BXBX NOVEL Chapter 16 - 15 Dolphin Sound_1
Before finishing work in the evening.
Lin Yuan finally finished listening to one hundred and six vocals.
After listening to these one hundred and six vocals, Lin Yuan has a deeper understanding of why Qin Continent is the most famous Land of Music on Blue Star.
One by one, they could really sing!
The list of one hundred and six singers sent by Zhao Jue are all newcomers, more than half of whom have not even debuted yet, but in terms of their professional skill, they have far exceeded the Earth’s average quality.
In this round of vocal selections, Lin Yuan has successfully identified three people who could potentially sing “Big Fish”.
This was definitely beyond what he’d expected.
That night, Lin Yuan made a call to Zhao Jue, announcing his tentative choices.
“Wang Ping, Jiang Kui, Wei Xiaoxin…”
Hearing Lin Yuan uttering these three names somewhat unfamiliarly, Zhao Jue asked, “It seems like the ones you picked are all newbies who haven’t debuted yet?”
“Yes.”
This kid seemed fishy.
Was he just picking newbies because they charge less?
Zhao Jue suppressed his doubts and said, “I’ll inform these three to wait at the recording studio tomorrow. You can test their voices first, confirm your choices and then start recording. But the company’s audition is up to you to pass; even if you record, it’ll just be a waste if it doesn’t pass the review.”
“Sure.”
The call between them ended.
The next day, the recording studio on the ninth floor of the company.
Wang Ping, Jiang Kui, and Wei Xiaoxin, all newbies, were seated demurely on the chairs outside the door, their faces full of anticipation, like job candidates waiting for interviews.
“Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum.”
To keep her voice in good condition, Jiang Kui had almost drunk half a bottle of water.
But the water couldn’t alleviate her nerves-
Last night, her agent suddenly informed her that she was to come to the company for a sound check, because Admirable Fish might choose her as the vocalist for his new song.
Upon hearing this news, Jiang Kui was so excited that she barely slept all night.
She couldn’t believe that, less than a year after joining the company, her chance to debut had suddenly appeared.
It felt like winning the lottery, or as if a huge gift had suddenly fallen from the sky.
Moreover, the music creator was Admirable Fish!
November hasn’t ended yet, and the song “Life Like A Summer Flower” created by Admirable Fish still dominates the top of the New Song Chart. Up until today, it had a tremendous lead of thirty thousand downloads over the second place!
This alone already demonstrated Admirable Fish’s skills.
Now that there was a chance to work with Admirable Fish on her debut song, how could Jiang Kui not be excited?
As a newbie, she didn’t yet understand that not every song by a composer can reach the same level; she also didn’t understand that the company has an important hurdle called ‘music review’ before the release of the song.
She only knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and she must seize it!
Not just Jiang Kui.
At this moment, Wang Ping and Wei Xiaoxin, who were also in the newbie stage, had similar thoughts.
While the three of them were nervously waiting.
Lin Yuan arrived at the ninth floor using the elevator. The staff in the recording studio recognized him and greeted him immediately with a big smile, “Teacher Admirable Fish, you’re here.”
“Admirable Fish?”
All three of them looked at Lin Yuan simultaneously, none of them expecting Admirable Fish to be so young. Most successful composers are usually over thirty years old.
There are ones below thirty, but they are definitely rare.
“Thank you.”
Lin Yuan nodded to the staff, then said, “Who is Wang Ping? Come in first, let’s test your sound.”
“I am!”
Wang Ping immediately stood up.
He was the only male among the three.
Lin Yuan nodded, entered the main control room of the recording studio with a staff member, casually sat down on the chair at the soundboard, and put on headphones.
“Hello, Teacher Admirable Fish.”
Wang Ping went into the recording room, took a deep breath, and introduced himself, “My vocal range is from D1 to D3 falsetto.”
“Okay.”
Lin Yuan said, “There is a score and lyrics in front of you, take three minutes, you can first sing two lines from the chorus, I want a feeling of purity and serenity.”
“Sure.”
Wang Ping prepared for three minutes, then started his first few test lines: “The silent waves deeply engulf the nightfall, spreading over the corners of the endless sky…”
After he finished the two lines.
Lin Yuan said again, “Don’t continue with the main song, and sing two lines of the chorus, the part that goes ‘I’m afraid you’ll fly away, I’m afraid you’ll leave me, and I’m even more afraid you’ll always stay here’.”
He demonstrated it for him.
Although the doctor said he couldn’t sing, it was no problem for Lin Yuan to lower the key and come up with a couple of lines.
What he meant by not being able to sing was just that he couldn’t practice like a professional singer every day, nor could he belt the high notes that he was once good at, because his voice couldn’t withstand such high-intensity sound loads.
“Okay, Teacher Admirable Fish.”
As per Lin Yuan’s requirement, Wang Ping did as instructed.
Selected by Lin Yuan for sound testing, Wang Ping’s tone was indeed extremely beautiful; he handled both the main song and the chorus very well.
