[Pre-180, My SJI Days] Recording a Studio Album with SJI Korean Cultural Club (KCC) Friends
One of the best memories I had in SJI was recording a studio album along with my SJI Korean Club (KCC) friends. I've even written a diary entry on the entire process! Well, in an attempt to document the entire process in this blog, I've decided to rephrase my diary entry to share it with everyone here. :)
The entire diary entry went something like this:
"On 18 March 2014, the entire KCC went to Mountbatten Square to record our very own mini Korean studio album. The 7-hour long session recorded some of our favourite Korean Songs, namely My Destiny (Original Singer: Lyn, Original Soundtrack (OST) for current hit drama “You who came from the Stars”), Miracles in December (Original Singer/s: EXO) and Missing You (Original Singer: 2NE1).
Prior to the actual recording, we had a practice session on 10/3 to start learning Korean lyrics. Since the pronunciation of Korean words were vastly different from that of the English and Chinese Language, many of us felt a little challenge at hand even though we used Romanised lyrics to go along with the song. As we get to practice more and more, most of us get more familiar with the lyrics and more comfortable with the Korean pronunciation.
We had another practise session on 13/3 to practise the songs with the instrumentals (backing music). It was of some difficulty as a lot of beat catching was involved. So we tried our best to grab hold of the notes, key as well as, most importantly, the beatings.
On 15/3 we set off to Bugis Street to get hold of the hippest hip-hop caps for our photography session (for album cover).
And finally, on 18/3, the actual day of recording, all of the KCC members met early at 11 am to have final practice session. Following that,we went on to get coloured papers over at Popular Bookshop. Ruo Xuan, who previously had some experience with writing Korean characters, helped us to write our Korean names on the coloured papers (as seen from our photoshoot pictures).
We reached Mountbatten early at 3pm. The scheduled recording session starts from 5pm. Our sound engineer Melvin brought us to our studio and played us the instrumental music for us to practise on our own first. We were told to have a student producer to check on the recording later in the day. This was when Shen ying became our producer of the day. :)
At about 5.10pm, I started recording the first song, My Destiny as a backing track. My friends Phoebe and Wen Yi (Jana) then continued to record the various parts for the song My Destiny.
The recording session was rather long. In fact our scheduled time was from 5pm to 7pm, but by the time we finished recording, listening, re-recording and modifying the first song, it was already 6.45pm.
This was when the boss of the studio, Mr Soon helped us to take photographs for our album cover. We took a total of 33 photographs, ranging from group photographs to couple photographs and individual photographs. The photoshoot was quite a satisfying one.
At about 7pm, we continued recording our second song, Miracles in December. Ruo Xuan sang the backing track for the song, and Shaun started and ended the song. Iswarya and Wen Yi (Jana) sang the choruses. We finished recording the second song by about 8.30pm.
As we were about to abandon the idea of singing the third song that we planned to sing, Melvin said “Why not sing the third song as well?”. Even though we felt embarrassed to further delay the recording session since it’s a business-oriented studio, the love for singing overcame that. :) We stayed on to record the third song, Missing You. Ruo Xuan went to sing her parts first, followed by me and Kage. The recording was considered quite okay and we wrapped out the entire session at about 10pm before heading opposite to eat at Stadium Mcdonalds. It’s a super long day :)
I got to learn a lot of new things through the 7 hour session. This was a brand new experience for me, as I get into the recording studio and sing in front of a giant microphone. Moreover, it was a fun to sing in a double room (ie. double insulated room for optimal sound quality) and, while not singing, listen to all our KCC friends sing :)
On the next day (Wednesday 19/3) we collected our mini album :) Awesome memories indeed. :)
The entire diary entry went something like this:
"On 18 March 2014, the entire KCC went to Mountbatten Square to record our very own mini Korean studio album. The 7-hour long session recorded some of our favourite Korean Songs, namely My Destiny (Original Singer: Lyn, Original Soundtrack (OST) for current hit drama “You who came from the Stars”), Miracles in December (Original Singer/s: EXO) and Missing You (Original Singer: 2NE1).
Prior to the actual recording, we had a practice session on 10/3 to start learning Korean lyrics. Since the pronunciation of Korean words were vastly different from that of the English and Chinese Language, many of us felt a little challenge at hand even though we used Romanised lyrics to go along with the song. As we get to practice more and more, most of us get more familiar with the lyrics and more comfortable with the Korean pronunciation.
We had another practise session on 13/3 to practise the songs with the instrumentals (backing music). It was of some difficulty as a lot of beat catching was involved. So we tried our best to grab hold of the notes, key as well as, most importantly, the beatings.
On 15/3 we set off to Bugis Street to get hold of the hippest hip-hop caps for our photography session (for album cover).
And finally, on 18/3, the actual day of recording, all of the KCC members met early at 11 am to have final practice session. Following that,we went on to get coloured papers over at Popular Bookshop. Ruo Xuan, who previously had some experience with writing Korean characters, helped us to write our Korean names on the coloured papers (as seen from our photoshoot pictures).
We reached Mountbatten early at 3pm. The scheduled recording session starts from 5pm. Our sound engineer Melvin brought us to our studio and played us the instrumental music for us to practise on our own first. We were told to have a student producer to check on the recording later in the day. This was when Shen ying became our producer of the day. :)
At about 5.10pm, I started recording the first song, My Destiny as a backing track. My friends Phoebe and Wen Yi (Jana) then continued to record the various parts for the song My Destiny.
The recording session was rather long. In fact our scheduled time was from 5pm to 7pm, but by the time we finished recording, listening, re-recording and modifying the first song, it was already 6.45pm.
This was when the boss of the studio, Mr Soon helped us to take photographs for our album cover. We took a total of 33 photographs, ranging from group photographs to couple photographs and individual photographs. The photoshoot was quite a satisfying one.
At about 7pm, we continued recording our second song, Miracles in December. Ruo Xuan sang the backing track for the song, and Shaun started and ended the song. Iswarya and Wen Yi (Jana) sang the choruses. We finished recording the second song by about 8.30pm.
As we were about to abandon the idea of singing the third song that we planned to sing, Melvin said “Why not sing the third song as well?”. Even though we felt embarrassed to further delay the recording session since it’s a business-oriented studio, the love for singing overcame that. :) We stayed on to record the third song, Missing You. Ruo Xuan went to sing her parts first, followed by me and Kage. The recording was considered quite okay and we wrapped out the entire session at about 10pm before heading opposite to eat at Stadium Mcdonalds. It’s a super long day :)
I got to learn a lot of new things through the 7 hour session. This was a brand new experience for me, as I get into the recording studio and sing in front of a giant microphone. Moreover, it was a fun to sing in a double room (ie. double insulated room for optimal sound quality) and, while not singing, listen to all our KCC friends sing :)
On the next day (Wednesday 19/3) we collected our mini album :) Awesome memories indeed. :)
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