Entertaining Children

"Is this thing like a pot lid a musical instrument?" Director Steve McGrove leaned over to glance at the screen of the phone that Dawson Grew took over, and asked curiously.

"I seem to have seen this kind of thing somewhere." The soundtrack composer Dawson Grew frowned, "It seems to be a musical instrument, and it is directly struck by hand, right?" The phone was returned to Xiao Yao.

"Yes," Xiao Yao nodded, and took back his phone, "I guess you may have seen it on the Internet. I recorded a few videos of playing this instrument and posted it on the Internet, and there are also some other people playing this instrument. It is a kind of musical instrument. But now this kind of musical instrument is still used for performances more, it seems that it has not appeared in the soundtrack of film and television works. Moreover, the sound of this kind of musical instrument is relatively ethereal, and it has never been used as the soundtrack of suspenseful plots. None."

"Using ethereal musical instruments to make a suspenseful and tense plot soundtrack? I'm very interested." Dawson Grew immediately said, "I'd like to see it."

"No problem," Xiao Yao said with a smile, "I just said that if you are interested, you can go to the recording studio of the band "Daydream" to watch me play and record at night."

"Do you have to wait until night? Our crew has its own recording studio, and you can start working now." Dawson Grew said impatiently, and then reacted, "Wait, whose recording studio are you talking about? "Daydream"?" Both of them were attracted by the photo of the musical instrument on Xiao Yao's phone just now, and Dawson Grew obviously didn't pay attention to Xiao Yao's words just now.

"Yes, the recording studio of "Daydream"." Xiao Yao nodded and said, "Although your crew has a recording studio, there is no hand disc. My hand disc is in the hotel and I need to go back to the hotel to get it. I live The hotel is relatively close to the recording studio of "Daydream", and I was in their recording studio yesterday as an arranger and accompaniment, and I have been there for a day, so I am familiar with their equipment."

"Steve, the progress of the soundtrack is within plan," Dawson Grew said to the director beside him, "If Young can really get the soundtrack for the suspenseful and tense plot tonight, the progress of the soundtrack can still It's in advance, so I think it's okay if I don't work tonight." What he meant was obviously that he was going to watch Xiao Yao make a soundtrack with his hand disc.

"Of course no problem." Director Steve McGrove understood what the soundtrack artist meant, nodded immediately, "Actually, I want to see it too."

"In this case, let's set off now, it's getting late now." Xiao Yao got up and said.

"Are you going back to the hotel now, and then take your instrument to the recording studio?" Zhou Jingyi asked Xiao Yao in surprise, "I'm going to invite you to Dino's for dinner. It's a great restaurant, and I've already made a reservation location."

After the filming work of the crew was over, it was almost time for dinner.

Because of work, everyone ate fast food together in the crew at noon. Zhou Jingyi originally wanted to wait until the end of work before being a landlord, and took Xiao Yao and others to have a good meal in the evening. She knew that the director asked Xiao Yao to make the soundtrack, but she thought that Xiao Yao was just looking at the video material today, and then slowly conceived and created after returning home at night, but she didn't expect Xiao Yao to record the soundtrack immediately.

"It's okay, you can invite my mother and the others to eat." Xiao Yao said, "Anyway, my mother and the others don't need to accompany them when it comes to recording."

"Yiran, Minyi, you should go together too, you don't need to accompany me to the recording studio." Xiao Yao said to Yiran and Pei Minyi, "I'll drive the car away!"

Xiao Yao turned to Zhou Jingyi again and said, "Jin, after dinner, please take them back to the hotel." Then, Xiao Yao took out his mobile phone and walked to the parking lot outside the studio while making a call: "Keith, you Are you still in the recording studio? I’m going to borrow your recording studio to record at night. Well, I’ll be there in half an hour! Of course I welcome your place, by the way, I haven’t had dinner yet, you guys bring me something to eat ..."

"Ladies, it's nice to meet you, and I hope you have a good time here today. Now we're going to see Yang do the soundtrack, goodbye!" The director and the soundtrack artist hurriedly greeted Ye Jiaying and others, and followed Xiao Remote went together.

While waiting downstairs in the hotel for Xiao Yao to pick up the instrument, the soundtrack engineer Dawson Grew also took the opportunity to search for a few videos of hand-disc performances on the Internet, and watched them with the director. As Xiao Yao said, the sound played by this instrument is indeed very ethereal, and the music played by hand discs on the Internet is also in that ethereal and quiet style. While marveling at the fact that Xiao Yao, a young man who looks to be around 20 years old, invented this musical instrument that can emit sounds that seem to touch the depths of people's hearts, it is also strange how Xiao Yao wants to play with this musical instrument. The music produced creates a suspenseful and tense atmosphere.

When the three of them arrived at the "Daydream" recording studio, Keith Craig, who had gone out to eat with Xiao Siqi, hadn't returned yet. However, Xiao Yao spent most of the day in the recording studio yesterday. The staff in the recording studio already knew him, and Keith Craig also called back to say hello, so Xiao Yao took him with him unimpeded. Steve McGrove and Dawson Grew went straight into the studio.

