I had promised a "different" song after I uploaded my "hello world" song (i.e Purani Jeans by Ali Haider)... Here I go from a peppy Hindi/Urdu number of the 90s to a Malayalam romantic melody of the 90s...
Original Credits:
Song: Ambalapuzhe
Movie: Advaitham (1992)
Music: M.G.Radhakrishnan
Lyrics: Kaithapram
Singers: M.G.Sreekumar, K.S.Chitra
This song is like our "family song". Let me explain: My wife, Sumeetha, likes to sing this. I like the music arrangement. My daughter, Shriya, treats this as a lullaby and falls asleep when this is played. What is it with today's kids ? They treat romantic melodies as lullabies !! :-)
This is a song that showcases the "Edakka", a wonderful instrument played when "Ashtapadi" (- Geetagovindam, to be precise) is sung in the temples of Kerala. Geetagovindam evokes bhakthirasa as well as romance since it is supposed to be all about love between Krishna and Radha.
This is a cover version sung by Sumeetha and me. The entire accompaniment music was arranged using "softsynths" i.e. no real instrument was played (If you are not aware of what MIDI or Softsynth is, please read my blog post,http://godsownband.blogspot.com/2009/02/all-about-old-jeans-and-guitar.html). Obviously it was extremely difficult to match the tone of the real musical instruments using software. So, a lot of approximations/simplifications were made, hopefully without sacrificing the overall feel. e.g. My Edakka softsynth, despite various trials, refused to sound like the one in the original - so I had to employ "Udukke" softsynth (a similar but smaller percussion instrument and having different playing style) along with Ganjira/Kanjeera and Ghatam to give the rhythmic accompaniment in place of Edakka. Softsynths used for all the Indian musical instruments were provided by a plugin called "Swarplug" provided by "Swarsystems" (http://www.swarsystems.com/). Similarly Veena pieces which have glides have not come out exactly like the original - using the pitchbend wheel on a keyboard is not exactly my strength, so I had to change the music a bit to suit what I can play :-)
Instruments in this cover version:
- Udukke, Ganjira/Kanjeera, Ghatam, Santur, Manjeera/Jaalara, Chimta, Veena, Sitar, Bansuri, Dholak and Mridangam on Swarsystems Swarplug
- Strings, 12-String Guitar, Bass and Electronic Percussion Kit on Cakewalk TTS-1 Synth
Listen to the cover version here:
Ambalappuzhe - cover - Sumeetha and Sudhir | Upload Music
Hey, Sudhir, I finally found time to listen and loved the music and the singing...mostly the 'edukka' parts...Will listen through all your other ones too. I don't understand the software things that you have written but can understand the 'feel', and that I feel both you and Sumeetha have got right...great!
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