Listening to Old Hindi Music online

venkatcr

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I am sucker for old Hindi film music.

Though I have a fairly large collection of CDs including all the Classic Revival, I have to still rip them to listen to them.

I have been listening to Gaana as a subscriber for quite some time. Recently I came across a channel called Riya's Retro on Ganna. This is like a TV series - consisting of seasons and episodes. There are 7 seasons, each with roughly 35+ episodes. Each episode is roughly 1 hour long. That is some 210 hours of music for you. Of course, the songs are intermixed with Riya's chatter, her interviews, her commentaries, etc. She has based each episode on some title such as Intezar, Gussa, Nutty Love, Pyar Se Darr, etc. For each of these episodes, she chooses songs that fit the title.

What I liked best was the quality of the songs. All songs have the following quality:

1. No scratch noise of any kind.
2. Clear demarcation of vocals and instruments.
3. Good DSP on each song making them play quite well.
4. Same gain on each song so that the volume does not go up and down.

Gaana has taken even a song such as 'Aayega Aane Wala' from the 1949 movie Mahal and processed it as if it has been recorded yesterday. Lata's voice is clear, there is no sibilance, and you can literally hear the youth in her voice. Drums sound well, though they are not over emphasized needlessly. In one song when the lyrics mentions 'Shehnai' I could hear the subtle playing of the instrument in the background. Of course, songs from 1970s+ sound even better. I just loved to hear the songs of Rafi, Lata, Asha, Manna Dey, Kishore, Mukesh with such clarity. In some songs you can literally hear the singer breathing in.

Please do understand I am not talking about soundstage and other factors. Just that it is a pleasure to hear Rafi crooning, Kishore doodling, or Mukesh's nasal notes with such clarity.

More than worth the Rs.400 they are asking for a year. If I listen to Riya's Retro alone, the cost is justified. Saves me from scrounging for CDs, ripping them etc. Or paying a hefty price to download the legal versions.

All songs on Gaana can also be heard free. But there the songs are MP3 quality only. At full price you can listen to near wave file quality.

I am sure a lot of members here will feel I am over emphasizing the quality. Maybe. At the same time, getting such quality with such convenience is commendable.

Devices used:

1. Apple Ipad for streaming.
2. Lepai 1601s amplifier.
3. Van den Hul halogen free speaker cables.
4. Aperion Audio Bookshelves.
5. Edifier R1280DB with AptX.
6. Audire's Medical grade power conditioner.

Cheers



Cheers.
 
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A few other sources (Internet radio stations) for old Hindi songs I can whole-heatedly recommend (and listen to regularly):

1. Shripad Radio (well-curated programs)
2. Radio TeenTaal (good SQ, run from Paris)
3. Hungama B&W Music (goes deep into the old Hindi songs genre)
 
Thank you @venkatcr for raising such a nice topic. Despite of being a physical media fanatic for Bollywood R. D. Burman and Kishore Kumar, I have been an avid follower to Gaana Plus last year. I found some rare track in the library also. However did not renew post I bought iPad and iPhone this December 31st ,2020 and started exploring more and more Apple Music with family plan.

I will now rush to renew now. I found TIDAL (loan from a friend) and Spotify (daily Rs 7 subscription on weekends) won't fulfill my taste as the quality is less than average for Bollywood Oldies. I shall save money rather. This is only for lazy hours after hectic office schedule when I don't feel like putting records or finding CDs, just sit back and connect iPad with iFi Zen Blue DAC

Thanks,
Sourav
 
I have been using Gaana for some time and I like it . Sometimes it seems to me that Gaana is better than Spotify as the former has better Bengali songs collection than the latter. Besides this, YouTube, FM and internet radio stations are also very good sources for casual listening. Last year I came across some lovely internet radio stations like Bollywood hungama, Retro Bollywood, sripad radio , Bong o net etc. All the stations cater to good music . For Indian classical music I tune Ragya.com which broadcast songs sung by various known and unknown artists. Streaming is the go of the day and it will last for some days. Apart from enjoying convenience out of these streaming services I discover one thing. I can find some tracks which I heard many years ago ( may be broadcast by Aakashwani) and I try to find the vinyls or CDs of that tracks. Gaana has given me chances of listening to songs sung by the young artists whose CDs or vinyls are not available as now songs are released online.
Cheers
 
Out of curiosity I listened to Teen Taal for a while and played the same songs on Gaana. Here are my findings.

