Home   Forum   Wiki   Notes   Register   FAQ   Sitemap   About Us   Contact Us  

IR - SOME SAYS HE'S NOT A GOOD SOUND ENGINEER

Topic started by dvd (@ 161.142.100.85) on Thu Feb 22 22:47:43 EST 2001.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

HI! I am HCF of IR. I am a fan of ARR too.
Comparing both of these great fames, some claims that even though IR is far more superior in terms of music writing, all classical items (Western or Indian), ragas, melody etc., IR lacks in sound engineering aspects.

ARR, in contrast, produces music of superb sound quality (I think no one denies this fact).

My question here is, how good (or bad rather) is IR in terms of sound quality management and engineering (SQME). Would like people with deep techno-acoustic knowlegde to share their precious views in this thread. Which is more crucial, rhytm or sound quality? What happens if both of them meet?

---

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: rjay (@ 206.150.228.62) on: Wed Feb 28 15:34:22 EST 2001
  
  Chandrasekaran came to this pages once sometime last year and posted a few things and after that
  I have not seen him here.
  
  I had requested him to listen to my compositions and he was kind enough to take time and give me some good feedback.
  
  He played a vital role in recording scores of Hey Ram in Hungary. I guess Raajangahm team will be in touch with him.
  
  rjay
  
  
• From: pg (@ 12.20.190.1) on: Wed Feb 28 15:45:25 EST 2001
  
  Eric Clapton's last album Pilgrim was HEAVY synth stuff.
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 209.187.151.146) on: Thu Mar 1 09:22:10 EST 2001
  
  kiru:
  
  I didn't miss your humour:)) But missed to ask you what Nyquist means?
  
  
• From: kiru (@ 192.138.149.4) on: Thu Mar 1 10:39:45 EST 2001
  
  Analog..may be you are not an electrical engineer. Harry Nyquist is like the father of Information Theory. His eponymous theorem states that in order for a signal to be reconstructed it should be sampled atleast twice the original frequency. (for eg. a 4KHz signal should be sampled at 8Khz, since we hear upto 20KHz, A CD has samples made at 44.1KHz). So since you do not like digital I made that comment.
  BTW, in case of any doubt people should just go to www.brittanica.com I swear by it.
  (yeah, pg is right. I was referring to Pilgrim. Other example is Santana's supernatural).
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 209.187.151.146) on: Thu Mar 1 12:23:07 EST 2001
  
  kiru:
  
  Thanks for the info.
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 209.187.151.146) on: Fri Mar 2 10:53:55 EST 2001
  
  kiru:
  
  Digression:
  I am interested in Indie films. Yesterday I watched "You can cound on me". I found couple of interesting things in the title card. There is a guy listed under Music Editor. Do we have such editors in TF too? If yes, what do they do exactly? Another interesting thing is they have used the instrument "Oboe" for the background score. I read some time back IR used Oboe played by some white female. God only knows what happened to that album.
  
  
• From: comment (@ 63.226.194.39) on: Fri Mar 2 11:26:28 EST 2001
  
  many ir songs have oboe scores., he has used it well in many bgm scores.
  
  btw:
  God only knows what happened to that album.
  now i see why people call IR god..:)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: doubter (@ 208.142.210.36) on: Fri Mar 2 11:38:51 EST 2001
  
  A wind instrument is played in the prelude and second interlude of 'magaraajanOdu raaNi vanthu' (sathi leelavathy). Is that oboe?
  
  
• From: Fliflo (@ 146.186.113.254) on: Fri Mar 2 11:44:00 EST 2001
  
  Analog; I correct your statement. She is a japanese girl performing for "Pandavas" BGM. Pandavas movie is probably out and there were lots of articles on describing the BGM. "Comment"ing prematurely, without knowing the exact information is unhelpable. Some orchestrate that!
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 209.187.151.146) on: Fri Mar 2 11:44:23 EST 2001
  
  comment:
  
  many ir songs have oboe scores
  
  If IR used it so often, then why such a big deal about using it in that album? Am I missing something here or what? I believe it's one of the oldest instruments and specially used for that
  album.
  
