I didn't think it'll take me so long to post over 400 photos of the recently concluded Japan trip on facebook. After sorting, labelling, tagging and replying the tons of messages I got since last week, some how it's evening already. Hmmmm... I still have a ton of "unboxing" photos and posts that I would like to put up soon.I may do the Kalafina "to the beginning" merchandise post tonight or may do the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Key Animation Note Vol.3 and Vol.4 posts. I also have photos of several other books and the Nanoha psp game photo done already. Just need to write posts for them soon. Lisani vol.9 also has several pages dedicated to Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina and I would like to post those up too.
However, it's almost time for dinner and I still haven't touched my Japanese homework... really need to try schedule the time properly for tonight.
Oh... I found out yesterday that I got my first film credit. :) I'm quite happy about it. So far I've already worked on 6 films. On some of them I only did one shot or partial shots so I don't expect or hope to get credits for those. But I did work on one film for an entire year but got no film credit for that. That was my first major project too, so I was understandably a bit disappointed about it. There were just too many artists that worked on the film and not enough space for all of us. :( But I'm over that already. :) I wasn't even thinking of film credits when one of my heads told me that I was one of the lucky ones who got a film credit on this film... I'm rather happy about it. :) I told my parents who were really happy about it too and we're going to watch it together. :)
Okay... I'm going to go off now... time for dinner... but hopefully I will have at least one un-boxing post up tonight.... btw, the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Key Animation Note artbooks come packed with some awesome stuff. I think fans of the series would like the extras that come packed with vol.3 and vol.4. :)
K... going now... later. :)
p.s. 11pm - in the end, I got too lazy to do anything constructive. :) I ended up watching 3 episodes of Miyabe Miyuki 4 week SP specials. Pretty good stuff, got hooked on the first episode and after that, I just could not stop. Hmmmm.... someday I hope my Japanese will become good enough that I can read these novels. Going to bed now... getting tired... maybe I'll do some of these posts tomorrow.... oyasumi :)
5 comments:
Hello! Very interesting blog - You seem to know your stuff when it comes to Yuki Kajiura! I've only become a fan recently, especially of Kalafina!
I asked this question on a previous blog post, but the blog was composed way back in January, so I thought there would be a better chance of you seeing it if I re-posted it - I hope you don't mind!
You were at the Kalafina concert that became the After Eden DVD (or a live on the same tour)? The DVDs are stunning, you're so lucky to have been there!
However, as you'll have heard yourself, their expo and convention performances recently have been, in comparison, a bit poor? - A lot of out of tune singing and shaky notes. It made me wonder if the DVD performances are truly genuine or if they've been covered in studio magic/auto-tune to make the performances flawless.
Perhaps you can answer this for me. Having experienced the lives and the DVDs yourself, and being totally objective, did Kalafina really pull off those fabulous performances heard on the DVDs? They seem so flawless that it's hard to believe. You'd put my mind at ease! ;P
Thank you!!!
Hello mwhlr,
part 1...
Thanks for visiting the blog... as for your question.... hmmmm....
Let's see. IMO... listening to a Live in a concert hall and listening to a Live recorded raw is very different. The acoustics, the emotion, the less then perfect mixing, the fact that it's performed by humans who are not perfect beings etc etc at a Live... will always mean that with Kalafina, it is hard to ever sound flawless like in their CDs. If these were solo singers, singing to a solo guitar or piano in a hall filled with music aficionados who are as quiet as church mouses till the last note or almost the last note plays, then PERHAPS I will be extremely picky if they sound less then perfect or near perfect almost all the time.
However, Kalafina sings Kajiura Yuki's brand of music, of which the 3 girls don't just have to harmonize, they often have to come in at very different timings and sing completely different lines at the same time. All this is often done with a live band playing loudly behind them or loud minus-1 music blasting over the speakers. While In-Ear Monitors will help somewhat with them hearing the other girls and trying to harmonize with each other, IEMs will never be able to replicate a studio situation.
What I can say is that while I thought they didn't sound super, crazy awesome in the "Kagayaku..." Live in Dec 2010 at the Lemon CC Hall, I thought they did sound pretty good already. I LOVED them at the After Eden Special Live which was indeed the live that was released on DVD/Blu-ray. Even then, if you are picky... you can tell that they are not studio perfect even in the DVD/Blu-ray release. At the Live itself, I didn't think they were studio perfect either but I thought they were very good and they interacted very well with the audience that day. My friends and I really enjoyed ourselves very much that day. One of my friends who attended that live with me wasn't even a Kalafina fan. At that point in time, she had only heard a few songs on youtube and only came along because the rest of us were going to the live and she didn't know what to do with her time. She ended up becoming a Kalfina fan after that live.
I also thought that Kalfina sounded very good at the AFA Singapore but not as good at the AFA Malaysia. These lives will always be tricky for Kalafina, IMO, because they are VERY noisy Lives for them. This is unlike their solo Lives in Japan because in Japan, they have greater control of the environment, the audience tends to wait for the song to end or come near the end before they clap and cheer. On some songs, the audience may "oi oi oi" along but there will not be a ton of screaming, yelling, cheering and singing-a-long.
