Musings & Music

tempostand

2010-05-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

It was few years back when I stumbled a web page on my way to finding some place to promote my music. I really don't remember what was it. As a matter of fact, I was not so clear what Indie Music really was(in India).

From that article, I could not recall more than few names like tempostand, muziboo and RadioVeRe as far as the Indian portals concern. Another few places I stumbled were amiestreet, myband, sellaband and few more portals that I don't remember. (People know me know well that I am bad with names and numbers)

I should tell you what was I doing till that point of time.

I was composing few pieces of music. My family and friends were my audience, if not fans. I must have troubled people with my music as I realize now that I did not know how to structure a composition, how to shift thru smooth transitions, what was unity in variety. (And don't ask me how much I know these days)

Most importantly, I did not know ABCs of sound engineering.

It took few years of (lunatic) effort to come out with pieces of music with some good shape.

If you ask me what takes great effort to produce, on the part of a composer, I would say it's 'Carnatic'. It is really easy and enjoyoable when it comes for stage concerts and not in studios.

I ventured a track of Carnatic composition, and surprisingly, it turned into a good track. It was my first song I parked somewhere.

Let me back...I did pick http://tempostand.com from the list(not on random basis).
What impressed me is what I read on their page

Are you just another COVER Artist ?
If yes, Please Don’t read further!!

I called them and I remember I spoke to Gaurav Dobhal, one among the guys behind tempostand. He asked me to send a mail with my profile, and about my music production. And then, again, I remember he said the song I sent was good as some of his friend said :)

I started sending songs to tempostand. For some time, tempostand was the only place I hosted my songs. I did enjoy(ed) parking songs at tempostand and made few good friends too.

tempostand came out with an idea of 'tempostore', thru which an artist could sell his or her music. I don't know what reality stopped them from proceeding. It was an interesting idea.

As time passed, I could understand how the industry works and I started distributing my music to e-stores. Few of my friends use to ask why am I distributing music to e-stores as well as parking them at places where free downloads are possible.

I really don't have an answer. The objective is to reach people by some means.

A Swedish Indie label contacted me and said they are interested in signing a contract as they like my music. I must say I felt happy, irrespective of the decision I was about to take. Then I signed. Became a member of Swedish Performance Rights Society STIM (http://stim.se)

I abhor writing here why I did not become a member of Indian Performance Rights Society IPRS (http://iprs.org)

The songs I produce for the label are exclusive, I can not distribute them thru other means. Can't park them on tempostand. Every other composition of mine is available on tempostand till today.

I have been asked for video tracks as the they have got some air time in some American TV. I am yet to produce one :)

Now, ask me what is special with tempostand and why am I writing all these.

Making music is almost my habit and I was sending songs to tempostand alone. One day I found things lack meaning. I asked Gavrav "Why don't you people do something to motivate an artist like me to produce more music?" He said "Making music itself is motivating, as an artist learns from every composition. Isn't it?" (I don't know whether Gavrav remembers this or not!)

Yes it is Gavrav! And it was!!

Legend of the Grand Piper

2010-02-16T10:21:00.000-08:00

Genre: World (Celtic)

Hometown: Pengilly, Minnesota

What do they say about them?

The sound of Irish pipes is described by the Celts as so sweet and intoxicating that in the hands of a true piper will almost certainly cause you to drift off endlessly with your thoughts. Or as the traditionalist say “you will see with your ears”. Modern legend has it that their power is so great, those unique sounds will ward off any demons. But the ancients told of another legend, all but lost in great passages of time. There is an order of piper called "Grand Pipers", they are the saviors of the lost souls that are trapped in the nether world, caught between heaven and earth. Unable to cross over because at the moment of death, their souls captured by demons were cast into the nether regions where there is no light, only great darkness. Only a Grand Piper can find these regions. His pipes, the only thing the lost can hear. Drawn to the sound of his melodies they emerge from the darkness in a great purge, seeking their way to the celestial heavens. These Grand Pipers are the enemy of fallen angels. Angels that have fallen from the grace of God, whose only purpose is to destroy their enemy. It is said when a Piper is slain, and his heart stops beating, a great storm will approach unleashing torrents of water to surround the lifeless body, protecting the soul from approaching demons for they cannot cross the water. As the heavens open up, angels come forth to guide the Piper’s soul home. When other Pipers learn of their fallen brother, they play a lament so sad it is said to make angels weep. One final note, a Grand Piper is born a Grand Piper. His life is in danger from the moment he takes his first breath, and for some even before that... My music tells this story.

