of the voice mixing, sounds angel-heaven-like. My favorite part of the dub.

Again, from 2:26 to 2:28 she does that thing when she goes high, sounds so beautiful. And the final part, starting at 2:59, is very tranquil and precise with good pitching and a cute sound. I LOVED this a lot, it gives to me the desire to dub it myself XD *I would put it twice in my I-pod*




Suna no oshiro by MoA [moamelody] / Review by Aya / This is GORGEOUS! As I have mentioned before, I have a weakness for string instruments, including the cello. I've listened to Kanon Wakeshima before and that was one thing about her that I instantly loved. MoA sounds BRILLIANT on this song. First off, I have to admit that the cello parts in the beginning got me thinking positively right away. But even before that, I loaded the video already knowing that this was going to define spectacular. Because it's MoA.

I only stumbled across MoA's stuff a little bit ago, but she is CRAZY AMAZING. I love love love her covers to beautiful little bits. Her voice is stunning and she sings magnificently. Gosh, I can't even think up enough of the right words to describe everything. I've been listening to this dub repeatedly while working on this entry and I am so in love with it. The song is beyond beautiful, and MoA did such a fantastic job on it. I can't pick out what I liked the most, because I adore it all. And I certainly can't think of even one tiny thing I don't like about it. This is hauntingly beautiful.

"I love the gothic darkness of it and cello is probably my favorite instrument. It was super mega hard to sing the chorus, some very high notes, but I love to sing epic operaesque songs." I agree so much with her, and I give her kajillions of props for mastering the chorus. LOVE.

Back Track; Solo Version [Part 1]

HELLA YEAH! We've all been quite excited about this- 'we' being the Blabodu team! I've got some awesome people helping me out, and it's been going so well!! I was a little disorganized in the beginning, lol. But I've got a lot of things figured out and now I'm like, 24/7 excited about writing here on this blog, that has been made amazing by you readers!

Solos are the main feature today; I know it says weekend, but this is more Back Track Saturday; Solo Version. I'm going to start things off with a few entries that are a mix of reviews by different people. After that I might try and find more solos to feature today, idk. I was going off my subs list when planning this out, so keep in mind that we haven't worked on any super recent solos and with all that's been going on, not everyone will get covered. Please don't take it personally. And if you'd like us to check out your solo, please! - Send the info to me!

Writers~

Kappa [xmikipinkux] / Hikki [DisturbedStrawberry]
Belly [Rasubelly] / Ayu [ChiiAyu]
Aya [MiriuOniaya] / Izumi [faraBANG]

Yume Kara Samete by supahwicked / Review by Kappa / Aw, Lina sounds super pretty singing this! I maaay be biased, but it's really nice to hear people with deeper voices in the dubbing world. This song fits her voice very well and I like the softness of her high notes here. She might be a bit too soft here, especially in places like the bridge section, but she also sounds like she might be holding back because of her mic, which isn't exactly the best.

One thing that did bother me a bit about this is her rhythm fumbles. There were a lot of them... she didn't get the words wrong, but the way she sang them in the song was off. It might be okay in a solo, but in a groupdub taking liberties with the rhythm would be a big deal, because it gives mixers a hard time lining you up with other people. That's just something to think about for non-solo lines.

Besides that, there were some pitchy spots, but I still liked listening to this. On a second listen I caught some very pretty vibrato I had missed before and that made it even better. Nice job on this!




Otakebi Boy Wao! & Tomodachi... by Chii [LuvSasuke] / Review by Hikki / OKAY. I know I shouldn't deviate from the video that I'm supposed to review (Aya: pwsh, I don't mind), but Chii sang Just Be Friends for her 100 subs video, and it's just...amazing. You guys should check it out after watching this video.

