How Mr. A R Rahman Works?

The question that strikes many mind....

How Rahman compose songs

I will try to explain how a song is recorded in his studio

1. He gets an offer from the director, and ARR studies the script everything. if he likes it then he agrees else he doesn't
2. Then he sees the actor/actress and accordingly determines the singer
3. He asks the director to give the exact situation of the song and why it is needed. If he is satisfied he proceeds else again disposes.
4. Then he sits and composes the song on his own and in his voice records every song
5. Calls the singers after 12 am in the night {mark it only after 12 am!} and makes them hear the tunes.
6. Recording starts. He never modifies the song as per the singer but he modifies the singer as per the song.
7. Every sound in the studio is recorded even if a singer sneezes or coughs it is recorded and it is edited. (*if u remember in kadhal virus dere is a song by Mano { o kadhale} dere he coughs at one part. he had coughed it in the first day and then ARR never got any realistic cough after dat so he simply included the original cough ! )
8. A song recording goes up to 3-4 days. sometimes male and female singers r recorded differently and then successfully mixed
9. After the vocal is over music starts. He gives his idea to his musicians! And then the musicians suggest the background tune. 90% times Rahman doesn’t like them and then he himself gives them notes and the musician have to play dem. Few songs however had tunes inspired by his musicians (like his flutist naveen and drummer sivamani). The musicians love ARR since he gives them freedom and helps them grow their talent.
10. Later the vocal is added to music or vice versa and then comes the technical part! Ah! every interfaces start working , every part is edited , reedited and software r used and hmmm let’s not get much into it ,but by the time a song is finalized it is one month and the best version is out ! Some say he uses technology, but come to his studio you will know he uses technology only to polish stuffs.

Mixing songs

He does all programming on Logic and also mixes in Logic then he makes some pre mixes, like all choruses in two tracks, drums in two tracks, bass in one track if stereo then in two tracks and then he bounces all the tracks to EUPHONIX to give some analog warmth. But he uses all Logic plugins FX.

Everyone is using Logic from SalimSulaiman to ShankarEhsaanLoy, Logic is just like a Pen and Paper for a Poet, Rahman doesn’t need any Logic even he can use any other software because he has music in his mind.

What is Logic?

Logic is an audio recording and mixing software. Most of Indian composers use this software. For more details check www.apple.com/logic/. You can buy and download it if you have an apple Mac computer. I don’t know there is free trial version!
Rahman also uses or used Absynth, u can hear one preset from Absynth in Kannathil Muttamital title song, the flute kind of sound with a rough string sound behind it in the intro. Most of the songs, esp. in the last few years feature many synth sounds, probably from absynth, or some other softsynth. The beeps, filtered sounds etc. in many songs (Yeh Rishta, Meenaxi, couple from New, Kangalal Kaidu Sei etc.) can be done in Absynth (or for that matter in an analog synth). For more details checkout www.native-instruments.com.

Audio Samples

Have u guys ever heard about audio samples? Well Rahman is the first person who used a lot of samples in his songs and the second person is ranjit barot. Ranjit used to work with Rahman .ranjit programmed drums in HUMMA HUMMA.
And now everybody is using samples in Mumbai e.g. (salim-sulaiman, sandeep sherodker, jacky, inderjeet Sharma, ram sampat & sandeep chowta) if you guys think that how can sandeep chowta make sound like Rahman? There are samples.
Here are some examples

1. SHABBA SHABBA with African voices? Those are samples not real Africans.
2. Spanish claps in JUMBALIKA? Samples again.
3. Chinese vocals in LATKA? it’s a Chinese sample from the cd (SPECTRASONICS HEART OF ASIA)
4. Background beat in latka song from Indian! Later Anu Malik and many other used the same loops in many of their songs(e.g.: mehbooba song from ajnabee)
5. Killer drum beats in rangeela songs? Drum samples from the cd (BEST SERVICE XXL 1500) and it’s a long list.
6. Final beats of mukkala muqabla sounds like dr.alban Africa. It’s a sample too. It’s not composed by dr.alban either! Same beats used by sandeep chawtha in kambath ishq song!
7. Main Background beats in Mangta hai kya from rangeela
8. Early bands like Deep Forest and some Euro techno bands used this concept a lot. That’s why title bird sound of thillana thillana from muthu sounds like Deep forest songs

There are many other samples Rahman used in many of his songs.it is not copying just using a commercially available samples!
I remember when Rahman was recording for "jaage hain" the S/W engineers told him that lets record the song in a low mod { track 5} and later FDM it to a higher track but Rahman sing it singularly ! In track 15! It is his original however madras choral sound was probably modulated. Not very sure in it.