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Artists at iLike

Alathur Srinivasa Iyer, Lalgudi Jayaraman, Palghat Mani Iyer

2009-12-25T01:09:00.001-08:00

Chillpill - Podcast

2009-09-06T04:59:00.000-07:00

Band Chillpill

Genre : Alternative Rock

Hometown : Bratislava, Slovakia

What do the band say about them?

Chillpill is a project which started in summer 2006 and still continues . The aim of the project was never been to release a cd. It was supposed to be recording of a few alternative tracks A few tracks became twenty tracks and a one time only recording became a whole project. Right now it is cooperation of a composer, arranger, and a multi instrumentalist Andrej Seban and a music recording company Silver Pot.

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Noise and Music

2009-08-16T11:52:00.001-07:00

Noise /Sound and Music

Well, how do we differentiate a music and sound. Here, we are not very clear. First, we have to define what do we mean by music and what is noise or sound.

As naturally we don’t have any particular scope and interest into acoustics as subject matter here, let us assume ‘Noise Vs Music’. Now our problem is partially solved. Yet we have to define what music is? Let me call it as ‘musical note’.

Musical Note

Musical note is what produced when you touch a key of a piano. So essentially, musical note is a single sound that has a clear beginning and end, in terms of duration of time.

Basically a musical note is something that could be defined. Just recall the book example we used earlier. A musical note could be defined. A noise could not be defined.

So, what we mean here a ‘definition’? If we are able to define something, we must be able to describe it. Once you have a definition, you are able to reproduce that. That is why a musical note is always reproduced, whereas it is almost impossible to reproduce a noise, exactly it appeared earlier.

So, noise has a random, varying, unpredictable characteristics, whereas musical note is clearly defined in every aspect. This is the scientific definition of noise and music.

If somebody’s music seems to be noise or sound to your ears, then it is not scientific, it is cultural and psychological. A noise and a musical note are two extreme examples, there are gradient prevails in musical habits across the globe, considering geography. Sure we will discuss them. Not now J

Fundamental Frequency

As we discussed earlier, a musical note has a frequency and wavelength. Frequency of the note determines key role in defining the note. Musical notes are defined with using conventions in different countries. All agree with the natural law of sound.

What is a musical note exactly? A sound has certain frequency?

As we saw, a musical note is a sound, a wave. The wave has a particular frequency.

So a musical note has frequency, not only single wave of certain frequency, it has many waves, a bunch of waves of certain frequency. Here, we don’t discuss partial, inharmonic and overtone for now J

For more scientific definitions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music)

Harmonics

Harmonics are frequencies that exist in a musical note they are multiples of fundamental frequency. I feel it is enough of acoustics. Feel free to drop me your questions if you need to discuss something in deetail

Garritan and Swarsystems

2009-08-14T03:40:00.000-07:00

I am having been a user of Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO 3). Now Garritan has released GPO4.

Earlier version uses Kontakt player where in newer version ARIA player is used and let us not discuss much of those technologies as they are already abundantly available in web. Give a Google or visit KVR audio

When I purchased the pack, it was $200 that is the GPO 3. Now, GPO 4 is $150 for new purchase and for me it took $50 to upgrade it. One of my friends had asked whether the upgrade is worth of $50 when it comes for some additional string and brass samples. But it was not the question which bothered me. I do have my own problems.

I was an active participant of Garritan community some time back. Garry has assured there would be an option is newer version to control “tremolo” of strings which was not available that time.

Now, I understand there is neither a provision nor I did understand what a ‘tremolo’ was.

I often can not distinguish and fail to get a scientific definition for tremolo and vibrato. What I understand is, tremolo is subsequent pitch bend created by fingering and Vibrato is kind of producing the same effect by varying intensity of sound in blowing instruments, a layman understanding.

"Vibrato is a periodic variation in the frequencies of a musical note, whereas tremolo usually refers to periodic variations in amplitude"

In Hindustani and Carnatic, a tremolo or vibrato does not exist. In Indian music, we can generally call them as pitch bends. If you need more idea, there are 15 prominent such pitch-bending styles in Carnatic.

When I think of these things, it becomes irresistible that I have to mention swarsystems, with the products of which company, I am really happy with. Check http://www.swarsystems.com/ if your are a musician, I promise you will be not disappointed.

Swarsystems develops products exclusive for Indian music. World music lovers would love a product Swarplug, check their site for various flavor of products. All are Indian and Asian.

If you compare this to western notation programs like Finale or Sibelius, it is wrong. Because, there is a great difference that exists between Indian and Western convention of musical notes and this is only my own opinion.

