novelraw Chapter 14 Extracting God-Level Mixing Techniques
Chapter 14 Extracting God-Level Mixing Techniques
The car door slid open with a "whoosh".
Zhang Juan practically jumped down, wearing high heels.
Behind her, a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses strolled out slowly. His casual suit was well-tailored, and his hair was slicked back with wax.
Zhang Juan, covered in sweat, rushed to Song Ze and frantically gestured.
"This is Li Guobin, the music producer for the 'Three Lives Three Worlds' production team."
Li Guobin stopped three steps away. His gaze followed Song Ze's black T-shirt down to his SpongeBob SquarePants Crocs, and his eyebrows furrowed instantly.
He pointed in the direction of Song Ze with his finger.
"You're Song Ze?"
Song Ze was about to speak when Li Guobin didn't give him a chance at all.
I heard that song "Cool" on the road. It has a bit of inspiration, but the foundation is too rough.
He twitched his facial muscles, making no attempt to hide his contempt.
"The whole thing is problematic. The structure is loose, the orchestration is chaotic, and the chord progressions are the most clichéd and predictable."
"It must be drastically changed, completely changed."
The typical workplace bullying tactics immediately labeled Song Ze as a lucky, unorthodox individual.
Zhang Juan's facial muscles were stiff, and she repeatedly rubbed her hands together, afraid that Young Master Song Ze would lose his temper and turn on her in the street.
Song Ze listened expressionlessly.
He remained completely unmoved, and even felt an urge to applaud – the fact that this old man was willing to criticize meant the deal was lucrative.
Big work is on the way. If I raise 200 million this month, my plan to retire from the entertainment industry and make money will soon be ready to take root.
Song Ze suddenly slumped down, bringing his arms together in front of him, his face full of fawning wrinkles.
"Oh my! Thank you so much, Teacher Li!"
He rubbed his hands together, speaking rapidly.
"You're an expert. This is just a pile of scrap metal; I'm counting on you to turn it into gold."
"I'll do whatever Teacher Li tells me to do."
Beside her, Lin Shishi, who had already stepped halfway onto the van, stopped.
She turned her head and looked at Song Ze's obsequious and servile manner, feeling a tightness in her chest.
The arrogance and talent established by "Sorrow" and the slight goodwill gained from confronting Wen Ziliang at the dinner party all collapsed in this instant.
She initially thought it was just an act, but now it seems she's a complete spineless coward.
When you encounter authority, immediately kneel down.
Lin Shishi stepped heavily into the car and slammed the door shut, not wanting to look at it for even a second longer.
……
Half an hour later, in the control room of the top-tier "Phantom Sound" recording studio in Shanghai.
Li Guobin swaggered ahead, like a king inspecting his fiefdom.
"Young man, open your eyes and look."
He patted the giant control panel that took up most of the room.
"A genuine 50-channel Nifl analog mixing console imported from the UK. This thing alone is worth the down payment for a house in Shanghai."
Song Ze widened his eyes in agreement: "Wow! That's incredibly awesome!"
Li Guobin sneered dismissively, pointing to the black box in the corner.
"The Finnish Genelec listening array is something you unorthodox people would never normally have the chance to touch."
As he walked, he tossed out a list of exorbitantly priced equipment. Zhang Juan huddled in the back row, her toes nearly tearing through the soundproof carpet.
Li Guobin plopped down in the ergonomic chair in the main control position.
"Today I'll show you what true industrial-grade manufacturing really looks like."
He opened the host software and his hands flew across the keyboard sliders at high speed, deliberately slowing down and lengthening the movements.
"Can you hear that lousy drumbeat from your original version? Cut it out and replace it with my treasured top-of-the-line analog sample."
"And this string section, the frequency bands are clashing, the sound is chaotic, delete it all and rearrange the tracks."
While Li Guobin was making extensive changes to the audio tracks, he was spouting professional jargon—EQ equalization, frequency response curve, bus compression.
High-intensity pressure, blatant technological bullying.
Just as he was showing off at his most enthusiastic moment, a line of ice-blue information exploded in front of Song Ze's retina.
【Ding--】
[Skill detected: Music Production (Advanced Level)]
[Target for extraction: Li Guobin]
The target is currently using this skill at high intensity...
[System evaluation passed. Possesses proficient-level music composition skills, meeting the prerequisites. Target level is within two levels of current ability.]
【Whether to extract? 】
Song Ze narrowed his eyes slightly and gave the order in his mind.
"extract."
[Ding—Draw complete!]
A massive amount of arrangement logic, sound field construction concepts, mastering level compression techniques, mixed with the golden points of instrument frequency cutting, violently and wildly wash over the cerebral cortex.
[System panel refresh]
Music Production (Excellent Level, 420/1000)
Song Ze blinked.
