MD has to sit and compose at least 15 different tunes to satisfy the director.

The lyrics have to match the tune and the situation. After these two issues are solved - orchestration come into picture, has to hire musicians and sequence the score, book a studio, book singers (Dates are important),

The Recording day (often night) comes with pomp and galore, MDS goes round the studio explaining his score to musicians and explaining the placement etc. He wants his score to be recorded perfectly; the sound engineer has to cooperate with him.

Tune must be explained to the singer(s) along with BGM interludes, situation, pronunciation, feel etc. Each line is done at least 10 times to get the right one. It happens again with the musicians - it is not easy to obtain perfection in spite of the musician being a professional.

After all this! - Finally, the song is recorded. Next task is balancing. The fate of the song lies now in the hands of the sound engineer, (who often fails).

Balancing - Since all the instruments are recorded on separate tracks - their volume and other levels must be controlled, masalas like reverb, delay are added, panning is to done. If the Movie is on a DTS production - job becomes more difficult.

After all this, the album goes for tape/CD production - CD production is somewhat easy, except the cost. Tapes: The tape on which the work is duplicated must be good (which is often not), if not the entire work will end up in a mess.

After all this hard work!, he waits for the album release (worst part for an artist), his fate is in our (fans) hands. When we hear the tape, (which we buy or in most case we record it from someone.), We just utter a word on the album, which might be

1. Great

2. Ok

3. Waste

4. Copied

We are not aware how the production is done, how many work very hard for the

Srikanth

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Nirupama (@ mut-53-0617.direct.ca) on: Wed Sep 23 14:33:42 EDT 1998
  
  Thanks very much Srikanth for the story! It also amazes me to find out that although IR did not try out the tune in a keyboard or any other instrument, he seemed to have a clear idea of the final outcome. But I have to admit that nothing comes as a big surprise to me these days regarding IR. He is a very unique personality from this industry. How did he deal with his musicians & singers( in this case, Chitra)? Was he hard on them(any harsh words??) or was he quite patient with them? Was there any room for improvisations? I wish MSV and IR will consider collaborating once again in future. I think they have a great rapport because of the mutual respect they share for each other.
  
  Any more interesting stories, Srikanth? Anything involving other MDs like ARR or KR are also welcome.
  
  
• From: SR Kaushik (@ nova15.cs.wisc.edu) on: Wed Sep 23 16:08:30 EDT 1998
  
  
  
  This is regarding the recording I watched: it was of a Prashant starrer produced by Ashok Amritraj. I watched the
  recording of the orchestra, not the composition part. The score sheets were ready, photocopied and distributed to all the
  instrumentalists. The whole thing took around 6 hours, including the beat, the chords and the interludes. The difference
  nowadays is, I guess, that KR participates a lot more in the process. Hw was doing all the programming on a Macintosh
  PC. He made changes to the beat and some other minor changes. Even IR made some dynamic changes to some parts of
  the song. The main thing that impresses you is his concentration - he is totally into it and if someone calls him or
  something like that, he looks up startled. As for the song, I thought the tune was good but the chords were excellent.
  When all guys were ready, he began the final recording with the breaking of a coconut(I believe its common). The tune
  was played on the violin for the recrding. Late in the evening, Prashanth's father (a co-producer) visited the studio. I was
  overall struck by the atmosphere in the studio. Its highly musical and would inspire anyone to compose. Of course its
  technologically updated now.
  
  
• From: SR Kaushik (@ nova15.cs.wisc.edu) on: Wed Sep 23 16:10:29 EDT 1998
  
  BTW, the movie is yet to be released.
  
  
• From: balaji (@ schubert.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Wed Sep 23 16:22:19 EDT 1998
  
  the movie which kaushik is talking about is athisayam, i think.
  
  
• From: Srinivas (@ scproxy1.sc.intel.com) on: Wed Sep 23 16:23:26 EDT 1998
  
  
  Srikanth, Thanks for the amazing incident. This only goes to show how humble IR really is
  and how willingly he co-operated with MSV. Truly, the respect of one great artiste to
  another. Contrast this with ARR's attitude who stubbornly refuses to acknowledge IR, either
  musically or in his press statements! :-))
  
  Srinivas
  
  
• From: balaji (@ schubert.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Wed Sep 23 16:30:00 EDT 1998
  
  srinivas: this is not true. ARR has said that he was moved to tears by "ammavendrazhaikkaadha uyirillaiye" in mannan. he has also said that IR is his biggest idol along with RDB.
  probably he is changed now, i don't know. this was a couple of years back.
  
  
• From: Srinivas (@ scproxy1.sc.intel.com) on: Wed Sep 23 16:48:56 EDT 1998
  
  Balaji,
  I also remember an interview in which he said that he liked the national award winning song in Thevar Magan. But that was 4 years ago. In his most recent interviews, most of his praises go to either RDB or to NFAK. Again, he shows a lot of RDB influence in his songs. He has wroked with NFAK for Vande Matharam. But, he has always tried to be "different" from IR. So, I got the feeling that he is deliberately trying to push IR out of the market.
  
