Good Quality Hindi Vinyl Pressings

[prem]

I know the majority here swear by the Burning Train vinyl. I am not a huge fan of it. It ticks most of the audiophile stuff like separation, layering, soundstage etc. But I don’t get a feel here. Check the qawali of Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai and Burning Train. The qawali in HKKN gets the mood so right. The Burning Train recording is more polished but it’s at the expense of the feel.

For me the intent and feel of a song is most critical. Even in Sholay, the feel comes through beautifully on all the tracks. Ditto with Namak Halal. You can hear the feel of every song. Most of the 60s and 70s songs get this feel and mood right.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

I know the majority here swear by the Burning Train vinyl. I am not a huge fan of it. It ticks most of the audiophile stuff like separation, layering, soundstage etc. But I don’t get a feel here. Check the qawali of Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai and Burning Train. The qawali in HKKN gets the mood so right. The Burning Train recording is more polished but it’s at the expense of the feel.

For me the intent and feel of a song is most critical. Even in Sholay, the feel comes through beautifully on all the tracks. Ditto with Namak Halal. You can hear the feel of every song. Most of the 60s and 70s songs get this feel and mood right.

Agree Prem, musicality and emotion is quite important. But the thinking of an audiophile is, "I have invested so much time, money and effort into this audio system, now I want to listen my music on it. But then if this album sounds hardly any better than what it sounded on radio/two-in-one, should I spend my time listening to it on this system (burning the tubes etc.)?" And naturally he looks for what sounds better on his system, as long as it is not poor musically. And its perfectly understandable. Frankly the SQ wise average but musically rich songs I like too listen on my Bose soundlink or even Caravaan!

Of course Nirvana is when one gets best of both worlds! And music directors like Hridaynath, RD/KA (sometimes), Rahman, Moitra, Trivedi do provide that.

 

[Ashenden]

^^ I feel an audiophile should build a system which can make majority of the music (80%) he loves shine, rather than looking for too much transparency & accuracy and thereby ending up listening to Chesky records

 

[prem]

SachinChavan, to get the feel right, you need a very very good system. We are not talking radio quality here. It’s not easy to get the mood right because the system has to capture all the nuances. To capture those little inflections in the voice is not an easy task. The entire chain has to have very high resolving capability while maintaining the tone

 

[Ashenden]

The fundamental difference I find between the 60s and 70s mastering versus the post 80s is the feel of the song is captured much better in the older films. I don’t know if it was because of better quality of music directors or singers or it was mastering related. That’s what makes those old songs legendary. Hear Talat or Hemant Kumar sing and you’ll know what I mean

Could this lack of feel be attributed to high work pressure for the music directors from taking up numerous projects or too much of inspiration derived from popular music of that time, making the composition non-original?

 

[prem]

I think it’s neither. It’s the way mixing and mastering technology has evolved. These days each guy comes plays his part. It’s recorded and then introduced into the mix. Guys coming to record the piece many times have no idea what the composition is going to sound like. A lot of processing is done to layer it. That’s how it is these days. In the past the entire orchestra was there with the singer. That’s definitely going to give you a better feel.

 

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

I think it’s neither. It’s the way mixing and mastering technology has evolved. These days each guy comes plays his part. It’s recorded and then introduced into the mix. Guys coming to record the piece many times have no idea what the composition is going to sound like. A lot of processing is done to layer it. That’s how it is these days. In the past the entire orchestra was there with the singer. That’s definitely going to give you a better feel.

Hi
Mr. Prem
I agree with your view. The same thing happened with a radio programme named DeviDurgotiharinym years ago. The AIR aired a special morning programme named MAHISASURAMARDINI on the auspicious occasion of the MAHALAYA and Late Sri Birenda Krishna Bhadra ,Sri Bani Kumar and Sri Pankaj Kumar Mullick along with the singers and musicians made it a huge success. Unfortunately, years after ,the AIR decided to replace that programme with a new one. The new programme had big names like Uttam Kumar ,Ashaji, Lataji, Manna De and so on. But the latter didn't have the feel like the former one and the reason was lack of oneness.The former was a live programme and all the artists rehearsed well under the supervision of Birenda Krishna Bhadra, later recorded programme was broadcast. But in the second programme all the artists did not come together and it lacked that flavour of the former.Perhaps they did not have the time to rehearse and the result was the debacle of that star studded programme.
Regards
Bhaskar

 

[Deleted member 15865]

SachinChavan, to get the feel right, you need a very very good system. We are not talking radio quality here. It’s not easy to get the mood right because the system has to capture all the nuances. To capture those little inflections in the voice is not an easy task. The entire chain has to have very high resolving capability while maintaining the tone

Prem, what's your estimate on the minimum budget in which such a high resolving system that also maintains the tone can be put together?

 

[prem]

I don’t know what music you listen to. If it’s primarily Indian, then what source? CD and streaming is a complete waste of time for Indian. It’s ok for western music though. So if Indian, vinyl has to be your primary source.

