In recent years, various types of audio variety programs have emerged one after another, and they often face a major controversy together - sound repair. Adjusting the singer's pitch through technical means can indeed bring a better aesthetic experience to the audience, but it also often causes controversy over over-editing and "repairing electronic music". In competitive music programs such as "Summer of the Band" and "Stage 2023", there will even be situations where the on-site judging results are contrary to the online listening experience. And when some singers broke away from the refinement filter and staged the "car accident scene" in the live broadcast party and live performance, more and more viewers began to doubt the singer's real singing strength, and they were looking forward to seeing the full open microphone and no sound repair to "save internal entertainment".
In the era of live TV auditions, a group of powerful singers stood out and became the mainstay of the music industry. Zeng Yiming, the champion of "Loud Voice" and "China's Strongest Voice", mentioned in an interview with this reporter: "At that time, the talent show did not repair the sound, and it could not be repeated, everything was very real." Li Jiawei, the champion of "Super Avenue of Stars" in 2010, told reporters, "A show that does not repair the sound will be more advantageous for singers like us, and everyone will see more clearly where your strength is." Jin Chi, a singer who has participated in CCTV's "Straight to the Spring Festival Gala", believes that the most attractive thing about live is "human touch".
In 2024, when the skillful post-production technology is enough to create countless "god-level stages", when a music variety chooses to "return to the basics" and let the singers show their real singing level in the way of "full microphone, no sound repair, and one pass", what kind of test will it face? Does the current music industry and variety show market need such a program? What are the difficulties behind the birth of this program? Recently, the reporter of this magazine had a conversation with "100% Singer" 's director Yang Yang Yang and 10 of the singer guests conducted a "brainstorming" around the above issues, which may be able to bring some inspiration to the current creative dilemma of music comprehensive.
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Singer's voice: Why do we want to have a full-open microphone, no sound repair, and one-time music comprehensive?
Show your strength, prove yourself, and be authentic
"The sentence 'no sound repair' said by Yang Dao ignited the small universe in my heart. Zeng Yiming, a singer who has not appeared on the music variety stage for many years, told reporters that the original intention of deciding to participate in "100% Singer" was to be moved by the "truth" emphasized by the show. He believes that the excessive beautification of sound with technology will affect the public's judgment and aesthetic habits of music. "After watching the music repair program for a long time, everyone has no idea which talents can really sing, which is unfair to those singers who have a pursuit of music and have been paying for a long time. "Relying too much on sound repair will make some singers neglect self-improvement and consolidate their singing skills, which will affect the healthy competition and healthy development of the music industry in the long run. "If everyone has begun to stop paying attention to the basic skills of singing, go to practice hard, and try to imagine that in 10 years, who will still have the strength to sing?" Zeng Yiming said.
Kaneike was the first singer to appear in "100% Singer". In her opinion, the most attractive thing about live is "human touch", "Of course, intonation is very important, but it is impossible for every performance and every song to be the same, it will always have a little flaw, making that live irreproducible." Every breath and every break point is an expression of that moment, which will make people feel very cherished and reminiscent. Editing the tone will make the song lose a lot of dynamics, and the tension of the scene will be weakened a lot, which I will feel a pity. ”
Gold Pool.
She recalled that when she sang "The Insignificant" on the show, she was so moved by the feedback from the audience that she couldn't restrain her voice from trembling. "I saw a lot of eyes in the audience, looking at me with a lot of sincerity. The lyrics are just talking about the living beings and the various situations in life, so at that moment, as soon as that complex thought came up, I really couldn't restrain myself a little when I finished playing. If the later revision of the sound repairs the flaw that choked my voice away, it will lose the emotion of the moment. If you don't go to the audience, you won't be able to experience what's going on, and you won't have any connection to the stage. ”
Singer Zando also expressed a similar opinion in an interview, "My understanding of art does not have to be perfect, and now I can make songs with AI, but I still like human voices, and the audience wants to hear real people singing." ”
For many singers who came from idol development programs, plucking up the courage to participate in a full-open microphone, non-repairing, and one-time music show is the most direct way for them to prove their strength. Zhao Pinlin said frankly to reporters: "I think the significance of the show is to see if everyone has the courage to face the most authentic self." In some shows, our voice is very good, and when you hear some offline performances, you will inevitably feel a little discounted. So gradually, everyone will think that some people who come out of the draft are not very good at singing? In fact, we want to tell everyone through this show that our young new generation of singers can also sing and sing good songs. Yasaki said in an interview that he wanted to prove his singing and dancing ability through this stage, "I don't have a half-open microphone, and I can't wait to make my vocals bigger every time I perform." ”
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The director revealed: How difficult is it to make a show that is fully open, does not repair the sound, and goes through it all at once?
The singer is under a lot of pressure, and there are various reasons for refusing the invitation
Yang Dao revealed that the biggest difficulty in the preparation of the show is to invite singers. He and his team once used a short video to deduce the problems faced by coordinating artists, which can be described as varied: some artists don't want to be on the same stage with their "former teammates", some agencies ask newcomers to come in, and some artists refuse to share the stage with "showmen", but they themselves are also from the draft...... "There are also some singers who don't come because they don't have enough money, our show is really small production, and there is no way to give them a lot of labor fees like commercial performances outside." Yang Dao told reporters that the program team initially contacted more than 300 artist materials, negotiated with more than 100 groups of artists, and finally determined 49 groups of singers after considering various factors such as schedules.
Li Jiawei.
