Chapter 179 Imagine the Future

Several people sat around and discussed topics such as the future of the future studio and the development route. Moreover, even Huang Wenjuan, who was considered an inevitable employee of the future studio, was very concerned about this. Even Wang Jinglu, although Judging from her appearance, she should be a little confused about this topic, but she still looks very interested.

Seeing everyone's heated discussions, it seems that after being pointed out by himself the difficulties that the future development will face, everyone became emotional. Li Qian couldn't help but express some of his thoughts on the future development of the studio, and communicate with everyone .

What he is going to set up now is just a personal studio for music and entertainment, but the foundation is laid according to the specifications of a small record company, including the size of the office address, the direction of the overall decoration design, and the upcoming slow music studio. Slow arrival and installation of some professional equipment, nothing less.

So, is it difficult to start a record company, a record company that can gain a firm foothold in the industry?

In Li Qian's view, it is easy to say, but difficult to say.

Generally speaking, a mature record company needs to be composed of three major components: production capacity, distribution capacity, and singers.

And to some extent, the former two determine the latter.

Of course, if you consider it from the perspective of the entire industry, if you don't want to be controlled by others in the future, then it is best for a record company to have its own independent production capacity.

It's just that from the present point of view, this point is not necessary. The most important thing is the above three points.

Of course, when it comes to these things, Liao Liao, a famous singer, should be more knowledgeable, but it’s because she became famous too fast, and she hasn’t had time to get in touch with and taste the little bit of hard work from the bottom. And the process of struggling to get up, secondly, when it comes to the understanding and overall grasp of the entire record industry, she is still not as good as Li Qian, who has had in-depth experience for 20 years, so more often, Li Qian is still there. Said, she listened as hard as anyone else.

For her, Li Qian's occasional words are quite enlightening, and she feels that she has gained a lot, while for Qi Jie, Wang Jinglu and Huang Wenjuan, it is pure science indoctrination - don't expect them to have It is enough to have a deep understanding and a general understanding of how records are made and how they are sold to fans.

For record companies, the number one priority is production capacity.

In fact, in the future, Li Qian's studio will be able to have records at the very beginning, and it must be the best at it, and it can even be used to pave the way for the development of the studio and overcome all obstacles. It is this production capacity.

The so-called production capacity is divided into several large blocks.

First of all, you have to have song works, and there must be a large number of new works every year. This requires a record company, whether it is a contract songwriter or a broad network in the industry, to be able to learn from many independent musicians. It doesn't matter if you get the work, in short, the work is the source of music, and this must be guaranteed.

Maybe in the end, a company collects a thousand new works a year, but in the end, only a hundred or even dozens of songs are actually selected, made into songs and released on the market, but the 900 works that were eliminated , but it is not worthless. Although they are not suitable for use, or because the quality is not good enough, or the taste is not suitable, in short, they have been eliminated, but their existence is a key part of ensuring the quality of a record company. The record company has to get it.

Speaking of this, Li Qian smiled and gave an analogy to a few girls. He said: "It's like the entire Tang Dynasty. I don't know how many thousands, even hundreds of thousands of poets are writing poems. The works they write may be There are hundreds of thousands or even millions of poems, most of which have no literary value, but it is precisely because of their existence that the atmosphere of writing poetry in the entire Tang Dynasty was formed. Finally, generation after generation The people of the Tang Dynasty naturally selected the best of them from the vast library of poems, and let them be handed down, and only then did the magnificent and magnificent poems of the prosperous Tang Dynasty come into being."

This example is very simple. Even after graduating from junior high school, you can understand it completely, so everyone nods constantly. At this time, Liao Liao also said: "It goes without saying that the second album, "The Sound of the Waves Still" is completely It was you who arranged it. For me and the producer, it was of course easy, but when I made my first album, you don’t know. I collected a total of sixty or seventy songs, but in the end I could It caught my eye and fell in love with me. Before I met you and got those five songs from you, there were only five songs. You can imagine the elimination rate! Of course, I think the main thing is Changsheng Records Lao Chen’s contacts here are not open, so he can get works, but it’s not easy to get the works of those who are too outstanding.”

Li Qian nodded, expressing his approval of her statement.

Of course, the same sentence, this department may be a very important department for other record companies, but for Li Qian, who has huge resources, at least in the first few years of his start. Inside, he is still not worried about the lack of resources, so he can treat it with ease.

Basically, if the issue of long-term healthy development is not considered, then at least in the short term, Li Qian himself can take over a large number of lyricists, composers, arrangers, etc. that other record companies need to spend a lot of money to support. All the work that they are responsible for will be arranged, and regardless of the efficiency or the quality of the work, they can be killed in seconds, ensuring that the shot is a high-quality product.

Then, after having enough music works to choose from, the next step is the producer.

The role of the producer, linking the past and the future, takes over the overall situation.

He is responsible for selecting high-quality, easy-to-listen, easy-to-sing works from so many music works that are suitable for the singer's singing style, and then, maybe the company's signed musicians, or maybe independent musicians, in short, these The works finally selected by the producer will be used for arrangement, or even recorded as a demo, which will become an important choice for singers when releasing records.

And once it is determined to enter a certain singer's new album, then this song will go through another polishing, some need to slightly modify and adjust the lyrics or tune, and some need to re-arrange finely.

At this time, a song will really come to a singer.