Three years after the house collapsed, he worked as an assistant in a recording studio for three years to raise money for his lawyer's fees.
Moving equipment, adjusting equipment, cleaning equipment.
No one taught him, so he stood behind the veteran sound engineer and learned by observation, watching him operate the equipment and noting down the values of each parameter.
He would jot down all the jargon the mixing engineers used while adjusting the faders and smoking, and then go home and compare it with the online tutorials.
No one gave him a chance to try it, but he had touched the feel of each clipper countless times in his dreams.
In other words, he studied mixing for six years but never actually used it once.
Now, the fifty-channel Niff mixing console was right in front of him, and he held the proficiency extraction system in his hand.
Song Ze suddenly felt a bit ironic.
In his past life, he could only stand and watch others do mixing. Now, as he sits down and his fingers touch the fader, all those memories turn into real muscle reactions.
The system was just a catalyst; the fuel that was burned was the hard work of the previous six years.
He pressed Enter heavily.
"That's a wrap! Listen to this top-notch texture after my optimization!"
Li Guobin slammed the master volume fader, and the two million-dollar monitor speakers erupted with a deafening roar.
Boom boom boom! Boom boom boom!
The harsh, piercing electronic bass tore through the entire sound field, and the synthesizer emitted a sharp, high-frequency whine.
The song "Liang Liang," which had a profound artistic conception and was mainly based on the ancient Chinese style and melancholy, was forcibly changed into a tacky social dance song for nightclubs.
Li Guobin raised his legs high, resting them on the edge of the mixing console, and slumped in his chair, uttering an extremely arrogant assertion.
"Alright, finalized. Simple, efficient—that's what it means to align with the underlying logic of the lower-tier market."
He tapped the screen with his toe: "Keep up this pace and get into the studio to record. I need to hear perfect vocals by 8 a.m. tomorrow. No exceptions."
Song Ze pulled over a high stool, sat down with an air of authority, and straightened his back.
His previous servile and obsequious manner had completely vanished.
He put his hands in his pockets and met Li Guobin's gaze without any hesitation.
"Teacher Li, your arrangement—"
Li Guobin slammed his foot on the ground and shouted, "What? You have a problem with that?"
"Too plain, too bland." Song Ze made an undisguised mocking remark. "It's so tacky it's unbelievable."
Li Guobin flew into a rage. Zhang Juan was so frightened that she took three steps back and frantically waved her arms at Song Ze.
Song Ze completely ignored external interference.
He pushed aside the chair blocking his way and directly occupied the core area of the main control panel.
The exquisite production concept in one's mind takes over the limbs.
The left hand types on keyboard shortcuts, while the right hand flicks the mouse, creating a continuous clicking sound.
"The bass drum EQ cut was too harsh! It ruined the entire bass!"
"The high frequencies are all digital noise! The synthesizer is so bad it's almost drowning out the main melody!"
The mouse cursor left an afterimage on the screen, selecting a large area of colorful electronic music tracks.
The Delete key was slammed down. Instantly wiped clean, completely wiped out, not even a trace remained.
Li Guobin was trembling with rage. He pointed at Song Ze's nose and roared, "You incompetent fool who can't even read sheet music, what are you doing! Who gave you the guts to delete my project tracks?!"
Song Ze leaned back, crossed his legs, and placed his hands on his abdomen.
"Not only will I delete it, I'll completely rewrite it." He dropped a bombshell with extreme relaxation, "And by the way, I should let you know—I never intended to sing this song alone in the first place."
Zhang Juan's mind went blank, a jumbled mess of thoughts.
In the middle of the night, where can you find a top female singer to perform this extremely difficult ancient-style song?
Song Ze deftly took out his phone, swiped through the contacts, and tapped Lin Shishi's number.
beep - beep -
"What are you doing?" A woman's extremely cold voice came through the receiver.
Li Guobin and Zhang Juan held their breath at the same time.
Song Ze spoke casually into the microphone, "Hello, is this Boss Lin?"
In her luxurious hotel suite, Lin Shishi looked at the incoming caller ID, feeling utterly annoyed.
"What do you need in the middle of the night?"
Song Ze didn't beat around the bush and revealed all his cards in one go.
"Urgent need for help! A big project has arrived. An S+ level ancient costume drama production, the theme song for the OST of 'Three Lives Three Worlds'. A male and female duet version, now all we need is a top-notch female voice to anchor the production."
The breathing on the other end of the phone suddenly stopped. The entire recording studio control room fell into absolute silence.
Li Guobin's eyes were so wide they almost popped out, while Zhang Juan covered her mouth.
Song Ze tapped rhythmically on the metal edge of the control panel with his fingers.
"Give me a straight answer. Boss Lin, are you coming or not?"