The duo of Yan Qing and Miao Miao, who had travel plans for two consecutive days, did not ride an electric bike on Thursday.
The reason is simple. The recording studio that Miao Miao settled on is called Flashing Star Recording Studio. It is located in Caochangdi Art Village near the North Fifth Ring Road of the imperial capital, about fifteen kilometers away from Shichahai.
Miao Miao made an appointment for a special car in advance, and they arrived at the Star Studio at nine o'clock in the morning.
The unexpectedly released "Talent Co., Ltd." was added to today's recording plan. The standard of this song is several levels higher than the sample-level demo like "The Beginning of Autumn", and the day is relatively tight.
In his previous life, Yan Qing's attitude towards music production was to strive for excellence. He couldn't even remember how many times he scolded and cried at newcomers when he was young.
After Jian Jian exchanged a few words with Deng Wenbin, the manager of Flashing Star Recording Studio, Yan Qing asked Deng Wenbin, the manager, to start the preparatory work immediately.
Yan Qing had made detailed plans before arriving. From Miao Miao's report, he learned that Yan Qing had been in a recording studio before and had recorded and released records, so he was not worried that his recording skills would arouse suspicion.
Yan Qing planned to come over in the morning and finish arranging the song "The Beginning of Autumn" first, and let Miao Miao do a few more rounds of audition practice with the accompaniment. During this time, he could continue to work on the arrangement of "Talent Co., Ltd."
If everything went smoothly, which meant that if the recording and production tools of this parallel time and space did not undergo major changes due to the butterfly effect, he should be able to enter the studio to record the vocal harmony parts of two songs in the morning.
In the afternoon, as planned, I recorded the dry vocal tracks of "Talent Co., Ltd." and then used a DSP digital effector to mix out the digital master audio.
The arrangement style of both songs is relatively simple, basically just folk guitar and some very simple harmonies. Yan Qing already has the finished product in his mind, so he is confident that he can complete the entire production work in one day.
Otherwise, according to his previous strict standards, it would take at least four days to produce a song, even if the cycle goes smoothly.
Yan Qing directly asked Deng Wenbin to pull out the equipment list in the recording studio so that he could choose a music workstation (DAW) for arrangement and production, midi keyboard, recording microphone, monitoring headphones/singer monitoring headphones, DSP digital effector and other recording
Software and equipment.
When Deng Wenbin heard this, he realized that things were going on in the shed today. He didn't hesitate and asked his assistant to go into the office and print out a list of the latest equipment.
After all, he didn't panic because he had the goods in hand. Flashing Star Studio was recognized by the industry as the largest independent recording company in the entire imperial capital.
Deng Wenbin handed the list to Yan Qing and said with a wink:
"You really came at the right time. What a coincidence. I just updated a batch of equipment from Germany and Austria last month. You are really well-informed."
Yan Qing saw the "ams-neve genesys black" digital mixer in the list. This kind of equipment, which cost nearly half a million yuan in its previous life, was worth the entire investment of two small recording studios.
I am quite satisfied with the equipment level of this independent recording studio.
He nodded in response to Deng Wenbin and quickly checked the equipment he wanted.
After Yan Qing checked the items, he handed the list back to Deng Wenbin.
"Mr. Deng, please make arrangements as soon as possible. First find someone to take me to the control room of the recording studio to arrange music."
Deng Wenbin looked at the list Yan Qing checked:
Digital mixer: ams-neve genesys black
Arranging software: pro tools ultimate
midi keyboard, pedal: nektar impact lx88, np2
Recording microphone: akg c12vr
Monitoring headphones: akg k271 mk11
Singer monitoring headphones: akg k92
dsp digital effector: tc electronic mastering6000
"Hey, you're an old expert. You've basically picked out the best equipment for me. I originally thought that Yan Qing was just going to cross-border fun, but looking at this situation, he hasn't made many movies in the past few years, but has been focusing on music production.
Not a small amount of effort.”
After all, the last cooperation between the two parties was four years ago, Deng Wenbin thought in his heart.
Deng Wenbin handed the list that Yan Qing checked to his assistant, arranged for people to go to the studio to install the equipment that Yan Qing wanted, and took Yan Qing into the No. 1 recording studio, the largest in Flash Star.
The most expensive equipment in their studio, a digital mixing console worth 460,000 yuan, is installed in the recording control room of Studio 1.
When Shanxing's arranger engineer opened the digital mixer and activated the music workstation equipped with pro tools ultimate software, after replacing the midi keyboard and pedal specified by Yan Qing, he made an invitation gesture to Yan Qing.
.