Composing BGM

He doesn't actually sees the entire movie, he makes the director explain the entire script 100% and in every details and then asks for a demo. However the first version of bgm he gives is modified and re modified numerous time after seeing the film. The bgm for guru was modified just a month before the public release...
Rang de basanti bgm was actually purely on script. Some parts of the movie were modified as per the bgm. Remember the scene when the rebels walked into the radio station? And the music dat comes behind it? ... The scene was actually pretty different but according to the music it was modified and the modifications came in their walking style, check the scene carefully you will find their feet falling on the ground as per the music tune.
Also i heard that Rahman composed the Music for a period of 2 years. I just heard it & I'm not sure about it. Can anybody confirm it. If he really had taken 3 yrs. to compose the films music then see his dedication. Amazing man!!

Rahman's recording and Mixing

Guys not just Rahman, about all music composers’ use loops or samples which they buy from distributers like sony or apple etc... It’s like this instead of calling a performer like a guitarist to perform for his/her song a composer buys his recorded piece and uses it. These pieces are royalty free it’s like the guitarist sells it to Sony on an agreement and Sony distributes it throughout the world. That is why you find same sound effects in two different songs of Rahman sometimes.(sometimes in other music director's songs) Loops are not necessary to be only a single note. It can be chords or even a piece or a scratch...

I dunno how many of u has noticed this in ARR songs (especially those who are musicians). All his songs irrespective of the mood have a constant 'pads' or 'strings' backing. The chords played with the pads and strings is also not conventional.. They are the 7ths, 11ths or diminished chords. They give the song a 'feeling', a 'soul' (hmmm...quite technical!)

A classic example is the song "Thirupachi Arivalaa" from Taj Mahal. Check out the pads in the songs. Another is "Aye Udi Udi" from Saathiya. Remove the pads these songs become soul-less and very plain.

The only other person who uses this same method is Harris Jayaraj. I'm sure he learnt it from ARR. Wonder if more music directors should do the same.

I read somewhere that Rahman sir started learning Indian classical and Carnatic classical in 1992....since almost all his songs are raga based...i wanted to clarify that he learnt classical before or after 1992

How does he compose a new tune...does he play it in his piano??? or does he write the swaram or how does he go about conceiving a song out of nowhere and create a master piece...

Lemme tell you that no software in the world can create a tune! I will laugh my stomachs out if someone tells me that tere bina or any song is a product of software!!!!!! Now what can a software do? What does Rahman do in his studio with all those software..Why does he always update his software? It is very simple. I will tell you in brief...

1. He records songs over a period of 10-15 days. a singer sings one song perhaps innumerable time till Rahman gives a hands up ! Once dat signal has been got the singer realizes that his job is done. Now Rahman sits over his singing and edits the bad parts and couples all the best parts and after another day of hard work the singers work is ready. The singer never sang that song contiguously but his best parts are selected and sampled.
2. He then records music or wat ur call as bgm ..After that he mixes it with the vocal part... then suddenly he may realize that both of them don't gel well in frequency...and then frequency division modulation takes place { a huge process frndsz...} which very well packs the music and vocal part
3. He needs Shreya Ghosal to sing in track 15 {d highest} but Shreya can sing only till 11! {Assume ...am gvng an example}. So what can Rahman do? Let her sing in track 8 -9 in which she is comfortable and then simply phase modulates the vocal to appear as if she sang in track 15! this is a very costly process and risky too so if i am not wrong Rahman has done it only 5-6 times ...

