NABC Chapter 6 First Encounter with Tiffany
Chapter 6 First Encounter with Tiffany
The slight, smug smile on Ahn Jung-hwan's lips was still frozen on his face when he heard the young man opposite him speak calmly.
"Chief An, the arrangement of these five rejected tracks should have been done by the same person."
The fingers tapping on the armrest suddenly stopped.
Ahn Jung-hwan suddenly looked up: "How did you know?"
"Because they made the exact same mistake." Jiang stretched out his hand and dragged the progress bar, turning the laptop screen towards him. "This person's skills are undeniable; his harmonic progressions, rhythmic arrangements, and timbre design are all top-notch in the industry. But he's fundamentally wrong; he's too eager to stuff Tiffany back into the framework of Girls' Generation."
He clicked on the first retro disco chorus, tapping the rhythm lightly on the table with his fingertips: "This song uses classic drum beats from the 80s, which have a great texture, but Tiffany's voice is thick and full in the mid and low frequencies. The low frequencies of this bass drum completely overshadow the core frequency range of her vocals, making it sound like she's singing through a thick wall, and no matter how hard she tries, it won't come through."
Ahn Jung-hwan didn't speak, but his body, which had been leaning back in his chair, unconsciously straightened up, and for the first time, a genuine seriousness appeared in his sharp eyes.
"The second ballad R&B has too much piano arrangement." Jiang Yan switched to the next song, "The sixteenth-note arpeggios are laid out from beginning to end, without even leaving her a breath. Tiffany's voice itself has a very strong narrative quality, and she doesn't need such dense instruments to enhance the emotion. Simplify the piano to single-note decomposition, leave enough breathing space, and then slowly introduce the strings in the chorus. The emotional tension can be at least doubled."
"The third song was 12 beats faster than usual, which didn't match her lazy and husky voice at all. The fourth song's chorus only had three layers of harmonies, which were too thin to support the aura of a solo singer. The fifth song was the most regrettable. It was just one step away from being perfect, but the 40-second synthesizer solo in the interlude was completely superfluous and directly interrupted the emotional build-up of the whole song."
He went through each point one by one, speaking slowly, without boasting or deliberately belittling, as if stating a basic fact like one plus one equals two.
Every word hit the nail on the head, without a single superfluous adjective.
The recording studio was deathly quiet.
Park Jung-ho stood in the corner, the iced Americano he was holding spilled out, but he was completely unaware.
He had worked with Jiang Yan for about half a year and always knew that the kid was talented; his edits always sounded better than others.
But he had never seen Jiang Yan like this before, like a surgeon with a scalpel, who could peel away the skin and flesh of a song with a gentle cut, revealing the core skeleton and lesions inside.
Ahn Jung-hwan remained silent for a full ten seconds.
He reached for the USB drive on the table, spun it rapidly between his fingers, then suddenly stood up, the chair legs scraping against the floor with a screeching sound.
"Come with me."
Jiang Yan was taken aback: "Where to?"
"SM Entertainment." Ahn Jung-hwan stuffed the USB drive into his suit pocket and walked towards the door without looking back. "The complete project files for 'I Just Wanna Dance' are on the company server. I don't have permission to take them out. Tiffany happens to be here today, and she needs to hear this from you in person."
Park Jung-ho's heart skipped a beat; he felt both excited and a little flustered.
He was excited because he had actually made contact with SM Entertainment, but worried because if Jiang Yan was poached by the three major entertainment companies, would he still be able to work with his lousy recording studio in the future?
Jiang Yan didn't notice his complicated expression, simply nodded at him, and quickly followed.
It takes exactly twenty minutes to drive from Yeonnam-dong to the SM headquarters in Cheongdam-dong.
Ahn Jung-hwan, in the driver's seat, remained silent the entire way, his fingers constantly tapping the steering wheel, clearly indicating that he was not at peace.
Jiang Yan, sitting in the back seat, didn't try to start a conversation; he simply looked quietly out the window.
In late March in Seoul, the cherry blossom trees along the roadside were already covered with pink and white buds, and a faint fragrance of flowers wafted in the wind.
Sunlight streamed through the car window and fell warmly on his knees.
This was his first time stepping into this building, which was renowned throughout the Korean entertainment industry.
The revolving glass doors opened automatically, revealing a marble floor so smooth it reflected a person's image. A huge LED screen on the wall was playing the latest music videos from Girls' Generation, EXO, and Red Velvet on a loop. The air was filled with SM Entertainment's signature white tea fragrance, clean and cool.
The trainees and staff coming and going were all wearing the same black hoodies, walking hurriedly, and even speaking in hushed tones. The whole building exuded a sense of efficient yet oppressive order.
Jiang Yan was not as excited as expected; instead, he remained unusually calm.
Ahn Jung-hwan led him directly to the fifth floor production department by swiping his card, and pushed open the door to the innermost VIP recording studio.
The room wasn't big, but all the equipment was top-of-the-line.
The walls are covered with gleaming platinum records, from H.O.T. to TVXQ to Girls' Generation, an entire wall filled with SM's glorious history.
Sitting in front of the mixing console was a girl with a low ponytail, wearing a gray hoodie with the Berkeley logo; she was Kenzie's assistant, Jisoo.
She was frowning as she stared at the waveform on the screen, her fingers repeatedly making fine adjustments on the fader.
And on the sofa behind her sat a person.
Tiffany.
She wore a pink and white top and simple jeans, her long hair was casually tied into a low ponytail, and her face was so clean that it looked like she wasn't wearing any makeup.
The dark circles under his eyes were very pronounced, and his lips were dry and chapped from staying up late for days. He held a cup of Americano that had long since gone cold in his hand, and he looked as if all his strength had been drained away, exuding a deep-seated exhaustion.
Hearing the door open, she looked up, her gaze first falling on An Zhenghuan, then sweeping over Jiang Yan beside her, and paused slightly.
"Jung-hwan oppa, who is this?"
"Jiang Yan." Ahn Jung-hwan walked to the mixing console and said succinctly, "I found someone to test the arrangement of the title track."
For a fleeting moment, a complex emotion flashed in Tiffany's eyes.
There was expectation, there was doubt, but mostly there was a numb exhaustion.
She had heard those phrases like "this time it will definitely work" far too many times.
This title track tormented her for a full month and a half. Thirteen versions of the arrangement, thirteen times she walked into the recording studio full of hope, and thirteen times she took off her headphones and said with difficulty, "It's still not right."
Her voice is fine, her singing is fine, and her technique is fine.
But every arrangement is like a tailor-made but never fit garment; either too tight and she can't breathe, or too loose and she can't support it. No matter how she wears it, it's awkward.
She was almost ready to give up.
"Here to rearrange songs again..." Tiffany's voice was slightly hoarse and had a heavy nasal tone. She forced a polite smile and said, "Hello, I'm Tiffany."
Polite, distant, and with a sense of foreboding disappointment.
Jiang Yan didn't say much, but bowed slightly: "Hello, Senior Tiffany."
"Jisoo, bring up Professor Kenzie's seventh version of the project." Ahn Jung-hwan patted Jisoo on the shoulder. "It's the version that's closest to being approved."
Ji-soo looked Jiang Yan up and down, her scrutiny undisguised. How dare this nobody, who appeared out of nowhere, come and modify Kenzie's work?
But she didn't say anything, silently moved aside, and typed a few keys on the keyboard. A densely packed project file with more than 120 tracks appeared on the screen.
……