“… I hope I can successfully qualify for the "Seedlings Cup" National Grand Prix. ”

The living room of the Yanqing rest suite on the right side of the second floor of the "office building".

Liu Mingren held a real-time camera monitor and skillfully deployed several sets of camera positions to frame and shoot at the same time.

The center of the camera is Weng Huaijing, who is sitting on a black leather sofa reading his first draft.

Yan Qing sat on the same sofa on Weng Huaijing's right side, quietly listening to Weng Huaijing's reading.

He crossed his hands over his chest, rubbing the shallow stubble on his chin and sniffing the scent of rosemary around him, his mind soothing and pleasant.

"No powder, but the color is like the moon reflecting the snow."

Yan Qing thought of such a sentence for no reason, and it seemed just right to use it on the cold Weng Huaijing.

Weng Huaijing wore a simple ponytail, a black and white houndstooth patterned mid-sleeved shirt and black wide-legged cropped pants.

The two long legs in stiletto heels are close to each other, the calves are elegantly put together in front and back, and the calves are diagonally against the base of the sofa.

“…………”

After reading Xu Moer's submission, Weng Huaijing looked at the camera without saying a word, as if to signal that the program director Liu Mingren had finished speaking.

"I can understand Xu Moer's feelings, during the study period in a foreign country, it was also a ballet... Accompanied me through my life... The hardest days. ”

Outside the camera, Luo Bing and Shao Qing kept comparing their hands to Weng Huaijing and pushing them out from their hearts, and under the urging of the two, Weng Huaijing added his own words to the camera.

"Mo'er, come on, when you come to the imperial capital to prepare for the art exam, Professor Weng and I, on behalf of Talent Co., Ltd., invite you to come to the practice room of our program group to do exam preparation exercises."

Noticing the movement of the camera, Yan Qing said to the camera with a warm smile.

Weng Huaijing glanced at Yan Qing when he heard this, and seemed to think of something, and added to the camera:

"The first round of registration for our school will be launched in mid-September, and we welcome applicants to apply for the cradle of dancers - Imperial Capital Dance Academy."

Shao Qing and Luo Bing, who were outside the camera, smiled as aunts.

The two of them have been worried in private that Weng Huaijing, who is too cold, has too bad a sense of variety in front of the camera, but so far everything is fine.

Yan Qing picked up the manuscript he chose and began to introduce his choice for the first issue to the camera:

"I have this manuscript from a rap critic...

… Rap has completely taken up in our Chinese music scene in the past ten years, like Jiang Jin, who has already held three top singles on the weekly chart of the Supreme Golden Melody Chart.

But before the style of rap music was widely accepted by everyone, there was a proper term called underground in our Chinese rap culture in the early days.

Thirty or forty years ago, there were some respectable underground musicians in China who were quietly promoting and popularizing the genre of rap.

At that time, in my hometown of Shonan Province, there was also an independent rap music label called "Super Underground Player", which blended the traditional Chinese culture with imported rap music to make the first batch of excellent Chinese rap works.

But unfortunately, since "Super Underground Player" chose to disband for various reasons 28 years ago, there has been no charlatan-style rap in the music scene since then.

This can be regarded as my biggest regret in Shi Yufan's career as a rap music critic for 20 years. ”

After Yan Qing finished reading his manuscript, he paused for a moment and said seriously to the camera:

"The submission in my hand is full of regrets.

I want to tell our audience that Talent Limited will love stories like Xu Moer's who have been defeated repeatedly but have become more and more courageous, and also cherish the nostalgia and regret in everyone's hearts.

So I'll try to make a rap piece in the style of Jianghu. ”

…………

The next recording session is "Creative Ideas and Sample Appreciation", and the "Light Chaser" program team has already recorded this content in the conference room of the Imperial Capital Dance Academy on Wednesday.

Liu Mingren is very satisfied with the plot of the two main creators working together through a conference call, so today "Light Chaser" only needs to make up some shots of Weng Huaijing in the practice room, and the main job of the program team is to shoot how Yan Qing created a rap work.

The group transferred to the stage of the performing arts bar on the first floor, Yan Qing sat in front of the music workstation, and while skillfully debugging the equipment, he talked eloquently to the camera:

"A rap work can usually be split into two parts, lyrics and beat.

Like right now, I'm preparing the beat part of this song, and the rap is usually Old School style. ”

After Yan Qing finished debugging the equipment, he turned on the speakers and released the two sound effects of the kick drum and the snare drum in the virtual instrument library, and continued to say:

If you listen to rap a lot, you will find that most old-school rappers follow "boom-bap" in their choreography.

"boom-bap" is actually an onomatopoeia. As the name suggests, "boom" stands for the sound of the kick drum and "bap" stands for the sound of the snare drum.

It's usually the rhythm of this effect. ”

The recording microphone of the program group clearly recorded the drum beat from the speakers:

“boom！ bap！ boom boom！ bap！ ”

…………

"But we're playing a little bit differently today."

As soon as Yan Qing's voice turned, he showed the camera his Midi keyboard composed of black and white keys under his palm:

"We know that the biggest difference between rap music and other music genres is the carrier form of the main melody.

Rap uses the change of vocal flow as the melody carrier of the song, and the so-called flow refers to a relatively abstract concept, which can be understood as the catalyst for the combination of lyrics and accompaniment.

