Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
Murali, I absolutely agree with your comments, and would add a further couple of regular carnatic-recording sins:
1. Shruti box blaring so loud that one has to strain to hear the music over it. Engineers either have some very odd idea of what music is, or they simply didn't listen to the mix.
2. Knob twiddling... Oooh! What does this one do?
Whilst I understand that The Grateful Dead got some great results doing this, and drove the studios absolutely mad doing it, most effects are absolutely inappropriate to classical music. I have a Balamuralikrishna CD with added echo! It is impossible to listen to. Acoustic engineers stuggle to eliminate echo from concert halls, and these studio guys thought it was clever to add it!
Let the knob twiddlers stick to making wedding videos!
Of course, if one suffers listening to the CDs, how much more does one suffer in the concerts themselves? I can go on about this at length, but... bad acoustics, sound engineers without a clue, and bowing and scraping sabbha managers who believe that the artist should be allowed to control the sound from the stage. Many artists do not have a clue about microphones anyway; almost none of them appreciate that they do not hear what the audience hears.
Last weak I went to a T V Gopalakrishnan concert. He obviously had difficult hearing himself and his crew. Despite there being monitors on stage, the idiot techician kept raising the hall level. Add to this that, despite his seniority and undeniable genius as a musician, he does not understand uni-directional microphones. Hey, maybe he shouldn't have to; maybe the crew should understand when they have to mic someone who moves his head a lot! Of course... they don't.
Whoa! Hey, thanks for reading my rant. I'll try not to do it again
But before I go, one more sin: the veena played through a booming, base-heavy, guitar amp.
Oh, and, crosspoted with...
Gobble, two sides of a mridangam on left and right CD channels... I've heard that too: makes utter rubbish of a recording.
Sunder, I only saw N Rajam play once, and don't have any of her recordings
Redd; I saw a cd of telegu lullabies by a classical artist, might be appropriate for your youngster. Otherwise, as even small children love rhythm, I'd suggest some tala vadya stuff. Particularly, I suggest TVG's (mentioned above singing, also an incredible mridangist) solo CDs. He can play mridangam in a way that is so soothing, hypnotic, unbelievably peaceful for percussion!
1. Shruti box blaring so loud that one has to strain to hear the music over it. Engineers either have some very odd idea of what music is, or they simply didn't listen to the mix.
2. Knob twiddling... Oooh! What does this one do?
Whilst I understand that The Grateful Dead got some great results doing this, and drove the studios absolutely mad doing it, most effects are absolutely inappropriate to classical music. I have a Balamuralikrishna CD with added echo! It is impossible to listen to. Acoustic engineers stuggle to eliminate echo from concert halls, and these studio guys thought it was clever to add it!
Let the knob twiddlers stick to making wedding videos!
Of course, if one suffers listening to the CDs, how much more does one suffer in the concerts themselves? I can go on about this at length, but... bad acoustics, sound engineers without a clue, and bowing and scraping sabbha managers who believe that the artist should be allowed to control the sound from the stage. Many artists do not have a clue about microphones anyway; almost none of them appreciate that they do not hear what the audience hears.
Last weak I went to a T V Gopalakrishnan concert. He obviously had difficult hearing himself and his crew. Despite there being monitors on stage, the idiot techician kept raising the hall level. Add to this that, despite his seniority and undeniable genius as a musician, he does not understand uni-directional microphones. Hey, maybe he shouldn't have to; maybe the crew should understand when they have to mic someone who moves his head a lot! Of course... they don't.
Whoa! Hey, thanks for reading my rant. I'll try not to do it again
But before I go, one more sin: the veena played through a booming, base-heavy, guitar amp.
Oh, and, crosspoted with...
Gobble, two sides of a mridangam on left and right CD channels... I've heard that too: makes utter rubbish of a recording.
Sunder, I only saw N Rajam play once, and don't have any of her recordings
Redd; I saw a cd of telegu lullabies by a classical artist, might be appropriate for your youngster. Otherwise, as even small children love rhythm, I'd suggest some tala vadya stuff. Particularly, I suggest TVG's (mentioned above singing, also an incredible mridangist) solo CDs. He can play mridangam in a way that is so soothing, hypnotic, unbelievably peaceful for percussion!
