Here's where we come across music-
Spotify songs,
YouTube videos,
Background scores for TV series on Netflix/ Hotstar/ Prime Video,
Background scores in movies,
Your favorite band is playing a live concert at Hard Rock Cafe.
Did you know there's a team of professionals working hard behind the scenes to make sure you have a good listening experience?
After a note is played on an instrument or generated on a computer, it goes through a lot of processing before it reaches listeners like you and me.
As a student of music, it is essential that you know about some of these processes.
I took my students to one of the best recording studios in Pune- Bandish Studios.
Meet the Team at Bandish Studios:
Piyush Shah, the founder of Bandish Studios, is a gold medallist from the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India.
He founded Bandish in 2012.
Since then, he has worked in the film industry as a sound designer for many years. His work covers movies in multiple regional language films in India (Hindi, Marathi, English, Tamil, Malayalam) and abroad as well.
He has bagged multiple awards for his fantastic work, including won Zee Award for Best sound design for the movie "Dithee". Recently, he was working on a Marathi film named "Poraga Majetay"- which received the Best Film Award at PIFF (Pune International Film Festival).
Rachna Shah, the finance and administrative backbone of Bandish. She is a Chartered Accountant by profession who helps streamline the studio workflow and plans the logistics to meet deadlines.
Omkar Rajshree studied sound engineering at the very well-known Dawn Studios in Pune.
Guitarist in a band by passion and a Sound Engineer by profession, at Bandish Studios, he looks into sound, as well as film production. Anything related to sound and music, he’s got you covered!
Imtiyaj Jumanalkar did his sound engineering course at SSM Kerala. Having a keen interest in location sound recording, he has been working in this field as an Assistant and Location Sound Recordist for over 6 years.
The Tour
Saturday, 10th September 2022. 6:00 pm
After being welcomed to the studio, the students were taken to the Mixing and Mastering Room, where the team explained to us:
What a recording studio does.
What is the layout of a recording studio.
How a recording is done for films and songs, and how it is mixed and mastered before being sent out to the listeners.
Getting to know about the setup in the studio- Monitors, surround sound, cables, computer hardware and software, soundproofing. Basic concepts like gain, reverb, equalizer, and compressor were also explained in brief.
We were taken to the Foley/Recording Room next (Foley- noun relating to or concerned with the addition of recorded sound effects after the shooting of a film, "a foley artist"). Here, Omkar and Imtiyaj explained how sounds are created and recorded. This session was quite informative as the students got to know how different sounds like- footsteps, sword fights, and sci-fi sounds are created in the studio. A mini Q&A session followed.
As a demonstration, I played piano and recorder on two separate tracks, and Omkar mixed+mastered it. We got to know how a basic recording can be worked upon and fine-tuned to make it sound really good.
Bandish also has a Control Room- where audio engineers work on their computers to get the final product...
..and a lovely mini-theatre, where movies are screened.
Next, it was time to go to Bandish Labs. At this RnD venue, they enjoy experimenting with the alchemy of different techniques, expressions, and technologies. They test several experiments with VR, AR, Simulations, AV installations, holophonic recordings, projection mapping, Binaural, etc.
Some of the students performed piano pieces as a concluding act for the tour.
Thank you Bandish Studios for having us, and thank you for the lovely experience!
Bonus
Here are some examples of bad and good recordings done by me over the years. See if you can notice the differences.
Recording 1 (Click here to watch) -this is a regular phone recording. You can hear some background noise (especially the pedal), and the audio keeps getting cut off after reaching a certain threshold. Not fun to listen to.'
Recording 2 (Click here to watch) - This is where I tried doing something better. I went to YouTube and looked at how my keyboard audio can be sent to my phone directly. I came across this video on 'How to record your keyboard audio directly into your phone?' You can hear that the amount of sound coming in from the device isn't controlled. The GAIN isn't controlled. Hence it sounds very harsh. I would definitely not say that it is better that the 1st one. A failed experiment.
Recording 3 (Click here to watch) OR Recording 4 (Click here to watch the Instagram video) - These recordings are much better because I used an audio interface. I spent time doing some research and then invested in the right tools.
Conclusion:
When you listen to music, you would want a well-balanced recording, without any disturbances. It makes your auditory experience so much better. You can play around with these concepts yourself by using these platforms:
Audacity- The easiest to learn, for beginners. Mostly for mixing multiple tracks and basic editing (this is what I started with)
BandLab- an online platform, where you can also collaborate with your friends. Also has an Android app
Reaper- Free industry standard software available for Windows users
GarageBand- only for Mac/iPhone/iPad users. Excellent user interface.
There are other software programs available in the market, but these are the ones that will be at your disposal, free of cost. There are plenty of YouTube tutorials to get you started. Happy learning!
Nice presentation style & illustrations.
Nice post! Good training to students & music lovers!!