So Mariano, CEO of Swarsystem and Ranjan Sharma his Indian counterpart have more challenges to deal with. Let us not go much into that distinct area. It was memorable when I had a collaborative work with them, during the development of their recent edition of a product SwarShala Pro.

Kindly note that this product SwarShala is only useful to Hindustani/Carnatic musicians, those who know how to write and read Indian musical score.

I would like to share an audio and video that I would like to dedicate and to show my love for Swarsystem products. Yes it is one of the popular myth people always love listening songs in videos, so I created one with slides.

I would like to register three things that are not too ugly.

1. Mariano, a Westerner, runs Swarsystems and develops products for Indian music; my Indian friends who were in University with me are with American companies and would say “A dollar worth nearly forty rupees not otherwise”. Let us not speak socio-politico-economics.

2. Our artists believe if a product is not being sold for $500, then it must not be good, huh.

My friend said

“Use Cubase man! It gives great sound”

“What is a great sound? Define in terms of acoustics”

“………………….”

“That is an illusion” I said

3. India and China are known for piracy, if not entire world is. Let us forget this. Musicians, they dump their computers with minimum of five DAWs they do not require. (Consider purchase if you it professionally at the least) They do this for the reason that they could easily steal. Sorry, I am a software engineer, and entrepreneur too, I prefer calling piracy as stealing.

Audio (Uses both Garritan and Swarsystem)

http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/1730425

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hd4eg8ZTyU

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are of my own and not intend to harm anything or anybody personally; I have no direct or/and indirect association with the companies discussed in this blog, till the time of writing this article, if you decide to buy or decide not to buy any such product, take your own decision

What This Blog About

2009-08-08T09:47:00.001-07:00

Anything about music

Kamran - Music Composer, from Garage

2009-08-08T02:48:00.000-07:00

Syed Kamran is a music composer from Hyderabad, India, 4th Grade Piano from Tinity college of music, London, working as an asst. to a music director whom he does not wish to disclose.

Ok, in his own words,

I am a Hyderabadi learning my piano Grade 4 from Trinity college of Music London. and learning my Hindustani classical music from Govt. Music college in Hyderabad working as an assistant music composer for one of the best musicians in south India "SORRY CANT TAKE HIS NAME OUT" I do keyboard programming , listen from progressive trance to classical. I think this is what I can say about myself and let my music speak the rest...

Kamran is a nice to guy to be with, and I have never seen him blowing his own trumpet.

He composes and produces electronica, Hindi Pop, songs in Hindi and in Telugu. And his list of genres would include Trance, Progressive and New Age too, it seems.

This is one of his songs on my own choice

via tempostand.com

To check his bio and complete discography, visit http://www.tempostand.com/author/kamran/

Tell us something about your music

"I am a keyboard programmer and my music is mostly electronic"

I guess you mean, electronic, MIDI kind of music production by calling 'Keyboard programming' right?

"You are right"

What influences your music and what are the genres you work on?

"I like listening almost every Genre as it gives me lot of exposure and my compositions mostly get influence by Western Classical"

Who are the western composers you like?
"Mozart, Beethoven and J S Bach"

What is your opinion about Indie music in India?

Indie music needs a lot of encouragement in India, I am sure we all can change things one fine day"

Which place you prefer to park your compositions, or where people can find you?
"at tempostand"

Only on tempstand?
"Yes, only on tempostand"

What is your opinion about tempostand, as an artist?
"It is a nice platform for upcoming Indian artists and yes every Indie artist needs proper reviews on their work. I think the comments on my songs on tempostand had helped me a lot about what people like "

Besides tempostand, where you park your music?
"Nowhere else, only at tempostand "

Why only on tempstand Kamran?
"There are many music portals, but slow, steady and sustainable development in every aspect of the website makes tempostand special for me"

How tempostand helps you do you think?
"People park Pop on day one, psychedelic on day 2, rock or a doom song on day 3; somebody parks a Carnatic instrumental. tempostand has variety of artists doing displaying their own stuff in their own way.

Being an underground musician, it helps me learning much by listening and interacting with fellow musicians. This helps my personal improvement.

Who is your favorite musician and why?
"My favorite musician is AR Rahman, I like him because of his simplicity and creativity"
__

Kamran seems to be positive and reasonable, we would anticipate meeting more artists from Garage.

AlexanderPort

2009-08-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Genre : World (Classical, Ambient)
Hometown : Lier, Belgium

What the Band/Artist says about

"I have always been composing music on my accordion. Since I discovered the computer with lots of instruments and sounds I just enjoy myself, on my keyboard, finding sounds, melodies and rhythms, trying to make something good out of it and to be original at the same time. Please listen to the result."

