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: P.Lankathas (@ spc-isp-stc-uas-01-8.sprint.ca) on: Thu Nov 5 12:36:00 EST 1998
  
  THANKS SHANKAR . . . NICE TO HEAR THAT.
  
  P.Lankathas
  
  
• From: aruvi (@ spc-isp-tor-uas-74-51.sprint.ca) on: Thu Nov 5 17:26:39 EST 1998
  
  Thanks Lankathas for the info.
  
  
• From: aruvi (@ spc-isp-tor-uas-87-82.sprint.ca) on: Mon Nov 9 21:13:29 EST 1998
  
  In a SivaShankari book she had a chapter about Vani Jayaram. They are good friends. She said how she had gone to the studio once with VJ. She thought that the song was going to take a while to record but VJ finished it 45 minutes flat. So I would like to know about how the singers catch on to what they are taught. Some might have difficulties while others don't. From what I gather from the forum, SPB seems to be a breeze. What about the others?
  
  
  
  
• From: eelavan1@yahoo.com (@ spc-isp-stc-uas-01-42.sprint.ca) on: Tue Nov 10 02:58:35 EST 1998
  
  aruvi
  
  well that's a tough one to answer. I guess it all depends on the song structure and the MD expectation. Also the singers knowledge of the language must have a very active role in the song too. I heard that ARR takes the most time to do a song as he is interested in all the peoples input (by all the people I mean the lyrctist, the director, and the singer). On the other hand I heard that it's easy to sing in ARR song as there is no limits (because he usually doesn't do the music, or mix in the instrument before the singing part is done)
  
  any comments
  P.Lankathas
  
  
• From: aruvi (@ spc-isp-tor-uas-89-17.sprint.ca) on: Tue Nov 10 23:55:03 EST 1998
  
  Lankathas, thanks a lot for all your info. It was totally interesting. Thanks for all the other Df'ers who make the forum a great place to be.
  
  Now, I think that instead of asking all these questions, which by the way I never tire of asking, it is time for me to contribute those tiny ensy-binsy stories that I know.
  
  So says Chitra:
  " Gangai Amaran sir tells us our mistakes by teasing and being jolly and corrects them. But Raja sir kindly says, " Listen to how you have sang a few times and tell me what mistakes you have made. He has taught me a lot in this way.
  
  
• From: P.Lankathas (@ spc-isp-stc-uas-02-10.sprint.ca) on: Wed Nov 11 00:39:38 EST 1998
  
  wow interesting ..... thanks aruvi
  
  P.Lankathas
  
  
• From: Nirupama (@ mut-53-0718.direct.ca) on: Thu Nov 12 02:24:07 EST 1998
  
  Aruvi:
  Thanks for sharing that with us. I think IR's approach is the most efficient form of teaching. It's interesting to note that this is also the approach that's often followed in most North-American educational institutions as well.
  
  
• From: P.Lankathas (@ spc-isp-stc-uas-04-30.sprint.ca) on: Thu Nov 12 13:53:23 EST 1998
  
  Aurvi and Nirupama;
  
  I am sure that IR made Chitra a best singers, and she is open about it. We will not find that in all the other singers.
  
  what you think
  
  any comments
  P.Lankathas
  
  
• From: P.Lankathas (@ spc-isp-stc-uas-04-30.sprint.ca) on: Thu Nov 12 13:54:28 EST 1998
  
  sorry for the typo ....... I ment a BETTER singer .........
  
  P.Lankathas
  
  
• From: bala (@ 129.219.38.214) on: Fri Nov 13 21:14:54 EST 1998
  
  waavv.. i had given up on the forum business. but this thread is so interesting that i took lotsa time reading the entire thing from the first.
  
  the very line of thought is good - we just throw a cassette into the trash, saying its no good. but think of the effort that goes in. its like a PhD thesis ;-)
  
  srikanth, lankathas, that was a good 'behind-the scene' experience. i am jealous of u guys. how does one get to see these great people making music ? is having an inner contact a must ?
  
  i'd like to see IR's notebooks (doesnt he write his music in notebooks ?) and ARR's hi-funda instruments - mixers and synth and stuff like that. it seems he uses a software called 'Sonic Solutions'. i read in a music journal that he buys machine for audio quality control. if i remember right, its a Gauss machine.
  
  lankathas, srikanth, is the singer also aware of the situation in the movie ?
  
  keep up the good work, folks.
  
  bala
  
  
• From: P.Lankathas (@ spc-isp-stc-uas-01-7.sprint.ca) on: Sun Nov 15 22:53:06 EST 1998
  
  bala,
  
  thanks for your encouragement, but you have to remember that I never actually had any chances to see any recording live. My stories are basically from singers who happens to visit Canada for stage programs. Anurada SriRam is coming to Toronto next month hopefully more stories will come out of the conversation with her.
  
  P.Lankathas
  
  
• From: nTv (@ inet20.us.oracle.com) on: Wed Nov 18 18:29:51 EST 1998
  
  I was wondering if anyone has clues about the folowing:
  
  1. It is told that IR 'writes' music diretly in notational form. Then, how does the movie director get to decide on the tune before it actually goes for recording? Or is that the song excluding voices is recorded and and the Dir. selects? Similarly, how does the lyricist know the tune of the song before recording?
  
  2. IR being a gold medalist in Classical Guitar, has he ever played the instrument himself for any of his songs? Or, for that matter, any other instrument? Just curious!
  
  Thanks for your time.
  
  
• From: UV (@ webgate0.mot.com) on: Thu Nov 19 07:07:47 EST 1998
  
  i'm not sure about this......
  i heard raja played the acoustic guitar for sing a song... from vaLLi.Interestingly it's also one of the few songs of IR to have the same interlude before both the stanzas.
  
  Again, raja seems to have played the acoustic guitar for en iniya pon nilAvE and iLaya nilA, but somebody told me that he introduced a person as his AsthAna guitarist in one of the concerts abroad.
  
  
• From: dhan (@ dajal.legato.com) on: Thu Nov 19 14:27:38 EST 1998
  
  This should be known to most of you guys. For the paruvame song from Nenjathai Killaadhae, IR initially tried various instruments to duplicate the foot tapping jogging pattern but finally did without any instruments by just tapping his hand on his leg(I mean thodai) to produce authentic sound.
  
  In silver jubillee celebration of SPB, Gangai Amaran told the audience that IR was the lead guitarist for the song composed by GKV, I can't recollect the song he mentioned.
  
  
• From: IRFan (@ ) on: Wed Aug 4 10:43:07 EDT 2004
  
  IR's lead guitarist is Mr. Sadhanandhan who played for almost all his songs. IR has played for naanae naana, also ilayanila but version IR played was not released as it was too heavy.
  
  
• From: Mythila (@ 161.114.64.73) on: Fri Aug 6 05:20:12 EDT 2004
  
  dhan, the song you are mentioning is "thoduvathenna thenralo malargalo" - It was told by SPB and also recently by SPBCharan in the raagamaalika program.
  well, u are getting a reply after 6 long years
  :)
  
  

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