Lin Yuan nodded, “Next is the chanting part, that is, the high-pitched part where the song is about to end.”
In “Big Fish,” there is a beautiful humming part, which laymen refer to as the “dolphin sound,” but in professional terms, there’s no such word as “dolphin.”
The so-called “dolphin sound” in professional terms is called the “whistle register.”
This sound is produced by blowing a powerful breath through the extremely narrow gap between the vocal cords and the larynx, creating a very high-pitched sound—a nifty coloratura method for achieving high notes—
This is currently the upper limit of the pitch humans can achieve!
Besides the “lingual sound” singing method, no other method can reach higher than the whistle register, so this part is harder than any other part before it.
“Ah ah ah~ah ah~ah ah ah~ah ah~”
Wang Ping’s trial singing clearly made him seem out of breath. It was far from the dolphin sound; at most, it could be counted as a dolphin.
Lin Yuan immediately called it off: “Your voice is too tight. You need to relax a bit. Also, it’s all falsetto techniques. Can you sing this part without relying on a falsetto?”
“No can do …”
Wang Ping shook his head dejectedly. His vocal range was still too narrow to manage the whistle register comfortably.
“Thank you.”
Lin Yuan said, “Could you send Wei Xiaoxin in?”
“Alright, thank you, Teacher Admirable Fish.”
Wang Ping bowed his head and left.
Soon, Wei Xiaoxin entered the recording studio.
After a brief introduction, the same vocal testing procedure was conducted.
In terms of performance quality, Wei Xiaoxin was undoubtedly better than Wang Ping. She effortlessly executed the whistle register as well.
However, after the vocal testing, Lin Yuan was still somewhat frowning.
At Wei Xiaoxin’s level, she could only be considered barely eligible.
There is a distinction between being able to produce the whistle register and doing so beautifully—
Why is Vitas from Earth so acclaimed by professionals and non-professionals alike despite so many who can whistle register?
A key reason is that Vitas’s whistle register sounds beautiful.
Vocal timbre is innate and very hard to change postnatally. Wei Xiaoxin’s timbre was not a problem, but in the part requiring the whistle register, her timbre had trouble meeting Lin Yuan’s requirements.
Non-professionals might not be able to detect this.
But Lin Yuan’s ear could perceive the difference from the original version at the first listen. He sighed inwardly and said, “You’ve worked hard. Let’s bring in the next person.”
Actually, the post-production sound editing could improve Wei Xiaoxin’s performance.
She already met Lin Yuan’s minimum requirements for a stand-in.
But Lin Yuan stuck to the principle: if he could avoid overburdening the Sound Engineer, he would.
“Thank you, teacher.”
We Xiaoxin left somewhat disappointed.
Next up, a girl named Jiang Kui.
She was a petite young girl who, upon entering, busied herself adjusting the microphone’s height, amusing the staff with her antics.
“Hello, teachers.”
The petite girl embarrassingly said, “My name is Jiang Kui, and my vocal range is from G2 to C6…”
“A female High C?”
A recording engineer raised an eyebrow.
Another engineer on the side commented, “Her vocal range is pretty broad. Singing in the whistle register is no problem, the only question is whether her vocal quality can meet Teacher Admirable Fish’s standards.”
“Go ahead.”
Lin Yuan repeated the instructions from the previous two auditions.
“Okay.”
The petite girl cleared her throat and began her performance.
The earlier part was flawless and even better than the previous two. This is because this young girl’s voice not only possessed the characteristics of clarity and brightness but also held a touch of a male singer’s voice quality—presumably a natural attribute of her voice.
“Very good.”
Lin Yuan approved, “Now I want to hear the chanting part as well. Remember, I need the whistle register, not falsetto techniques.”
After he finished, Lin Yuan felt a bit nervous.
If this young lady is also not qualified, he would have to resort to sound engineering for Wei Xiaoxin, or seek help from an already debuted singer with proven ability—
How much money would be split between them?
After all, isn’t sound engineering more cost-effective?
Just as Lin Yuan began pondering these thoughts, the young girl’s singing began. Her charming melodious trills floated to his ears.
Lin Yuan’s eyes gradually brightened.
He knew that he wouldn’t need to split the money with a debuted singer.
The third stand-in candidate passed!
The two recording engineers on the side also meet each other’s eyes and nodded in unison.
In terms of overall vocal performance, this petite girl was undoubtedly the best, making the previous two pale in comparison.
Lin Yuan asked, “Your name is Jiang…”
The young girl promptly said, “Jiang Kui, my name is Jiang Kui!”
Lin Yuan nodded, and made a final decision: “Alright, Jiang Kui. I’ll pass the complete score to you later. I hope you can become familiar with the song as soon as possible. We will start the official recording next Saturday.”
“Alright, thank you, teacher!”
Jiang Kui subtly made a victory sign behind her back, unable to restrain her excitement: “I will definitely work hard!”