I have reviewed his songs. He is an artist having a musicianship that has multi cultural influence, world fusion. I wish he could giveaway more songs for podcast, as I usually never contact an artist before I blog his or her podcast, I did not check it.

Here is a podcast, in my personal opinion, not a rocking song when it comes for his entire collection.

Here is an EDIT

After this blog has been published, he has added more sweet tracks to the podcast, I strongly recommend to check it again.

In his own words, in his communication he writes

"You are completely right. "Highway party" is not a song to get to know my music. It is an older one and in the time in between I moved more in the direction of World and World Fusion.

I follow your advice and made the songs of which I think are the best, downloadable so now they will play in my podcast."

{This is edited on Aug 9th}

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May be you are interested to check his work on iLike.

Find more songs by AlexanderPort at iLike

Indie Music in India - Excerpt from my letter

2009-08-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

"......

If the concept of Indie music in most parts of Asia (I don't think so), the subject matter could be considered India.

Being an artist from India, I have something to record I believe.

As a matter of fact, there is no such an Indie music evolution historically, as like as it happened in US and Europe.

Music in India could be easily identified into very few categories. Traditional music, Film music and Folk music.

Traditional India music includes two major classical schools, Carnatic and Hindustani which represents Southern and Northern part of India, respectively.

Film music is what films usually have 30 to 35 songs (really) in early days, they were based on traditional music of India and people started calling them as “Lithe Music” as they were lighter than traditional music.

Very difference of this kind of music from Jazz like counter parts are, these music involves vocal as back bone and there is no such an artist who hangs around with his guitar. He could be only an accompanying artist , like a drummer.

Indian folk music could be considered just like “roots” music and they does not have the support and exposure that really deserves. Say an A&R could find artists like who they appear on http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/

Present scenario of Indian music has not much changed, except the fact that a new generation of Indie Artists have evolved. Problem with this category in my opinion as follows

They just “mimic” western / US bands which is unlikely to be successful in most of the cases to an American ear; they just lack nativity. I understand there are two main reasons for this kind of behavior

One, traditional Indian music would easily take 10 to 15 years of in school learning, what people abhor always in this fast paced world.

Second thing, they equate western music = modern music, and pathetically, most of them really don’t know what different genres represents what to an American. I saw an Indian portal for Indie artists, which lists all genres an American portal suppose to list. They say it is a place for Indian musicians and they really don’t know what they mean. They clearly starts from “Acapella”, which would make an American happy to park his or her music, which is not the purpose of the portal and any American artist I guess.

Here, either hell a lot of confusions exist, or I perceive so.

//i have listened to your music alot and think its fantastic, a refreshing change from what is usually on my playlist.//

This is what Fredrik wrote in his welcome post. It does not mean that Fredrik is going to play with a Sitar. In case our so called category of India artists, this won’t be the case. What if Fredrik wants to play Sitar or wants to write notes for Sitar? I would really enjoy that. I guess his scores would be most probably suits a guitar. Here I am not addressing Fredrik personally, say an example. I guess I make my point clear here.

......"

What is Sound?

2009-07-31T01:07:00.000-07:00

Though I want to move to the topic of ‘musical note’, which is the very start of subject matter, I realize we can not go ahead with no discussion on few fundamental physical properties of sound.

Consider a simple example of books on a shelf. You want to read a book, you ask your friend to bring it from the book shelf. Now it is your responsibility to tell your friend which book you are looking for.

You have some descriptions:

“The book that has black cover”
“The Oxford dictionary”
“The Oxford press dictionary, latest edition”

Likewise, you can name the author, title of the book, location of the book; it all depends. What your friend could understand about. Here what property of the book you use to describe is that all matters. Same way, sound has certain properties to describe it. Not every book in a library is similar, the same goes with sounds.

Fundamental properties

I suggest having a glance at the last pictureof previous chapter.

On left what we see is tuning fork which is used to produce sound waves in basic physics experiments. As we discussed earlier, sound waves are the waves which propagates forth and back way. So in the picture we see vertical lines, the distance between the vertical lines vary to show the compressed and the uncompressed areas of the medium. Let us not dig into this much.

Unfortunately we don’t have a video here, but I promise to look into that.

Assume that the vertical lines are constantly producing the tuning fork and move forth. So we have a stream of vertical lines as the picture describes. Let us now call the “vertical lines” as wave particles for convenience.