Is the genre suitable? Can the emotional tone be found? Is the voice suitable for interpretation? Is the arrangement suitable?

At this stage, through continuous back and forth between the singer and the producer, a song may even change many versions of the arrangement, and almost always undergoes many adjustments to the singing style. In the end, it begins to gradually forming.

In this series of processes, whether a record company signs musicians themselves or contacts independent musicians, what it needs to provide includes several arrangements from different hands, professional producers or Producer to control the quality, a large number of musicians above the level, and several versions of accompaniment formed by different arrangements.

So far, the production department of a record company has only completed the first part of the work.

And at this stage, there are also a lot of work that is done with care, but in the end it may not be needed at all-for example, if a singer wants to release a new album and uses ten to twelve new songs, then in order to To prepare this album, the producer needs to prepare at least 20, or even 30 or 40 songs for him. Except for the songs that were eliminated at the beginning, other works may follow the above process Go through it again.

However, in the end, only ten songs were selected for the album as the final published works.

Then, after going through the first stage of preliminary production, the next step is the second part of the producer's work, which is to help the singer find the emotional tone and polish the best recording state through continuous adjustments to the singer, so as to complete the production. recording.

In this step, in addition to professional producers and singers, the role of producer is often required. Of course, sound engineers and professional recording studios are even more indispensable.

What's more, it is not easy to cultivate a good sound engineer.

He must have a pair of extremely sensitive ears, and an extremely sensitive musical heart. A good sound engineer can always adjust the details, including the adjustment of the microphone, including the placement of the receiver, etc., to find the best and most pleasant part of the voice for the singer, and the final recorded version will be Full and full of emotion.

Then, the recording session is done and the producer's second part is over, but then there's the third part.

That is, post-production.

No one's voice is perfect, not even Liu Mingliang, not even Zhen Zhen, not even Liao Liao, are definitely not perfect. Although it has been polished over and over again, recorded again and again, and finally the version obtained from the recording studio is definitely the best state and best performance a singer can produce, but it still has some flaws.

what to do? Then it can only be corrected and modified through post-production. Even for some vocal details presented by some singers in the studio version, in desperation, they can only be erased.

Here, not only a lot of professional equipment is needed, but also a lot of professional post-production personnel.

At this stage, it can be said that the essential and basic part of a song, or even an album, is finally completed. For producers, however, there is a fourth part to their job.

That is the final part of the entire album, which may include choreography, and MV shooting, but the most important thing is the cover shooting, as well as the design and production of the cover, songbook and inside pages, etc.

At this stage, whether the producer himself or with the help of the company's resources, in short, he needs to contact a suitable photographer, art design above the standard, and sometimes an illustrator.

Then, finally, the production stage is completed. After the professional-level audition, the producer can usually let go. This finally polished album will be handed over to the company. On the one hand, it will go to the factory to record CDs and The magnetic tape, on the one hand, goes to the printing factory to print the cover and inner pages, and then package it as a whole. On the other hand, the publicity and distribution department will formulate a detailed publicity and distribution strategy, and then go on the market, spreading the product to the whole country.

It can be said that the level of a producer determines the level and quality of an album to a large extent, because an album or a song, except for the singing part, where singers account for a relatively large proportion, the rest Part, almost all of it is the work scope of the producer. You can imagine how high the requirements for the producer's musical skills and comprehensive strength should be.

Over the past year or so, Li Qian participated in the production of two albums, including Wu Xing Wu Su's "Sister and Sister Stand Up" and Liao Liao's "The Sound of the Waves Are Still". In the movie, his roles are all "producer", not producer. The producer of "Sister and Sister Stand Up" is Li Jinlong, and the producer of "The Sound of the Waves Is Still" is Zhao Meifeng.

So in fact, Li Qian is only responsible for controlling the quality of an album's music release, and all other trivial chores are completely left to the producer.

And next, after the establishment of the studio, it will take over the album production order and make an album for Liao Liao. Of course, Li Qian will probably gradually participate in the whole process of making an album from beginning to end, but he still I am not very willing to take on the role of producer, but prefer to still focus more on music.

This is also the fundamental reason why he nodded and agreed to Li Jinlong's joining, knowing that it would cause displeasure at Huage Records. A professional who is proficient in business will do it for you.

Speaking of which, in fact, the whole process of the birth of an album is basically analyzed. At this time, not to mention people like Liao Liao and Huang Wenjuan who are familiar with this process, even Qi Jie and Wang Jinglu are also familiar with the process. They all have a look of complete understanding.

At this time, Li Qian said again: "At present, even if the studio is established, our business is mainly concentrated on this one, that is, production. Making albums for other record companies and other singers, Needless to say, even if we are making an album for Liao Liao, we have to finish the album and then choose another company to distribute it. Although I am very reluctant about this, in fact, if we want to become bigger and stronger, then The two links of production and distribution are necessary, but for us, it is really too difficult, although we will definitely get stuck, we can only take it step by step."

Of course, that's what I said, but Li Qian naturally had another idea in his heart.

***

I've been decadent for a long time, since I got sick this month, I feel like I can't keep my energy up. However, seeing that this month is about to pass, you can't be decadent all the time, can you?

Let's start today, whether it's a recommendation ticket, a monthly ticket, or a reward, everyone encourages me, at least I will write another chapter tonight!

I want to cheer up!