1、鬼（序曲）
2、鬼
3、Catherine
4、就是愛你
5、孫子兵法
6、愛我還是他
7、Susan說
8、無緣
9、Sula與Lampa的寓言
10、2night·藏愛
11、她的歌
12、愛是個什麽東西
13、禱告良辰歌
Production Concepts and Techniques for The Great Leap
I have long felt the need to simplify things in my own music while maintaining its diversity and fullness. That's often a difficult balance to strike. It's not just about the arrangement of the songs but also involves the lyrics, melody and overall vision of the production. The technology of music making has exponentially grown over the past ten years and we now have at our disposal an abundance of software, hardware, sounds and techniques for which to create music. With this, naturally, comes the temptation of abusing these resources of simply being lazy in the process of a production. I truly feel what we hear nowadays in Chinese music (myself to blame as well) is superfluous in terms of production values. Instrumentation, lyrics, and melodies are layered upon layers of meaningless elements creating not one cohesive song or sound but rather fragments that cancel each other out. Truly, the theory that "less is more" has been forgotten in music and, perhaps, everything we do.
Therefore, in this album, I have attempted to "limit" myself in the production and arrangement of the songs by keeping instrumentation down to only four distinct instruments. This returns to the more traditional setup of a four-piece band or quartet. For example, of a song were to have drums, bass, guitar and a piano that would then constitute as four distinct instruments. I would not "allow" myself to add additional instrumentation but would rather either substitute something out or alter a particular part to so it works better within the arrangement. If I felt the need to add strings in an already complete four-piece arrangement then I would be "forced" to remove one of the instruments so as to allow adding the string part. These seemingly restrictive "rules" would actually push me to think outside the box and make the instrumentation more meaningful instead of just simply adding more sounds and parts to create a fuller arrangement. This is perhaps a reductive method of production rather than an "additive" one but the outcome, in my mind, leads to a larger and more transparent soundscape.
This "four element" method has also been somewhat distilled into other areas of the production such as in the background vocals, melodies and lyrics. What I've tried to do is to keep each element as simple as possible so that it is accessible and easy to digest upon first sight and listening. You'll find less background vocals and parts than in previous songs of mine because I would hold back till I absolutely felt the need to add them. Vocal or instrument parts that were usually layered two to four times now are only stacked once. What you may find is that things have, in fact, gotten larger and fatter rather than smaller or narrower as one would expect. The attitude, character and performances of parts (vocals and instruments) has also been kept in their more original, raw form rather than edited or overly polished. What I'm attempting to do is to capture the honesty of the moment rather than creates and piece something together that sounds "perfect". Once you realize that you only have four instruments or elements to work with then you become more critical and tuned in to what each part is playing within the arrangement. Each instrument and song will sound thin, incomplete and dull. Rather than adding more parts to enhance a song, you now must work out and design a part till it fully complements its three other counterparts to create a single, organic and dynamic arrangement. There is less room for sloppiness, as your must trim the "fat" so that each part is a well-greased cog within the arrangement machine.
DT 1/6/05 5:54pm
[太平盛世]專輯製作概念與方法
長久以來，我一直覺得必須簡化我的音樂元素，同時又得保有樂曲的多樣性與完整性。那是一個難以拿捏的平衡向度。我指的不只有編曲，還包括歌詞、旋律甚至關乎整個製作的宏觀視野。音樂製作科技在過去的十年快速成長，大量的音樂製作軟體、硬體、聲音與技術可供我們支配使用。將這些科技產品應用在製作過程裏，我們反而可能會在不知不覺中濫用了這些資源或者會開始[耍懶]！我真的覺得我們現在聽到的華語音樂（包括該被責怪的我）從製作的角度來看是沒有任何價值的。樂器演奏、歌詞、旋律就像一些被層層堆疊的無意義元素，其間所創造出來額度並不是具有任何凝聚力的歌曲或樂音，而只是相互消磨的枝節片段。確實，在音樂的世界裏甚或我們的所作所爲，[化繁為簡]這囘事已經被淡忘了。
因此在這張專輯中，我為自己的製作與編曲[設限]，所有的演奏樂曲必須控制在只有4個不同的樂器。這樣的設計將回歸一個偏向四人組樂隊或四重奏的傳統編制。舉例來説，假如一首歌只有鼓、低音吉他、吉他與鋼琴，那它便是由四种不同的樂器組合而成。我不[允許]自己增加額外的樂器，除非是以更替取代的方式，或者是在更換的其中的一個特定部分便可以讓編曲變得更好額度前提之下。假如在一首已經運用四項樂器完成的編曲中，我想要加入弦樂，那我就[被迫]必須移除其中一項樂器，如此我才能加入弦樂的部分。事實上，這些看似約制的[規則]反而讓我可以破格思索，進而使得演奏的樂器更具意義；而不是那種爲了讓編曲更豐富，再一味加油添醋的聲音與元素。這或許就像是音樂製作的[減法]而非[加法]，但在我看來，最後的結果卻是創造了更形寬而且清晰的巨大音場。
這種[四元素]的製作方法，或多或少地都被運用在和聲、旋律與歌詞的製作譜寫上。我盡可能地保持每個元素的簡約特性，讓閲讀者在第一次探觸到時，便可以輕易地接受與領受。相較於我之前的作品，你會發現這裡面的和聲和配器都變少了，因爲除非我徹底感受到有增加的必要性，否則我會堅守住這個原則。這些人聲與樂器演奏的元素以往都會被鋪曡2-4次，如今卻是1次搞定。這些樂曲元素，人聲與樂器演奏，都因此保有更原真的態度、性格與詮釋樣貌而非過度矯飾。我企圖捕捉瞬間的真誠而非創造或拼湊[完美]的樂音。一旦你了解只有四种樂器或元素可以運用，你就會變得更精準，並且會將編曲裏每項樂器調校到最正確的位置。每樣樂器元素都變得極度重要，因爲它必須徹底實踐它的音樂[功用]，否則整首歌的編曲聼起來就會很單薄、不完整甚至是愚蠢。不用[加法]來強化一首歌，你現在必須設法並設計一種元素可以與其他三种元素相輔相成，進而創造出單純、有生命力且勁道十足的編曲。這可沒有絲毫草率的餘地，你要雕塑的夠[肥]，讓每個元素都像是編曲機裏上好油的機械卡榫。
陶喆 2005年1月6日 下午5點54分
轉自davidtao.com
更多請至
http://www.davidtao.com/thegreatleap/index.htm
