Luna goes Chinese (as usual)

[Kilanya]

http://students.washington.edu/mimichan/Luna-MYNDMYT.zip

The zip file is about 1.2 megs. Please give helpful C&C, I want to mix this song w/karaoke and fix any "mistakes" I have in my technique or style. Or timbre. Or whatever.

The song is "Mei You Ni De Mei Yi Tian" by Jill Xu, one of my favorite female singers. You might recognize the original, it's "Because I'm a Girl" by Kiss.

lyrics (translated by ME!!) if you're interested:
http://tingdong.powersugoi.net/song.php?song=62

[Kairi Li]

Woo! A chinse like me! are u from Hong Kong or China?

and the song, your pitch is great, pronounciation is awesome ( my madarin sucks, I speak cantonese here) The bad part is that you tend to waver at parts, especailly when u go a bit high, or when a note leads into the next note without a break, you sound like you hestitate a bit. Other wise, its good, the mxing was clear and nice, some reverb is always nice though...

Great job!

[Kilanya]

er? How do you do reverb?

So I guess all I need is just to practice the song and get used to the changing from note to note?

I'm American-born Chinese, actually, and my boyfriend is from mainland China. So I spend a lot of time speaking Chinese around the house. Plus I lived in China for a year (which is where I met my boyfriend, but we weren't dating back then, it's complicated).

You should hear me trying to sing in Cantonese! I have to look up all the pronounciations before I can sing it... in fact, a Cantonese version of the song I sang here also exists, it's by 陳文媛 Bobo Chan (Chen Wen Yuan). The Mandarin version is by 徐婕兒 Jill Xu (Xu Jie Er).

既然你是香港來的人, 應該能讀漢字吧?

[Amakasu Toko]

YES!!! FINALLY someone sings in chinese omg...i've been waiting for SO long to see a chinese song pop up. It's sung very well and wooo~ your real voice sounds kinda like mine o.o;; but your singing voice is much better! o.o;;

woo~ this makes me more inspired to work on my kelly chen song XD;;

PS: kairi~~~~~ i speak canto tooo! wee! XD *sucks at mandarin*

[Kairi Li]

get cool edit, you can effects like echoe and reverb to it

yeh i can read chinese, but Im outta touch with canton and chinese pop stars... Cause IMO they cant sing well, nor can thye play instruments... then again is the same with the USA pop stars... only a few are excpetional....

[Amakasu Toko]

kairi, you are so right e_e;; chinese pop sucks D:
like Twins...*shivers and dies* gawd im even boycotting their movies D: D: D:
(that one with jackie chan's son was really stupid...)

PS: *pokes kairi* any idea on how to do reverbs on goldwave? XD;; mine ends up sounding robotic >.>;;

[Kilanya]

Please don't hijack my thread and then tell me my favorite genre of music "sucks." It was quite rude of you to have done so.

[Yunnie Kun]

yay for chinese music XD and yeah.. i dun think you wanna anger The Luna *hehe*

[Kairi Li]

Im not saying it sucks, i just think tha tmost of them cant really sing well(mainly cantonese), of course there are those that can sing, but the fact is most of them dont play instruments and dont compose their own music, and most fans gush about them mainly through the way they look, have u ever seen a pop star that is not attractive?

there are no doubt grrat song writers in china, and everywhere, but do thye get much regonition from fans? Teens spend most of their time gushing about their fav star and how hot and cool they are, yet not shwoign any gratitiude to the people behind the song who did MOST of the work.

Kilanya you did a great job for the song and im usre who ever sung this song was a good singer, and i do like some songs, i just dont agree with the pop culture empahsizing more on looks, image than the music. Twins is one fine example thathtye only got the job cause of their looks, I can name about 10 people i know who are amazing singers and , well, let's just say they are good looking people, but not good enough for an album cover. these people who are real musicians who KNOW music and theories in music, deserve a goddamn record deal, now the whole world is populated with teen poppers who just prance around the stage singing in songs they didnt compose, and dressees up in costume they didnt design. has anyone heard of the ashlee simpsons fiasco?

www.lipsync.us

but Probbaly what made me lost trust and faith and love for canton music is when i found out my 2 favourite songs from Faye Wong were not only NOT composed by her, but dont even techincaly belong to her, they're cover versions of Tori Amos "silent All these Years" and Cranberries "Dreams". I loved both and I thought she was brillaint, imagine my horror when i found out BOTH songs were cover versions of other artist who COMPOSED and PERFORMED these songs. faye wong is a good singer, but this made me lost faith in canton music, how many people here in Hong Kong actually heard or Tori Amos? i sang this song to my friends, and they regonise it from faye wong, but not Amos, it was the same for Cranberries. At least english artist aknowleged the orignal artist in their albums or before they perform, here everyone is so damn ignorant about it

I actually enjoy more when the singer sing sin madarin, cantonese to me sounds like horrible... too slang to sound poetic...

