Xing Baohua arranged for Niu Jishan to deliver the computer to the publishing house today, while he himself went to Luchuan Electronics Factory first.
Factory Director Zhang warmly received them and said that the goods could be delivered by the end of the month, and that Xing Baohua just needed to prepare the funds.
Therefore, Xing Baohua went to check on the produced boards. Before leaving, he took two boards back to conduct a test.
I haven't had time to test the board I got back, so I'm leaving it at the repair shop. Right now, I'm focusing all my efforts on the sound card, which is actually a pseudo-sound card.
Given the current hardware conditions, Xing Baohua is not capable of building a true sound card. He can only use simple hardware, write programs, and use software to simulate sound channels to achieve effects such as noise reduction and distortion.
It also requires analog-to-digital conversion to connect to the mixing console to achieve fidelity.
Xing Baohua remembers that the mixing console in the recording studio was an 8-channel dual-track cassette player. The kind that could hold two cassette tapes.
There are readily available tube amplifiers for power amplifiers, which saves time. The only difficulty is the connection. Early computer motherboards didn't have built-in output ports, so they could only be connected using converters.
Another set of procedures needs to be added.
It wasn't until 8 PM that the work was finally finished. I took the board to Shangguzhuang and then called Lin Daorong to take the sound level meter to the publishing house. We need to test the equipment tonight.
If it can be debugged, I'll have Zou Wenjuan record a few clips tomorrow and see the effect.
Unable to get it working, Xing Baohua felt there wasn't enough time; he had to return to the provincial capital the day after tomorrow.
Xing Baohua and Lin Daorong worked until 11 p.m. before they could even get the flavor right.
He even taught Lin Daorong how to use computer virtual software to simulate audio channels for sound tuning.
The software is inadequate, and the hardware is outdated, so all we can manage is a half-baked contraption. At least it works, but to achieve the highest quality level is simply laughable.
The recorded master tapes meet the standard recording parameters. When amplified again by the amplifier of the audio equipment, the fidelity level can only be considered mid-range.
Xing Baohua didn't go home that night either, and slept at the publishing house for the night. When Lin Daorong left, Xing Baohua told him to come here around eight o'clock.
Xing Baohua, who had just woken up in the morning, bought some fried dough sticks and ran to Liu Haibo's place.
"You came so early? Your sister-in-law made some porridge, have some," Liu Haibo said.
Xing Baohua put down the fried dough sticks and said, "I've been busy setting up equipment at the publishing house. Today I'm bringing a girl over to test the equipment. I'm planning to sign her."
"Sign a contract?" Liu Haibo was taken aback and didn't understand the term yet.
"Our audio-visual publishing house also has an agency contract, right? It's a contract that binds singers to us and generates profits," Xing Baohua explained. He then gave a few more examples, worried that Liu Haibo might not understand.
Then he took out the draft contract he had written and showed it to Liu Haibo.
Liu Haibo was a little speechless after reading it, thinking to himself, "How can they be so generous! Is it really worth trading a sound system for three years of labor?"
What I'm afraid of is that the songs I record won't sell, and then I'll lose a lot of money! Nowadays, singers in song and dance troupes all get a fixed salary, fifty or sixty yuan a month, and that's not much in a year!
However, since it was Xing Baohua who made the connection, he couldn't really say anything. The sound system was provided by Xing Baohua, but whether it could replace a full sound system in three years was another matter.
"Where did you meet this person? And you took a liking to them?" Liu Haibo had just finished speaking when two other people walked in. Actually, he wanted to say, "Who is this person? Worthy of such a big investment?"
Zhang Taoming and Sun Changjie came in and greeted them. Zhang Taoming said to Xing Baohua, "It's been a while since I've seen you. What are you up to?"
"Busy," Xing Baohua said.
Liu Haibo smiled and said to his two brothers, "He's really busy. He slept at the publishing house last night and came to my place early this morning. Look what this kid has done."
He then handed the contract drafted by Xing Baohua to his two brothers.
Both of them were a little puzzled. It seemed a bit shady, but the value of the sound system was undeniable. Whether they could actually make money from the sound system was another matter.
“As long as there’s no loss, I have no objection. Three years is a bit short, how about five years?” Zhang Taoming said.
After working for free for three years, Xing Baohua felt that his conscience had turned a little black. If it were five years, it wouldn't just be a matter of having a black conscience, it would be a complete loss of conscience!
Liu Haibo then asked, "You still haven't said where you found this person!"
This immediately piqued the interest of Zhang Taoming and Sun Changjie.
"Well, the day before yesterday when I went home, my mom found me a blind date. She's a music teacher. I heard her voice a little and I wanted to sign her. That's how we tentatively decided to go. So I stayed up all night yesterday to get the equipment ready. Today I'm going to do a sound check."
Sun Changjie laughed and said, "You're something else! You managed to sell your girlfriend. I might as well introduce you to a girl in the future. You're a real-life example of selling someone and then having them count the money for you?"
Upon hearing this, everyone burst into laughter.
Then Liu Haibo talked about the glue-to-magnet equipment he had found out.
"Currently, there are no replacements available domestically, so we can only purchase equipment through imports. Going through official channels is too costly, so we have to smuggle them in from Hong Kong. Second-hand Japanese equipment isn't cheap either, costing around 100,000 to 200,000 yuan."
Xing Baohua quickly realized that the other party didn't have much money, so he said, "Why don't we wait a little while? After I ship the speakers, I'll still have some cash coming in, right? We can use some of that to make up for it."
Liu Haibo said, "No need for that, we can still get a few hundred thousand. It's just a one-time thing, the next time we make money, we'll be counting on you to earn it."
"Don't worry, give me a few more months, and you'll see a large influx of funds," Xing Baohua said confidently.
Seeing that it was almost time, Xing Baohua said he had to go pick up the person. He told Liu Haibo to get the contract sorted out as soon as possible so that they could have peace of mind sooner.
Xing Baohua rode his tuk-tuk to Zou Wenjuan's house. Zou's father opened the door and frowned when he saw that Xing Baohua was empty-handed again.
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