The DVD reached the 9th position on its first day of sales.

Source: http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/dg/d/2013-07-23/more/2/

I'm still watching mine and I'm happy I got it, but I am kind of disappointed by the amount of auto-tune that's really obvious in some of the songs. I kind of suspected they used this on the Budokan disc too, although they sounded pretty good in person and auto-tune wasn't so obvious on the disc, but it's a lot more obvious on the Wonderful Tonight disc. I just compared the M-ON version of "Shoujo S" with the version on the disc, for example, and it is not even close. The M-ON version is natural; the disc version is totally auto-tuned. (Same performance, if you didn't see the M-ON broadcast.)

The super annoying thing is it sounds much worse with auto-tune. It just sounds really artificial, like someone's playing keyboards behind them. They should just let them be natural, even if they're not always 100% on key...

(Edit: I originally wrote WOWOW rather than M-ON, sorry about that...)

spacecadet wrote:I'm still watching mine and I'm happy I got it, but I am kind of disappointed by the amount of auto-tune that's really obvious in some of the songs. I kind of suspected they used this on the Budokan disc too, although they sounded pretty good in person and auto-tune wasn't so obvious on the disc, but it's a lot more obvious on the Wonderful Tonight disc. I just compared the M-ON version of "Shoujo S" with the version on the disc, for example, and it is not even close. The M-ON version is natural; the disc version is totally auto-tuned. (Same performance, if you didn't see the M-ON broadcast.)

The super annoying thing is it sounds much worse with auto-tune. It just sounds really artificial, like someone's playing keyboards behind them. They should just let them be natural, even if they're not always 100% on key...

(Edit: I originally wrote WOWOW rather than M-ON, sorry about that...)

That's sad to hear. The reason people pay to see rock bands live or buy recordings of live performances is to experience their songs in a different fashion, with less polish. I just got mine in the mail today so I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I hope I'll still enjoy it. At least the 1080p will be glorious.

spacecadet wrote:I'm still watching mine and I'm happy I got it, but I am kind of disappointed by the amount of auto-tune that's really obvious in some of the songs. I kind of suspected they used this on the Budokan disc too, although they sounded pretty good in person and auto-tune wasn't so obvious on the disc, but it's a lot more obvious on the Wonderful Tonight disc. I just compared the M-ON version of "Shoujo S" with the version on the disc, for example, and it is not even close. The M-ON version is natural; the disc version is totally auto-tuned. (Same performance, if you didn't see the M-ON broadcast.)

The super annoying thing is it sounds much worse with auto-tune. It just sounds really artificial, like someone's playing keyboards behind them. They should just let them be natural, even if they're not always 100% on key...

(Edit: I originally wrote WOWOW rather than M-ON, sorry about that...)

That's not the best news ever... I don't see why they needed to put the auto-tune there in the first place. Somehow, if I was a new fan and stumbled upon this DVD version on youtube or something, I'd just assume they're another auto-tune loving group who aren't good live because of their need to use auto-tune... which frankly, they're really not. They sound amazing live, period. I just don't see the point of all this. Like Spacecadet said, their vocals aren't exactly 100% spot on, but that's not a reason to apply that amount of auto-tune. Honestly, I can't even imagine SCANDAL agreeing 100% on this auto-tune decision as they do take immense pride in their live performances. I don't have anything against auto-tune if used appropriately, e.g Queens are Trumps, but I'm totally against auto-tuning the whole concert. I mean come on, it's the concert of their dreams!

The DVD reached #1 on the DVD Music Daily rankings for July 25th:


https://twitter.com/scandal_band/status/360722758004514816
http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/dm/d/2013-07-25/

Yep, I just came in from Twitter to post this very thing. Congratulations to the ladies!

victor_survive wrote:The DVD reached the 9th position on its first day of sales.

Source: http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/dg/d/2013-07-23/more/2/

so until now we have
music dvd chart
1st day: #4
2nd day: #3
3rd day: #1
overall dvd chart
1st day: #9
2nd: #5
3rd: #12


I think it's charting pretty good comparing with their other dvds. maybe it will have a life chart as the budokan one
budokan: music (#3 #2 #1) overall (#7 #5 #11)
temptation box tour: music (1st #4 2nd #4 3rd #5) overall (#5 #5 #13)
best scandal tour: music (# #7 #5) overall (#3 #7 #11)
 
(I'm a fan of the oricon charts sorry ahah)

That's good news I hope it stays in the top a long time!

The auto-tune thing on the other hand is really bad news... Not sure why they would do that...

ichiruki! wrote:Honestly, I can't even imagine SCANDAL agreeing 100% on this auto-tune decision as they do take immense pride in their live performances.

I agree with everything you said. It doesn't help them being taken seriously as a rock band if they're obviously using auto-tune on their live DVD's. And I have a hard time thinking the band themselves had any real input in this decision.

Some people might not notice it, but I did almost immediately and I think anyone who's heard any sort of really live show before would notice. It's not just that they're really perfectly on key all the time (which was true of the Budokan disc), it's actually got that weird abrupt change in pitch every time they slide a note up or down. And it's very obviously not what they sounded like on the TV broadcast of the show, which there wouldn't have been time to apply any effects to (except in a really broad, ham-fisted manner that it seems they elected not to do). At least we still have that footage as a reference - it's rare to have two high quality, different versions of the same show.

I also am not 100% against auto-tune if it's used right... and if it was used on the Budokan disc, that's the way it should be used.  It's not noticeable there, it's just a little suspicious how perfect they sound. The real pro version of auto-tune does have different modes and levels that can be used. On Wonderful Tonight, though, you can really hear the actual auto-tune itself. That's a bad use of it.

Well, on the plus side, the picture quality is perfect on the BD.

