Bhangra Mixers reveal yourselves.

[l9821518]

Just saying Hello

Setting up a small studio and label in West Midlands UK. Been recording on an amateur level for a few years. Expanding equipment list (only tools that I know I will use on the job). Ditching Behringer mixer for Dav BG8 Pre's, UA-2192 AD?DA's and Coleman Audio Monitoring Controller. Will grab a Charter Oak mic in the same shopping spree. Looking forward to the expansion/upgrade.

Check out ironfistgroup.com if you have time.

Will be great to learn from and communicate with members from the desi community in the same field.

Changa Feh

[TeReKeTe]

large up bhangra crew. let's keep in touch. FWIW getting back to shan's last comment; dhol is so unpredictable. sometimes you can get away w/ lots of filtering and it sounds really solid; othertimes, it starts sounding like 2 different drums (not good).

phase is almost always flipped on the good-sounding stuff.

logic's enveloper-- version of SPL transient designer-- is a godsend on the bass side.

and dynamic mic's can really bring the soul out, as opposed to condensers!

[Shan]

Originally Posted by TeReKeTe

logic's enveloper-- version of SPL transient designer-- is a godsend on the bass side.

Sony Trans Mod and Waves TransX wide band are also great for shaping the attack on Dhol and Dholak. Both of these have saved many mixes I've done. Some of the engineered Dhol tracks I get from India are questionable at times. These type of plug-ins have helped alot.

These transient style plug-ins are also good on tumbi.

Shane

[carbohydrate]

this is a cool thread.

i don't play or record dhol though i'd love to... but a lot of this crosses over with drum and percussion recording which i do a lot of. plus i love indian music.

an idea which might be relevant for recording dhol is to spend a bit of time with the drum in the recording space before you set up any mics, just to find the most resonant spot in the room. an australian engineer named stav talks about this in his excellent book, in regard to recording drums.. you get someone to carry the floor tom around the room while you follow and use your ears to find the sweetest spot. then you set the kit up around the floor tom in that spot. sounds weird but i think it makes a lot of sense... how many times have you seen drum kits set up in a room without any thought exactly where it is?

anyway this would have to be relevant for recording dhols. i would also concur that a room mic is essential in getting low end resonances, at least with recording congas, which are kind of a similar size.. best mic for this i've used was a coles 4038 ribbon, which i wish i owned! sennheiser 421s are awesome for the close mics.

--

on another note, would love to hear people's thoughts on what gives bollywood recordings their amazing sound.. i am totally in love with the dirty, spacey sound a lot of great bollywood records have. often i would guess the date of a bollywood recording to be twenty years earlier than it really is! does anyone have any experience, anecdotes or insights into bollywood recording sessions? or can you point me in the right direction?

cheers!

[carbohydrate]

oh one other thought, re phase on multi-miking drums of any sort.. this only really works on DAWs where you can view the waveform, though of course you could use IBP devices if you're mixing from tape.. anyway a great first step in teh mixing process is to zoom right in and line up all your waveforms so the phase is locked. if you need to invert any tracks that will be obvious too. anyway doing this before you start balancing is going to make a HUGE diffference to the solidity and your drum sounds, you'll hear it right away. lining the room mic up like this can sound great as well.

anyway back to the mix..

[Shan]

Originally Posted by carbohydrate

...i would also concur that a room mic is essential in getting low end resonances, ...

I think I may have posted this earlier with full specs, but there have been times where I would use up to 6 mics on one Dhol. And yes...this includes a few room mics.

Not everything gets used in the mix though, but it sure gives me options throughout a track.

I'll try and post some pics of my recent tumbi sessions. Having a tumbi on a stand has given me amazing results these days.

Shane

[Shan]

I always knew the amazing style of Bhangra would eventually catch on in the rest of the world. It's slowly making progress.

This new Punjabi singer has some pretty catchy tracks. thumbsup thumbsup

This is a very good thing in my opinion. But I gotta tell ya, my jaw hit the floor.

Shane

[Shan]

And here is the Punjabi singer that you hear singing those tracks(no joke):

[Shan]

The scary thing is that her melodic phrasing is better than some of the Punjabi singers I've recorded.

You go Anita!

Shane

[sehgal]

Originally Posted by Shan

The scary thing is that her melodic phrasing is better than some of the Punjabi singers I've recorded.

You go Anita!

Shane

Man, I love her album..I think she has done an awesome job for a non punjabi and i always tell ppl that she is better than half of the punjabi artists out there..!!!!


Long time on this thread..hows everyone doing?

[Blast9]

Anyone notice the Bhangra-style beats at the beginning of "Ant music"

Not so much "red indian" as per band image, but "proper indian"

Nowhere near as punchy as what I hear coming off Bhangra dance records!

[norumba]

hi everyone ! very great and useful thread... I'm involved primarily in Desi music and am self recording out of neccesity - this is a big help!
any EQ ing thoughts for basic dayan-bayan setup? Im having trouble getting good tones out in post -production form the bayan, but that may be a question of mic placement, and the previous posts on thsi thread and elsewhere are already giving me some new approaches.

