Friday, August 25, 2006

Battle of the Na/Nha's

Am back with a post-a malayalam one after a long hiatus. Pradip suggested this song way long back and here it is-- the final product.

Honestly had a real tough time pronouncing the Na and Nha sounds in Malayalam. Since I am predominantly a Tamizhachi, I have never had to fight constantly between Na and Nha in most of my native tongue songs as against in Malayalam where these 2 are present in every 2nd word literally !!! Had almost given up when Pradip really took pity on me and decided enough is enough and said "Ok-- I guess you are fed up with me, so I decided not to bug you anymore".

** A bow & a relieved smile**

I don't know whether Pradip is left handed, but we have a saying in TamilNadu as "Left-la aduchaar da!" [Just an indication that one can do what ever they do best with their 'left hand' inspite of being right handed predominantly] That's about the only phrase I can think of right now after I heard the final mixed version. It is truly a pleasure to sing alongside an awesome talent like him!!

Song: Swayamvara Chandrigae
Movie: Chronic Bachelor
Music by: Deepak Dev
Originally rendered by Jayachandran and Sujatha
Rendered by Pradip & Meera
Mixed by Pradip


Swayamvara Chandrigae | Music Codes

17 comments:

Manohar said...

Awesome song and I like the mixing a lot too.

Anonymous said...

nicely sung pradip & meera. honestly i couldnt find any pronuciation errors, you sang awesome.

Murali Venkatraman said...

meera:

seems like you have sung compeltely in falsetto. Personally I like your non-falsetto renditions better. BTW, it is not just na, Na. There are subtle but important differences from tamil in the way other syllables like "ra" are pronounced too. You have sharp ears. You should be able to pick them up soon.

Pradip:

I was wondering if u need to increase the reverb a li'l bit in your voice to blend a little more with the music.

Aravind G said...

Meera:
I don't know about the pronunciation but I see some strain in certain words. Other than that great singing.
Pradip, as usual, has sung great. I think he has to make mistakes once in a while so that I can critique :-)

Also, mixing is excellent. Great job!!

Pradip Somasundaran said...

Murali I would disgree with you on this occassion. If you have heard the original song you will see that there is absolutely no reverb on either the male or female voices. But I have still used very very little bit yet. I used TC reverb with the "small dark room" preset on both voices :-) Mixing is all about re-learning what we have assumed from earlier times. We always have assumed that the voice needs reverb. But there are some songs where reverb is totally avoided in the voices. See old recordings. Most of them were superb without reverb as the singers were so great and perfect and did not need any help from any such effects.They produced reverb effect themselves.....like TMS, Ghantasala, Talat, etc:-) By the begenning of 1960's reverb was used in some measure and then between 1970-2000 it was the most misused effect. But the trend has now reversed! Norah Jones started this new trend which has been repeated by Bruce Springsteen in his recent album.ARR does this occassionally now as in Mastiki Pathshala, and Roobaaroo..Deepak Dev does not use any reverb in many songs. Hear Thumbikkinnaram for instance. It's a great experience to hear Yesudas and Gayatri in this song where Dev has eliminated even the slightest of pitch varaitions using sophisticated software, maybe Melodyne. When hearing K.J.Y in this song one feels that he is a reborn singer! For reverb to be avoided there should not be even the faintest of pitch variations in the voice tracks...They call it Dry Voice among the "Sound Engineers"...think MUX would be able to guide us further on this!Also our basic idea of a voice has been shattered! Earlier only E.Q reverb and echo were used on voice,but now they use so many plugins on voice! One is called vocal exciter to give that tingling effect(excess impetus to highs)for voices. This is used in all songs nowadays and has been used extensively for Sujatha's voice in this song. So it's time we changed our programmed notions. I am also re-learning. For that unfortunately we have to find more time, sit and listen to all genre of songs from east to west...That's what ARR does :-)

Anonymous said...

Have been a silent fan of your's for quite some time now :)This one was wonderful. Your voice is addictive!

Jo said...

Nice job guys. :-)

ann said...

Meera..

You would have had a tough time with na & nha,but the end result is really Good. It is a very pleasant n soothing rendition. Liked ur voice as always :).

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Meera - IMHO ( I've told this in Pradip's post too....This is my favorite of yours as of today. Fantastic.!!! I am not sure of the pronounciation etc..but you've sung the song so beautifully.!! Voice bhavams etc. are fantastic.

Pradip Ji as usual has done it Left handed..!

What a song.!!! What a song.!!! Keep it up.!!

Quick Note - Did someone contact you from Shakthi TV? They have a program in Tamil beginning Sept-2, Half Hour Channel 28. Check it out. I've signed up for Standup comedy. If they offer I'll try ...! IF you want to contact them...go thru Tamil Manram.!

madhavan kutty said...

Hi
Good to see you back,and regularly posting!
Very well sung duet that was/is popular.Your Malyalam diction is pretty good, and we all know why!!
Now to two small points:-In the first charanam when you sing Innumavan Kaanaan, (1:53) the "kaanaan" came out a trifle late. Your anxiety - perhaps over diction- is palpable at one point, when you sing Konchum thali (4:02)you sound distictly relieved and happy!!! Almost like a sudden release phenomenon!
Overall a very good presentation. Pradip has come out well, in fact, a lot less strained than Mr J in parts.
Keep 'em coming

Anand said...

very nice song... Simply beautiful.... marvelous work pradip and meeera....

mousumi said...

though i dont understand ur language,yr's n pradip's voice mesmerise me. da mixing s really good.
s da language vry tough 2learn??

sdpal said...

Pradip & Meera.. amazing rendition.
Rommmmmba nannaayittundu makkale!

You guys rock

Ganesh said...

Looks like I am little late.
Pradip and Meera nicely done.
The interesting thing is voice sounds upclose and personal.
I guess this is because of little reverb instead of usual vocal effects.
Meera your voices sounded little different.

Sam said...

Hi Meera/Pradip Sir,

Nice rendition. I cudnt warm up to the tune initially, but gradually liked it.

Anonymous said...

wow, it sounded like original. Fantastic job. Keep it up.

Yogi

retarded said...

nannayittund tto:)