New York 2006

Chapter 21 Recording
550 Madison Avenue, Sony Tower Recording Studios!
"The recording will record all your breath, pronunciation, intonation and other errors one by one. In addition, the bone conduction and air conduction of the sound are different. You will find that the sound you record will be much worse than you thought. You can By analogy, good-looking people may not be photogenic. The camera will magnify the details on people’s faces. So don’t feel that your singing is ugly, be a little confident, go for it!”

"A song should be listened to repeatedly in the studio. The middle range of a female singer is the most important, and the high range of a male singer is also very helpful in elevating the mood of the music. So it is best to have a mezzo-soprano and a male singer. The treble needs to be around the range of A4 to C5. Sing a beautiful, supportive voice. Pay attention to your treble and let out your emotions!"

"Why are you so stupid? You can't hold your breath when recording! I've told you many times. If you keep doing this, your progress will be greatly slowed down. And your voice, try to suppress the feeling of vicissitudes of life. !You’re too young to just let go of your voice.”

"I feel much better now. You're making rapid progress. I feel like you're almost there. Would you like to come over and have a listen," said agent Braun.

Finally, the recording was completed to the satisfaction of his manager Braun, and Luo Ji's confidence greatly increased. He walked out of the studio and picked up his headphones to listen.It doesn't matter at first listen, but the more you listen, the more flaws you feel. Compared with the original singer, this is not a question of whether the singing is good or not, but the difference in the overall style.

"What's wrong?" Braun said.

"I feel bad!"

"Why is it so bad?"

"I wanted the effect to be clear, ethereal, and epic, but the current style is too noisy, like Lincoln rock."

Braun said: "This must have something to do with post-production, right?"

"you sure?"

"Uh……"

Luo Ji frowned: "Don't hesitate. I really don't know anything about recording. Now you have to give me correct advice. Don't come back and record again later."

"I'm not sure. I was just a marketing executive at a record company, not in the production department."

Luo Ji was speechless for a moment. After his manager Braun agreed to stay and help him record, Luo Ji observed him for a few days. Braun considered him to be doing his best, and then appointed him as the song producer and gave him 3% of the song. Revenue sharing, this is the share of songs that only famous producers can get.

Sure enough, profit was the first driving force. Braun, who was still a little resentful before, immediately started to serve him diligently, helping him contact the recording studio, asking musicians to record accompaniments, and helping contact the post-production team. He was confused about professional recording. Luo Ji, I felt smoother for a moment.But now it seems that this producer is a bit shaky. He can speak fluently about the production and sales of a song in the music industry, but when it comes to the specific production details, he is a bit lacking.

"Braun, is this how you treat music? This really disappoints me."

Luo Ji was really angry. He was really concerned about the production of Viva La Vidad. He didn't want the song he produced to be too inferior to Tianqi's original song. He had a competitive mentality in it!

Manager Braun immediately apologized: "I'm sorry, it's just me. I thought recording was quite simple."

Luo Ji took a deep breath: "You tried your best in the early stage of recording this song. You did a great job in finding the accompaniment, location, and harmony. But now we have encountered a problem. The finished song is a bit far from what I imagined. We have to find professionals to guide us, and we happen to be in Sony’s recording studio, right in the base camp of the music industry, so you need to find a professional person to guide us now.”

"I'll go right away!" Agent Braun knew he was in the wrong and hurried to look for him.

The past few days of getting along gave Luo Ji a general understanding of the character of his agent Scooter Braun. He is a Jew and has all the characteristics of a stereotypical Jew. He is shrewd, eloquent, and flexible. Of course, And greed.In the past few days, he has hinted many times that if the progress of recording songs is slow, it will be okay to overspend financially.He could invest, and of course he wanted to invest in Luo Ji's company.

Luo Ji now had some doubts as to whether he had deliberately slowed down the recording progress to put himself in financial crisis so that he could invest in the company.

About 10 minutes later, agent Braun brought back a man in his 30s. He had a relatively large nose, a slightly curved nose bridge, thick nose wings on both sides, and a droopy tip of his nose. It seemed that he was a compatriot of Braun. , could it be another related household?

Agent Braun pointed at this man with obvious Jewish features and introduced him to Luo Ji, "He is Jeff Busker, who studied under Steve Lindsay."

After some pleasantries, Luo Ji asked his question: "Who is Steve Lindsay?"

