RAP STAR

Chapter 78 [verse 13. Circle]

Sang-hyun slowly caught his breath as he took off his headset. The beat soon faded away.

"Can we try again?" he asked.

"It must be exhausting, right? Take a sip of water and then let's continue," Assistant An Su-mi said.

Sang-hyun stepped out of the booth.

"It's not easy," he thought.

Just like feeling self-conscious when someone stares at you during a game, he felt a strange tension knowing someone was recording his voice.

Sang-hyun was recording his voice, to be precise, his "rapping voice," at Professor Kim Woon-cheol's research lab at Jeonnam University.

"I believe you have a special sound when you rap. So, I want to compare your voice when rapping to when speaking and record it," Professor Kim had explained.

Originally, Sang-hyun was supposed to meet Professor Kim more often. However, from the Showbiz Incident to Club HOMI's performance, he had been too busy. By the time Sang-hyun had some free time, Professor Kim was busy.

So, this was the third recording session. Today, Professor Kim was absent, and Assistant An Su-mi, who helped with Professor Kim's research, was conducting the recording instead.

Sang-hyun struck up a conversation with An Su-mi, who seemed lost in thought in front of the unfamiliar recording equipment.

"What do you think about Professor Kim's opinion? That there's power in the voice and that it can be analyzed concretely?"

"Um, there are quite a few papers in the American academic community related to this, so I don't completely doubt it... but honestly, it's a bit hard to believe."

An Su-mi awkwardly smiled and replied.

"And what about you, Sang-hyun? Do you completely believe what the professor says? Since you're participating in the experiment, isn't it obvious?"

"No, not completely. Frankly, I don't believe it entirely. I think it lacks realism. The concept of aura is something you find in myths. But well, since there are papers on it, I don't completely doubt it either. Maybe you feel the same way?"

"But why are you working so hard? Do you know you're recording the same song for the ninth time?"

"That's because the equipment here is so good."

It was literal. The equipment set up by Professor Kim for research was mostly high-end German equipment that Sang-hyun couldn't even dare to think of purchasing when setting up his studio. Thanks to this, Sang-hyun was recording with a sense of luxury.

The only downside was that there was no mixer or recording interface for processing the audio. However, this problem could be solved by extracting the sound and mixing it.

"To rent such a professional recording studio, you'd have to pay at least a million won, right? Do singers record in even better places?"

So, Sang-hyun was rapping with the concept of recording a mixtape rather than participating in the research.

The only downside was that he could only record solo songs.

If his sound was significantly better than his team members' in the songs they worked on together, there would be a balance gap. If the sound balance was off, even if Sang-hyun's part was good, listening to the entire song could be tiring.

"Someday, I'll gather these kinds of equipment. Then, our team members can all use it together."

Sang-hyun thought as he recorded only solo songs due to the regret.