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With record ease
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Fledgling musicians can take heart as cutting an album has become much easier now
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PHOTO: K MURALI KUMAR
A PC WILL DO Technology has simplified music creation
One of the biggest problems faced by musicians in India has been the difficulty of creating records. Reasons such as prohibitive costs, lack of good studios and the inability to find that perfect sound are often cited to explain their inability to break into the big league by putting out quality albums — reasons that often discourage younger bands from pursuing their music more meaningfully. However, fledgling musicians can take heart in the fact the scene isn't as bad as it once was. Performers and technicians alike now assert that increasing technology and awareness have ensured that the process of music creation and distribution isn't the exclusive domain of gigantic record companies anymore.
The biggest change in favour of unrecognised musicians, explains Rzhude David, bassist for popular band Thermal and a Quarter, is the penetration of home computers. "Because of computers, anyone with a PC at home can create music. A single guy can create entire albums with just loops downloaded from the Internet." Says Chris Avinash, ex-frontman of Document Done who is now working on a solo album, individuals interested in producing basic recordings don't even need drummers, guitarists and so on. With a wide variety of drum loops and instruments on voice banks available in programmes such as Reason and Nuendo, one only needs to understand chord structures on the keyboard.
The difference is also visible in the case of full rock bands. Writing music and sharing ideas has become easier, explains Rzhude, because songwriters don't have to wait to assemble the band each time they have an idea. Instead, ideas can be tried out on a computer, and only final products worked on physically by the band. Moreover, traditional bands with multiple musicians playing live instruments are now finding the actual recording and mastering process simpler and more cost effective, thanks to the advent of digital recording platforms. This, says Gaurav Vaz, of the band Phenom, has meant a direct drop in costs for studios, which are able to transfer that to bands. "There are now studios in Bangalore that charge you only around Rs. 4,000 per song, which includes about 10 to 15 hours of recording time and mixing and mastering. Another change that has worked in favour of small bands has been the amount of networking that now takes place online. While, in the past, bands were only able to get their music across to fans by playing live concerts or printing albums, they are now reaching out to their fans on the Internet. Suchitra Lata, who runs the music studio The Music Mint, clarifies it isn't just technology that has changed. Among technicians too, a paradigm shift has taken place away from film music. She explains there are a growing number of studios that provide different sound mixes. With the growing ease of music production, a question that often arises is whether the music scene is becoming more diluted. While many admit that the digital revolution has made it more populated, Chris argues that it then becomes a question of uniqueness. "When you go to buy a shirt, you would go to a designer because you know he has only one like it, whereas if you go to a mall you know there are a 100 similar shirts." In such cases, he says, music distribution then becomes dependent on other factors like money and marketability.
RAKESH MEHAR
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