So we have a stream of wave particles that flows from the source (in our case the tuning fork). You compare this to a water stream from a water source. When there is stream of wave particles that move in air (medium), being disturbed by vibration of sound source. This disturbance is represented by compressed (tight) and uncompressed area of the stream. It is exactly what happens when our Chennai city bus driver hits the break when and where he wishes.

Frequency

Frequency is the number of times the sound source moves back and forth (vibrates). If our bus driver hits his break four times in a second (no harm, let us imagine), frequency is four.

In our illustration, the number of times the compression of wave particles created in the stream, the number of compressed (tight, dark) areas represents frequency of the sound the tuning fork generates.

Wave Length

In our illustration the wave length is shown, click to enlarge the picture. The wave length is the distance between mid points of two consecutive compressed areas. Sorry but the way of scientific definition.

The Relation between Frequency and Wave Length

The relation is quiet simple that Physics assures that speed of sound waves in air is not changed generally. If we multiply two numeric values, Frequency and Wave Length we get speed of the sound wave. As the speed reminds constant under normal conditions, one can logically understand a frequency increases, wave length decreases and vice versa.

If you like above paragraph or not, please try to get an idea of this relation between frequency and wave length as we are going to discuss many interesting, fascinating, amusing aspects of music, using this basic properties of sound.

Frequency of the sound determines shrillness of sound. A frequency increases we reach higher pitch tones. A Cello produces sound that is thicker in tone than the sound of Violin. This is because the sound produced by Cello has lower frequency and a Violin is capable of producing higher frequencies.

Check the following sound samples of a Cello and Violin, both are very similar in every aspect except the size.

Cello

Cello violin-Cello by gsalvadi

Violin

Cello violin-Violin by gsalvadi

If you consider double bass it is capable of producing sound that has frequency lower than of a Cello, in other words, sound that has longer wave length than of a Cello.

Double Bass

Cello

Violin

A child’s cry has higher frequency than a female voice; a female voice has higher frequency that male voice.

Crying Child

A Lady

Man

In next episode, we will discuss how music is different from noise.

Unpainted Souls

2009-07-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Band

"Unpainted Souls – (the internet band that never was) is widely known throughout the inner recesses of the band creators mind, Billy Whiting. Having never played with the likes of Sting, Chris Isaac, John Michel Talbit, Petra, The Kingston Trio, VOL, Johnny Mathis, and Bob Dylan he now offers the wider world an opportunity to hear the sounds from within and without. The cataloged of Unpainted Souls #1 hit songs you never heard before include such obscure titles as, “Tangerine (From ‘The Return of the Lounge Lizard’”, “Something in Spanish”, and “Not Alone”. So, come on and listen to this strange blind of World Rock Fusion Worship (with a bent towards Classical). You just might regret it."

PodCast

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Sound of Music

2009-07-24T10:01:00.001-07:00

Sound

Sound is what we hear; we know what a sound is.
When it comes from defining sound, let us go into basics of Physics, a little.
Sound is basically a ‘form of energy’. That is why, a huge sound, say a bomb blast could throw things around.

Next question is, how energy could become a sound?
Energy could be a sound or not (could be light, for an example), but these different forms of energy propagation has great difference in scientific properties, which are obviously beyond the scope of this writing. But basically we have to understand, why and when energy could become a sound.

Right; when we speak of sound, we should speak of a ‘sound source’. Sound source is a matter which produces propagation of energy. Imagine a steel string; when it vibrates, it produces sound. This is an every day example.
So what is a vibration? We know what a vibration is. If a body moves back and forth, we say it vibrates. When a body vibrates, it disturbs the medium around it.
Now, imagine a man swims in a swimming pool. His hands could be considered as a vibrating object, and motion of his hand could be considered as vibration, (though it is not exactly a vibration as the motion is not rapid). Motion of hands creates waves in water. These waves could be compared to what we mean disturbance. And the water is the medium.

In case of a vibrating string, air is the medium.

Picking a Guitar String

Let us consider picking a Guitar string. When you pick a string of Guitar, it vibrates. Vibration of the string creates disturbance in air, the medium. The disturbance is represented by wave transition in air.

Bowing a Violin

When we bow a violin, the string vibrates both the sides. Vibration of the string is higher in the direction of bow.

Beating a Drum

When a drum kit is hit; again we generate vibration
Propagation of waves

Now, let us define few things. The body which vibrates is the sound source; vibration disturbs the surrounding, say air, is the medium
A medium could be air; water anything sound could be passed through by the form of waves.

A medium is considered full of invisible, tiny particles. When the vibration disturbs the medium, the particles move according to the vibration. This movement of particles creates a wave. This wave travels. So, to get a wave travelled, we need a medium that contains particles. That is why in vacuum, sound doesn’t get passed. In metals, sound wave passes in higher speed when compared to in air. That is why if lie down you could hear the sound of train in the track.

