Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nuke 'em from space- it's the only way to be sure! scream

Sorry to you guys that like them, but I've yet to come across even one that wasn't horrible. When amateurs translate (which is going to be most of the time) it just seems to come out butchered. It feels awkward and wrong, the pulse of the music just isn't there anymore. Not a fan at. all.

If you can post a link to a really good English one I'd be willing to give it a listen. ^_^

If you're Japanese, as in, can speak/listen/write them, I can understand if you dislike certain dubs. If you're non-Japanese speaker person who doesn't like dubs in general, you are biased fan who doesn't know better. I'm saying this because Vocaloids aren't used "perfectly" by many nico producers a lot of the time, in a way that they must put up Japanese text in their videos so people can read a long and understand the lyrics being sung by the programs (just like English vocaloids not singing English well). They sound bad to me a lot of the time, so I appreciate the nico covers, and this is me, who doesn't speak a lick of Japanese.

^ To add to that, it's not an easy task to translate Japanese into English when attempting to use the same number of syllables and vocabulary without the need to split the words apart during the singing, AND still manage to get them all to follow the same rhythm/tone/etc of the music. Really, it's as similar as you trying to make an animation dub, a character saying "I like" in Japanese, which in this case, "suki desu" (four syllables), is much different from English's "I like" (two syllables). You think you can add 2 extra syllables to that without making English translation sound retarded?

I know Razzyness in Youtube, along with many other singers who make duets with him in covering Vocaloid songs, to be a very good dubber (one of my favorite of his is Two-Faced Lovers which is half finished and half bloopers, I love his laugh in this one, so cute). He got flack from other people for using a deep voice in a Halloween song, Trick and Treat (really... REALLY?). Halloween songs supposed to have that festive and "creepy" feel. What's important is that he got the main message of the song through, not because you're trying to be "Len".

*edits*
There's also SquaDus2007 dub on Rolling Girl song. Then again, he worked off from another translation, and doesn't sing in English often.

Yeah, I'm the first to admit I don't care so much about the actual lyrics as long as they fit the tone and tempo of the original song because I don't speak Japanese. I would fall under the category of "biased fan". But sometimes I think that might be a good thing after watching comment wars about the translation of a single word. Letting a few little things ruin an otherwise beautiful cover seems like it would suck all the fun out of it to me. Personally, I'd rather have a song that was less accurate but sounded good in English. Take "Daughter of Evil" for example. Most English covers begin the chorus with "Eeeeeevil flower", elongating the "e" to make up the lost syllable(s?). If I were to cover it (HAHAHAHA) I would probably replace "evil" with something longer like sinister, devilish, despicable, contemptible because it flows better.

Plus when discussing translation, it seems like a lot of people completely ignore the fact that the translator had to fit the lyrics to the music, so while one word may have been more accurate the other has a similar meaning and the right amount of syllables. This means that the super heated comment wars squabbling over a single word involve three people: the person who speaks Japanese and thinks the singer is wrong, the person who speaks Japanese and thinks the singer is right, and the third party that may or may not speak Japanese but reminds the other two about having to fit the word to the music. And obviously there are some songs that lend themselves to translation better than other. You don't have to know the language to understand that.

Unfortunately, you get people saying "You don't sound sound like ______ so you sing their songs." with any cover in any language. It's bull, in my opinion. That's the very definition of a cover, to sing it your way. Just the other day I saw someone post on an amazing English cover of "Melt" that the singer shouldn't sing Miku Hatsune songs (which would encompass all Miku songs, a very long list) because she didn't sound like Miku. I face-palmed. It was a great cover, and the singer did a good job.

As far as Razzyness goes, I tend not to listen to his dubs. He's very talented and well known, but his singing style isn't something I personally like. Some of his lyrics can be kind of annoying at times as well. However, that's just my opinion. But that's just from what I've listened so far, I suppose I should give his other songs a fair chance.

Nah, if you wouldn't fall under my kind of biased fan, since you're are picky in a way that the English dub cover doesn't have to be accurately correct with its original lyrics. I'll admit, I am quite picky when it comes to how the words flow in the song. xD

My main issue is people picking over similes. Sure, "dark" is the same type of thing as "evil", and so is "sinister", but you know that all of these examples have different syllables. It's a lot more difficult when you have to deal with the different grammar system. In the end of it all, if it makes sense, keeps a good chunk of the original's message, and it sounding good to the ears, that's all I care for.

Hehe, Razzyness is my... comedian of sorts, similar to how Nico covers have someone rapping throughout the whole song. When it comes to rockleetist, I don't really enjoy her dubs, but I can tell that she have some talent, at least better than the average dubs I see around youtube. Like you mentioned, a lot of the time, it's mostly because everyone is a novice, and doesn't have the right tools and experience for it.

I personally am willing to sacrifice natural sounding singing to stretch or shorten lines so it can be as exact as possible.

I don't like the English version of Popipo because liberties were taken. Midori no juice means "green juice", not "pale blue juice".