At the AFA lives, people were cheering, yelling, singing, "oi oi oi"-ing etc non-stop throughout all the songs. Fans at these lives are very excited to be there and are enjoying themselves in a different way from the way a Kalafina live in Japan is enjoyed. Similarly, the mass anisong lives, like the animax lives and lisani lives are also very noisy lives. I have never been to one but someone I met has been to them and he told me that it was a noisy as the AFA Malaysia live.
Personally, I like it that I can enjoy a Kalafina live two different ways. I like it that I can go sing-a-long crazy and get super duper high at a live like the AFA lives and I also like it that I can get carried away with their beautiful harmonies at their own solo lives in Japan. The experience is different but equally good.
.... to be cont...
.... part 2
Also, all released material on DVDs/Blu-rays, such as the After Eden Special release will always have some studio work that needs to be done and this is true for most, if not all artists, no matter who they are. Raw audio will still need to be equalized properly and they will probably work on getting rid of excessive sibilant sounds and pops etc. The quality of the raw audio will also depend on the mics use, the levels used to record each singer and instrument , the equipment etc used to record and process this audio, etc. For example, in the old days, it might be the stock (e.g. what kind or brand of tape stock was used)... these days it might mean what kind of software / hardware was use to process this raw audio as it is being written digitally to a hard drive etc. I'm not extremely familiar with the audio industry, although I do have friends who are professional audio engineers. But from a video standpoint, all these things can be important and all raw audio recording that is done in video will always be mixed properly with the other audio that is recorded or needed in the piece before the edited piece is release.
I actually do find it strange that people demand so much perfection from Kalafina at the lives. I think that it shouldn't be hard to see that it would be hard for them to harmonize studio perfectly at a live, especially for the songs with a lot of musical accompaniment. It's not like they are standing that close to each other and singing "a cappella" where the environment setup is ideal for harmonization.
They do more than decent together when they sing "a cappella" during the BayFM radio shows and sounded very good singing "a cappella" in this clip "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx334L0Cios&feature=player_embedded"
Radio programs and television news programs will do basic mixing but will not have the time, nor are they obligated to mix any singer/vocal unit to sound flawless or use "auto-tune" for them.
As objectively as I can be and bearing in mind that what one hears live and what one hears recorded from the same live will not be the same, I will say that while they have never sounded flawless to me at any of the lives and not even on the live recordings such as the Red Moon dvd or the Afer Eden dvd/blu-ray, they sounded great at the "Kagayaku..." Live in Dec 2010, the After Eden Live in Nov 2011, and the AFA Singapore Live in Nov 2011. They didn't sound as good as they did in the other Lives at the AFA Malaysia Live but it was still very enjoyable for those around me at the lives because I think people were just enjoying the moment of being able to see and hear them live and Kalafina, in turn, were enjoying the moment of being able to sing in Malaysia.
IMO, one shouldn't go to any live wanting to hear a studio perfect performance from any artist, a live shouldn't be a mere replica of the CD... a live is an experience. While the music must still be good, the experience should resonate throughout the acoustic space the audience is in and should move and thrill the listener. If I'm at a live to dissect every note to see if all the performers performed perfectly, then I might as well stay home and listen to a CD on extremely high-end equipment because then I'll always be assured of perfection.
Hahaha... I probably wrote too much, I'm sorry... I am very long-winded. :) I hope I answered your question. :)
Hello!
Thank you very much for your detailed answer. I appreciate you took the time to do that for me.
Yes, I think people really do demand a lot of perfection from Kalafina. I think it's because of the nature of the group and its main draw - The harmonies, vocal lines and vocal arrangements are far superior to other pop/rock groups. They take a lot of influence from classical music, which is where you will find the note perfect performers. It's easy to forget that Kalafina aren't classically trained!
I'm glad you've said that they were genuinely great at their After Eden Special Live/Red Moon Live. As you've said, the DVDs and edits are highly polished in the studio and, having studied sound engineering for two years, I've had to do it myself on quite a few occasions! Sure, there are even a few off-notes in those performances (Wakana's highest note in Ongaku during After Eden), but they are so slight and throwaway that they don't matter. You've no idea how impressed I was by those videos and, thankfully, I can enjoy them a little more now with your information. I always had that niggling thought that they'd just been sneakily and transparently auto-tuned to all hell in post-production, to nail all of the harmonies and soaring melodies.
Hopefully I'll be able to see them one day and with them entering Europe now, it's a future possibility. Although, I can't deny that I'd love to see one of the Japanese concerts, specific to them. Perhaps one day!
I think I'll follow your blog for news on them from now on! Honestly - I haven't found a better source for information!
Thanks again!
Regards,
Michael
Hi mwhlr,
You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed the read. I know I can be very verbose.. :P
I hope that you will be able to see them at one of the Lives one day, in particular the ones in Japan. If you're lucky, and they are at the top of their game, then you may experience the incredible high the 5 of us felt at and after the After Eden Special Live, Nov 2011.
They weren't as good as they were at the After Eden Live at the "to the beginning" Live in July but it was still a very enjoyable concert. I hope to write more about the concert in a proper post someday soon... I hope I will someday get to it, as well as the AFA Malaysia, before that fades out of my memory. :)
Thanks very much for your compliments. I'm glad you enjoyed checking out my blog, even though I don't think I'm that good a source of information for Kalafina. :)
cheers
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