🎤 Interview Richard Carpenter discusses new book on TalkShopLive, September 16 @ 7 p.m. Eastern

I truly enjoyed the discussion last night. Thank You for compiling a thorough reference book. I ordered both the Book and Disc. The RPO Christmas album will be a must have!

Richard, I too grew up with Iced Tea. There was always an ample supply in the refrigerator during the summer months...

- Ken
 
Back in the land of the living after watching this live in the middle of the night. Can't add much more to what's already been said here, but another big thanks to Richard, Mike & Chris!! 🥳 Tempted as I was to have a chance of getting a signed copy, I tried to pre-order another copy of the book through the Talkshop site, but apparently it was for US residents only, so I'm now looking forward to the copy I already pre-ordered (plus the music on vinyl and CD!! :D )

Very excited to hear of the projects that are already being worked on and looking forward to Richard's not-"Good morning America" appearance whenever it may occur 📺 :cool:
 
Wow, what a treat to listen to the three of you discussing this extraordinary project. I had to leave after the first hour because I had a class to teach, but I just watch the last part. The Christmas project sounds exciting and I am looking forward to getting the new book now more than ever. I couldn't order it on the Talkshop site because I don't live in the US, but I will be pre-ordering it elsewhere. Definitely a must-have.
 
Tempted as I was to have a chance of getting a signed copy, I tried to pre-order another copy of the book through the Talkshop site, but apparently it was for US residents only, so I'm now looking forward to the copy I already pre-ordered (plus the music on vinyl and CD!! :D )
For folks outside of the US who still would like to preorder the book, with a chance to score an autographed copy, you can order HERE:
Carpenters : Michael Cidoni Lennox : 9781648960727
 
Thanks to you all for such a great presentation. It was a delight to see all three of you "live". Just wish that Karen was still with us to see how much she and Richard, the Carpenters, are still loved to this day!! Thank you. Thank you Richard for keeping your Carpenters Legacy alive!
 
I've been really busy the past few days - I knew I would be! - so I've only caught about two seconds of the video just to see if it would work. With doctors appointments today, I hope to have more time over the weekend. It looks like it was a fabulous time for all.

Congrats as we get closer to "book time"!
quite an accomplishment
 
I have a few questions if either of you guys know...when Richard was talking about giving Christmas Portrait the RPO treatment, he said toward the end of the discussion, that they found all the multi tracks except for the 85 Overture from An Old Fashioned Christmas, he said he only needed a few bars of it but couldn't find that but found all the rest and that if they can't find it then he will re-record it. I'm confused about what part of the Overture is missing, he says only a few bars but the Overture consists of 9 songs.

I guess I'm also confused about why he mentioned the 85 Overture from An Old Fashioned Christmas. So is he doing both Christmas Albums in their entirety with the RPO or just Christmas Portrait or a mixture of both Christmas albums together taking the best tracks from both albums (which will probably leave out some tracks since all can't be used) The best part about Christmas Portrait for me is how the whole album flows track by track how will that be accomplished with RPO treatment.
 
I have a few questions if either of you guys know...when Richard was talking about giving Christmas Portrait the RPO treatment, he said toward the end of the discussion, that they found all the multi tracks except for the 85 Overture from An Old Fashioned Christmas, he said he only needed a few bars of it but couldn't find that but found all the rest and that if they can't find it then he will re-record it. I'm confused about what part of the Overture is missing, he says only a few bars but the Overture consists of 9 songs.

I guess I'm also confused about why he mentioned the 85 Overture from An Old Fashioned Christmas. So is he doing both Christmas Albums in their entirety with the RPO or just Christmas Portrait or a mixture of both Christmas albums together taking the best tracks from both albums (which will probably leave out some tracks since all can't be used) The best part about Christmas Portrait for me is how the whole album flows track by track how will that be accomplished with RPO treatment.
Basically what Richard was trying to convey, is, the entire overture was not recorded in a single shot, as it consisted of multiple masters which were mixed, then spliced together to make a seamless medley.

When Universal put in the request to pull the tapes from Iron Mountain that were needed to piece it back together, one of the masters were never retrieved. It's an easy enough fix—in that, he would simply pull the original chart out and recut this one particular piece, and link it all back together again.

The "RPO treatment" is simply referring to the major cleanup of the audio—i.e. the removal of background noise, clicks, instrumental defects, and what have you. Karen's lead would also be pushed up in the mix, and the reverb would essentially "go away" for the most part.

As Richard mentioned on the show last night, this project wouldn't involve a complete re-record of the orchestra, as the one that was recorded originally was essentially the same size as the Royal Phil.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion. :)
 
Basically what Richard was trying to convey, is, the entire overture was not recorded in a single shot, as it consisted of multiple masters which were mixed, then spliced together to make a seamless medley.

When Universal put in the request to pull the tapes from Iron Mountain that were needed to piece it back together, one of the masters were never retrieved. It's an easy enough fix—in that, he would simply pull the original chart out and recut this one particular piece, and link it all back together again.

The "RPO treatment" is simply referring to the major cleanup of the audio—i.e. the removal of background noise, clicks, instrumental defects, and what have you. Karen's lead would also be pushed up in the mix, and the reverb would essentially "go away" for the most part.

As Richard mentioned on the show last night, this project wouldn't involve a complete re-record of the orchestra, as the one that was recorded originally was essentially the same size as the Royal Phil.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion. :)
This would still be absolutely amazing! Though not quite what some of us were hoping for I am guessing. On the one hand I am a little disappointed (don’t us fans always want more lol), but on the other hand I am happy as I can see this finish a lot earlier and without having to worry about Richard being out there travelling and dealing with many people , risking his health, during a pandemic!

Thank you Chris and mike, for all your hard work, determination and knowledge, to bring this historically important book to fruition.
 
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Thanks Chris for clearing that up, you can tell I have no knowledge about how these things work. Ha

Something to look forward to....hoping this might happen next Christmas. For someone who loves Christmas and the Carpenters (like me) this will be a dream come true...I can only imagine how incredible this will sound especially after hearing how great the RPO album turned out.
 
I've just watched this interview. I'm certainly glad we got it and appreciate the effort that went into pulling it together. My only quibble is that Richard was very reigned in by Mike specifically and there were times when he clearly wanted to talk but wasn't really free to do so. Mike talked a lot and while I promise I mean absolutely no offense at all, I'd much rather have heard more from Richard. Again, though, I really am grateful for what we got.

Ed
 
This was done at a private studio in North Hollywood, owned by renowned songwriter and record producer, Walter Afanasieff.
A bit off-topic here, but I just looked at Wikipedia's discography page of Walter Afanasieff (whose name I was not familiar with, I shamefully admit).
I was amazed to see all those big names, the list just goes on and on and on!
When I was on vacation in Barcelona back in 2004, I discovered the cool music of Robi Draco Rosa (listening to it in a record store there) and had to take that CD home. I now see that he even produced that album as well! :cool:
 
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