What's Hidden in The Carpenters 'We've only Just Begun'?? 

You’ve got a long way to go. Let us help you get there. Crocker Bank

Yes, actually it was that simple back then. They were using the same set of tracks that this lady is using, aka the multi-track masters. No they couldn't jump back and forth in time instantly like this lady can, they had to allow the tape machine to rewind or forward the tape, but yes, they could "solo" a desired track the same way done here.

And she was a boss on the drums too ❤❤ 40 years since the world lost her and no one to this day can compare to her voice.

@@teamcougars She's the only one who really comes close to her - but still: different ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5ZfW7ib-2AE.html

Just on the first album. After that she didn't record much drums at all.

Actually, Hal Blaine did most of the drum tracks on their 2nd, 3rd and 4th albums.

Karen did Offering/TTR and Now & Then, except Jambalaya was Hal.

Not to forget former Mouseketeer Cubby O’Brien on the drums

Richard was the genius and total brains. The wrecking crew are just technicians. Frank Lloyd Wright is the genius architect, the brick layer, no matter how good he is, is just labor.

The compressor does that. I like how we can hear the breaths she takes, and you can also hear that on some of her live tracks. She took fast deep breaths and she was a little loud with those. At first Richard used to edit out some of those breath noises, but later he realized they contributed to desired intimacy. Compressing a track reduces the volume of the louder portions, thereby reducing the average volume of the track, so then you can turn the volume of the track up louder on the mixer. One effect of that is it increases the volume of softer sounds, making them more audible than they would normally be. Being too aggressive with the compressor causes the vocal to sound "processed," and I have heard it used that way on some tracks on "Made in America." Given that Karen is such an excellent singer, that "processed" sound is not right for her, detracting from that "warm" and "intimate" sound she's so good at. Poorer singers may need that sound, with Alan Parsons using a heavily compressed sound, e.g. "I am the Eye in the sky." Jeff Lynne of ELO used that sound to simulate the sound of a telephone call on "Telephone Line," in fact he seems to have been inspired to write an entire #1 song based on the effect. John Lennon did not like the sound of his voice on tape and would ask for heavy processing, and you got that heavily compressed sound from him on some tracks, including "Revolution" and "Lucy in the sky with diamonds." Because of the care taken by George Martin, the results there were always stellar. In "Lucy in the sky with diamonds," the verse is heavily compressed and then the chorous is not, giving a shocking "screaming" quality to the chorous, to great effect.

She also has a little soCal regional accent or possibly connecticut where she grew up. Richard has a beautiful voice also. What a duo ?

Well said. She is the only singer that ever made me cry. I still can't listen to "I won't last a day without you" without getting a little Verklempt.

2nd Choice "Close to You" 😌

Rainy Days & Mondays

the film "christine" was directed by john carpenter. He didn't write the screenplay. The story was based on a novel by Stephen King.

Also he is Richard Carpenter, not John Carpenter. 😊

The Carpenters did not write Superstar. It was written by Delaney Bramlett. Delaney and his then-wife Bonnie recorded the song a few years earlier as “Groupie”. Completely different arrangement. It’s fascinating to compare Richard Carpenter’s arrangement with Delaney Bramlett’s original.

The OK Chorale is absolute muzak garbage and any track on which they appear is trash, and the same goes for any Carpenters track were Richard did not do the arranging and orchestrating himself. He used Peter Knight to horrible results. I don't consider such tracks as "Carpenters." I deduce several things from that. We know that Richard felt overworked and felt the need to cut back on his responsibilities. I've heard him say "I was wearing too many hats" and also "If someone else can come in and do the arranging and orchestration, yeah, sure, get them in here." So we know that. But Richard had to know, better than anyone but by everyone anyway, that his arranging skills could not be replaced by outside contractors, so he knew full well that using outsiders would not give the same quality result. I mean he could have gotten superstar talents like Bacharach, Roger Nichols, Leon Russel, and Henry Mancini, and even then Richard had already proven that they can not do what Richard does. But anyway who could afford them, so Richard hired 5th rate schlock meisters. That proves what we also already knew, that Richard had quit, and "Carpenters" was done. It also shows something somewhat surprising, that Richard was willing to sacrifice his own stellar reputation, as well as that of The Carpenters, in order to fulfill quota and produce product, and make money. "Somewhat surprising" because Richard knew he was not willing to put in that work anymore, but there were contracts to be honored and money to be made, for just a little while longer, and how much is reputation worth when looking at several score million dollars available down the pike. But the most surprising thing to me is that on some level Richard must have thought that the styles of Peter Knight and the OK Chorale were good, and that's why he hired them. But I really can"'t believe that the man that invented a new, modern, superb style of such stupendous easy listening music could believe those hacks were good, so it must have just been about making that money. Maybe not so surprising after all.

​@@TheLarryBrown How do you know this? I'd like to learn more about it.

Thats great to know! thanks for that =)

yup, sadly can't unsay it haha

But no strings?!

Richard, and I did back in 1970. I have a similar problem, my tongue is held down by skin. He became my hero as he got past it and had the #1 song in the country with his sister. It inspired me to not worry about it and deal with it. Surgery at the time wasn’t an option and I’ve lived with it all my life.

Hi Andy, surprised to see you here! 16-track recorders came out in 1968 (Ampex MM1000, I believe). I'm a lot less clear on when 24-track recorders came out, 1970 would surprise me. I'm counting 20 tracks here, but haven't worked out if they're just 16 tracks broken out into more. For instance, it looks like Karen's double and the clarinet could've shared a track.

@@stevefolta Sorry Steve, do I know you?

@@lundsweden You'd know it if you did, so you must be a different Andy Lund. Sorry for the confusion.