One of the best Interviews giving good insight On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 5:47 AM, Thulasi Ram <karoke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> actually, things are getting better now :) visit links for more info. > text is garbled below > > http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/action/arrahman/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss > http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/action/arrahman/index2.html > > Scoring “Slumdog Millionaire” with Logic: An Interview with A. R. Rahman > > By Joe Cellini > > If you haven’t yet heard at least some of the score from this year’s > Oscar-winning best film “Slumdog Millionaire,” you must be trying very hard > not to. > > Even before it won two Oscars for best score and best song (“Jai Ho), as > well as the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for best score, A. R. Rahman’s > soundtrack—written on a Mac in Logic Studio—had registered with any > reasonably alert listener during the film’s much-reported rise from > Indian-flavored indie longshot to runaway worldwide hit. > > If the soundtrack’s audio reach is in part attributable to the film’s > sweeping success, its musical grasp is strictly the result of Rahman’s > unforgettable melodies and rhythms. In fact, It would be as hard to imagine > “Slumdog” without its script or cinematography as without Rahman’s score. > > One of the world’s most prolific and celebrated cinematic composers and > top-selling recording artists, Rahman has scored more than 110 films, > starting with Roja (1993), which was named by Time magazine as one of the > 100 best movie soundtracks. He is an equally avid student of cutting edge > music and technology, and he uses both to turn out scores and songs that > seamlessly combine classical Indian and Western sounds with modern vocal and > instrumental styles. > > For “Slumdog Millionaire,” Rahman blends Bollywood, hip-hop, world music > and more to not only complement but significantly carry the film’s energetic > plot and audience-pleasing themes. In a recent phone interview, Rahman spoke > about how he used Logic and other tools to create his eclectic, ambitious > score against unforgiving deadlines. > How did you come to work with director Danny Boyle on “Slumdog > Millionaire”? > > Well, I was really busy last year. I was doing about eight films, too many > really. And I had this email saying “Hey I’m Danny Boyle, I like your work, > and it would be great for us to have you on our film.” I didn’t know what to > answer. But after exchanging several more emails, I met him personally in > Mumbai. And when I talked to him, I had some interest and I wanted to see > the film. He had a first cut of the film already, and when I saw that I was > really interested and wanted to do it. So I left another film to do this > one. I made time for it. > Was your work on this film different than on other films? > > In some ways it was different, because it didn’t require as much work as I > sometimes do for other films, but it required high-quality work. Danny > usually uses many composers for a film because he wants different feels in > the music. When you go to just one composer, it usually has one feel. So I > took a clue from that and tried to think about what he might get from > different writers with different sensibilities, always keeping something of > mine in everything I wrote. He thought I wouldn't have time to do that, so > he was just going to have me do a few songs, but I feel you have a > responsibility to the whole movie. > > Each track in this film is completely different from the other. The film > needed that, because it follows one person’s life, but in many different > situations and moments from that life. And for the same reason, there are > different cultural elements: some are very strong Indian influences, and > some are very pop influences. If you take all the good things from ten > different soundtracks and put it together, it can make a beautiful > soundtrack of its own. > How long did it take to compose the “Slumdog Millionaire” score? > > The initial ideas were all done on this very basic idea of me singing or > playing keyboards and vocals. I’d send Danny a scratch of each idea over > email, several for each cue he’d given me. Danny would listen and tell me > which of the numbers he liked, and he’d start placing them. That was done a > couple of months back. When I had collected all of these ideas, I went to > England, and we spent three weeks together and finished the score. We’d > originally scheduled four weeks, but because Danny decided to mix the film > early, we had that much less time to do it. > Any disagreement about the kind of score you wanted? > > Normally when I work with a director I work through his eyes, and through > his vision, and that’s how I worked with Danny. Ideally, he gets excited > when he hears the sound I’ve delivered. At the same time, he challenges me > to produce other sounds and ideas. It made the job so much easier for me > than if I’d done something radically different on my own and then tried to > fit it into the film’s conception and convince people. > Do you typically write both the songs and the score for a film? > > Back in the day, it was common in India to be a composer and songwriter; it > was always that way. You would finish the songs in four days, then the > background music in four days. Today that is changing a little in India. > Describe your method for scoring a film. > > I mostly don't write to