"There is a very real problem that after the show was broadcast last year, everyone knew that we really opened the microphone and did not repair the sound, which caused many artists to retreat a little in the process of contacting us this year. There are some singers who want to come, but the company is afraid that the car will overturn and the fans will lose their fans; there are also companies that want the singers to come, so that they can have the opportunity to expose and promote new songs, but the artists will be more stage frightened, they feel that once the show is broadcast, the performance on that stage will always exist and be seen by everyone. This will be a big drain on the aura that the artist has created before. ”
Many singers mentioned in an interview with this reporter that the show's emphasis on "fully open mic, no sound repair, and one-time pass" will indeed bring them greater psychological pressure, which will affect their live performance to a certain extent. "In the past, if there were some problems on the scene of the recording of the show, we would still re-record it, but this show does not have the opportunity to re-record, but we will be a little worried about whether there will be something uncontrollable on the scene. Li Jiawei mentioned. Zhao Lei said in an interview that as a singer, there will not be much problem singing his own songs, and how good the final stage presentation is depends mainly on the state of his voice that day. Referring to his performance, Zhang Xingte said, "I wasn't in particularly good shape on the day of the recording because I was a little nervous. ”
Zhao Lei.
Xu Ziwei told reporters that the pressure on the singer comes from the fact that this time the recording of the full open microphone and no sound repair will become a work that will always accompany his acting career, and will be tasted and appreciated by the audience over and over again, which means that "if you have any bad performance, everyone will take it out and listen to it repeatedly." And such a tight mentality is not conducive to the singer's live performance. Xu Ziwei mentioned that his voice was a little "tight" when he sang the first song in the show, and some details were not handled well. "Because there are so many thoughts in my head, there is no sense of conviction. ”
Xu Ziwei.
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Market review: Does the audience need a fully open mic, no sound repair, and one-time sound comprehensive?
"I feel ashamed if I don't listen to the sound" "I still like delicate works subconsciously"
In the era of TV auditions, the programs represented by "Super Girl" and "Happy Boy" used live broadcasts to let audiences across the country see the singing strength of the contestants most intuitively. During the popularity of "0713" the year before last, the relevant clips of "Happy Boy" in 07 were archaeological and popular by a large number of netizens, including "Superboy" with all the members singing and dancing and overturning, and "Small Town Girl" with crazy shooting, which became a laughing point talked about by netizens, and there is also Chen Chusheng's "Original Me", which still seems to be an amazing stage today. The extremely real music program without any decoration and packaging makes the music idols voted by the whole people stand the test of the scene, and are also full of vivid personality charm, causing thousands of empty alleys, with strong influence and recognition.
Now, nearly 20 years have passed, and at the moment of advanced technology, can such a real stage still attract the audience and meet aesthetic needs? When a program dares to take off the refined filter, does the market still buy it? After the broadcast of "100% Singer", combined with various feedback from netizens, the main creator of the program and the reporter from Nandu conducted a review together.
"There are comments that 'I'm used to listening to programs that fix sounds, but now I feel ashamed of not listening to them.'" It's a question worth thinking about for all of us. Usually everyone says that we need a stage that does not repair the sound, but in fact, when we really hear the sound of not repairing, we will actually not accept it. It's like when we get used to looking at photos after beautifying and p-pictures, and then look at photos without makeup. Yang Dao said.
Zeng Yiming.
Xu Ziwei told reporters that the limitations of the equipment for the audience to watch online programs will also affect the hearing experience to a certain extent and compromise the sound effect. "If the audience watches [the show] on their phone or tablet, the flaws in the vocals will be magnified to a greater extent. If you have a headphone or audio device with good sound quality and complete frequency band, you can hear some details. Yang Dao also mentioned, "When the audience watches a live performance, the music is through the mixer and stereo, including the atmosphere of the scene, which will cover up the flaws." However, online programs use microphones to receive vocals, and later broadcast in equal proportion with the accompaniment, so the sound problem is easy to expose. ”
"People seem to be very respectful of authenticity and don't fix sounds, but subconsciously they still like very delicate works. The 'god-level stage' often relies on post-processing to achieve the icing on the cake. On the contradiction between the program's pursuit of realism and the audience's aesthetic experience, Xu Ziwei gave his opinion, "Live will have flaws, and refinement will lose the sense of scene and humanity, if you can take into account the advantages of both, it would be good, in fact, the degree of sound repair can be grasped." ”
In the process of communicating with the singers and reviewing the market feedback, the director also had updated thoughts on the creation of the music comprehensive. "In fact, we are also thinking about this question, that is, does domestic entertainment need a program with full microphone and no sound repair? Now we don't think we need a program like this, or rather, just relying on our program to do this can't reverse the overall trend. Director Yang revealed that "100% Singer" will continue to produce the second season, but it may be the last time he will do a full-open microphone and non-sound program, "We hope that the audience can give more tolerance and encouragement to these singers who dare to open the microphone and not repair their voices, so that everyone can truly 'roll' their singing skills, so that our music variety program will have a better and better listening experience." ”
In fact, after recorded and broadcast programs became the mainstream of the market, sound repair became a routine operation of the sound comprehensive. In recent years, only a few draft music comprehensives have adopted the method of live broadcast in the finals, showing the absolute reality of the singer's voice, such as the first season of "Tomorrow's Son". It is worth mentioning that just recently, the classic music variety IP "Singer 2024" officially announced its return, which will use the form of live broadcast without sound repair, which has aroused the expectations of countless music fans, and is also likely to bring a new trend to the music variety market.
The well-known music blogger Er Di dialectically expressed his opinion on this, and he summarized the advantages of live programs on the self-media platform as "real charm, the possibility of accidents, and the topicality of car accidents", while the disadvantages include: it is difficult to mix to reach the level of recording and broadcasting, the musicality and aesthetics are reduced, and it is even more difficult to invite singers. Whether singing programs that do not repair their voices can make a way out of today's slightly tired music variety market still needs to be tried by more creators and tested by the market.
Written by: Nandu reporter Zhu Wenyi