"Don't you need to wait for Keith Craig to come back to record?" Seeing Xiao Yao sitting in front of the console and skillfully operating the equipment, Dawson Grew asked in surprise. He knew that Keith Craig was also an excellent sound engineer and producer, and thought that Xiao Yao insisted on coming to the recording studio of "Daydream" because he wanted Keith Craig to help him record.

"No, no, now I record all my music by myself." Xiao Yao shook his head and said, "I was already familiar with his equipment yesterday, and I know how to operate it."

After operating on the console, Xiao Yao entered the recording room holding the disc in his hand. Considering that Keith has never seen himself playing the hand flute, Xiao Yao did not start playing and recording the hand flute part first, but put the hand flute aside and picked up the violin in the recording room. The musical instruments in the recording studio are much richer and more complete than those in Keith Craig's piano room, not only acoustic guitars, but also violins.

"Recording started now? Could it be that his song has already been written?" Steve McGrove and Dawson Grew looked at each other, and they put on the monitor headphones on the console at the same time. .

When Xiao Yao finished the string part of the violin performance, Keith Craig and Xiao Siqi also came back together.

After Xiao Yao introduced Keith Craig, Xiao Siqi, Steve McGrove, and Dawson Grew to each other, and the four got to know each other for a while, Keith Craig took the Handing a paper bag to Xiao Yao, he said, "No one is allowed to eat or drink in the control room of my recording studio, but today, I will make an exception for you."

"Thank you!" Xiao Yao took the paper bag, "Rules are rules, how about I go out to eat?"

"Come on!" Keith Craig pushed Xiao Yao on the chair in front of the console and said, "What I say here is the rule. Since I said I will make an exception for you, then you can eat here. I still I want to wait for you to finish it early and appreciate your new work."

"The soundtrack of film and television works, tsk tsk, you really know everything!" Keith Craig shook his head again and sighed.

"Yo, you brought the disc too." While Keith Craig was talking to Xiao Yao, Xiao Siqi noticed an extra musical instrument in the recording room.

"Yeah," Xiao Yao said as he opened the paper bag to take out some food, "I think Keith hasn't seen me playing hand disc, so the part of hand disc has not been recorded yet. These three gentlemen probably haven't seen it with their own eyes. Someone is playing hand flute, anyway, I want to eat now, why don't you play it first and show them your hand?"

"Okay," Xiao Siqi rubbed his palms and said, "It happens that I haven't played for a long time." The number of second-generation hand discs of this kind is still relatively small. There is already a hand disc from the first generation, so I didn't ask Ake Robinson for it when I was in Nashville, only Xiao Yao took one by himself. He had long wanted to find Xiao Yao to come and play.

"Hand plate? That? Is that a musical instrument?" Keith Craig followed Xiao Siqi's gaze and found the extra pot-like thing in the recording room, pointing and asking.

"Yes, this is a new musical instrument invented by Yang last year, called the hand disc." Xiao Siqi gave a brief introduction, and then ran to the recording room to bring the hand disc. Now there are three spectators here, and there are only two sets of monitor headphones on the console, so Xiao Siqi still takes the disc back to the control room to play, so that it is more convenient for everyone to listen.

Xiao Siqi didn't intend to play the hand disc in Xiao Yao's soundtrack for Xiao Yao, nor did he ask Xiao Yao about the melody of that soundtrack. Played a song "Misty Rain Qingdai" for three audiences.

Keith Craig brought simple fast food to Xiao Yao, and Xiao Yao ate very fast. After Xiao Siqi finished playing the three-minute song "Misty Rain Qingdai", Xiao Yao also wiped out the food in his hand .

"Great!" Keith Craig and the three of them couldn't help applauding after listening.

"You just said that this instrument is called a handpan? How can I get one?" Keith Craig asked impatiently. It was the first time he heard the music played by this instrument, and he was immediately fascinated.

"I partnered with someone to open a musical instrument company, specializing in the production and sale of this kind of musical instrument." Xiao Yao smiled and took out a business card and handed it to Keith Craig, "We only accept custom-made, you can place an order !"

"You, start a musical instrument company?" Keith Craig took Xiao Yao's business card with staring eyes.

"It's a partnership with someone," Xiao Yao emphasized, "I contribute the patent and half of the funds, and I take up half of the equity, but I don't care about the specific company management. But if you report my name, you should be able to enjoy certain discounts! "

"You profiteer!" Keith Craig laughed, "I thought you would give me one for free!"

"Please! It's only a few thousand dollars. It's nothing to you, but I can't break the company's rules!" Xiao Yao said, "The company needs income on the books. If you don't want to pay, it doesn't matter. I will help you with the money. your turn!"

"So, you made this soundtrack with a hand disc, and you want to advertise your new musical instrument and your musical instrument company?" Dawson Grew asked.

