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Remastering Tamil oldies

Topic started by Shankar Ramakrishnan (@ sdn-ts-003casjosp16.dialsprint.net) on Tue May 5 00:54:58 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I am reposting the below message on a new thread I just created after realizing the original thread to which I posted it, "Pathetic Recording Quality of Raja Songs" was as dead as a dinosaur. I think that regulars on this thread would agree with me on preserving some of the timeless treasures of Tamil film songs from the pre-Illayaraja era.

Original message follows-


am new here and kind of late to this thread, I guess. But I have always been interested in remastering some of the oldies of MSV, A.M. Raja, etc. I have
listened to the current CD recordings and have found most to be pathetic, worse than even cassette recordings. I suspect whoever did the CD mastering just
used a plain retail cassette instead of a studio master and didn't do a good job either. When I came from India, I had recorded a lot of songs from Vividh
Bharathi, and frankly have found them to be of better quality than my friend's CD collection.

Does anyone know if the original master cuts are still lying somewhere in the studios? If they are, would the people who own the rights be cooperative in
letting someone with an expertise in digital remastering do it? (No, I don't mean myself.) Also, if the originals are in 4/8 track, we can probably get stereo
although, being the traditionist I am, I prefer them being in mono.

Anyone on this thread have any ideas?

Shankar

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Responses:

• From: Ravi (@ envy.cs.umass.edu) on: Tue May 5 01:29:29 EDT 1998
  
  Shankar: If you want any thread revived, please send me mail. Thanks. I am working on making that automatic without increasing the response time many fold. :-).
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ ) on: Tue Apr 4 19:38:24 EDT 2000
  
  Since this is an interesting topic and goes beyond the quality of IR's songs, I would like to revive this thread and add my nominees that are primed for digital remastering:
  
  1)"Marandhae Poachchu Romba Naalaachu" a great bouncy number by MSV & SPB. The drums sound flat in the original recording and would benefit from a technical once over, ditto with the fast paced flute.
  
  2)"Palinginaal Oru Maaligai" the sultry LRE in one of her best renditions. A bebop jazz like tune from MSV (I think). Would sound great retrofitted.
  
  3)"Aththaan En Aththaan", I know most would frown at this selection of a slow song, but pay careful attention to the background violin score. It has to be Ramamurthy's doing! A fabulous score that would benefit from today's technology to bring the strings to life.
  
  4)"Unnai Naan Paarthadhu", an undulating song with a great pace (Shankar-Ganesh I believe), spirited singing (who else but SPB?) fine lyrics and enjoyable light music arrangement with bongos just leaping off the song even in mono recordings.
  
  5)"Oru Naal Yaaroa Enna Paadam", I'm not sure if V.Kumar or MSV did this classic tune from Major Chandrakanth, but great percussions and strings carry this song like a waltz. P.Suseela just soars as usual(are you reading, karthik?)
  
  6)"Oar Aayiram Paarvayilae", I know Vedha is like Deva of old but at least the man had good taste in adapting songs from other sources. The violin interlude in this aching song is tremendous. To remaster it would be doing music lovers a service.
  
  7)"Naanae Varuvaen Ingum Angum" all that I said about the previous song apply here to another of Veda's adaptations. The atmospheric strings, the haunting bass, and the wailing Suseela...ooh, I'm getting chills just thinking about it.
  
  8)"Pudhiya Paravai"--entire soundtrack is worth remastering. MSV put in some inspired work here. The percussion, the strings, the brass everything was splendid. Just imagine it digitally remastered. If they ever put out a restored DVD version of this I would wait days in line to buy it.
  
  9)"Kudiyirundha Kovil"--everything I said for #8 apply here. One of MSV's signature soundtracks.
  
  10)"Nenjil Oru Raagam"-- the entire soundtrack needs to be flexed out in digital. As I mentioned in another thread, T.Rajendar gave some tasty and tasteful pieces in his reign. This soundtrack took instruments that an ordinary light music troupe would have and made simple magic with it. Especially, SPB's raucous, "Nenjam Paadum Pudhiya Raagam" and Jeyachandhran's upbeat, "Idhaya Vaasal Varuga Endru" would gain so much from remastering.
  
  Ilayaraja has so many soundtracks that could benefit from digital remastering. The ones that are at the top of my list are:
  1)Eera Vizhi Kaaviyangal
  2)Ninaivellaam Nithya
  3)Payanangal Mudivathillai
  4)Kaatrinilae Varum Geetham
  5)Anbae Sangeetha
  6)Kaadhal Oaviyam
  7)16 Vayadhinilae
  8)Alaigal Oyvadhillai
  9)Ilamai Oonjalaadugirathu
  10)Naan Vaazhavaippaen
  11)Panneer Pushpangal
  12)Raaja Paarvai
  13)Ullaasap Paravaigal
  14)Priya
  15)Sindhu Bairavi
  
  
• From: chidams (@ 38.23.1.248) on: Tue Apr 4 20:26:43 EDT 2000
  
  Priya is still one of the best available recordings. The first stereo movie songs are ok in CD. However, still it can gain by ARR-like sound quality
  
  
• From: kiru (@ surf0004.sybase.com) on: Tue Apr 4 21:33:28 EDT 2000
  
  I was keen on this remastering thing long time ago (2 or 3 yrs). I contacted Oriental Records who have the rights to IR's songs for release on CD. These guys do not have the original master tapes. They only have the digital tapes they have made. I dont think we can use these. I have to agree with Shankar, some CDs are worser than tapes. Some CDs are bad copies from LP records. We need the analog masters. The OR guy said that the masters may have been lost or badly preserved. But if we get hold of them we can do a very good job. To get around the copyright issue, I think we can consider releasing them on DVDs or VCDs.
  I was also thinking of remastering from the movie soundtrack. I dont know whether they have the stereo or mono tracks. I couldnt spend time going to the studios whenever I visit India. We need somebody in India to go to studios and verify these things. BTW, I am willing to even put some money if we can come up with a good business case.
  
  
• From: aruLaracan (@ psiphi.umsl.edu) on: Tue Apr 4 22:24:00 EDT 2000
  
  kiru,
  
  call me at your earliest convenience.
  
  
• From: STS (@ firewall.baan.com) on: Tue Apr 4 23:17:45 EDT 2000
  
  Hello Friends,
  
  I have uploaded 21 Chandrababu hits under
  golden old songs section of my page. URL of my page is
  
  http://stsrinivasan.tripod.com/OldTamilSongs.html
  
  Thanks and Regards
  
  STS
  
  

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