Anyone have good experience mic'ing up or eq' ing sarod?

shukriya!

[disuye]

Can anyone here point me in the direction of some good multi-sample Indian Film strings? Preferably a CD with EXS24 programs on it, but not essential. I just can't seem to get anything sounding remotely close when trying to program EWQL Symphonic Orchestra dfegad...

Looking for that fast legato / glide run down which is quite common in film soundtracks. Failing a sample CD, if anyone has any good web sites regarding typical arrangements for this I'd appreciate that just as much.

Thanks in advance!

[TeReKeTe]

just jumping back in here-- haven't been doing a ton of bhangra lately but i've been working w/ sehgal a bunch over the last year; the amount of artists and his backlog of great music is INSANE.

for dayan-bayan balance yeah, for me it always comes down to the basics-- the player, the drums, the mics, the placement, and ultimately their place in the tune. I know sehgal's had luck w/ a single 57; i tend to like 2 mics, either SDC's or dynamics like the 57. tabla's tones are always much lower on the eq spectrum that you figure, so if you're multitracking you can put the high side of the dholki above it. really, with all this multi-layered punjabi stuff, having a sense of what instrument(s) will be driving the arrangment can make things work much easier.

speaking of which, the modded mercenary 57 is totally rocking my world for dhol/tabla/dholki; nice top end, headroom for days and a nice beefy tone, I just had to give my friend's one back... dammit, now i gotta buy at least one!

shan, i'm quite curious about your tumbi stand. didn't we chat about dhol stands a while back? i've had luck w/ using a jr.-sized keyboard stand but you definitely do lose tonality.

are people seeing mostly large-sized dhols in the studio, or are you using gujrati dhols, or wooden dhols of that size?

and back onto the never-ending quest to get that elusive, amazing dhol sound...

[malekmusic]

hey slutz,

i would love to join youre community. im iranian and work in the persian music industry. since our music is kind of simular i think this is a good place for me to exchange experience.

right now im about to start a project with an afghani singer which will have lots of indian influences, if i need help be sure ill let you know :P

let the tablas roll :D

[Shan]

Originally Posted by TeReKeTe

shan, i'm quite curious about your tumbi stand. didn't we chat about dhol stands a while back? i've had luck w/ using a jr.-sized keyboard stand but you definitely do lose tonality.

I used a mic stand with some type of clip that I cant even remember where I got. I'll try and take a picture of it with the Tumbi mounted and post it. I use it all the time. Speaking of Tumbi's I have a friend of mine bringing me a few new ones back from Punjab. Looking forward to recording them. I just have to wait until June.

I use the aluminum "X frame" style keyboard stands for Dhol.

and back onto the never-ending quest to get that elusive, amazing dhol sound...

I'm my own worst critique and never satisfied. I always try and get alot of separation between the low and high end using high pass and low pass filters first. The rest of the EQ settings, depending on the track of course, you wouldn't want to see. They even scare myself...but work. A tiny bit of plate reverb seems to liven up the high end and of course they're always double tracked.

Shane

[Shan]

The featured track in this video was done by yours truly. That "mp3 sound" just destroys the high end of my Dhol in that vid along with the whole stereo image. Oh well, what can you do. Sounds a little more tolerable in the music player(track 2) version below it.

Since I don't use loops, all the percussion(and everything else) was played through the track. Let's just say, the percussion players had very sore arms at the end of the day.

...and the Tumbi stand was also used.

Shane

[FireMoon]

Anyone wants to ask Tom Lowry "Planet Studios" Coventry England, any questions about the scene just let me know and i will pass them onto him. He's a close friend of mine ...

[nulldevice]

Wow, I'm really late getting to this party.

I'm trying all sorts of craziness for that elusive killer dhol sound. Haven't got it yet. If I have any luck, I'll let you all know.

[saskesan]

Kiddaaaaaaaaahhh, hello peeps howz every1.

Well i live in Belgium and im a newcomer in the music scene.
Me together with a friend make music, sing on it, write out lyrics and so on.

For 2 years we made sang on instrumentals, downloaded from youtube & sang on it, but now we wanted to get a lil bit serious so we bought:

- Mbox mini black
- Pro tools 8.0.4
- Oxygen 49 (midi keyboard)
- Rode NT1-A condensor microphone + Shockmount + Pop Filter + mic stand.

Soon we'r gonna buy studio monitors Yamaha HS80.

I just wanted to ask, all these equips that i mentioned, are good enough to make punjabi & punjabi rap songs ? can i make quality songs with it ?

Btw just to end on a good note, check my new song that i wrote down, will soon upload the song (made on mixcraft & sang with simple headphones) :D

Vaithe Vaithe so gaye an, teri yaadan vich assi kho gaye an ** x2
** Kadde puch leya kar tu vi sadaaaa haaaaaaal, Hun aja sade naal soniye
aaja sade naaal, hun baija sade naal heeriye baija sade naaaaal ohhhhhhhh**

[nulldevice]

That should be entirely sufficient. The hardest part will be dealing with dhols. You can either get some sample loops (there're , or record your own. They can be a bit tricky to record, though.

But otherwise, yeah, you should be good to go!