Although I saw this kind of hand disc video on the Internet when I came here, the feeling of listening to it live is still different. When Keith Craig said he wanted this kind of instrument just now, Dawson Grew was also moved. But when Xiao Yao said that he started his own company to sell this kind of musical instrument, he hesitated again. After all, inventing a musical instrument is different from starting a company to sell musical instruments. He and Xiao Yao are not as familiar with Keith Craig as he is with Xiao Yao.

"It can be said that," Xiao Yao nodded generously and admitted, "I know that you asked me to make the soundtrack because you want to use my current topicality to promote your drama series, but no matter what, the quality of the work itself is the most important thing .Anyway, I have already played a guest role in your series, and you already have a way to use me to promote the series. If you think my soundtrack is not suitable, you can also choose not to use it, and I will not force it!"

"It turns out that this Chinese kid knows everything!" Steve McGrove thought, "We use his name to promote the series, and he uses the soundtrack of our series to promote his musical instruments!"

"I don't care about the promotion, I only care about the soundtrack in the later stage." Dawson Grew's mind was much simpler, and he said directly, "Whether you use our drama to promote your instrument or not, as long as you make it If something is good enough and suitable, I will use it!"

"That's what I mean too!" Xiao Yao spread his hands, took the hand plate from Xiao Siqi's hand and said, "Now I'm going to continue working, you guys just wait and see, oh no, just wait and hear my results."

Now that Xiao Siqi had already demonstrated it to the three of them, there was no need for Xiao Yao to continue to let them experience the effect of the hand disc. He took the hand disc and went directly into the recording room to start recording.

Dawson Grew and Steve McGrove looked at Keith Craig and Xiao Siqi with some hesitation.

"Please!" Keith Craig, who understood what they meant, waved his hand. Xiao Yao's recording was for work, and the two of them were waiting for the results to be checked and accepted, so Keith Craig and Xiao Siqi didn't compete with the two of them for the monitor earphones.

"Thank you!" Dawson Grew and Steve McGrove nodded, and went to the console again to put on the monitor headphones.

Through the glass window between the control room and the recording room, the two could see that Xiao Yao's tapping speed was obviously faster than Xiao Siqi's just now, and his technique seemed more proficient. Judging from the melody of the music he played, it was indeed different from the piece played by Xiao Siqi just now, but they couldn't be sure that this piece was suitable for the plot they were going to make the soundtrack to.

About half an hour later, Xiao Yao also finished playing the hand disc part. Then he sat in front of the console, put on the monitor headphones, and started post-processing and synthesizing the previously recorded pieces of music material.

"Okay," after more than half an hour, Xiao Yao copied the finished piece of music to a USB flash drive and handed it to Dawson Grudeau, "A total of two minutes and twenty-three seconds, exactly that The length of a plot. I saw you came with a laptop, and there are video materials on it, right? You can feel it now."

"Okay!" Dawson Grew was not polite, took the USB flash drive Xiao Yao handed over, opened the laptop he brought, inserted the USB flash drive into it, opened the video material in the computer, and directly pulled the Go to the location you need, and play it synchronously with the music in the U disk.

The music sounded, and other people at the scene also came together curiously, and felt the effect of Xiao Yao's soundtrack together.

"Great!" More than two minutes passed quickly, and Dawson Grew nodded first, "I think it can be used like this." The ups and downs of the movie also fit the plot very well. Most importantly, the whole soundtrack really brings people into the suspenseful and tense atmosphere of the plot at once.

"I agree!" Steve McGrove also nodded, "This part, I will use this soundtrack!"

"You really opened my eyes!" Dawson Grew said to Xiao Yao, "I didn't expect that this ethereal sound paired with strings could give people such a feeling. Now, I have another question."

"What's the problem?" Xiao Yao asked with a smile.

"Can you also give me a business card?" Dawson Grudeau, "You have provided me with a brand-new idea of ​​soundtrack. I think I need to study this new instrument you invented."

"Of course!" Xiao Yao took out a business card and handed it over.

How many people in the TV audience care about what instruments are used in the soundtrack? Xiao Yao's goal was to make this instrument popular among the behind-the-scenes group of soundtrack musicians.

"Speaking of research," Keith Craig interjected, "Jan, can this instrument work with rock music?"

"Why not?" Xiao Yao shrugged, "Music is inherently full of infinite possibilities."

"That's right." Keith Craig nodded, "Then can you teach me how to play this instrument? I think we can add the soundtrack of this instrument to our daydream works in the future. "

"No!" Xiao Yao shook his head and said, "Although this instrument was invented by me, it doesn't mean that my way of playing is the only and the best. In fact, different regions of this instrument produce different sounds. The sound of the scale, as long as it is a professional musician, can completely hear the different scales corresponding to different regions. As for the skills and techniques of percussion, there are no strict rules. My skills are explored by myself. I also hope that the musicians who play this instrument will create their own playing skills and form their own unique way of playing with their own exploration and comprehension."

After Xiao Yao invented this new musical instrument, he never uploaded any teaching videos. He just hoped that the musicians would delve into various playing methods based on their interests, so as to make this new musical instrument more attractive.