The first thing I noticed was that Teen Taal was transmitting at a much higher gain. When I switched from Gaana to Teen Taal, it was like turning the volume knob on my system by some 15 degrees.

1. Dekha Ek Khwab Ko Tho Yeh Silisile Hue from Silsila.

In Teen Taal, there were a lot of sibilance when violins or flute were played. And the whole song was a mite flat.
In Gaana, the same song was presented with a much deeper soundstage. Kishore's voice was deep where needed, and Latha's voice did not grate your ears. Gaana was clearly far ahead in sound quality.

2. Chalkaye Jaam from Mere Humdum Mere Dost.

In Teen Taal, the first thing that struck me was that I was listening to the song in an empty room where the sound had a mild echo. Again Gaana presented a much better sound stage for the same song with solidity and lovely separation of the instruments from Rafi's voice.

I suspect Teen Taal must be an act of love with limited budget by some NRI in France. Gaana, having a revenue pattern, must be having better equipment with professionals for both technology and sound processing. They are far ahead of Teen Taal in SQ.

I tried playing Sripad. For some reason I was not able to hit the station. I will try tomorrow again.

Cheers
 
These radio streams are usually 96 or 128 kbps. SQ of TeenTaal is relative to other Hindi radio stations, not in comparison to paid streaming services such as Gaana, Spotify etc which are usually streamed at 320 kbps or so. Radio has its own charm based in unpredictability and (sometimes) curation. It’s mainly for light or background listening. For intent listening none of the streaming services are a patch on CDs in SQ.
 
Maybe. At the same time, it is nearly impossible to match the list of songs that Gaana has with your own CDs. Gaana also has a number of radio stations similar to Rita's Retro. All said, as I said, Rs.400 a year is certainly worth it, at least, as far as film songs go.

I must try Gaana using a good quality DAC. Then I will have a better understanding on what it can deliver.

Gaana allows a user based curated list. I am making my own list 450 'songs to die for'. That is more than enough for me.
 
Maybe. At the same time, it is nearly impossible to match the list of songs that Gaana has with your own CDs. Gaana also has a number of radio stations similar to Rita's Retro. All said, as I said, Rs.400 a year is certainly worth it, at least, as far as film songs go.

I must try Gaana using a good quality DAC. Then I will have a better understanding on what it can deliver.

Gaana allows a user based curated list. I am making my own list 450 'songs to die for'. That is more than enough for me.
Venkat Sir, Kindly share playlist when done.
 
Maybe. At the same time, it is nearly impossible to match the list of songs that Gaana has with your own CDs. Gaana also has a number of radio stations similar to Rita's Retro. All said, as I said, Rs.400 a year is certainly worth it, at least, as far as film songs go.

I must try Gaana using a good quality DAC. Then I will have a better understanding on what it can deliver.

Gaana allows a user based curated list. I am making my own list 450 'songs to die for'. That is more than enough for me.
Was listening to songs on Amazon music, the experience was just so so. thanks for the detailed experience you shared, will surely try Gaana. Am a die hard fan of old Hindi songs and a singer too.
Request you to share the playlist once you have made it.
Regards,
Srinivas.
 
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Please check the attached .txt file for links. It seems that the moderator did not allow for the link to appear.
Nothing to do with mods. It appears to be from YouTube.
No YouTube videos posted anywhere on the forum seem to be available.
Does anyone know what happened?
 
Nothing to do with mods. It appears to be from YouTube.
No YouTube videos posted anywhere on the forum seem to be available.
Does anyone know what happened?

Yes, Youtube videos on forums (HFV and other Indian Forums) are suddenly unavailable!

It could be due to the massive Internet outage that happened globally a few hours ago.
 
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To my ears, Amin Sayani's Geetmala on Spotify/Tidal ( by Saregama) sounded better than original Saregama albums.

There is another label called Eben Entertainment, who also have released old hindi albums, in many cases I felt they sound better than Saregama version. See below the screenshot from Qubuz, also available on Tidal. Try out "Guide".

1627125641250.png
 
Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.
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