cai qin is not happy

in a recent interview conducted in a hifi saloon in taiwan, in conjuction with her latest album release, cai qin, raised a few eyebrows about what she expects from audiophile recordings....

fact #1 - cai qin's real voice is not as thick and bassy as most audiophiles would believe

most audiphiles would tweak her sound until really "kao kao" (concentrated and thick-sounding) and think that's how cai qin sounds like. in real life, cai qin's voice is actually quite clear, precise and light. she sounds definitely younger than her age. so the next time you tune cai qin, don't make her sound like 70 year-old!

fact #2 - cai qin's doesn't think any of her albums so far are close to her real voice because no one album does sound the same. every time she listens to the monitor speakers in the studio, she always disagree with the sound.

cai qin is not being arrogant. her explanation is that every recording studio and the equipment it uses has its unique sound and all the engineers tend to beautify her voice to a certain degree.

fact #3 - which albums then is closest to cai qin's real voice?

cai qin tactfully answered that it must be the best-selling album because it is endorsed by most people.

i don't have any evidence of her sales, but i would hazard a guess - it must be "lao ge" album.


fact #4 - what's cai qin's definition of a good recording?

cai qin thinks a good recording must represent the era the recording is made. a 1960's recording must conjure up images of that era - the hairstyles, the clothes, the culture, the colors, the setup... all the visual cues that is related to that era. it is really up the the recording engineer's imagination to capture all these cues.