Courtesy : Official ar rahman community in Orkut
The topic was deleted from the forum! .It was one of the best topic in Orkut Forum.Thank god,i have the entire post in my lap.So i am posting here.i have edited for ease-of-reading ! will update when i got for info.but you have to help me! i know there will be many errors ,so you have to figure it out!I cant remember the people who contributed in this nice discussion .Hope you people wont mind!
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music director vs music composer
"Music director" is not really a music composer. He is basically the guy who makes the TUNES for the songs. Then he gives it to the lyricist for the lyrics (this works vice versa too.. lyrics first and then the tune).Now comes the major difference... between "Music directors" and "Music Composers" like ARR and Ilaiyaraaja.
The Music Director hands over the tune and lyrics to the Music Arranger who will fill in the music into the song according to his knowledge and experience. The Music Director will only DIRECT the music (as in supervising the process) but does not necessarily compose the BGMs, the rhythms, the chords, basslines etc. in the song. These are done by the Music Arranger, who will arrange for the violin sections, the brass sections, the percussions, the beats etc. acccording to what he knows.
Needless to say, the Music Director, more often than not, is not even proficient in playing a musical instrument. He need not be with the method mentioned above.
This is why most Music Directors sound the same movie after movie after movie.. cuz the tunes are different but the arrangement is the same... the Music Arranger guy is only doing his job and ending the works as per deadline.. no creativity there... there is no effort to INNOVATE. (well, if he could, why the hell will he be Arranger? he can become a Music Director himself cant he?)
ARR though, it seems, sits and works on each piece of music in his songs... each sound and each element of the notes are heard by him, evaluated and then entered into the song.. plus he has great musicians to bring out quality sounds...
In other words, ARR actually DESIGNS the sound for each of his songs. To all those who scoff at use of technology in music... this sound design is enhanced only because of the technology.
This sound design combined with great tunes make great masterpieces.
Any surprise his songs are so good!
Rahman the professionalist
- Rehman is perhaps the most professional musician of India. He has this habit of looking out for talented musicians and then he calls them to his studio and records and samples their stuff. And then the musician packs his bags and is off to where he/she belongs. The best part comes now..... whenever Rahman will use that sample/loop in any of his songs, he makes a point that he pays that musician his royalty !! Isn't this wonderful ?
- One of my musician friends has played the Dholak in "Taal Se Taal Mila" and here's the story...... When my friend went to Rahman's studio for recording the Dholak he was all set as he found the rhythm not that challenging... but the real fun came now... Rahman asked him to wear ICE CREAM sticks tied with rubber-bands to his finger (the Chati i.e. side which produces the high pitch sound). This was indeed unique as Rahman was pretty clear on what "sound" he wanted !!
Thats Rahman for u..... the best musician India has produces after R D Burman !!
Something About Music Sampling For Starters
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program on a digital computer. Sampling is also possible with tape loops or with vinyl records on a phonograph.
Often "samples" consist of one part of a song, such as a break, used in another, for instance the use of the drum introduction from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" in songs by the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mike Oldfield and Erasure, and the guitar riffs from Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" in Tone-Loc's "Funky Cold Medina". "Samples" in this sense occur often in hip hop, as hip hop sampling developed from DJs repeating the breaks from songs (Schloss 2004, p.36), and Contemporary R&B, but are becoming more common in other music as well, such as by Slipknot's sample player Craig Jones.
Early cases
Sampling using tape recordings goes back at least as far as 1969, when Holger Czukay used traditional Vietnamese singers on his record "Canaxis". Czukay and his former band Can used samples often throughout the seventies.
One of the first major legal cases regarding sampling was with "Pump Up the Volume". As the record reached the UK top ten, producers Stock Aitken Waterman obtained an injunction against the record due to the unauthorized use of a sample from their hit single "Roadblock". The dispute was settled out of court, with the injunction being lifted in return for an undertaking that overseas releases would not contain the "Roadblock" sample, and the disc went on to top the UK singles chart. Ironically, the sample in question had been so distorted as to be virtually unrecognisable, and SAW didn't realize their record had been used until they heard co-producer Dave Dorrell mention it in a radio interview.
Types of samples
Once recorded, samples can be edited, played back, or looped (i.e. played back continuously). Types of samples include:
Loops
The drums and percussion parts of many modern recordings are really a variety of short samples of beats strung together. Many libraries of such beats exist and are licensed so that the user incorporating the samples can distribute their recording without paying royalties. Such libraries can be loaded into samplers. Though percussion is a typical application of looping, many kinds of samples can be looped. A piece of music may have an ostinato which is created by sampling a phrase played on any kind of instrument. There is software which specializes in creating loops.
Samples of musical instruments.
Whereas loops are usually a phrase played on a musical instrument, this type of sample is usually a single note. Music workstations and samplers use samples of musical instruments as the basis of their own sounds, and are capable of playing a sample back at any pitch. Many modern synthesizers and drum machines also use samples as the basis of their sounds. (See sample-based synthesis for more information.) Most such samples are created in professional recording studios using world-class instruments played by accomplished musicians. These are usually developed by the manufacturer of the instrument or by a subcontractor who specializes in creating such samples. There are businesses and individuals who create libraries of samples of musical instruments. Of course, a sampler allows anyone to create such samples.
Courtesty : Wikipedia
Some facts
- He records most of the songs in the late night because he belives that is the time at which a person's sound will be at it's top best.
- He allows singers to sing there own versions of the song separately and chooses best among them.
- Might, might not i don't know... There are more than 1000 samples available in sony and apple.
- he used a ghatam loop in the rang de basanti background score from apple's loop library...i've heard the same loop been used elsewhere.but it sounded a lot better the way AR sir used it
- the song 'maiyya maiyya' has a flute interlude in the beginning similar to the one in Anu Malik's 'san sanana' song in 'Asoka'.the flute sample in mayya mayya is a commercially available sample.Both the asoka song and mayya mayya have been arranged and programmed by ranjit barot.
- Chinna Chinna Asai was composed as a 'sad' full song initially but later was changed to a happy song.
- ARR first composed only 1st stanza of Tu hi Re song for BOmbay. later Mani shot the song and after feeling confident of the song, Rahman completed the composition.
- Thiruda Thiruda and Duet took most time in composing followed by box-office dud mangal pandey.
- Maiyya Maiyya was recorded in Toronto and music was added later as usual.
- in Thiruda thiruda there are 2 special songs in it.one is KONCHEM NILAVU which is fully computer programmed.another is RASATHI where you can't hear a single instrument.
we have been talking technology all along this thread... and then last night I was listening to "Jaage Hain" from Guru when it occurred to me how any western composer would have been proud of this composition... then i got to thinking how many such songs of ARR can we hold up to the world of western orchestration...
Then there is Bombay Theme - the one tune that is sufficient to be a slap on the face of anyone mouthing the "ARR-is-all-about-technology" line.remember Roja, Bombay, Thiruda Thiruda, Kadhalan... etc were made before 1994...
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