Why do Indian classical albums ‘sound’ good?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 15865
  • Start date

Why do Indian classical albums sound good?

  • Purely acoustic sound

    Votes: 5 45.5%
  • Textures and micro-dynamics aplenty

    Votes: 3 27.3%
  • Sonically aware artists

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Seasoned venue recordists

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • More dedicated music labels

    Votes: 5 45.5%
  • Other reason (please specific in comments)

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • Don’t think classical recordings sound better

    Votes: 2 18.2%
  • Larger dynamic range

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    11
D

Deleted member 15865

Guest
The question is posed from a ‘sound’ perspective. Not musical perspective. So let’s not get into whether the music is better. But generally my observation is that in general classical Indian recordings sound much better than other Indian recordings from other genres (film/light/devotional etc) of the corresponding era.

(Max two responses)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Not much response to the poll. Difficult to conclude as the sample, even for a forum like this, isn’t statistically relevant. However, whatever responses we’ve got point to music labels. Can we list the Indian classical music labels that we’ve liked with respect to sound quality?

Let me begin, from memory:
- Ninaad
- Navras
- Reader’s Digest
- Music India
 
Perhaps Chanda Dhaara records can be added
I am not sure f the sound better but the those that do is perhaps due to specialized records being run by people who know what this is about unlike popular musiv
 
@SachinChavan , A few more labels producing excellent recordings:
- Realworld records UK,
- Audiorec classics UK,

Polls: I think online polls in which the no of votes are visible can suffer from a variation of bandwagon effect (as in a post on the forum with a lot of 'likes' are likely to garner more 'likes', irrespective of the quality of the post) and can't be considered as unbiased opinion.
 
Polls: I think online polls in which the no of votes are visible can suffer from a variation of bandwagon effect (as in a post on the forum with a lot of 'likes' are likely to garner more 'likes', irrespective of the quality of the post) and can't be considered as unbiased opinion.

Take that feedback for future polls.
 
I could think of following factors that make classical album sound good.

  • The major one, less of instruments in play that let mind focus easily.
  • The less of instruments, easy on mastering engineers.
  • Not mass market so, no rush and special attention paid during entire manufacturing process.
 
I've had the exact opposite experience. The instruments are panned unnaturally, mix is off and vocals distort all too often due to bad mic placement. There are exceptions of course.
 
less instruments and concentration on recording is an added advantage for sound quality

i have a marasim sony music cassette cd ansd sony import cd both sounds really good
 
i have a marasim sony music cassette cd ansd sony import cd both sounds really good

Marasim is ghazal. While it’s true that ghazals traditionally were light classical, not Jagjit’s ghazals, which are more popish. Marasim’s recoding is excellent though.
 
I've had the exact opposite experience. The instruments are panned unnaturally, mix is off and vocals distort all too often due to bad mic placement. There are exceptions of course.


I've had the exact opposite experience. The instruments are panned unnaturally, mix is off and vocals distort all too often due to bad mic placement. There are exceptions of course.

Yes, some classical recordings, especially older ones can have some/all of those flaws. Look up the labels listed in previous comments - those are generally good.
 
Another label I can confidently add to the list of well-recorded Indian Classical albums is Mystica Music. These guys are on a mission to promote Indian talent. Their collection isn’t exclusively Classical, but also has folk, Sufi, fusion etc.

What I like about them is that they work with the some very good upcoming artists: such as Milind Chittal, Kalpana Zokarkar, Gauri Pathade et al, while also having a sprinkling of established artists such as Shujaat Khan and Gundecha brothers. So you also make some fulfilling discoveries in the process of exploring their collection.

Best of all, their recordings are clean, sensible and immediate. They get you in there with the artists.

 
Back
Top