First up is Otakebi Boy, and Chii starts off with ATTITUDE. YOU DO YOUR THANG GIRL. I really love the tone of her voice, it just has that 'UMPH'. Only one noticeable pronunciation stumble, but no big deal. Well, this is for "audition purposes only", so sadly, she did not sing the whole song. What a cliff hanger. I want to hear the rest.

Now, Tomodachi, she starts off with the same sassy attitude she had in Otakebi (which is not a bad thing), but her pitching just a biiiit off at the next stanza, because she started to speak-sing the lines, which is understandable because the tempo is a bit fast. Overall, she sounded really cute and although she wasn't spastically obviously energetic in the songs, there is an underlying energy (I'm so deep) within the song, and it's really calming and it brings a smile to my face!

Ah! Short review for the two short previews.




Hello everyone! I'm Belly (Rasubelly on YT). I'm very happy and thankful to be able to write at Ayas blog here ^_^ For my debut she let me choose two solo songs to write about. Now I'll start with the first one~

Destiny Love by Mueggie / I never really listened to this song because of this lullaby-like sounding melody, but I'm really glad that I listened to Mueggie's version. Her voice is very cute and her pronounciation is beyond exception; perfect. The only thing I would've liked to hear was some more power. I know it is hard to put much energy in a slow song but more power would've made this dub really perfect for me.

To mention something else, I really loved her mixing. I already loved the audio mixing at the beginning part, but when I heard her rap solo I was really positively surprised. It was stunning - her voice and mixing. I also loved the sweet sounding, quiet "Destiny Love"s at the end. To bring it back to the pronounciation, I loved that she spoke this lovely Disney Love of Reina. (Aya: At 0:40, Mueggie put 'Disney Love' as an annotation, Reina was center of the video at the time, lol)




Angelus by Ruby [LLawlitaxDD] / Review by Ayu / Certainly this is a mature song, with a Spanish feeling in the music and the dance, so it requires a voice with a strong sound and good presence in low and high notes. Phrasing is also very important, cause this kind of ‘’latin feel’’ songs have a lot of rhythmic stuff. Ruby DID a wonderful job, she shows us her mature voice, great pitching overall, she really gave the song a right latin feeling.

First verse is wonderful, reminded me of Shimatani in the very first phrase. First chorus is very good, in my personal opinion it could be a little more aggressive or energetic, but I enjoyed it the way it is. First "Angerasu" at 1:44 sounds lovely. Nice vibrato at the end of the phrase of 2:21-2:22. She uses this vibrato often, it sounds good. Since at 3:16 she puts more energy into it, the last chorus is much more attractive. I'm LOVING 3:34 TO 3:39.

For me 3:55 to 4:00 is the best moment of the dub, I can really feel it in the very last verse!
I LOVED it a lot because I think it’s not an easy song to do and she made it very interesting. *I would put it in my i-pod*




Maze by Mary (MaryG2091) / Review by Aya / Before I even loaded the video, I clicked the download link she provided because I just knew that this was going to be awesome. Mary is an extremely talented singer; I love her voice and her dubs are always crazy ear-pleasing. I totally agree with her that this "song is totally made for my voice." *stashes MP3 with other Mary & MoA downloads*

Ohmygosh, I don't even know where to begin. My mind is trying to babble like a fangirl, lol. I love every word out of Mary's mouth; she has such a strong, mature voice and she sings with great confindence, which always makes us listeners want to listen. Her energy and emotion levels are through the roof, and she delivers every line fantastically. I love a lot of her longer / higher notes in this. Like 3:09, she sounds spectacular! Mary rocked the chorus and pwned the verses; everything about this dub just screams EPIC.

The mixing sounds fine to my ears, but then again we all know what a genius I am on that, eh? Honestly, there are a few lines and/or notes where she's a little iffy. Not pitchy, but some lines don't sound quite as good as the others. It's barely even noticable. Just once in a while I'd hear a note or something that would niggle at my ears the slighest bit. But Mary says that she "had a blast recording this" and that's what matter most!

To Be Continued in Part 2 ~