  Srinivas
  
  
• From: balaji (@ schubert.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Wed Sep 23 16:54:22 EDT 1998
  
  srinivas: this is because of the market ARR is in, and the people who are interviewing him. it is perfectly alright for him to praise RDB and NFAK in a bollywood magazine. i have noticed such ambivalence in several people's interviews in bollywood. but as i said earlier, ARR might have changed for the worse.
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Wed Sep 23 17:39:43 EDT 1998
  
  Just when I was getting to enjoy this thread for its unique, informative, non-partisan postings, here we go with the mudslinging. Does ARR vs. IR have anything to do with the topic? Absolutely not.
  
  
• From: Srinivas (@ scproxy1.sc.intel.com) on: Wed Sep 23 18:07:52 EDT 1998
  
  Udhaya,
  I must express my apologies for drgging ARR into the picture. :-))))
  Please ignore that part of the discussion as a digression.
  
  Srinivas
  
  
• From: A Fan (@ chcgb112-30.splitrock.net) on: Wed Sep 23 18:33:31 EDT 1998
  
  SRK, when were you at the studios? was it LV Prasada? Do they allow visitors/fans these days?
  
  How is IR's energy vibes?
  
  Please comment.
  
  
• From: Srikanth (@ slip-32-101-16-181.il.us.ibm.net) on: Wed Sep 23 21:32:58 EDT 1998
  
  Hi Guys,
  Basically if a singer wants to sing for Raja he or she must be capable to understanding swaras.
  Raja gives the swaras only - he sings only once or twice. In a Raja recording environment a strict silence is maintained. No one raises their voice, no unwanted chating, music gaints keep thier mouth shut. Raja mostly speaks in English, at times tamil pops up. He smiles when someone makes mistakes, this smile is nothing but "Vazapazathil Needle"...
  
  Once I remember MSV composed a rerecording piece and gave the notes to the keyboard player, who whisperd to me (his asst) - I have not played anything like this before, he kept on misssing the score - Msv was very polite with him and he did not scold or get upset with him. He gave him many more chances to complete the score.
  
  Best recording is working with ARR - he is young so he is more friendly. In the studio you will see ARR, singer, Director and Diamond - nobody else. I had a chance to see "July mantham vanthal song" sung by Anupama. Suresh Menon permitted me to see the recording. I sat next to ARR near the console. He is a bee. He mixes, balance, punches the exact position - he is a great alrounder. He takes atlest 20-30 times to make a line perfect. If the singer is not able to do it, he goes and plays the score on the keyboard, explains each and every part of the song.
  Makes sure she/he gets it.
  Also he uses these words while recording.
  --- Feel,more feel, control, beats gone,you voice sounds like mine - make it better, great, thats it. Mostly he uses English at times Tamil words comes out.
  
  Srikanth
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Anand Mahadevan (@ tnt01-abe-012.fast.net) on: Wed Sep 23 23:16:47 EDT 1998
  
  Srikanth,
  Does ARR write musical notations?More than anybody else I am more curious to know how ARR composes music.Does he layout melody and harmony patterns in stave notations and why does he take such a long time to compose a 3 min song.His output (quantitatively speaking) is low .
  Do U have any break up of composing time as opposed to mixing and digital mastering?
  
  
  
• From: N.C. Ramakrishna (@ spider-tj052.proxy.aol.com) on: Wed Sep 23 23:27:05 EDT 1998
  
  This thread has become an interesting one with lot of people giving lot of info which normally we are not aware.
  
  We have only discussed about how MD's get involved in BGM and film songs. Have anybody have an idea about heros and singers influencing MD's to produce a better song?
  
  I long back got a chance to hear Kamal Hassan interviewing IR in AIR. In that IR mentioned an incidence how kamal influenced IR to change a recorded song. That song was Sundari neeyum in Michael Madana Kama Raj which Kamal himself sang. We can see how many people getting involved to give the best?
  
  Any such similar stories?
  
  I agree before criticising a song we also should keep in mind the effort of people.
  
  
  
  
  
• From: N.C. Ramakrishna (@ spider-tj083.proxy.aol.com) on: Wed Sep 23 23:33:25 EDT 1998
  
  This thread has become an interesting one with lot of people giving lot of info which normally we are not aware.
  
  We have only discussed about how MD's get involved in BGM and film songs. Have anybody have an idea about heros and singers influencing MD's to produce a better song?
  
  I long back got a chance to hear Kamal Hassan interviewing IR in AIR. In that IR mentioned an incidence how kamal influenced IR to change a recorded song. That song was Sundari neeyum in Michael Madana Kama Raj which Kamal himself sang. We can see how many people getting involved to give the best?
  
  Any such similar stories?
  
  I agree before criticising a song we also should keep in mind the effort of people.
  
  
  
  
  
• From: N.C. Ramakrishna (@ spider-tj083.proxy.aol.com) on: Wed Sep 23 23:34:50 EDT 1998
  
  Sorry guys I double clicked so it posted twice
  
  

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