Since there are so many album reviews/reviewers (Hi MIKUFAN2015 and DEATHSPARK ) out there, I thought I would do something a bit different. With the producer highlight series, I’ll be able to talk about some of my favorite vocaloid producers without having to review every single one of their albums.
yksb is similar to HachioujiP in the way that he is an electro/electropop producer, both producers use a variety of vocaloids in their music. However, yksb seems to use IA more than any other vocaloids. Here I’ll mostly be highlighting songs with IA as the main vocalist, since I’m bias against the lesser vocaloids (JK), I don’t know enough to have an opinion.
Enough with the useless info, on with the review
yksb is mostly a electropop producer and has remixed some of his own songs. While original songs tend to fall into the electropop genre, his remixes lean toward Drum & Bass. If electronic music is not your cup of tea, feel free to stop reading….
On a scale of zero to ten, zero being Jin, the worst producer when it comes to tuning IA (opinion); and Ciel being the best (fact). I would give yksb a 8.259 out of 10, on his IA tuning skill. yksb has a very unique style of tuning, it’s impossible to describe (just listen to his music). With the combination of his music/tuning style, his songs stand out against other electro producers and made it instantly recognizable.
The good news is that yksb uploads most of his songs on his NND account, but I would much rather listen to music in FLAC format. The bad news is that he seems to only release his albums at The Voc@loid M@ster event, which made it impossible for me to obtain.
Upper Tune/ Uppertune remix yksb feat. IA, Megurine Luka
A happy electropop song with Luka rap (sounds like a certain Mitchie M song?). It is also yksb’s most viewed song on NND. The remix is an overall improvement to the original song (if you like D&B), my only knock is that sometimes IA’s vocal is sped up to match the pace of the song. I wish yksb would have gone back and retuned IA’s vocal instead of just speeding it up.
Sick yksb feat. IA, Megurine Luka
A nice duet between IA and Luka with a good electronic opening, and a very inappropriate rap verse from Luka.
ASH DRIVE yksb feat. IA
Just another nice electropop by yksb. It’s actually the song that got me into his music.
Thousand stars/ DnBmix yksb feat. IA
My favorite song by yksb, and it’s not a electronic song surprisingly. IA was actually retuned to sound less robotic for the album release. The PV is still worth watching with a very cute dance routine by IA. IA’s vocal is slightly sped up for the DnB remix and the piano opening was removed as well, a good remix but I still prefer the original.
clickER yksb feat. IA
The opening was changed for the IA THE WORLD ～鍵～ release, but aside from that, it’s indetical to the NND version. A good electropop song, yksb shows that he can actually tune IA to rap and not just Luka. IA also said ‘f**king shit’ in the song…
STAR RIDER/ Star rider UK style yksb feat. IA
The original version was meh, but I love the remixed version. It doesn’t have too much singing, just a nice electronic song with IA as the backing vocal.
Killer smile yksb feat. IA
A very annoying song by yksb, the tuning is true to his style, but the music seems rushed. Yksb made this song for the IA/VT game and this is the his only song that’s featured in the game.
Last Dance yksb feat. IA
A great song with an equally fantastic PV the match.
SUBARU yksb feat. IA
I’m pretty sure yksb is on acid when he made this song. The weird dial was turned to 200% when he tuned IA.
Tl;dr: just click the links and listen to all the songs
Welp, this is the end… I actually have all of the IA compilation albums and I plan to review all of them… here is a list of what I have:
All of IA THE WORLD compilation
IA/01
IA/02
IA/03
IA X guitar magazine
CiRCUiT BEATS (already reviewed)
MEKAKUCITY RECORDS
Let me know which one I should review first…
Wow ya really love IA man. HELLO TO U TOO MAN.
IA is Love
IA is Life
Thanks for the shoutout I suppose? ^^
But I’m more of a Miku person but if you don’t mind, lemme just ‘hijack’ this post a little yeah? >:3
All of the songs just didn’t tickle my fantasy, yes, it has all the groove here and there, but, it’s just, not powerful enough to catch me? I guess most of them felt lackluster to me, same styles used with slight changes here and there. I have a strong feeling that the music just overpowers IA’s voice in these songs.
It’s just my opinion though, yksb’s style just doesn’t float well with me I suppose. Worth checking out though to people who want some electronica that’s much more calm?
I am not going to fault a producer for having the same style, as most producer stick to the same genre and style of music. I can make the same argument against Yairi (Exchange Variation) and Clean tear, as most of their music are stylistically similar.
and on the topic of balancing vocal vs instrumental in electronic music; in electronic music, the vocal is not the main focus of the song. The reason vocaloid is a good fit in the genre, because the vocal and music are both computer generated. Originally electronic music is 90% computer generated beats with samples of vocal from other songs. With vocaloid electronic producers, even though the vocal used in their track in computer generated, they still have to balance between the beats and the singing. At what point a song can still be classify as electronic music. I would argue that most of Clean tear and Mitchie M’s music is under the pop genre with electronic elements, since the focus of their song is on the vocal and not the beats.
I do appreciate that you take the time to disagree with me, it would not be much of a discussion if we share the same view on a topic.
Actually, I didn’t disagree with what you have to say, I’m simply pointing out the artist’s works didn’t appeal much to me ^^;
And no, the producer is not at fault here, if there are fans (And lots of them) then he/she’s doing it right. I only judge based on MY opinions. 🙂
Yes, I understand that Vocaloids fit electronica because they are computer generated, but if you want to reel me in without vocals, I am fine with that too. I do like electronica without vocals too, just, sometimes the vocals disrupts the good music, so it depends. It’s always about synergy and the artist’s creativity.
Anyway, I comment simply to share out my thoughts, I don’t plan to start arguments or, anything serious really. Like I said in the comment itself, my opinions and thoughts :3
Maybe disagreement is the wrong word, think of it as a discussion with different opinion. I am not trying to start an argument, but I do enjoy en exchange of different point of view, it make the conversation more interesting, that’s all … >.-