"Mr. Yan, please."
Yan Qing didn't show any stage fright, so he put on the monitoring headphones and sat down, skillfully setting the virtual instrument parameters required for several accompaniment tracks that he had already decided on the software.
Under the watchful eyes of a large group of recording studio professionals like Flash Star, Yan Qing directly began to operate the midi keyboard and pedals, and input the dry sounds of the simulated instruments into the music workstation.
First, the simplest dry sound track: maracas sound effect and harmony, then the lead instrument A-type guitar, interlude solo instrument violin, harmony instrument bass/drums/sharp, etc.
After putting on the monitoring headphones, Yan Qing seemed to not be able to hear the noisy discussion behind him at all, and could only monitor the effect of each dry sound track piece by piece.
It took less than half an hour from the time he sat down to complete the track merging. Except for the vocal harmony track, the accompaniment of "The Beginning of Autumn" was completed just like this.
Yan Qing confirmed with Deng Wenbin whether the main monitor speakers in the recording control room could be used. After seeing Deng Wenbin nodding blankly, he simply played the accompaniment melody with no vocal harmony.
This melody slowly wandered from the expensive main monitor speakers in the well-acoustically optimized recording control room. The extremely high degree of completion of the arrangement successfully turned the obvious "dumbfounded look" around it into
"Seeing the great god's jaw-dropping".
…………
"The arrangement is all in place in one go. There is no need to adjust at all. Even if I memorize the entire arrangement in advance, can I make no mistakes at all?"
"This is definitely monitoring-level ear power."
"Pro Tools had a major version update last month, and he is even better at playing it than the training teacher."
"Teacher Yan is much more proficient in these devices than we are."
…………
The professional arrangers, recording and mixing engineers who were watching unconsciously upgraded their original title from "Mr. Yan" to "Teacher Yan".
Yan Qing showed off her top arranging skills and successfully impressed all the professionals at Flashing Star Recording Studio.
After listening to the accompaniment of Yan Qing's arrangement, the manager Deng Wenbin, who was already very cooperative, became even more attentive.
Following Yan Qing's instructions, he sent someone to copy the accompaniment to the recording control room of the nearby No. 2 recording studio. He also arranged for the sound engineer to take the still confused Miao Miao to the No. 2 recording studio, put on the singer's monitoring headphones and started.
Practice your audition.
After seeing that Miao Miao had gone to practice her audition obediently, Yan Qing sat down again and spent half an hour finishing the unvoiced harmony accompaniment of the song "Talent Co., Ltd."
After Deng Wenbin took the initiative to ask for help, Yan Qing agreed that he would help her monitor the studio. Yan Qing put on the singer's monitoring headphones, walked into the studio casually and began to record the vocal harmonies of two songs.
Because "The Beginning of Autumn" is just a demo request, after the accompaniment master tape and demo are sent to Wang Wanxi, Wang Wanxi will definitely record the vocal harmony and mix it into the final version of the master tape audio, so Deng Wenbin held the control with his right hand
Press the 3 key all the way down on the instrument, and more than ten very short harmonies of "The Beginning of Autumn" are all played through at once.
When it was his turn to record "Talent Co., Ltd.", Yan Qing set strict standards.
Even if Deng Wenbin, who was in the temporary studio outside the transparent glass of the recording studio, said that the vocal harmony effect of a certain segment was good, once the feedback from the monitoring headphones did not reach the standard line set by Yan Qing, Yan Qing would frequently take off the headphones to signal Deng Wenbin to come again.
once.
Yan Qing and Deng Wenbin cooperated more and more with each other, and successfully completed the dry vocal harmonies recording of the two songs before noon. They even had time for Yan Qing to separate the recorded vocal harmonies into separate tracks.
The previously produced accompaniment tracks are mixed into the final version of the accompaniment.
After a simple working meal in the lounge of Flashing Star, Yan Qing took a sip of warm water to moisten her throat, then walked back into the No. 1 recording studio and started recording the dry vocals of the song "Talent Co., Ltd."
Yan Qing's voice was in good condition today. At his own insistence, Deng Wenbin patiently accompanied him and recorded it completely five times. He also picked out some details and re-recorded some parts that sounded problematic to his ears.
Back in the recording control room, Yan Qing changed into the main monitor headphones and operated the music workstation using the "tc electronic mastering6000" DSP digital mixing effector worth 300,000 yuan to mix the master audio of the final product of "Talent Co., Ltd."
When the main monitor speakers played the entire song, Deng Wenbin was obviously a little excited:
"Teacher Yan, you must often come to guide our work in the future. Today, the sky-eyed guys in our studio are more honest than the last."
