Pause, stop, rewind Pushed into oblivion by the technology revolution, audio cassettes are now nostalgic memories

Pause, stop, rewind

Pushed into oblivion by the technology revolution, audio cassettes are now nostalgic memories

In a multi-language film Lucky, sharing the lead along with the actors, a South African AIDS orphan and an old woman, is a compact audio cassette. For the boy, the only remembrance of his mother is her lullaby recorded in the casse tte. In the end, as the lullaby from the cassette fills the air, the old woman rocks the boy to sleep on her lap. And, he gets a new mother.

Building bonds is nothing new to the no-frills audio cassettes. And, playing cupid? It comes so easily. In Dil to Pagal Hai, when Pooja is still undecided about expressing her love for Rahul, magic happens in the form of her recorded message. And, the love story ends on a happy note.

Fond memories

Caught in a world of e-sounds and the paraphernalia of i-pods, MP3s and CDs, audio cassettes are now a thing of a past.

But for music lovers, listening to audio cassettes is a different trip down memory lane. Call it old world charm or nostalgia, they love it. For young music director Dharan, the first thing that comes to his mind at the mention of cassettes is Pudhu Vellai Mazhai from Roja. “What an extraordinary composition. After Roja, I don’t remember listening to any songs on cassettes,” he adds.

Along with Dharan’s collection of some 1,000 audio cassettes of old English country songs, classical, jazz, blues, and the Bee Gees of the 70s and 80s, there are a whole lot of cassettes with tunes he composed and recorded on a Sony tape recorder in his school days. “Though I have transferred all the music to CDs, listening to my raw compositions on cassettes is a different experience,” he says.

Music lovers say the fading out act of cassettes was gradual. But, in the last three years, it has been drastic. “Today, the takers are just a handful of the older generation and homemakers who find it difficult to handle sophisticated hi-fi music players,” says DJ Paramesh. And, they usually go in for the devotional and Carnatic music, the S uprabatham and the Vishnu Sahasranamam by M.S. Subbulakshmi.

Silent exit

The availability of CD players and CDs at throwaway prices has contributed to the silent exit of cassettes. “Even a movie CD comes at Rs.20. If the audio cassette of Azhagiya Tamil Magan costs Rs. 45, the CD is just Rs. 95. Better sound quality and shelf life are the other pluses,” Paramesh adds. According to music dealers, the cassette market was at its peak in the 80s. Audio recording companies such as HMV (His Master’s Voice), Music India Limited (now Universal Music) and T-series revolutionised the trend of quality cassettes at cheaper prices, paved the way for healthy competition and extraordinary combination collections.

“Mudhal Mariyaadhai, Payanangal Mudivathillai, Udhaya Geetham, the best of K.J. Yesudas, romantic hits of SPB…all from music maestro Ilayaraaja’s Echo Recording Company used to sell like hot cakes. In Hindi, we had Qurbani, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Lata Mangeshkar hits, four-cassette packs of Mohammed Rafi, all doing roaring business,” recalls Paramesh.

It is MP3s that has become a rage now, says S. Ramalingam, partner of Music Gallery. “The trend of buying a tape recorder is out. They go in for DVDs which double-up as CD players,” he adds.

Arrival of CDs

DJ Karthik says CDs took centre stage in the 90s with the arrival of A.R. Rahman and his genre of music. “Magnasound went in for a tie-up with Warner Bros and promoted music CDs extensively. Pyramid Audios also went in for CDs for movies such as Gentleman and Indian. But then, you had to shell out a minimum of Rs. 400 to get a CD. Now, things are different, you get music even free of cost on the Net.” Talking of audio sales, Paramesh says technology has killed the trend. “A decade ago, when the audio of Rajinikanth’s Muthu was released, we sold 100 cassettes on the very first day. But, achieving such numbers even in CDs is difficult today, because songs are immediately uploaded on the Internet,” he adds.

Romantic

But, there are still those who hold cassettes sent as a messenger of love close to their hearts. “Thirty years ago, recording messages in between the duets of P.B. Sreenivas and P. Susheela was considered the most romantic thing to do,” says Paramesh.

New rhythms DJ Karthikbab sets new trends in the world of music with the help of technology and talent

New rhythms - Trendsetter DJ Karthikbab at his music studio

DJ Karthikbab sets new trends in the world of music with the help of technology and talent

DJ Karthikbab entered the music scene when youngsters were dancing to the tunes of A.R.Rehman. And, the refreshing music inspired this DJ to set new trends. “It is amazing the way A.R. Rehman uses technology and the musical instruments,” Karthikbab says and plays his karaoke remix of akkam bakkam from Kireedam, in an all-new music mix. “Retaining the feel of the original composition is important. Knowledge about the flow of the track, the loop pattern, tempo, rhythm and beats matters,” the DJ adds, whose karaoke re-mixes are not mere instrumental versions of popular songs.

Music mixing

He combines technology — music mixing software such as sound forge and music director’s gold— and talent to infuse new life into songs. “Sometimes I hire keyboard artists to introduce new beats,” the DJ says, who has an enviable collection of 800 karaoke re-mix tracks, beginning with classics such as aasayae alaipolae and the evergreen kalangalil aval vasantham. His karaoke CDs of Tamil, Hindi, English and Malayalam numbers are heard in places as far as the U.S., Singapore and Malaysia, and Sri Lanka through the network of Tamil Manrams.