  
• From: Fliflo (@ 146.186.113.254) on: Fri Mar 2 11:46:46 EST 2001
  
  You guys read this additional information;
  
  http://www.raajangahm.com/news.html#
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 209.187.151.146) on: Fri Mar 2 11:49:05 EST 2001
  
  Fliflo:
  
  You're correct. Just now I checked "rAjAngham". It's used for Pandavas.
  
  
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 209.187.151.146) on: Fri Mar 2 11:51:42 EST 2001
  
  I confused myself with this "Oboe girl" article & his patriotic album article came in AV. Thanks, Fliflo.
  
  
  
• From: UV (@ 134.113.203.137) on: Fri Mar 2 12:01:00 EST 2001
  
  Guys
  Any website that has sound samples for BGM score of Pandavas
  
  
• From: comment (@ 63.226.194.39) on: Fri Mar 2 12:13:07 EST 2001
  
  analog, ir has used oboe before,
  this time it was played one of the best oboe player in the world. thats all about it.
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 209.187.151.146) on: Fri Mar 2 12:23:29 EST 2001
  
  comment:
  
  Got it, thanks.
  
  
• From: pAmaran (@ 207.188.29.249) on: Fri Mar 2 13:39:43 EST 2001
  
  UV
  u can goto www.pandavas.com
  
  
• From: Fliflo (@ 146.186.113.254) on: Fri Mar 2 14:41:24 EST 2001
  
  Read this info. on Pandavas
  
  http://news.123india.com/full/24012001/topstories/ani/010124051234rsurx7uf1t.html
  
  
• From: Analog (@ ) on: Fri Apr 20 11:14:46 EDT 2001
  
  Yesterday I was listening to 'Guru' (malayalam) songs. The recording is not up to the level. It lacks the punch. But Chitra's song 'minnAram' is an exception. It has synth(?) bass in the pallavi and, comes and goes in charanams. It is beautifully done.
  
  
• From: peeps (@ 203.200.15.20) on: Wed Apr 25 10:54:53 EDT 2001
  
  Analog,
  Was "minnaram" sung by chitra...??I think its by Sujatha..
  
  
• From: Philosopher (@ 12.29.192.65) on: Wed Apr 25 11:24:09 EDT 2001
  
  Peeps & Analog:
  Minnaram is definitely Chitra.
  I have Guru CD and have been impressed with the sound quality. When I listen to the MG Sreekumar song, I feel bells falling out of the speaker literally. Excepy for Yesudos's age showing in one of the songs, I think the sound quality is very good.
  
  
• From: Philosopher (@ 12.29.192.65) on: Wed Apr 25 11:41:15 EDT 2001
  
  I think doing TFM is like implementing a software project. The sound quality and many other quality aspects including singers, etc, depends on budgets.
  
  I think IR has worked with varying budgets and never said No to a movie based on budgets for sound, orchestration budgets, etc. - which is why you see a very big range in recording quality - but all high budget movies and movies by top directors and producers have had excellent sound at the time. With the amount of creativity he has, it would have been a loss for us if he had said " I will only do movies with so much of a budget for sound and orchestration". I cannot think of a Manirathnam movie or Bharathiraja or Balachander movie where sound quality is poor.
  
  ARR on the other hand is someone who definitely is telented but not as much continuous flow of creativity as IR. His strengths are in packaging and presentation - he makes sure he only picks projects that would allow enough budgets for the best sound quality and orchestration. That is why almost all his TFM work is of good sound quality. I can't think of any low budget ARR movies!
  
  But often people fail to appreciate IR's role in improving sound and orchestration quality overall from where things were in TFM when he started. It is just that technology is always going to move forward and with time newer composers are going to only improve sound quality.
  
  It would definitely be a great project if someone were to take up remastering all IR's old TFMs.
  