"Don't you know he's so famous?" Braun took out his PDA, searched it, and showed it to Luo Ji.

Music producer Steve Lindsay was recognized as one of the top record producers in the industry during the late 80s and early 90s, working with Celine Dion, Elton John, Bill Joel, Renner De Cohen, Aaron Neville, Randy Travis, Trisha Yearwood, Marvin Gaye and many more have collaborated.Steve has an extraordinary talent for artist and song development and has sold over 3000 million records as a producer.

So Jeff Busker's mentor was a big shot in the music industry. Luo Ji instantly put aside his contempt and said, "Did you really study under Steve Lindsay?"

"He was my teacher for a long time, and I now work at West Side Independent Publishing, which he founded."

“What does West End Independent Publishing do?”

"A music publishing company, it's the same nature as Sony/ATV Music Publishing Company."

Luo Ji asked with curiosity: "I know Sony/ATV Publishing Company, the largest music publisher in the world, but what exactly do music publishers do?" "It can be summarized very simply. For example, I am a composer. After writing lyrics and music, I want to make money. But I don’t know the singer. So I will entrust my lyrics and music to people in music publishing houses and let them help me find opportunities and recommend them to music artists, movies and TV shows. Of course. They will also sign composers and pay them wages, but if there is a work, it becomes the property of the company.”

"I understand. My manager Braun should have told you about the problems I encountered. I need to record a song. The recording is already halfway through. Now I need some professional guidance. What's your charge? What's it like?"

Jeff Busker said: "1000 yuan a day."

"You stay for a while, I'll go find Braun to discuss it!"

Luo Ji dragged his manager Braun to the corner: "How did you meet him?"

“I called my friends in the New York music circle and they recommended me.”

Luo Ji then asked, "He charges 1000 yuan a day. How about this price? Is it outrageous?"

Manager Braun immediately said: "Of course it's outrageous. The music industry itself is not good now, with layoffs everywhere. And he is only a famous teacher, and he doesn't have any popular works."

Luo Ji understood: "So?"

"Just cut it in half!"

"Will it be too harsh?"

"Huh?" Manager Braun stared at Luo Ji with wide eyes.

Luo Ji felt a little embarrassed and walked towards the music producer Jeff Busker nervously: "What do you think of $500 a day?"

"Okay!" He agreed simply.

Fxxk, I was still careless. I was too soft-hearted and ended up bargaining too little.

After the price was agreed upon, Jeff Busker immediately got to work. He first listened to Luo Ji's accompaniment, then listened to the previous recording again, closing his eyes and meditating for a while.

"Logic, your song Viva La Vida belongs to the baroque pop style, right?"

Luo Ji was confused: "What kind of baroque pop music?"

Producer Basque wondered: "Don't you know Baroque pop music? Then do you know how to write this song?"

Luo Ji immediately explained: "I composed it in school! Maybe it has something to do with my taste in music."

"Well, the source of music is always imaginative. Let's talk about the point. Baroque pop music refers to a fusion genre that combines classical music and rock music, including cello rock, orchestral pop, etc. Your song has rock elements, so you guys Did you choose the equipment to record rock music in the first place?”

Agent Braun said quickly: "Yes!"

As a newbie in recording, Luo Ji could only listen on the sidelines.

"But this is wrong. There is a difference between Baroque pop and rock. Baroque pop songs are inherently solemn, elegant and holy. There is a problem with the microphone you choose to record rock. The sound recorded by this microphone is very restless. , which immediately destroys the solemnity of the song. You should use a condenser microphone, which records the song very cleanly."

As expected, professional things still need to be done by professionals.After Luo Ji changed the microphone, the overall style suddenly became very close to the original singer.

Under Basque's guidance, the recording progress was greatly accelerated. By the third day, except for Luo Ji's own voice, which was slightly immature, the finished music was already very close to the original.

It seemed that Luo Ji misunderstood his manager Braun, thinking that he was deliberately slowing down the progress of recording music in order to buy a stake in his record company. Luo Ji discovered these days that Braun really didn't know much about music. The producer I found is very reliable and very professional.

Are you really a bit paranoid about being persecuted? Everyone wants to occupy your company!

"That's it, I declare that the recording of Viva La Vida is over! Basque, Braun, I'm treating you today, let's go have a big dinner!"

(End of this chapter)