DJ Karthikbab started off selling audio cassettes of A.R. Rehman’s Roja, Puthiya Mugam and Thiruda Thiruda. Now, he has set up a DJ music studio for entertainers who create theme based music for stage shows.

cinematic background

“When a kid wants to perform a fairy tale, we create the story, step by step with the music, sound effects and the voice dubbing and create a cinematic background for the performance,” he explains. He has worked on about 70 school projects, which include public awareness themes such as banning plastic bags, cutting of trees, traffic rules, and so on.

He says the concept of music studios popular in Metros is catching up in smaller cities and attributes it to the growing awareness levels.

“Schools and colleges encourage students to explore their creative talents and so do the parents. Fashion technology students approach us with the script and for every single costume, be it historical or contemporary, there is a unique piece of music,” says the DJ, who has also composed script-oriented music for comedies in the popular TV show Asatha povadhu yaaru. This involves mixing music with lyrics, sound effects and dialogues.

Sound effects library

His objective is to help more people understand music better and to tell them that all they needs is a creative spark to come up with some great compositions. “It is not about cut and paste but creating new music. Music is all about the feel. There is no theory of musical composition involved in our studio,” he explains.

He has an impressive sound effects library with around 10,000 sound samples — animal sounds, jungle effect, sci-fi robot effects, kitchen sounds, water flow, train accidents, car crash, screams, etc. “I need to put in 12 hours of hard work to create a two-second effect,” he explains.

Karthikbab says being a DJ is not easy. s“Passion matters. It is not just about moving your fingers up and down on the sound mixer. You need to understand the pulse of the crowd. And, you need to be up to date on all music titles,” he says. Karthik has performed live-mixing for the IT crowd in Bangalore and travels to Cochin, Chennai, Ooty, Coonoor, Trichy and Kumbakonam for corporate events, birthday parties, mehendi ceremonies and farm house parties.

Special effects

“I carry 30 to 50, 00 tracks and do live re-mixing. We change the tempo of the song, add special effects like echo, change of tempo, etc. to make it faster. People want new sounds which they have not heard before,” he adds. Karthikbab’s next weekend outing is for a get-together in the jungles of Thekkady, complete with the laser effects.

He says Hindi re-mixes and Hindi pop numbers have come to rule the DJ world. “Youngsters want hip-hop, and new age music. Rajinikanth and Vijay numbers are a big hit. Of course, popular rock genres of the 80s are always in demand. Karaoke nights are popular in family parties.”

Sounds of Nature

Karthikbab will soon launch an album titled ‘Seashore for meditation and relaxation’, based on the sounds of Nature. “People who live in the metros miss out so much on Nature. So, the album will have the sounds of waves and breeze and a lot of temple music, to give a therapeutic feel,” he says.

He can be contacted at: 98422- 98469

Karthikbab 's Beats Music Studio - Theme music and stage shows

Theme music and stage shows

K. JESHI - The Hindu
The trend of creating theme-based music for stage shows is the result of awareness among students, parents and teachers.

They want to strike a balance between studies and extra-curricular activities. And, boost their confidence levels and leadership skills in the process. Now, school students want to express their talent through music, they go in for theme music and create a cinematic background to add value to their stage performances. “Be it an inter-school competition or the school annual day, they come up with a theme and we create the background music,” says DJ Karthikbab, w ho has set up a DJ music studio for entertainers, to create theme based music for stage shows.

For instance, Nursery school kids. He has created music for fairy tale stories. “When a kid wants to perform a Cinderella story, we create the story, step by step with music and sound effects and even the voice dubbing, and create a cinematic background for the performance,” the DJ explains. He has worked on more than hundreds of school projects for students in Coimbatore, Udhagamandalam, Kodaikanal and in other cities too.

Besides entertainment based themes, students also come up with public awareness concepts such as banning plastic bags, cutting trees and obeying traffic rules. The most recent one being ‘police and public relationship’, a single unit dance performance by students of various schools in Coimbatore. “It took three-months and we had incorporated music from the 1950s to 2008 in various forms,” he adds.

The positive trend is attributed to growing awareness levels among students, parents and teachers. Schools and colleges encourage students to explore their creative talent; so do the parents. So, they are open to experimenting new concepts that add value to their display of talent.

Students come up with one line story. And, the build up is created for a stage performance with music, right from stage entrance to various scenes. For instance, traffic awareness. Sound effects to indicate the traffic signal, the background vehicle movement, etc are used to convey the theme in a better way and also to make students aware of the issues.

Sound library

Karthikbab has a sound effect library of 10,000 sound samples, some created and some collected — sounds of vehicles, animals, weather, thunder, rain, water, sea shore, birds, war sounds, jungle effect, sci-fi robot effects, kitchen sounds, water flow, train accidents, car crash, screams, jokes with laughing effects, all find a place in the collection. The DJ has worked with students of G.D. School, Vivekalaya and Air Force School. “We create new sounds from our library. For children, it is an exposure to a new world and it boosts their confidence levels immensely. And, parents are willing to provide that platform for their children,” he adds.