Waves

Now we are clear that sound passes thru a medium in the form of waves. And, the waves are nothing but the systematic movement of tiny particles of medium. Direction of movement of particles determines the type of wave. Particles could move back and forth or up and down.

So we get two basic types of waves. Wave that travels back and forth is the way the sound passes and let us not go much technical from here.

OK. We are going to touch acoustic physics when and where it is required. Now we have covered the basics of sound wave for completeness and with out which the proposed series would not be complete.

Sound of Music
A good old movie? 
Music is essentially a sound but not every sound is music;
How music is defined? What is noise and what is music? We are going to deal this in next episode.

On Music

2009-07-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

I often think of writing on music, but every time, I would postpone it for the reason that I could be a perfectionist!

"OK. This is your studio; what about tunes?"

"He is a great man that he is able write musical notes"

"He is a genius that he compose tunes in few minutes"

"He is just a techno-guy"

"What the hell is on earth the sound engineering, mixing, mastering?..."

"I don't know Classical music, so I can not listen"

Oh! I have encountered hell a lot of questions.

Nobody asked few questions, without which things can not be explored. For an example, what is the difference between noise and a musical note; why two different instruments sound differently;

Last but not the least, how and why a type of music is associated with culture; the questions are endless, and I would love to speak about what I know

Now ask me, what qualification I do have to write this; Kindly allow me to blow my own trumpet for a while, the way the world is.

Nothing. Nothing that I have been with music for two decades, I am a physics graduate basically; musical physics is one of the subjects of interest. I am an amateur sociologist; interested in psychology and psycho acoustics. I see people who know acoustics does not know psycho acoustics and vice versa.

And, there are people they would say they don't know anything but they would just sing or play an instrument amazingly.

I must confess that I am lazy basically, but I will try to keep delivering contents with audio examples, pictures whenever possible throughout my proposed writing

I would love your encouragement, as every one on this world, kindly use the comment box below if you think I have missed to address something, or if you are very particular about something about music;

Let us talk music

Revathi Fusion

2009-07-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is a podcast of fusion on Raag Revathi; Hope you would enjoy.

Glad to share with you and to hear from you.

Gokul

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Indian Recordings

2009-07-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

Indian Recordings from West Bengal, run by a gentleman and he is the producer and soundengineer according to himself or herself. And interestingly Indian Recordings is the man's hobby it seems, he/she does not not sell, give free download his/her music; If you contact thru mail, he may share his/her work with you. Again, sorry I have no idea of the mail.

Anyway, here we go to podcast;

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"This is the first offering from 'Indian Recordings', the artist being Kartickdas Baul, from Shantiniketan, West Bengal. Kartick renders a solo performance of traditional Baul songs, accompanying himself with the 'khomok' and the 'payal'. The performance was recorded in a living room type informal setting; audience cheers, traffic noises et al. The 12 song album is available for licensing, contact me for information. I am interested in working with anybody who wants to contribute to the preservation and propagation of traditional Indian music"

myband.co.IN?

2009-07-06T11:47:00.001-07:00

It is good idea to host your songs at myband.co.in, if you are an Indie musician.

My Band provides you everything that any good international standard (so called) portal gives;

I have a say here. When I see the combo box to choose, it shows every genre an American would list.

I just don't understand this; MyBand is an Indian organization I understand, still I don't see any category that reflects any musical style from India. What are we going to do with A Capella?

If an American or European hosts a song at My Band, welcome, let them choose international or something else.

Indian portals are one and only place that could accommodate native musical genres and unfortunately it does not work with My Band.

Tempostand is place I would appreciate for number of reasons; I would write on tempostand; still, take it from me, tempostand does not have a combo box that starts with 'A Capella'

World Fusion - The Wimshurst's Machine

2009-07-02T01:55:00.001-07:00

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What do they say about themselves?

"Listening to the TWM you'd travel into a relaxing world of good music. TWM plays a mix of acoustic and electronic music, sometimes inspired by ancient or traditional tunes (Irish, indian or spanish), mixed with modern sounds, from chill-out to jazz, with a mix of acoustic and electronic instruments. The music of TWM is something that will make you dream. A dream you won't forget."
(published TWM review)

The Wimshurst's Machine is a project born by the music passion of each component and a mad idea, developed between friends and colleagues with little time to play together "in person". Thanks to modern softwares and computers (as Propellerhead Reason, Apple Garage Band, Symphonic Orchestra, Sound Studio Pro and Apple Soundtrack), it has become possible to play together even when living apart, recording each track separated from the others with modern "home made studios".