So A.R.Rahman is a genius, not a technician. He uses software but doesn't use to "produce" tunes...instead use dem so effectively to "edit" tunes. And dat is why perhaps he is d best .technology he uses yes but his originality is maintained in each song.

Software has no brains. It will do what you tell it to do. So if i program my software to sing sa re ga ma pa then yes u r rite s/w can produce tunes. And am pretty sure Rahman uses custom made software .the bottom line is SOFTWARES DO NOT PRODUCE TUNES like aye hayirathe and tere bina .i told u the exact places where Rahman uses software

What do you mean by a Track?

Many people have different definitions of tracks. "Track" is not a musical keyword but it pretty software related. We divide a tune into several sound parts. Every channel has a baud rate frequency. For example if you hum a voice in a low scale u may call it as a track-1. The song jaage hain goes very high high enough to be called as track 15. Empirically track is a pitch depth value vrs volume. The intersection of the graph is the resonant value. This value is what the purest and d virgin tune we call. It is difficult to achieve this resonant value due to several reasons but Rahmans studio is feature adapted to it. Almost 99% of his songs are resonant valued.

After Rahman {in Hindi music} it is Shankar ehsaan loy who has achieved so perfection and himesh...hmmm lets not speak of him here...but he has achieved 89% resonant value in aashiq banaya apne title song and china town title .

I heard a lot of spectra sonics stuff in rang de basanti...esp. the amazing pads from spectra sonics atmosphere...he's also been using swarplug, an Indian instrument plugin, which can be heard in water and the background score of RDB.the santoor you hear in chanchan from water is actually swarplug doing the job!

But let me tell you, it’s easy to USE software but it isn’t easy to CREATE stuff with software. SAMPLES are an easy way out and most music directors are going the samples way cuz it’s easier and quicker.

This includes people like Salim Sulaiman (sadly, they lack tunes), Himesh (He lacks creativity... and singers... lol), Shankar Ehsaan Loy (now these 3 guys are actually pretty good), Sandeep Chowta (he's not even a music director according to me, more a DJ kind of fella)

Someone like Rahman, I notice, takes the pain of CREATING his own samples as well (apart from using purchased ones). Now that’s a huge difference. This combined with the responsibility of making path breaking tunes is a big task... make no mistake about it.

What I'm saying can be summed up thus: give the same equipment, computers, keyboards, the musicians, the software, the samples etc. to any other music director in the country... they still cannot match A R Rahman... it takes a genius to CREATE something extraordinary like he does.

Being the user of this sound editing software I can give my suggestions. The usage of sound editing software such as Neundo, Cubase ,Sonar and Logic is very helpful and reduces our work in the technician point of view. I personally don't like his usage of the atmosphere pads like Area 51, Air 201, Equinox etc. in his songs ( he uses them for backing chords ) . Though these sounds are pleasant and filling they spoil the naturalism of the song... But his comprehension on the editing software and plug-ins and using them in his songs and BGM is fabulous. But that in itself is his drawback!!Also sum1 told me that Rahman has one of the largest collections of samples in Asia!!!

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, bass lines 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. according 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 Professional

1. Rahman 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?
2. 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!!

That’s Rahman for u..... The best musician India has produces after R D Burman !!

Something about music sampling for beginners

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 Days

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.

Sample 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.

Courtesy: Wikipidia

Some Facts

1. He records most of the songs in the late night because he believes that is the time at which a person's sound will be at its top best.
   
2. He allows singers to sing their own versions of the song separately and chooses best among them.
   
3. Might, might not i don't know... There are more than 1000 samples available in Sony and apple.
   
4. 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
   
5. 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.
   
6. Chinna Chinna Asai was composed as a 'sad' full song initially but later was changed to a happy song.
   
7. 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.
   
8. Thiruda Thiruda and Duet took most time in composing followed by box-office dud mangal pandey.
   
9. Maiyya Maiyya was recorded in Toronto and music was added later as usual.
   
10. 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, and Kadhalan... etc. was made before 1994...

I was not born in the time of Miya Tansen....

But I'm lucky to hear A R Rahman.... :-)