If you want to stick to digital, get a decent NAD or Denon and pair it with a vintage speaker. You’ll get the fullness which is very important to get the emotion. 95% of the systems I hear these days have no body and they are all tipped mids and upwards. That increases clarity at expense of tone, harmonics and body.

 

[Hiten]

What are your impressions on the music director - sound quality combinations over the decades? Which music directors produced the best albums, SQ-wise for their era? Any sonic surprises from the 60's or even the 50's?

Hello Sachin,
As a rule I do keep/seek compilation albums of most music directors. Except some mid 80s directors. Reason being I like to have them in my collection for their work. Honestly I did not see music directors from sound quality point of view. But that is good perspective. I think R D Burman took interest in how his music sounds so broadly speaking his recordings must be good quality. From memory I think I have Khayyam (my favourite), Salil Chodhary, Madan Mohan, S D Burman, Naushad etc. compilation. We could only guess that production houses in those days dictated how much money to spend on quality of recordings.
Regards.

 

[pushkarajd]

Some of the finest songs to my mind (and soul):
1. Deewana hua badal - Kashmir ki kali
2. Aap aye to khayale dil-e nashad aya - Gumrah
3. Aadha hai chandrama raat aadhi - Navrang
4. Shyamal shyamal badan - Navrang
5. Kisi ki yaad mein duniya ko hain bhulaye hue - Jahanara
6. Fiza bhi hai jawan jawan - Nikah
7. O sajna barkha bahar ayee - Parakh
8. Aage bhi jaane na tu - Waqt
9. Mai kya janoo kya jadoo hai - By immortal K L Saigal
10. Haye gajab kahin tara toota - Tesari kasam
And many more..........

Have 12" 45 RPM like Navrang, Chitchor, Kashmir Ki Kali, Qurbani, Tumsa Nahi Dekha and a few more

 

[Deleted member 15865]

I don’t know what music you listen to. If it’s primarily Indian, then what source? CD and streaming is a complete waste of time for Indian. It’s ok for western music though. So if Indian, vinyl has to be your primary source.

If you want to stick to digital, get a decent NAD or Denon and pair it with a vintage speaker. You’ll get the fullness which is very important to get the emotion. 95% of the systems I hear these days have no body and they are all tipped mids and upwards. That increases clarity at expense of tone, harmonics and body.

Thanks Prem for the advice. I understand what you mean in the last couple of sentences. My effort from day one was to get that kind of sound in my system and I believe I am on course through choice of components and equally importantly, the connections (as well as speaker positioning). I’ve decided not to go the TT way till I can resist. (Can’t do justice to maintaining the TT and the records.) My system does a decent job of playing the Indian CDs from 70s onwards. But can’t make the 50s and 60s songs (great music but poor SQ) sound dynamic unlike a TT. Guess I’d have to live with that for a while.

 

[Amarendra]

I don’t know what music you listen to. If it’s primarily Indian, then what source? CD and streaming is a complete waste of time for Indian. It’s ok for western music though. So if Indian, vinyl has to be your primary source.

If you want to stick to digital, get a decent NAD or Denon and pair it with a vintage speaker. You’ll get the fullness which is very important to get the emotion. 95% of the systems I hear these days have no body and they are all tipped mids and upwards. That increases clarity at expense of tone, harmonics and body.

When you say get a vintage speaker, are you referring to something from 90s ? And if yes will they sound different from today's speakers ? Its an interesting comment that vintage speakers will get the fullness / required SQ for Indian recordings.

 

[prem]

I am talking of 70s to 80s. Anything before the digital era started which was the 90s

 

[souravin]

hi can u buy one lot 3000 lp each 5 dollar each 90% have very , call me

Thank you Surhall. I have most LPs, some in two sets.

Thanks,
Sourav

 

[surhall]

call me on wattp<>

 

[mahiruha]

Today I got Fanaa Lp. It is a very well recorded lp. I also got Akele Hum Akele tum lp and mighty impressed with the recording. Very well done.

 

[aventhusiast]

Dear Friends,

If anybody has the LP MAHAADEV, A Vinod Khanna and Meenakshi Sheshadri Movie. As far as I know, It has 5 songs on LP and there was one more song Chaand Hai Tu on EP. Please confirm. Also, let me know if I can get a copy of both the records.

 

[Deleted member 79865]

New Libaas LP is worst one. Sound quality changes on every song. No consistency.
Was RDB's 'Bahurani' anytime on vinyl?

 

[shafic]

Dear Friends,

If anybody has the LP MAHAADEV, A Vinod Khanna and Meenakshi Sheshadri Movie. As far as I know, It has 5 songs on LP and there was one more song Chaand Hai Tu on EP. Please confirm. Also, let me know if I can get a copy of both the records.

I have one. Music composed by maestro Ilayaraja.

https://imgur.com/bJD2QEF

https://imgur.com/yFqWWUE

'Muje bahon mein bhar ke' song was taken from his Tamil block buster movie 'Mudhal Mariyadhay'.