This Wimshurst's Machine's first album ("A traveller who didn't ask for glory") is based on the notion that ancient explorers lived most of their lives through violent but incredible adventures. In this album you may read (and listen to) a story that tells about an ancient traveler that obtained glory while he was searching for himself across the world.
This album reached #2 Top downloaded Electronic album and #26 Overall on the iTunes italian online store on January 12 and 13, 2005!

In "The Alchemist" (TWM's second album) the storytelling is about an Alchemist, during the spanish late middle age. Also in this other album you may listen to more than 1 hour of music, ideally the soundtrack of the story the CD itself is telling (that you may also read from the inlay card), flowing as in a movie.

Now available also the 3rd album, "Time Traveller" (2007), a great project made of 37 tracks in a double CD edition which includes also an 18 pages full-colors booklet with a complete story narrated by Duilio Chiarle and the great illustrations of Daniele Scerra (spectrum artist 2006).

Our in 2007 also the collection "Freedom Lights published by the british indie label Astranova only on iTunes, with a remastered selection of tracks from the first two albums and two singles from the 3rd one.
All those albums are available for sale on iTunes!

Why this name?

There is nothing as fascinating as an old technology, so we chose this old precursor that made possible even the use of electricity in modern times. The choice happened by chance, talking in a brewery, while looking for an original band name that would show the world how complicated but fascinating our project is.

Influences:

Very difficult to say. We just play what's going on in our heads and hearts and I must say each one of us likes different kinds of music, but the union of the 8 of us created something that looks like "Café Del Mar" or "Buddha Bar" as a 1st impression. We like the idea to set a mood for the complete album, that has to be an experience in itself and not "just" a collection of songs.

Equipment used:

We do have plenty of acoustic instruments, from Saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor and bari), clarinet, flutes, guitars (classic and spanish), trumpets, dulcimer, bagpipes, mandolin, drums and lots of others... but we have also plenty of electric guitars, many different MIDI keyboards/controllers and so on. At the same time we also use powerful softwares, to record our music professionally but at low cost.

African Ethnic

2009-06-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

This is a song I love from the Band of Guinea C

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Takama (Marriage)
Lead singer: Amadou Njie/Language: Wollof
I'll marry you if your mother likes it, if your father agrees (2x)
Love is too much suffering.
I'll do anything for a rendez vous, everything you need I'll do for you
I now live with my parents but I would like to get married
My mother would like that, my father too
I believe when I marry you we will be happy
I love you, if you love me too it's a good idea
to get married.

Here you read the story of the Band

Reggae (Hawaiian ) - Podcast

2009-06-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

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Artist / Band

Originally from Hawaii, the members of Mikioi now make their home in the desert city of Phoenix, AZ. Their brand of Jawaiian-style reggae brings together the elements of hawaiian music and roots reggae, as well as the influence of mainland pop and R&B.

Song I love
Second one , Jah Say

This song is about the US involvement in middle-eastern wars. Leh's brother was deployed in Iraq for a long time. They say "We support our troops, that's why we want them to come home safe".

M J

2009-06-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

Unfinished....Life...Dreams...

Lost My Big Book Of Chords

2009-06-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

When I finished that song, he said "There could be a better guitar"
"What exactly you mean?" I asked
"No. Just a thought, it good in present form itself"

After the discussion about CD release discussion, and their plans (lenghty and leborious)..... phew!

Was not so comforatable after the incident.
Started listeing Guitar; buying CDs

"Tell me what's wrong with you?", my wife

Well, I got a master. We did drive 200 Kilometers to buy an acoustic ;
He is a real artist, he did not bother that I was driving a high way. He started tuning playing (was good) , was talking to me a lot about Guitars, brands, players, his style of graping a bar etc.,

I was just thinking "There could be a better guitar"

A month later, with sour finger, I was sitting in vestibule, browing a book of chords

I just had only two problems,

1. I really could not understand why should I play a chord when?
2. Why can not my teacher answer this question?

Was curious a long time about playing intricate, Carnatic style gamaks with an acoustic Guitar. Oh, it ended up kicking the teacher.

I could understand

1. Chord is set of notes
2. There are only two type of chords; Conchords and dischords

An American once said "we play dis chord and dat chord" Well I said "Doesn't serve my purpose"

You know what? An Indian ear rarely appreciate 'dis chord and dat chord'

After going thru my Big Book of Chords, and its illustrations, watching videos of Guitar Greats hours togather, I just could see myself playing chords which suits the mood of the song I work

I am keeping that Bible of Chords for some newbie who is going to get excited to have one like that. I pity.

