Reborn in America

Chapter 21: Complex recording

Early recordings did not use microphones, but used big speakers!

The musicians play against several loudspeakers, and the sound directly enters the recording equipment, driving the recording needle to carve grooves on the record. Needless to say, this kind of recording is troublesome, the sound quality of the recorded sound is extremely poor, and it is impossible to restore the complex vocals.

The main difficulty of early acoustic recording was to directly pick up and record the weak sound wave energy. People have long realized that a better solution lies in trying to convert sound waves into electrical signals. Around the 1920s, this idea gradually changed. reality.

This was mainly due to technological advances in broadcasting and wireless telegraphy, which gave birth to the necessary equipment such as electric microphones and power amplifiers. After 1925, record companies applied these technologies to record recording and began to enter the era of electroacoustic recording. .

Fortunately, Alex was reborn around the 1950s, when the recording technology was already very mature. The use of an electrically amplified microphone system can capture a wide range of sound. Musicians no longer need to squeeze around the trumpet of the recording studio like in the acoustic recording era, but can play freely in a more relaxed environment. .

More importantly, by the 1950s, almost all record companies used tape media as the original master tape for making records. This means that longer music can be recorded repeatedly, and at a lower price.

After these master tapes are recorded, they need to be further edited and edited, and they will eventually be burned onto the record. There are two kinds of records in this era, one is the lp record launched by Columbia, which is the so-called 78-round record. The other is the 45 rpm record released by his competitor rca.

These two types of records have their own advantages. The 78 rpm record has high sound fidelity and long playing time, and is usually used in the field of classical music.

The playback technology of 45 rpm records is relatively easy. Rca has produced a portable turntable with its own speakers in large quantities and sold it among young people. The result is very popular and it becomes the best choice for their party. Teenagers simply call this turntable "hi-fi".

The popularity of this type of "hi-fi" greatly promoted the prosperity of the singles market in the 1950s, while lp was only popular among those who listened to serious music and those who had a strong financial strength at university level or above, and eventually became popular music. The artistry provides the material basis.

The "Carpenter Brothers" song will eventually be burned on a 45 rpm record because the cost of this record is lower.

Generally speaking, record production needs to go through the collection of songs, after confirming the demo, editing, tape, instrumentation, dubbing, harmony, mixing, mastering and so on.

It's just that they don't want to release this record on the market, and they don't need professionals to vote and screen, let alone the arranger to communicate. The dubbing and harmony are rehearsed at home. All that is left is the post-processing of recording, mixing and mastering. These require equipment and dedicated personnel to complete.

They first recorded "Songs for Mother". At the beginning, the accompaniment band was not very comfortable with this style of music. After running in and rehearsing several times, he finally reached the 70-80% level in Alex's memory.

"These two little guys are amazing!" Rudy said to Bart when the Carpenter brothers sang the first sentence.

"Of course, they are my sons!" Bart said proudly. He is now standing outside the recording room, looking at the people inside through the glass.

"Do they usually sing so beautifully? When do they start singing!" Rudy asked Bart while adjusting the recording equipment.

"They started singing when they were very young, and the'Carpenter Brothers' group is very famous among us!"

"I don't seem to have heard this song before. What's the name of this song?" Rudy continued.

"This is a birthday gift they wrote to my wife. They are very filial!" Bart explained.

"What a genius! Just listening to the singing knows that their hearts are very beautiful!" Rudy said after a long silence, "They will definitely become famous singers in the future!"

During the recording process, several unexpected situations occurred and the recording had to be interrupted. After all, Alex and the others are recording for the first time, and they don't know much about it.

Rudy is a responsible producer. He has a lot of experience and made many useful suggestions to the Carpenters. At the beginning, the recording was very slow, but when they became familiar with the recording process, the work speed suddenly became faster.

When recording, Alex compares it with the original in his mind from time to time, and when he finds a problem, he immediately raises it. Some effects are limited by the equipment technology at the time, they cannot achieve, but with Alex's golden finger, the recording quality is very good.

This song originally sung by four people, under the interpretation of the two Carpenters brothers, is not worse than the original version. It was even a little beyond, especially the use of their childish voice to sing this song, which made people very moved.

"They are no worse than professional singers!" Rudy said while listening to the song while recording. He said this very seriously. From his professional perspective, the Carpenter brothers' songs are enough to make the charts last week.

After hearing this, Bart felt very proud. After so many years of hard work, he will finally pay off. He looked at his son inside the glass wall and said: "Our goal is to become a professional singer, to become no.1!"

Rudy thought for a while and asked: "You probably haven't signed with a record company yet!"

"This will happen sooner or later! After our record is recorded, we can sign." Bart said very positively.

"Then are you interested in signing a contract with my company?" Rudy said to Bart earnestly: "I am the owner of this company. Although the company is relatively small, it can still record high-quality records and has a good record. Sales channels."

Bart looked at Rudy in surprise. He really didn't think that the other party was the boss of this company.

