Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 88

79. A Music Monster Overnight

“……You’re that rumored engineer?”

Unbeknownst to me, the songs I mixed at YC Entertainment were quite famous here.

‘Well, it’s not that strange.’

In Korea, engineers aren’t really in the spotlight.

To the point where, in the idol market that spends billions, engineers are considered the cheapest cost.

Of course, hiring top-tier engineers in Korea also costs a pretty penny, but usually, it’s barely a few hundred.

Songwriters often do the work themselves, but there’s bound to be a difference in quality.

However, unlike Korea, which has a structure where one person does everything, the United States, with its division of labor, is more specialized and has more authority.

Of course, this is only possible because Billboard is such a large market.

If the quality could be improved just a bit more, and if that changed the Billboard ranking, the money earned would also change, so naturally, the engineer’s voice would become louder.

In that regard, it’s no surprise that the engineer who mixed all of Black Tiger’s songs is the subject of rumors.

It’s a big deal to have just one song on the Billboard Hot 100, but with over nine songs already, it would be strange if there wasn’t interest in this unknown engineer.

“Taylor said he’d be surprised! I really am surprised.”

“Hahaha.”

“Anyway, congratulations.”

“Pardon?”

I was puzzled by Marvin’s sudden congratulations, but soon realized what he meant and scratched my cheek.

Marvin looked at me with an absurd expression.

“The more I get to know you, the less I understand you. Aren’t you happy that you reached number one on Billboard?”

“Of course, I’m happy. It just doesn’t feel real.”

“……It seems a bit different from that, though.”

I stroked my prickly beard, feeling uneasy under Marvin’s suspicious gaze.

Honestly, how could I not be happy?

I had conquered Billboard faster than I had expected.

Clearly, the collaboration with Marvin had reignited the temporarily stalled success.

However, the problem was that, ironically, it was both the first time and not the first time.

In my memories, that guy used to hit number one on Billboard like it was nothing, and as someone with those memories ingrained in me, I couldn’t feel it as something entirely new.

I was happy, but not as much as my uncles, who were so dumbfounded and did all sorts of strange things when they first heard the news.

“I’m glad I found out after the recording was finished.”

Otherwise, I would have had a hard time calming down those rampaging uncles and continuing the recording.

Anyway, leaving the surprised Marvin behind, I started mixing in earnest.

Unlike in the past, now that I have plenty of money, there was a reason why I didn’t hire a famous top-tier American engineer and instead squeezed in time to do the mixing myself.

Having recorded as a vocalist, I was confident that I knew the song well.

Perhaps not as much as Marvin, who composed and arranged the song, but I was confident that I was close.

And this was the most important part, at least for me.

When mixing, you can’t proceed properly without understanding what kind of song it is.

Of course, this is not how things are usually done.

It’s common to focus on the drum, kick, and snare sounds.

But if you work this way, you might miss the most important question.

“Is this song attractive?”

You might end up excluding this obvious question.

A song must emotionally resonate with people. If it doesn’t, then the mixing can’t be said to be good.

So, you need to judge how the song affects you and what kind of emotion it gives you.

Then, it’s important to try to maximize that.

In short, you need to find the special part of the song. And you need to know how to maximize it to be considered a top-tier engineer.

The problem is that it’s hard to see this objectively. Subjectivity is inevitable, which can make the mixing process endlessly difficult.

‘A special secret? There’s no such thing. It’s just choosing what’s needed for the work.’

Servan’s advice, who taught me mixing in the past, was a huge help in improving my engineering skills.

If he had taught me technical skills within a typical framework, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this level of mixing skill.

‘Even if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to do it this easily.’

As someone with overflowing inspiration, I didn’t need to make many revisions. After initially wondering how to approach it, I soon found my direction and started mixing in earnest.

How long had it been?

“Fxxking! Jesus!”

I had to stop working for a moment at someone’s curse invoking God. Turning my head to where the sound came from, I saw Marvin, who I thought had left earlier, staring at me with a blank expression.

“Aren’t you gone yet? You’ve worked hard all this time; you should get some rest.”

“…….”

“???”

“Ah…… never mind.”

Marvin, who seemed like he wanted to say something, ended up not saying anything and left the studio with a tired look on his face.

I couldn’t help but worry about Marvin as he left the studio.

“Did he have a nightmare or something?”

We had agreed to do the second project starting the day after tomorrow, so I decided to look for a way to postpone the schedule, just in case.

“To do that, I need to finish this quickly.”

Since it wasn’t a song I had arranged, the mixing process was more sluggish than I had expected.

