[talk] [Jo Sung-jin's singing skills] IU's 1st to 5th regular album sound analysis

What helps with this is the drum performance, not the sampling. It seems to be centered around the ambience sound recorded in mono, and the spatial arrangement of the cymbals, which should be spread out to the left and right, is heard more in the center.

As you can see from the final mastering, 'It's Okay (Rock ver.)' has less limiting than 'Boo' when comparing the waveforms of the two songs. This seems to be due to the difference between the sample and acoustic instruments that fill the song.

2nd Album LAST FANTASY

Rich orchestration rarely seen in popular music / Complementing each other's shortcomings through harmony between rhythm and real orchestration / Creating a lively feeling through unique reverb control

I analyzed 'You and I' as a sample. It is not easy to see orchestration unfolding so richly in a song. This song starts from the introduction, emphasizing that the orchestration is the main focus.

The orchestra in this song, mixed by sound director Jo Jun-seong, seems to have a lively feeling rather than a grand one because the color of the reverb - a technique often used in recording to create an echoing effect as if playing in a wide space - is not dark.

If you apply a lot of deep reverb in the Hall series to the orchestra and push the space back, the orchestration can become quite magnificent, but it maintains a tone that is considerably centered on the mid and low ranges while leading this song. When the kick, snare, and bass with deep compression were combined with the orchestra, the overall frequency could have easily been pushed down and the intention of the lively song could have been damaged, but in the mixing result, the sampled rhythm and the real orchestration seem to have compromised each other appropriately and complemented each other's shortcomings(?).

The tight drum section brings back memories of 80s disco, including Boney M, Village People, and Genghis Khan. It confirms that this is an extension of the instrumental balance of the previous "Good Day," but in "You and I," the role of the strings has grown more compared to "Good Day," where the brass played a more important role. To create this dramatic feeling, it seems likely that the volume automation for the strings—which automatically changes the volume value according to a predetermined value and is often used when recording and mixing for sound balance—was used delicately, and the tempo of the instruments was adjusted in important parts.

Along with that, you can also find that the balance of the lower register, especially in parts like verses, is buried among many instruments, unlike general vocal compression, and the octaves are mixed louder than the higher registers, and the texture is also different.

3rd Album MODERN TIMES

Strings, brass, piano, percussion, guitar, bass, chorus, etc. / The sound of many instruments 'pouring out' / Trying out various changes while adjusting the vocal balance according to the changes in music and instruments

The title song 'Pink Shoes' was analyzed as a sample. It is a song with many instruments such as strings, brass, piano, percussion, guitar, bass, and chorus, excluding instruments such as woodwinds and harp, based on a swing-like drum.

Listening to 'You and I' and 'Pink Shoes', it seems that the vocal balance in the song changes considerably according to the changes in music and instruments. It can also be guessed that a lot of effort was put into automation to change the vocal balance that sounds somewhat constant after applying the compressor - a function that compresses the difference in volume, that is, loud and soft sounds, and is essential in recording - according to the flow of the song.

Also, the vocals are delivered cleanly and clearly among many instruments. The vocal balance is about 1:1 with the instrument group, and the vocals are viewed as an instrument and have a similar balance to other instruments, so it has a level size within the music comparable to 'band music'. In contrast, the chorus has a considerable weight, and sometimes the tone is more stimulating than the vocals and is delivered clearly.

In 'You and I', just like 'Pink Shoes', the vocal balance seems to change according to the flow of the music as the song changes.

Overall, the mix is ​​quite different from the full space occupied by the kick drum, bass, and snare rhythms heard in the previous 'You and I' and 'Good Day'. The mid-low range seems quite empty. It feels thinner than the previous title tracks. There may be a difference between the sample drum sound and the real drum sound, but I think this is more due to the influence of mastering than anything else.

4th Album PALETTE

The chorus balance is more noticeable than the vocals / Tight kick drum and snare take center stage / The bass plays in a line form and fills in the missing space

We analyzed the sample of the title song 'Palette'. The biggest feature is the balance of the choruses that have a greater presence than the vocals.

Layered pad-like instruments are spread out in stereo left and right, and except for the rhythm instruments placed in the center, and occasionally shaker-type instruments that move from left to right and right to left, the instrument space seems to be spread out almost in the center and left and right stereo directions. (Unusually, the clock hand sound that comes out in the outro is usually placed in a symmetrical 'tick tock tock' manner, but is placed around the center and right.) Like the concept heard in 'You and I', the reverberation that is concentrated in the midrange and low range is almost absent, so the tight kick drum and snare hold the center (of course, the pitch and density of the kick drum in 'You and I' are much higher and harder than those in 'Palette') and the bass is played in a line form, filling in the lack of space, and it is arranged in a way that separates the vocals and rhythm parts that are concentrated in the high range. Compared to the main vocals that have a reverberation that is audible, the chorus sounds drier and is placed in front of the vocals, giving it a clear presence. In particular, the low-range vocals, which are one octave lower, are quite loud. This part seems to be similar to the ones that director Jo Jun-seong mixed IU's songs.

G. Dragon's rap featured in this song is composed of the main as the center, and the doublings in charge of the mid and high notes on the left and right, and the doublings in the middle. Overall, the bold parts of the vocals are bold, and the rhythm and instruments are stably balanced.

In addition to filtering the low-pass of the vocal, we used a harmonic series effector to create texture and brought it up, then placed instruments in the mid-range and low-pass, dragging the melody over the kick and snare, and positioning the vocal (especially the chorus) to move and focus on the vocal. This resulted in a mix that listeners can easily remember the song.

5th Album LILAC

Main vocals with emphasized midrange and filtered chorus features / Dry chorus sub vocals and main vocals change tone by adjusting the amount of reverb / The three-dimensionality of the song is well expressed by distributing the left and right of the ground and up and down the frequency

The title song 'Lilac' is characterized by a main vocal with an emphasized mid-range and a filtered chorus, in contrast to the vocals of 'Palette'. Sound director Koo Jong-pil did the mixing.

As with the retro guitar sound of the intro, the main vocal starts with a reverb tail that feels 'long' as it fills the gap before the next lyric comes out. Along with that, the vocal is cut off at various places and the gap that appears before the next lyric comes in is connected with a delay using a filter. (In fact, various types of delay are used here and there.) However, the sub vocal and main vocal with almost no reverb in the dry chorus control the amount of reverb and lead the vocal without getting boring along with the change in tone. Unlike director Cho Jun-seong who mixed 'Palette', 'Pink Shoes', and 'You and I', he uses time-based effectors (such as reverb and delay) quite actively in many places.

Overall, the midrange is emphasized, with the kick and snare, which drive the rhythm with a solid sound (perhaps due to the significant compression added to the basic sample tone), and almost all other instruments are concentrated in the midrange. Therefore, the role of the bass, which suddenly took on the low range, is an important existence for the stable mix of the song through the frequency distribution of the instruments.

There was a part in the balance that made me wonder, 'What did this mean?' While listening to the chorus vocals, 'Spring' suddenly grows louder in 'Love me only till this spring', and I think that may have been intentional. (In fact, it grows gradually in the order of Love me /only till this/ spring). Overall, the arrangement of the instruments is divided into keyboard instruments in charge of high ranges, vocals, snare, guitar, and kick in charge of mid-ranges, and pads and bass in charge of low ranges. I think that the spatial arrangement of the instruments due to the distribution of frequencies up and down as well as left and right in the image well brings out the three-dimensionality of the song.

This is a really systematic analysis.

Do fans agree with this?