"How about, are you interested?" Rudy saw Bart seem to be a little moved, so he asked again.

"This..." Bart hesitated, he didn't know how to answer: "I'll wait for the song to be recorded, we will discuss it and tell you!"

Rudy knew that he couldn't force him too much at this time, so he smiled and said, "Alright, wait until you think about it."

After tossing like this for almost a day, the song was recorded. Fortunately, Bart had already prepared for the recording studio.

"Children, come here." Bart took Alex and Richarda out the door, and he repeated Rudy's words.

Bart waited for his sons to digest the information and asked, "Do you think you should sign with them now, or wait until the record is on the radio before signing?"

Alex and Richard were silent, they were a little surprised why Bart would discuss this matter with himself.

"Alex, tell me about it!" Bart had no choice but to ask by name.

"If I choose, of course I have to wait until I'm famous before signing." Alex said slowly: "However, I guess you are a little moved, otherwise you won't hesitate."

Bart did not respond to Alex's statement, but instead asked: "Richard, what about you?"

Richard thought for a while and said, "Actually, we don't know if this song will be on the radio. If Rudy helps..."

"Yeah! With Rudy's help, this song will definitely be able to be played on the radio." Bart sighed and said, "I spent a lot of time looking for the relationship with the radio station, but I never found it. If the radio station refuses to play it. , There is nothing we can do."

Alex did not expect that the radio stations of this era would not easily play their records. Unless there are people on the radio, or they are famous singers.

He only knew that Elvis’s song became popular after it was broadcast on the radio, but he didn’t know that many radio stations refused to play Elvis’ records. If it weren't for a record company to be the driving force behind, it would not be easy for Elvis to become popular.

"The other thing is, we don't understand the market promotion at all. Even after the radio is broadcast, if it does not achieve the effect we want..." Bart did not continue, he thought his sons already understood it.

This time Bart has taken out all the savings in his family and invested it on this record. He has always been confident in his sons, but from time to time he passed the possibility of failure in his heart. More importantly, as an actual agent, he has always been unqualified. He was worried that he would become a stumbling block for his sons, and this thought has been bothering him.

"Don't worry, we will never fail! Don't think about so much now, one step is one step!"

Alex doesn't want to sign a contract right away. He thinks he is not yet ready to sell himself. If you want to sell, you have to wait for the appreciation before you sell.

Bart still didn't give up, he continued: "Or we ask Rudy for the conditions, if it is good, signing with him is also a good choice."

Richard also thinks this idea is good, but you can ask about the conditions first.

Alex reluctantly agreed. He thought it was very stupid to sign the contract now. The stride is big, it is going to be a joke.

The conditions Rudy gave them were unexpectedly good, and the record company divided them six to four. The record company takes 60% of the profits, and the Carpenter brothers take 40%. This is much better than a contract given by an ordinary record company. Generally speaking, the singer can only get about 20% at most, and only 30% at the top.

Besides, the Carpenter brothers have not made their debut yet. If they are replaced by other companies, it is estimated that 3% of the profits will be considered good. Mike Jackson made his debut for several years and won numerous records, but he was only able to get a 2.5% copyright tax when he was in the first record company. If converted into profit, it should be less than 5%.

According to Bart’s calculations, this 40% of the profit is about 20% of the copyright tax. In other words, for a $2 record, as long as they sell one record, they can get $0.4.

This condition was so good that Alex was puzzled. He didn't think that something good would happen.

"Alex! Richard! What do you think? Do we want to sign with him?" After Bart calculated this result, he was already a little uncontrollable.

Of course Richard agreed, and he was also moved by Bart's calculations.

"There is still a problem, Bart!" Alex still felt that this was a trap, and he continued: "You ask him to change the profit into a copyright tax, and then give us a 30% deposit first."

The so-called advance payment means that when the record company signs a contract with the singer, a part of the money will be paid in advance. Of course, the money is estimated. For example, the record company estimates that the singer can get 1 million US dollars within this year, then they will give 30% of this 100 US dollars as an advance payment.

Sure enough, Rudy shook his head and refused to agree when it was changed to the condition that Alex proposed.

"If I had so much advance payment, the company wouldn't be broken like this." Rudy explained.

Alex does not eat his set: "Then you can calculate the copyright tax in the contract! It doesn't need to be as much as 40%, just 20% is enough."

Rudy's face immediately changed when he heard Alex's words. He quickly refused and said, "Just forget it if you refuse to sign."

But they were a little surprised at this result! They didn't think that Rudy would be unwilling to sign because of this small change. This is really unreasonable!

Only Alex could estimate Rudy's reaction. He believes that Rudy actually wanted to give up White Wolf, first signing them with his company, and then turning around to find other big companies to sell their records. This is a method used by many small companies. They have excellent singer resources, but they are not able to distribute records nationwide. They can only use this method to link to large companies.

However, Alex is not happy to turn his face with Rudy right away, they still need Rudy's help in many places. So it is an excuse to think about it again and continue to delay.