When the rapper explains the work, he interprets his lyrics in his own style through the rhyming arrangement of the passages, the rhythm of the pauses, and the severity of the pronunciation.

For example, when someone was playing the new song "Throne", I could easily tell that it was Jiang Jin's work. ”

"Why?"

Yan Qing asked and answered:

"Because the flow of the song has Jiang Yao's signature style, his unique oppressive breathing and pronunciation method, he likes to use the technique of backbeat angry tone to forward beat accent in the large passage of the main song."

Yan Qing kept his fingers flying silently on the Midi keyboard, and his mouth turned the topic back to the production process of the song accompaniment:

"Beat, the backing is usually produced by professional music producers, and of course many good rappers are themselves music producers.

Making a rap beat requires a certain knowledge of music theory and harmony, and then the production is done through a professional music workstation.

You can use this Midi keyboard to create a melody in a purely original way, and then make a beat with harmony, or you can sample other songs, choose a melody of less than eight syllables, and then match the harmony to make a beat. ”

Yan Qing stopped playing the Midi keyboard in his hand, and operated the mouse and keyboard to mix the input accompaniment tracks.

He summoned Miao Miao to his side, asked Miao Miao to put on the singer's monitor monitor, and adjusted the condenser recording microphone.

Yan Qing continued to say to the camera:

"The production idea of "Lisao", a beat, considered that there was no suitable material sampling in hand, so I made a more retro melody, similar to the style of martial arts TV series episodes that were popular decades ago.

Next, I will ask Miao Miao to help me sing these two vocal melodies. ”

Miao Miao smiled at the camera, covered her ears with her hands, and opened her mouth with her eyes closed and followed the accompaniment.

Two soft and glutinous Cantonese sentences were recorded into the music workstation and the camera:

"The wind blows strongly/People in the rivers and lakes/See everything"

…

"For you/I break the knife mountain/I am willing to die"

After singing, Miao Miao stared at Yan Qing with a pair of sparkling eyes, Yan Qing understood in seconds, and softly told her that the effect was very good and she didn't need to re-record.

Miao Miao nodded and took off the ear monitor and left the camera, returning to the outside of the circle to continue recording.

"Now we've mixed these two recorded vocal tracks with the harmonic accompaniment and lead accompaniment that I had input into this workstation with the keyboard, and we've made a beat, so let's listen to it."

After Yan Qing used the workstation to mix more than 20 sub-tracks into a finished accompaniment, he released the accompaniment of "Lisao" in the speaker:

This is a trumpet as the main instrument, a magnificent retro, similar to the old-school martial arts drama Armageddon plot BGM style of beat, the two distorted Cantonese vocals are interspersed in the accompaniment.

"Then I have to prepare to write the lyrics, and then I can arrange the lyrics for FLow."

Yan Qing waved goodbye to the camera.

…………

In the afternoon, Liu Mingren took the camera team and Yan Qing to the study in his lounge, and took a few sets of shots of Yan Qing crouching on the desk writing lyrics in the study, as well as Yan Qing holding the printed lyrics, repeatedly deducing and arranging the rhyming structure in the lyrics paragraphs, adjusting his tone of voice and heavy bass, and pausing shots.

…………

Evening Performing Arts Bar Stage

Weng Huaijing, who finished recording the solo dance scene in the practice room, met with Yan Qing here, and the two took a few sets of shots of the sample appreciation meeting:

The two of them on the stage did not interact as always, and even made little eye contact.

After Yan Qing released Beat and sang a version of "Lisao" with the accompaniment, he sat in front of the upright piano.

Yan Qingxin added a cadenza solo prelude, and it was natural to turn to the 6541 column chord loops that he had arranged to add some color.

Weng Huaijing wore ears and steadily cut into the piano accompaniment, and performed a complete song "Light Chaser".

This is the first time Yan Qing has heard Weng Huaijing sing, and it is also the first time that the two have performed together.

Yan Qing's casual piano accompaniment unexpectedly matched her shallow singing and singing.

Weng Huaijing's timbre is particularly recognizable: ethereal and tactful, textured, and she naturally intersperses a lot of semi-transposition techniques in her singing, which sounds charming with a strong contrast with her own image.

An inexplicable sense of familiarity came up, and Yan Qing quickly went through it in his mind, Weng Huaijing's vocal style is somewhat similar to a very recognizable R&B singer Jhene Aiko in his previous life, but it is just similar, Yan Qing and this Aiko in his previous life were just nodding acquaintances on the one side, and they are not familiar at all.

"Where does this familiarity come from, and why is it so strong?"

Yan Qing shook off his pasty brain, looked up and looked outside the stage, it seemed that the feedback on the two songs was good, and the cheers continued.

Weng Huaijing on the stage was in a state of "true cold as ice" at this time.

She held the microphone in her right hand and her left hand in front of her chest, standing upright on the stage.

Yan Qing, who was a little unclear, could only add a few words to the camera under Luo Bing's control of the periphery, and his follow-up improvement ideas for the two work samples...

With Liu Mingren's slightly hoarse and tired voice, Saturday's recording plan was successfully completed.

And they all dispersed, and every man went back to his house.

Yan Qing rode an electric car behind Miao Miao's car, and when he crossed the sea, he thought like this in his mind:

"It's nice to say one more thing, and besides, where the hell that damn familiarity comes from..."