It was happening because I was unknowingly developing a bit of personal greed. Of course, that direction wasn’t bad.

But regardless of whether it’s good or bad, if it goes beyond a certain point, Marvin’s color will disappear.

Knowing that, it was important for me to find the right balance, but since things seemed to be changing, I would have to let go of a significant portion of that greed.

“There’s a lot to learn from this in its own way.”

That being said, I couldn’t understand why someone with this much musicality hadn’t thought about coming back to the world until now.

In fact, he never came back to the world until the guy in my memories died.

“Well, he must have his reasons.”

If it were Korea, I might have pried, but the United States values privacy so much that even trying to find out would be a great discourtesy.

-Click…… Click.-

Shaking my head lightly, I began to focus on mixing.

* * *

Black Tiger finally succeeded in getting ‘brilliant struggle’ to number one on Billboard.

This event caused a bigger stir in the Billboard industry than expected.

The eight major companies, including ‘Universal Music Group (UMG)’, ‘Sony/BMG’, ‘EMI’, and ‘Warner Music Group’, which account for about 80% of the total industry sales, were particularly shocked.

That’s because major record labels invest heavily in concert tours and marketing and promotion through various media outlets every time new albums and new singers come out.

It was a place where tens of millions of dollars were easily spent on marketing alone.

In that situation, Black Tiger shook the Billboard industry in a completely different way than before.

Everything happened through SNS [Social Networking Services], whose potential they knew, but whose impact they didn’t see as being that high.

It was surprising that they even entered the Hot 100, but when they reached number one, the shock was enormous.

There was a big difference between being in the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching number one.

In Billboard, which still places a high value on the traditional radio market, tricks only had so much of a limit.

This news caused a huge sensation in Northeast Asia, which could be called Black Tiger’s hideout.

-Black Tiger reaches number one on Billboard.-

-Korea’s first Billboard number one singer! Raises the possibility of K-pop [Korean Pop Music].-

-There’s already talk of YC Entertainment listing its stock on the stock market!-

-YC Entertainment singers are also causing a sensation in the United States!-

While Korea focused on the possibility of its own K-pop business, including Black Tiger and YC Entertainment, Japan’s focus was different.

-YC Sama! Conquers Billboard number one!-

-The first Asian to conquer Billboard since Kyu Sakamoto!-

-YC Sama’s Billboard number one is thanks to Kyu Sakamoto’s influence!-

-YC Sama, who conquered Billboard, will host the ‘NEW DAZE Contest’ starting in June.-

-YC Sama expresses his intention to appear in the ‘NEW DAZE Contest’!-

Japan thoroughly praised YC Sama, that is, Youngchan. They even scraped together anything related to him, and even Kyu Sakamoto, who was a hit in the 60s, was summoned.

In addition, the ‘NEW DAZE Contest’ to select Japanese members was naturally highlighted.

China’s direction was not much different from Japan’s.

They also promoted Asians, and among them, Kowloon Entertainment, which had an agreement with YC Entertainment, promoted its agreement with Youngchan and scraped together the topic by holding a new type of idol contest.

And this idol contest caused a bigger sensation than expected.

For China, which had never experienced proper national pride in this area despite its huge population, this opportunity seemed too big.

In that situation, album sales in Northeast Asia, which had been stagnant for a while, began to rise rapidly again.

While scraping together topics and continuing to hold the number one spot for the second week, something happened again that would reignite the topic.

That’s because Painkiller & black tiger’s first project, ‘provocation’ version, was released to the world.

Rock fans around the world went crazy because they could feel the nostalgia of Marvin Harrins, who had been silent for a while.

Thanks to this, Black Tiger succeeded in maintaining the number one spot for the third week while continuing this topic.

“Painkiller?”

“Yes. It’s a song for you.”

Youngchan created a song called ‘Painkiller’ inspired by Marvin’s drumming.

It was a tribute song for Painkiller, who had dominated an era, and of course, the genre of the song was heavy metal.

But in fact, what Youngchan wanted to name this song was ‘Marvin Harrins’.

However, the reason why he named the song Painkiller was not to inform the similarity with the project.

Rather, it was because he knew that Marvin was still living as Painkiller, who had disbanded a long time ago.

Even though his colleagues were no longer in the world, having met a tragic end due to drugs or gun accidents.

“I’m going to leave the name Painkiller in the world once again.”

“……Hmm.”

At Youngchan’s surprising remarks, Marvin groaned and opened his mouth with difficulty.

“I want to say you’re presumptuous…… but I can’t say that to you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No. Maybe this is also fate.”

He said that with a regretful look in his eyes and accepted Youngchan’s offer.