"Mr. Deng, it's over, you are too exaggerated."
…………
After finishing "Talent Co., Ltd.", which had the largest workload, Yan Qing went to the No. 2 recording studio to bring Miao Miao back with a relaxed look.
Cut to the accompaniment of "The Beginning of Autumn" with added vocal harmonies, Yan Qing helped Miao Miao, who was still a little nervous, put on the singer's monitoring headphones and sent her to the Akg C12VR microphone in the recording studio that cost more than 30,000 yuan.
After he finished explaining some small details with gentle words, he turned around and walked out of the shed, standing outside the transparent glass window to personally help Miao Miao supervise the shed.
Miao Miao's singing ability and speed of adapting to the top-notch recording studio environment were a bit beyond Yan Qing's expectations. To Yan Qing, who has an absolute sense of pitch, Miao Miao has the potential to become a good recording studio singer.
Yan Qing only said twice, "Very good, good singing. Let's do it again. The quality of Miao Miaolu's main melody dry track has reached Yan Qing's ideal standard for an excellent demo."
(The author would like to make a digression here. In the future, if a brother enters the recording studio to record a song, the sound engineer or studio supervisor will say something similar to you, praise you and ask you to do it again. His words are basically equivalent to "You can sing well."
What the hell, do it again.")
Miao Miao came out of Recording Studio No. 1 and ran to Yan Qing's side obediently, with a complicated look on her face that looked like she was begging for praise but not very confident.
Yan Qing told Miao Miao seriously that he would write songs specifically for her in the future and let her record her own single or even album. Miao Miao happily raised her hand and wanted to seal it with Yan Qing.
It can be seen that Miao Miao likes to sing.
Yan Qing circulated a playlist suitable for Miao Miao's voice in her mind, while operating a music workstation and a DSP digital mixing effector to mix a high-level demo.
Plug in the encrypted USB disk that Miao Miao brought from home and copy the master tape of "The Beginning of Autumn" without "vocal harmony" in the music workstation, the demo of "The Beginning of Autumn" recorded by Miao Miao for the first time, and the finished master tape of "Talent Co., Ltd."
All the audio was copied in, and the original files were completely deleted on the workstation.
When the fees were finally settled, Deng Wenbin, the manager of Shining Star Recording Studio, who insisted on waiving the cost of this recording, refused to give Miao Miao a quote.
In the previous life, if a recording studio like Flashing Star Studio No. 1 did not include the recording engineer's hourly fee, the studio hour fee would have been about 1,500 yuan an hour. Including Miao Miaoyong's Studio No. 2, Yan Qing estimated that it would be about 1,500 yuan an hour.
Five hundred Chinese dollars an hour.
Under the guidance of Yan Qing, who was familiar with the market situation in his previous life, Miao Miao took out her mobile phone and forcibly paid Shanxing 20,000 Chinese dollars through the Weiyan app.
In previous lives, recording studios of this level often had very tight schedules, so the price Yan Qing gave Deng Wenbin felt that Yan Qing was really knowledgeable.
Deng Wenbin even sent Yan Qing and Miao Miao all the way to the special car called by Miao Miao. Yan Qing had to promise him that he would be his first choice if needed in the future.
After returning to the Yan family compound, Yan Qing accompanied Miao Miao and returned to her office immediately.
Miao Miao turned on her computer and directly sent the two audio master tape resources of Beginning of Autumn to Chutian Music Company, where Wang Wanxi worked, through encrypted transmission software.
Yan Qing watched Miao Miao stop what she was doing and was a little curious:
"Xiao Meow, why don't you send "Talent Co., Ltd." to Director Li and the others?"
Miao Miao's eyes widened with a cunning twinkle, and she answered plausibly:
…………
"Don't worry, we haven't negotiated the price with Director Li yet and signed the authorization document.
Besides, if I want to send it, I should first send it to Director Luo of Whisper Music. She has already helped me negotiate a cooperation framework with Whisper Music. I will go to Whisper Headquarters tomorrow afternoon to formally sign the contract.
After the pilot video of our program is broadcast on "Star Talk Silk Road" the day after tomorrow on Saturday, Whisper Music will exclusively release this song.
A song costs two yuan, and we can share one yuan and sixty cents. Brother Qing'er, how much do you think we can earn?"
…………
Seeing Miao Miaojiao innocently counting the accounts with her fingers, the happiness on her face almost overflowed.
"Then after Miao Miao goes out tomorrow afternoon, you can go into her office to treat her Internet addiction."
Thinking of this, Yan Qing's heart was filled with happiness.