^+1 to that post spacecadet!

actually having the band not perfecly in sincro, with all their little possible mistakes, makes (at least for) me fall in love with the band more and more because you can hear that they are doing live. every band does mistakes, covering them with auto-tunes is something editors should do for idols/pop singers in my opinion. using auto-tune is ok for giving different effects on the singers voice on the CD tracks, but while editing a live dvd? mmh...

is the bluray exactly the same as the M-ON broadcast version in terms of segments and camera angle?

@alrick13
it's different. In the beginning, you have an intro (girls are in backstage). And during the live, the GoPro cameras are used with new angles from the main cameras.

darksider59 wrote:@alrick13
it's different. In the beginning, you have an intro (girls are in backstage). And during the live, the GoPro cameras are used with new angles from the main cameras.

 thanks that's good to know

alrick13 wrote:is the bluray exactly the same as the M-ON broadcast version in terms of segments and camera angle?

I was actually surprised they didn't use the GoPro camera angles a little more, but the main camera angles are different too. The M-On version was basically edited "live", so they didn't have any chance to really go through and select the best angle at any given time. They were able to do that on the Blu-Ray. Some shots are the same, but anything that seemed a little clumsy on the M-On version is fixed on the blu-ray. For example, there aren't really any shots of Tomomi fumbling around with her ear monitors on the blu-ray

this will be a little favor, for those who have the blu ray can you give other details that differentiate it from m-on broadcast?? hihi

So at least they improved that part a lot, too bad about the auto-tune then :/ They probably thought it needed to be much much more pro than the M-ON version so they edited too much.

meow-chan wrote:this will be a little favor, for those who have the blu ray can you give other details that differentiate it from m-on broadcast?? hihi

I actually had put together a little comparison video between the M-On and BD to show the auto-tune, but you can also use it to compare the general sound and video and see some of the different shots.  Obviously this is a short video and it'd be impossible to go through and list *all* the differences, but you can see some replaced shots in the video below. You may need to do some scrubbing back and forth; I'm sure you're not going to remember all the shots as you're watching the first time through.

Sound-wise they've made some other alterations in addition to auto-tune, and they're a mixed bag - the overall mix is definitely better and sounds fuller and more bassy, but they've added some extra artificial reverb and have also increased "loudness" so that everything's just at max level all the time. (I could see this in my video editor, which shows the audio waveform.) I also feel like they've done something specifically to Haruna's voice to make it a little softer and less nasal, but I'm not sure. Take a listen, though, and judge for yourself.

[Removed video as it does contain footage from the official DVD]

Personally I think having both versions gives fans the best of both worlds. For the un-polished "live" experience, check out the wowow version. For the shiny "music video" experience, check out the disc release.

320x200 wrote:Personally I think having both versions gives fans the best of both worlds. For the un-polished "live" experience, check out the wowow version. For the shiny "music video" experience, check out the disc release.

The only real problem I have is that you can hear the auto-tune itself.  It's not just them sounding more polished than they really were - I'm sure the Budokan disc is like that and I had no complaints with that disc.  They just kind of messed up the auto-tune here and they have that robotic, inhuman sound through the whole disc.

I'm not sure they messed it up so much as they put it on heavier than you would prefer. I mean there's a bit of stepping going on if you stop watching the show and just focus on listening for it, but it's nowhere near Haruna's bit in Queens are Trumps which intentionally goes for that effect. Then again it's not an effect which bothers me anyways, so it probably comes down to personal preference.

While it does suck that they did that, I had to remove the video as it does contain direct footage from the official DVD release, which is not allowed to be posted on SH. From here on please refrain from posting anymore videos with that footage.

spacecadet wrote:

320x200 wrote:Personally I think having both versions gives fans the best of both worlds. For the un-polished "live" experience, check out the wowow version. For the shiny "music video" experience, check out the disc release.

The only real problem I have is that you can hear the auto-tune itself.  It's not just them sounding more polished than they really were - I'm sure the Budokan disc is like that and I had no complaints with that disc.  They just kind of messed up the auto-tune here and they have that robotic, inhuman sound through the whole disc.

 As always I am completely oblivious to these things, I wouldn't have noticed unless I would have done a direct comparison .deli.

320x200 wrote:I'm not sure they messed it up so much as they put it on heavier than you would prefer. I mean there's a bit of stepping going on if you stop watching the show and just focus on listening for it, but it's nowhere near Haruna's bit in Queens are Trumps which intentionally goes for that effect.

It shouldn't be noticeable at all, and I noticed it immediately (and it sounds like you did too, whether or not it bothered you). It's just not an effect that belongs on any album, much less a concert video, which is all about watching and hearing a band sing live. Auto-tune is actually made not to be noticeable - the effect you get on a song like Queens Are Trumps, or on any number of crappy pop songs, is actually achieved by playing the melody on a keyboard and then matching the vocals to that. When you're using Auto-tune the way it's meant to be used (to correct pitch problems), that effect only happens if you use the wrong settings.

I have a blog post that goes into a little more detail about Auto-tune's interface and the way it works, so I don't take up more unnecessary space here (you can probably skip the top part): http://www.alphabetcityblog.com/2013/07/scandals-wonderful-tonight-is-auto.html

Well, I was speaking a bit broadly because Auto-tune is just one pitch correction method (which gets an oddly absolute amount of the credit/blame for any sort of processed vocals). I have a pitch-correction stompbox with no external inputs which will (as an intentional feature) give the same stepping effect depending on settings.

I think in the end it boils down to taste since not everyone is going to like the same effects, applied in the same amount all the time, on their instruments or vocals.

I didn't mind the artifacts of the auto tune as much as the reverb effect to make it sound ambient. That really made it sounding bad and way too reverby to listen to.