Recently a friend, a Guitarist asked "What chord that was?"
"Did it trouble you?"
"No just good so asked"
"I don't name it" , he jus smiled and said, "Cool"

"I am planning a song francis "
"Guitar"
"Yes"
"mm..."

I still remember "There could be a better guitar", Thanks that I love a Guitar and people love my compositions.

Ok, now, it is meditative, the Big Book Of Chords has been thrown

Lost the Big Book Of Chords

How I Lost My Big Book of Chords The Story and the song.

A Good Shit

2009-06-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

When an American music band sent a message about one of my composition, they wrote reads "It is a good shit bro"..

I was just irritate initially, felt bad for a while. Was thinking about their slang and culture.,

Then, I just wanted to know what it was before I talk to any of my American friends to ascertain that.

I gave a Google. Then they said "We said it was great"!

This the list of urban slang 'Good Shit'

Good Shit!

Musical Genres : I go nuts!

2009-06-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

A Confession

First let me confess. I am a musician who always ask my friend "What is a Genre on earth?" On those occasions, I do understand they get irritated for no reason, and for some reason that I fail to understand.

An Interesting Debate

Earlier I was aggressive Orkut participant. I joined a community called "Classical Music". It is a community for people who love Western Classical. Thinking that it was Indian classical music many Indians joined and keep joining. Then Indians started asking the community owner and moderators to change the name as "Western Classical Music" instead of "Classical Music". That Gentl man was very clear that people must had read the description of a community before joining.

Further, interesting thing is, if you are a North Indian, take it as Hindustani forum and if a South Indians take as Carnatic forum.

So as many issues, the term "Classical" is subjective and relative. Here, I would like to pinpoint certain attitudes of Eastern and Western people. I have great Western friends, and I know personally that they are level headed.

I have asked more than thousand times, to specify the Genre of my compositions. Both online and offline.

Jazz

Why should we talk about Jazz, as an example? Musicians know. It is considered America's Classical music.

Every school of Jazz was the outcome of the competition between different Jazz bands from different geographical location of America, especially, competition against New Orleans Band., which is considered orthodox, classic like Tajaavoor Carnatic, in India. I don't mean that mere vested interest competition could create different Jazz flavors. I just mean to point out that a Genre is neither from heaven nor a science.

One of my musician friends, Mr.Rob Arnold, a Jazz musician once said, "There is nobody to certify that you are Jazz musician"

Indian Artists and Western Genres

The list of Western Genre (documented) is lengthy.

Every Genre has its own history and cultural root.

What often annoying is, most of the Indian musical portals that have been designed for Indian musicians, have the lengthy list of all those Genres; surprisingly not even single Indian Genre, and still they claim that they are a portal for Indian Indie Artists. The term Indie Artist does not apply much in Indian context, but these days, thanks to technology it is slowly getting changed it seem. I don't mention my beloved Tempostand at any event.

Every Indian band wants to Rock. They just has one mental equation; Western = Modern.

Tit Bits

"I want to take Tamil cinema music to International standard" - AR Rahman in his interview just after his first Tamil film Roja.

"Who told I don't make classical songs. I do. For an example, "En Veetuthottathil" in Gentle Man" - AR Rahman

REAPER 3.0

2009-05-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

A Huge upgrade from cockos

Official features

Audio

REAPER's no-compromises 64-bit audio engine and 64-bit end-to-end signal path offer the maximum in resolution and headroom. Unlimited track counts, total routing freedom, draggable sends, beat-based audio templates, sidechain support for any plugin - REAPER gives you both power and flexibility.

MIDI

REAPER doesn't discriminate against MIDI. You can freely mix audio and MIDI routing, even within a single track. REAPER's parameter modulation allows you to creatively sidechain midi and audio: drive your synth's cutoff filter with an audio signal, or create midi triggers with an audio gate. You can even script your own JS MIDI processing plug-ins and customized game controller-to-MIDI support!

REAPER includes over a dozen top-quality 64-bit ReaPlugs, the celebrated Elastique 2 real-time pitch-shifting engine, full REX support, and literally hundreds of user-programmable effects. Run almost any VST, DX, or AU (OSX only) plug-in, or use the included JS audio and MIDI plug-in scripting engine to create your own.

REAPER's 4MB download is smaller than some web pages. It contains no multi-gigabyte library of someone else's music, no crippled evaluation versions of a bunch of software somebody paid us to package, no arbitrary hardware or software restrictions and absolutely no invasive copy protection system.