Forum:Love is war

So I heard a Oliver cover of Love is war and I finally felt the need totalk about this song.

When I listen to many of the 30 or so popular songs that get pulled out all the time, I often criticse their popularity when newer songs are much better. Now I'm not saying very new song is better becaus that would be a step too far. However... Many current songs coming out are better then the 30 or so songs that are really popular.

Love is War is not a great song.

If not for its iconic status I think it would hae been forgotten by now. Its not the atmosphere of the aong, because honestly I think the OPV and song work well together, its the flatness of the song overall. While its true that thats the intention, there are parts of hte song where it needed more omph I'll take for instance the part where Miku sings "This is the war of Love" in the chours (in Japanese of course), Mik's vocal doesn't lift the song up at all. Instead it remains dead. This is her declaring a big statement, she needed the empathy to carry it and parade it high, but she doesn't. That chours is as the verses before and around it. This is where her Append would have been able to fill the blanks and find the method to lift the song.

Further more, this was a song that only works for Miku because she is flat sounding anyway. Most other Vocaloids who I've heard singing it are terrible. If their not badly tuned anyway the voice either has the wrong tone because their note as flat as Miku or sounds COMPLETELY dead, like their bored stiff out of their mind.

Point is that this particular song does not make a great cover song for a Vocaloid, to the point where I wish Producers would stop covering it. There is one particular verse in particular that very few covers seem to be able to make a Vocaloid sound drone-like about 50% or possibly 75% the way through. The whole problem I have with this particular song is that it was made for Hatsune Miku, but it doesn't even suit her and suits most other Vocaloids less.

But just because its a song only Miku can really sing, doesn't mean its a good song for her. In fact the reason she sounds flat is she is singing in octaves she doesn't handle well, with only the chorus really reaching to her better octaves and at though she is flat even then at least her vocal leans to its forte. The same thing happens to Big Al in the E1 range, sure he can go down that low, but he really flattens out and becomes lifeless. When a Vocaloid flattens down like this, you've either got to add colour to the vocals or use another to built up from him. Miku's better then this, she decides to sing at her fullest potential, not in the octave she can't handle very well. And note, I'm NOT a fan of Hatsune Miku, in fact her voice has always been like finger nails to a blackboard for me.

I think its stands the only reason why the whole thing works is just because the combination of PV and song, without that combination, the song wouldn't have been so well recieved. Plus its Supercell... I'm not going to argue on Supercell's tuning abilities or anything like that because that not my place to speak and I risk going into the realms of bias. However, Vocaloid fans have to udnerstand their not the best Vocaloid tuners. Their BGM is far better then their Vocaloid usage and its the onyl reason why any of their songs work at all. The World is Mine, in particular, Miku at some parts isn't even singing "inside" the music. She feels a little distach from it. This is a common issue with Vocaloid songs, wherein the user doesn't get the EQ right, giving the vocaloid a lack of blending qualities that allow them to sink into the music and become one with the instrumentals.

And again, Love is War does the same thing.

Lets compare "Parprika" because I'm too lazy to look up other songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZp_y1LbEfE

The reason why Lola works here is because of music layering, she becomes 1 with the song. Again, as a general rule this just doesn't happen in most Supercell songs. There is warmth in the song, all the elements become one song. Further more, you can hear the music echoe around your head at once.

Of course, not all songs can be like that but here is another song that sends chills down my spine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCFKRhEv_IM

Well I think I've run the well dry as it were on my point. Half the trouble is Vocaloids being just vocals can't yet be human enough. Still, Vocaloid 3 has seen quite a bit of process. Even when I've used them I've resulted to using two Vocaloids at once or multi-track stacking the same vocal in different octaves to built those layers Vocaloids are missing. Echo effect works too. >_<

there are some good points though to Love is War. It works for Miku as I've said two or three times already and its one of the few songs pretty much only Miku can pull off without question. Many other songs Miku sings lately can be sung by alternative Vocaloids of better quality. Times have changed and Miku's not the only vocaloid capable of doing what she does. So having a song Miku can sing most effectly is a trumpet for her as it still means Miku isn't completely useless, which is why I wanted to discuss this particular song.

Lately with all these new Vocaloids coming out, many replacing Miku's roles, many have been asking why is she still popular. Well, there is one thing they don't have still and thats that combination of high vocal + cuteness handling. Tone Rion does cuteness, IA can handle higher octaves almost as well as Miku. But IA doesn't do the cute nassally sounding vocals and Tone can't do Miku range. Most female Vocaloids oly seem to be stuck in the Mezzo-soprano and alto scales, very few can do a quality soprano or higher (is there a higher? I can't remember) without fluffing up completely. And its true Miku's not at her best in Love is War, she still makes a impact on the song. When she goes into the chours her handling of the higher vocals make the chorus seem more powerful then it is.

This is the reason why most Voclaoid covers seem to fall flat even if their tuned correctly.

Idon't know... As time goes by Miku's status as Vocaloid Diva seems to be kept alive only by the army of merchandise that CFM have endorsed in and their focus on English voicebanks has got me more frightened then supportive of CFM's recent years, because they seem to have lost much of the point which made Miku special. Miku was special because she was the first to inspire, and whle its true its increasingly becoming harder and ahrder to release voicebanks of new characters, releasing the same stuff can bore, not inspire, potential bidding producers. I know they have me bored out of my skull and I have been since all I've seen from them since I entered the fandom is Append after Append and aside from adding the bonus of allow Miku more genres she can sing in, their not giving anything new to inspire producers.

To make a point, many of the Vocaloid 3 NNd hits are not of Miku, their of the newer Vocaloid 3 voicebanks.

Miku was fine the way she was before the append fever and I wish I could explain that to CFM. 'Im not against adapting her for new languagese because that brings in new fans and Producrs much easier then Appends. CFM hasn't had the same effect with theAppends as they did with Miku and thats half the problem. Miku still holds that title of No.1 selling CFM product while her Append rests on 6th spot (usually). Now Miku's struggling to provide a repeat performance on any songs and if not for these handful of iconic Miku songs remaining ever popular I don't think Miku would be holding her position of Queen of Vocaloid right now. Not with Gumi catching up... Not to mention IA's proving more popular then Luka was. Give it 6 months and we'll see the impact of the recent voicebanks more.

I'm not really off topic, because this all ties in with "Love is War", in the sense Miku's love is war. :-/