  
• From: Kannan (@ 209.185.189.241) on: Wed Apr 25 12:04:01 EDT 2001
  
  Philosopher:
  Minnaram is sung by Sujatha and not Chithra. Please listen to the song again and comment here.
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 12.105.88.34) on: Wed Apr 25 12:36:48 EDT 2001
  
  Philosopher:
  
  I got disappointed little bit about the recording of Guru. That album should have been recorded well. It has more 'Treble' tone than 'Bass'. Basically they are not balanced well. It doesn't have the punch to bring out the richness of the music, IMO.
  
  
• From: UVII (@ 63.224.65.186) on: Wed Apr 25 13:22:26 EDT 2001
  
  Analog,
  Convert yourself to Digital man...listen to ARR, YSR :-))
  
  
• From: Philosopher (@ 12.29.192.65) on: Wed Apr 25 14:06:55 EDT 2001
  
  Analog:
  
  I will check it out - I remember seeing the movie credits and also on the CD that it was Chitra. I will check again and also listen to the song and get back to you
  
  
• From: kiru (@ 192.138.149.4) on: Wed Apr 25 14:23:33 EDT 2001
  
  Analog, whats your stereo like ? Guru is one of the best recordings in IFM. if the recording sounds hot, it is probably because of a bad tweeter in your setup. The bass is also but you need really good speakers (read full range). I use 'Guru' as a demo CD to show off my stereo.
  
  BTW, Philosopher is absolutely right about IR, budget, recording. If you give IR a big budget, not only the recording will be good, even the music is better because he gets so thrilled about the project and the music starts flowing :) I have never seen anybody who loves their profession like IR. He is really a role model for any professional.
  
  
• From: comment (@ 12.5.10.153) on: Wed Apr 25 14:54:27 EDT 2001
  
  He is really a role model for any professional.,
  
  -- it this is true, all directors and producers would have stayed with him,. :)
  
  Guru recording is just ok, not so great.
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 12.105.88.34) on: Wed Apr 25 15:06:55 EDT 2001
  
  kiru:
  
  Here is my system:
  
  Cambridge Audio A500 Int Amp
  Cambridge Audio D500 SE Player
  PSB Image 4Ts
  MIT 2 Speaker cables and SilverAudio Supersilver interconnects
  
  I guess you would know who I am now ;)
  
  
• From: kiru (@ 192.138.149.4) on: Wed Apr 25 17:57:21 EDT 2001
  
  ha..you never told me that you bought them already. Okay..I will not blow your cover :) You made a good decision on those interconnects. hmm..4T goes down to 38Hz ..should be okay..Its is quite likely your system is on the 'hot' side. MITs are known for making things 'thin' this could be one reason. The bass may be little less ..it is a very subjective thing but the recording is not harsh at all. So try some other speaker cables or better hopefully yet your system is not 'broken' in. Send me an email. (BTW, I sold my main speakers and using a PSB 400 right now.I will listen at home again and refresh my memory).
  
  
• From: edakkan (@ 63.253.6.134) on: Wed Apr 25 19:35:58 EDT 2001
  
  IR-Some says that he is not a good sound engineer
  Who is Some ?
  
  
• From: Analog (@ 12.105.88.34) on: Thu Apr 26 09:09:46 EDT 2001
  
  Kannan:
  
  Yeah, Minnaram is by Sujatha. I was wrong in my posting.
  
  Kiru:
  
  I will send you email sometime later today. I like albums from Pyramid. They are in good quality compared to the ones from Oriental. Take 'chemparuththi, singAravElan, marupadiyum, dEvar magan, veera', combos of these are quite good. 'chinna gounder' is also part of the combo, but does not sound good, don't know why. I also like 'anjali and agni natchatram' from Oriental. Yesterday I was listening to Marupadiyum and Guru. IMO, Marupadiyum sounds better. Albums from Thomsun always have more treble tone than Bass.
  
  

---

List all pages of this thread

---

Back to the Forum

Post comments