Im sorry if I offende you Luna, you have every righ tto like any genre of music, its just to me most of the time I dont like the songs they make, and when I do its usually a cover version, which i usually think its a rip off... I like the singer/actress Swallow though, her theme song to that chinese comedy Drama about a peasentgirl miskatne for a princess is great fun to listen, pity she also did a cover version of Dr. Jones by Aqua... There really should be less cover versions...

anyhoo end of topic about this, back to Kilanya amaxing singing skills! :D

[Amakasu Toko]

*ndos nods nods* chinese pop used to be nice, but after the Twins...eh...>.>;; i guess i have a little peeve for cantonese songs >____>;; most mandarin songs to me sound a lot more elegant and purtiful (liek this one singer from china...*blinks* i have a CD of her :3 but yesh yesh! the song ya sang was absolute uberness XD not trying to say that you suck or anything <.<; i happen to think your voice is realy pretty XD

[alessa]

Well, most of the good chinese singers are from China.


Most of the good singers who sing in cantonese are either retired or...dead... ;__; (Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung....for example)

I have lost all faith in Hong Kong's entertainment industry, especially the music industry.

[Kilanya]

Luna = Kilanya = Luna = ME, btw...

Anyhow, I never had much faith in the Cantonese music industry. I think Mandarin pop is a gazillion times better, considering that people from Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and mainland China can all participate, and bring with them their own unique sound. Victor Huang and Michael Wong are examples of great singers from Malaysia (I think Jasmine "Fish" Leong is from Malaysia as well?). And from Singapore, there's Stefanie Sun, Tanya Chua, Celest Chang, etc. From Taiwan, there's Yuki Masuyama, Jay Chow, Elva Hsiao. Even from America, there's Leehom Wang and Shunza.

As for Cantonese music, I've never cared much for it since I grew up speaking Mandarin. I hate Twins as I hate S.H.E. and F4 and all that crap (I hate Jay Chow too but I wouldn't consider him 'crap,' just not my taste). Just because Chinese pop is my favorite genre, it doesn't mean I listen to the crappy singers. My favorite singer happens to be Andy Lau Tak-Wah, although most young people my age wouldn't be listening to him. I value singers with a unique sound that aren't just churned out by some stupid studio company. And I like Jill Xu because she's not just a singer, she's her own lyricist, and she plays the flute for the song I sang in this thread, although you can't hear it since I mixed it with the original Korean instrumental mp3 by Kiss.

So... Mandarin pop still has a lot to offer, you just have to dig deep and find the gems among the plethora of fool's gold. And that's what I do in order to keep listening to singers I like.

http://tingdong.powersugoi.net

p.s. i have to admit, I don't like Anita Mui or Leslie Cheung. I can't respect some things about them, like Leslie's suicide (LAME!!) and the fact that Anita died of a TREATABLE cancer because she wanted children. They willingly took themselves out of the Hong Kong entertainment world, so why should we feel sorry that they left? Although I really love Leslie's song "Dang Ai Yi Cheng Wang Shi." But Anita does not have a good singing voice, it's wimpy, breathy, and too harsh, sounds like a heavy smoker or something.

[Kairi Li]

I havent heard much madarin pop, but when I do hear it, its usually nicer than catonese, the language itself sounds far better and more poetic than catonese, catonese sounds like the stuff you ehar people shouting profanities on some flea market of some sort...

And Chinese, not Hong Kong, people tend to be better actors as well, i see the crap they show us on TV and i just cringe. Then take a look at the actors on crouching tiger and Hero are achieving....

but enough of this , Luna's singing was great and its on par and even better than any artist heard so far!

[Kilanya]

Chow Yun-Fat, who played Li Mubai in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, is from Hong Kong.

And look at "Infernal Affairs," and "Shaolin Soccer." Even american movies are being influenced by Hong Kong movies nowadays.

Thanks, Kairi, you've already complimented me several times, no need to keep doing it. ^^;;;

[superharris]

haha, this is interesting
i don't remember when was the last time i heard a song in chinese in this forum...
Good job , kilanya, that was nice

[Crimson]

This is a nice short clip ^_^.

From what I heard you doing with your voice, I'm guessing the orginal singer did a bit of adlibbing on held notes (at about 0:30 and 0:46). Like she sways her voice between notes, you don't quite have a grasp on this technique yet, and would probably be better just holding the note straight. Either that or you're holding back a lot... 'cause you seem to become unsure with those parts... and you go a bit flat.
I like this though. Keep on singing, good to hear Chinese music too ^_^.

[laffinxD]

I can't here your voice, because the link doesn't work but i read the whole thing about the cantonese and mandarin music. yes i agree that mandarin music in general is more diverse. there is more music genres. as for cantonese mostly its only pop, there barely is other genres. although some singers ARE emerging and some can sing. i can't say much about mandarin music because i barely listen but i can't say i hate cantonese music because i understand it more although i don't fully understand it. one thing that is not true to me is that actually cantonese music doesn't seem slang to me it still seems poetic because they don't use words you'd usually speak to someone with they use words you would write something in manner form with so actually its not really slang or else i'd actually understand it a lot better.

[Cassie]

I can't download the file. Same, because I'd love to hear it. I understand/speak some Mandarin. (And a few phrases in Cantonese...but not enough to get by) heh-we should do a duet XD

On the subject of Cantonese vs Mandarin music...I mainly listen to Mandarin. Actually, I don't think I've heard Cantonese Pop...I did hear the Cantonese opening to Pokemon...but I don't think that's the same.