Naina Neer Bahaye

Naina neer bahaye from Water is a song very, very dear to me - and easily one of Sadhana's very best. I love how Rahman brings in such a calming and ethereal feel to it. Here's my take. I haven't done a particularly great job of creating the karaoke track but this being a vocals heavy song, hopefully that can be excused. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Song: Naina neer bahaye
Film: Water
Music: A. R. Rahman
Lyrics: Sukhwinder Singh
Original singer: Sadhana Sargam

poo vaasam- with Karthik Nagarajan

Octaves turns three and I couldn't have found a better song for today.
Its usually hard to pick out a single favorite song for anyone, but I think if I'm asked to do that, its very likely that I'll pick poo vaasam most of the time.
I usually say that once a composer picks a good raga, half the job is done- for the beauty of the raga itself takes care of much of it. But this song, despite being in one of THE most beatiful ragas (vivahapriya/ shudhdha sarang) stands as a wonderful composition in its own right. I'll be ever so thankful to Vidyasagar for creating such an outstanding melody. Everytime I listen to it, I feel so much thought and care has gone into making each and every bit of it. And of course, can't forget the beautiful lyrics!

Not to mention everything else associated with the song: anbe sivam, one of the classiest and brilliant movies in Tamil cinema- and one with which I really relate to; Kamal Hassan- what an absolute genius... and of course, Madhavan who's adorable in this.

For this song, I could only think of Karthik's voice... and when I heard his recording, I was just amazed. His parts can really pass off as the original, I would say. (I totally loved Vijay Prakash's rendition by the way!)
I've been wanting to do this song for long but never found a good karaoke... So thanks, Karthik for the patience to fix the karaoke track to make it sound as good as the original, and of course for all the efforts in mixing.

This one's probably the most fulfilling cover I've done till date. Here's hoping that you enjoy it too.

And as this blog completes three years today, many thanks to friends, fellow bloggers and well meaning critics who have kept it going through all the hits and misses :)

Song: poo vaasam
Film: anbe sivam
Music: Vidyasagar
Lyrics: Vairamuththu
Singers: Vijay Prakash/ Sriram Parthasarathy (two versions), Sadhana Sargam

Mixing of this version: Karthik Nagarajan

Akkam Pakkam

After quite a long break, here's a song again...
Akkam pakkam is a beautiful, soothing melody. G.V.Prakash, despite the 'Rahmanic' influences seems to be doing doing a great job. And Sadhana's thamizh is truly commendable in this one!
Here's my version. Do drop in your comments.
Thanks to Rosh for the karaoke track!

Song: Akkam Pakkam
Movie: Kreedam
Music: G.V.Prakash
Singer: Sadhana Sargam
Lyrics: N.Muthuthukumar



Download here.

By the way, get ready for Blogswara 5- soon to be released!

When recording meant nothing more than singing...

It was only recently that I learnt about cool music softwares and what they can do to your voice and how powerful tools they are. Of course I knew about their existence even before, but somehow never really felt upto it to try my hand at using them... Blogging etc. never really crossed my mind. I was a happy listener and visitor to others' blogs.
So until some months back, my recording exercise consisted of just one thing- singing. No amp, no reverb, no normalising, no pitch benders or scale changers... nothing. And most importantly, no mixing! Just pop in the original casette or cd into the music system and another empty casette, hit the 'karaoke' button and just start recording, singing along with the original singer, trying drown her voice hehe...(wasn't even aware of karaoke cd's being available in the market!)
Actually in a way recording that way was great fun. 'Ignorance is bliss' so holds here.
Since I would record on a tape, there was obviously no cut-copy-paste or anything, so even a slight slip here and there, and the entire song would have to be redone, right from the beginning! There have been so many instances where I goofed up something towards the very end of the song and felt so frustrated about having to start all over again!
Although modern softwares and recording on the computer gives one a lot of flexibility and luxury, recording on tapes was a challenge in itself and the satisfaction it would give me after the completion of a song was immense. Especially after singing some of them atleast 5-6 times (the entire song, that is! ) !
I was just thinking of those good old days...and felt like blogging those old recordings, however bad the recording quality is (I trust it aint too bad, since they're all now made up and enhanced with....ahem....softwares (again! sigh)...

Some old recordings- done 6 years back :
Kannodu Kanbadhellam:

Jhoola bahon ka:

Konjum Mainaakkale:

Boondon se baatein:

More recent ones: Thathiththom:

Manam Virumbudhae:

Sowkkiyama:

Snehidhane:

Kannamoochi:

Chalo tumko lekar chalein (Jism)

pal pal hai bhaari (Swades)

Dil mera ek taara (December 16)

Mausam ki sargam ko sun (with Deepthi Krishnamurthy)

Jahan piya wahan main (Pardes)