EFB Chapter 22 0.3dB
Chapter 22 0.3dB
Jiang Yan took the headphones and sat down in front of the mixing console.
Kang Yeon was quite familiar with Red Velvet, as Kenzie had mentioned.
This new girl group, which debuted less than two years ago under SM Entertainment, has firmly established itself last year with "Ice Cream Cake" and "Dumb Dumb," becoming an undeniable rising force among fourth-generation girl groups.
The Velvet, which was officially released digitally and physically on March 17, is their first full mini-album centered around the Velvet concept since their debut.
Although he had previously experimented with the Velvet style in the two lead singles "Be Natural" and "Ice Cream Cake", he had never used this gentle and delicate R&B ballad style, which focuses on atmosphere and vocal expression, as the absolute core of the entire album.
This marks a crucial transition for them as they officially step out of their energetic and lively Red style comfort zone and move towards a completely new track.
Having just finished their debut stage performance on MCD on the 17th, and with their second music show appearance on Music Bank on the 18th, the entire internet is watching the market response to this transformation.
He put on his headphones and pressed play.
The first song is the title track, "One Of These Nights," which begins with gentle piano arpeggios, followed by Wendy's powerful and penetrating vocals.
The piano is a clear, watery white, the bass is a deep, calm purple, and the vocals are five independent yet intertwined bands of light.
As Jiang Yan listened, he mentally traced the flow trajectory of these light bands.
The intro is fine, the verses are fine, the distribution of the five voices is very balanced, and the layers of harmony are just right.
But when the chorus reached its climax, he suddenly pressed the pause button.
Upon seeing this, Kenzie raised an eyebrow. "What? You've found the problem?"
"Yes." Jiang Yan dragged the progress bar back a little and replayed the last seven-beat high note of the chorus, "Here, Wendy Xi's high note."
Kenzie's eyes flickered, but he didn't speak. He simply raised his hand, signaling for him to continue.
"Her high notes have a very subtle fluctuation between the third and fifth beats, with a frequency between 2.8k and 3.2kHz, as if something has pressed down on them."
Jiang Yan took off his headphones and pointed to the audio waveform on the screen. "There is a dip of less than 0.3dB in this frequency band, and the time span is only a fraction of a second."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire recording studio fell silent.
Kenzie's expression froze completely. She stared at Jiang Yan for a full three seconds before turning her head sharply to look at the spectrum on the screen. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she brought up the precise spectrum analysis of the audio clip.
The red spectrum curve jumped on the screen, and sure enough, there was a tiny, almost negligible dip in the 2.8k to 3.2kHz range.
"...You mean this?" Kenzie turned her head in disbelief, her eyes sharp as knives. "How did you find out?"
Stared at by that gaze, Jiang Yan's heart skipped a beat. Only then did he belatedly realize that the 0.3dB he had just mentioned was completely inaudible to a normal person's ears, let alone accurately pinpointed after hearing it only once.
His fingers tightened slightly on the edge of the mixing console, his heart pounded, but his face remained calm, showing no sign of panic.
Meeting Kenzie's probing gaze, he answered calmly, "I've had more sensitive ears than others since I was little. I'm particularly sensitive to changes in frequency. I can distinguish subtle sounds that others can't hear, and what others perceive as the same timbre sounds very different to me."
He paused, then added a more convincing explanation: "Just as some people are naturally better at distinguishing colors than others and can see more gradations, I just have this talent in hearing."
Kenzie stared into his eyes for a long time, trying to find a trace of lying on his face, but Jiang Yan's eyes were clear and frank, without any evasion.
After a long while, Kenzie slowly exhaled, raised her hand to rub her temples, and showed a complex expression of shock, confusion and ecstasy on her face.
"talent……"
She repeated it softly, then suddenly laughed, this time much more heartily than before. "What a talent! The production team went through dozens of versions before the music was released. After the release, I led the team to review the overall quality and stage feedback. I always felt that this high note was missing a breath. In order to find this gap, we used three different spectrum analyzers and real-time analyzers, and also pulled in three of the most senior engineers in the production department to compare them more than a dozen times before we confirmed it."
"As the core producer of this album, I couldn't even tell by ear when it was being signed and submitted for approval. You actually wore monitoring headphones and found it after just one listen. Amazing, truly amazing."
Tiffany, leaning against the mixing console, held an iced Americano in her hands, her eyes filled with surprise and curiosity as she looked at Jiang Yan.
She has been working with Kenzie to refine her solo track, and she is well aware of how discerning this top producer is. It is truly remarkable that she would offer such praise.
Kenzie closed his notebook and casually placed it on the mixing console. He turned to look at Jiang Yan, his previous apology expression gone, replaced by an unprecedentedly serious tone.
"Since you have such a sharp ear, then you'll be in charge of all the MR detail checks for the remaining 5 shows of Ryderbabe's first round of promotions, as well as the master tape fine-tuning for subsequent batches of physical albums and the correction of flaws in the digital platform audio sources. Send the final draft to this recording studio before the 26th."
This time it was Jiang Yan's turn to be stunned. "This... Senior Kenzie, I've only been here for one day. Isn't it a bit too much for me to start working on Red Velvet's project right away...?"
"Wait, what did you call me?"
"...Kenzie-senpai?"
"What did you say in the meeting room before?"
Kenzie crossed his arms and glanced at him sideways. "I told the department head in front of him that I wanted to take you on as my apprentice. My name is on the contract as your direct mentor. What, now that you've joined SM, are you planning to renege on that promise?"
Jiang Yan was speechless at her words, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. "No... that... teacher."
"That's more like it." Kenzie nodded in satisfaction, took a USB drive out of her bag and placed it in front of him. "It contains the release version mixing project of the entire 'The Velvet' mini-album, as well as the records of the revisions over the past few weeks."
"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. The core framework has already been set by the higher-ups, and there's not much we can do. What you need to do is use your ears to find out all the subtle flaws that we haven't discovered, and polish the details of the mix to the extreme."
"Yes, teacher."
Kenzie patted Kang Yeon on the shoulder, "Red Velvet's album is one of the company's major releases in the first half of the year. Although it has been officially released, the final details are still being polished, from the music show stage MR to the subsequent batches of physical master tapes."
"The project files you received are the final release version, which sounds fine, but the real test of skill lies in these details that others cannot hear."
She turned around, her fingers unconsciously sliding across the faders on the mixing console a few times, her tone carrying a seriousness Jiang Yan had never heard before.
"I'll say something you might not like to hear: you have excellent hearing and great talent, but experience is something that talent can't replace. I'll be going through all the revisions one last time, so if there's anything you're unsure about, feel free to ask me."