specifically defined cues. I just watch the film a > couple of times, stop watching it, then write something that comes to my > mind from the film. This way, when I try to sync the music, the results are > that much more wholesome. You get something extra that you don't get when > you're looking at specific points in the timeline. The music is much more > organic this way, not jumping cue to cue. It's more about counterpointing > and, sometimes, walking hand-in-hand. Most of the time it works out. If you > watch the picture and try to have a specific chord change here, a tempo > change there, when the director comes back and wants to move picture, you > find that you've wasted time. I think this way is more appealing to me and > to the people watching the film. Click tracks and following the SMPTE are > necessary for some things, but once you have everything in Logic, then > afterwards you can edit and make minor changes. > > > Making Tracks The Soundtrack > > To create the “Slumdog Millionaire,” Rahman used a rich palette of logic > plug-ins on the live instruments and software instrument tracks, including > classic Logic plug-ins like the Autofilter, Overdrive, Compressor, Fuzz Wah, > Enveloper, Stereo Delay, Phaser, Ring Shifter and Bit Crusher, as well as > the newer flagship Space Designer and Delay Designer to help create the > overall sound. Several of the tracks are very simply mixed in Logic Pro with > the Logic Adlimiter and Channel EQ on the main outputs. > “Jai Ho” > > In “Jai Ho,” his Oscar-winning song from “Slumdog,” Rahman made extensive > use of Logic instruments, including EXS24, the EVP88 electric piano, and ES2 > synth mixed with a few favorite Logic plug-ins such as Channel EQ, > Bitcrusher, and Guitar Amp Pro. The bassline as well as the trancey, > arpeggiated musical line used ES2 presets. > > On the long chorus vocals in “Jai Ho,” Rahman created the robotic, > stair-stepping pitch-bend effect with Logic’s Pitch Correction plug-in to > achieve the exaggerated tuning effect. > School’s In > > Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, which teaches students Western Classical > and Indian Classical Music, as well as Audio Media Education, is India's > first Apple Authorized Training Center to offer all the students Logic Pro > Level 1 Certification classes. The students at KM Music Conservatory use > MacBook or MacBook Pro computers running Logic Pro. > Useful Links > > - Official website <http://www.arrahman.com/v2/> > - Bio > > An artist who has redefined contemporary Indian music, A.R. Rahman is > an icon in the world of cinematic scoring and one of the world’s top 25 > all-time selling recording artists. > > Rahman’s score for “Slumdog Millionaire,” which was critically praised > by Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York > Times has sold more than 100,000 copies and was the #1 downloaded album on > iTunes. > > Widely considered the man who single-handedly revived public interest > in Indian film music in the 1990s, Rahman scored the runaway hit, “Roja,” > directed by noted Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam. The soundtrack earned > Rahman > the Indian National Award for Best Music Composer, and was named by Time > magazine as one of the 100 best movie soundtracks in the world. > > Rahman obtained a degree in western classical music from the Trinity > College of Music, London, and set up his own in-house studio called > Panchathan Record-Inn at Chennai, arguably one of Asia’s most sophisticated > and high-tech studios. > > > You compose chiefly in Logic Pro? > > Yes, I’ve been working with Logic for almost 12 years. I use it as my > writing tool because I can have it on a desktop or on a laptop. I can carry > it all over. > Why Logic? How does it help you as a composer? > > My initial switch to Logic was because it was a whole workstation. I used > to have a MIDI workstation and an audio workstation separately, so when I > would go back to a song, I had to almost re-create it, which was nearly > impossible; it was always like going back to step one. I was looking for > something that had MIDI and audio both, so I could have the whole project in > one place. After I got Logic, I could have the whole song on one project, > and I could have it on a disk. This meant I could go back to exactly where I > had left the project, rather than once again having to set up the modules > and have something change. This was a great thing for me. > > After the EXS24 sampler came into existence, it was even better. I could > have all my sounds in the EXS from everywhere, a 300-400GB library that I'd > built myself from my Roland and Akai gear. Now, with some more plug-ins, > it's just Logic Pro and the Apogee Symphony audio card, and that's it. > What’s your typical writing workflow in the studio? > > When I’m doing a song or any improvisation, most of the time I have a live > input on it, with headphones on, and the performers in the booth. And I have > a MIDI keyboard running simultaneously. So if I’m doing something that is > partly Indian classical, I keep prompting the singer or the performer on the > mike, and then keep playing it. After twenty minutes of that we sit down and > edit the portions I like. Sometimes I work like that, but sometimes I do > like the standard thing. You know, you have an idea and then you start > playing more instruments, more Logic instruments. > > Normally what happens is I have a rhythm, and it’s probably a loop. Then I > do my vocals, and once I have a structure in place, I record with the > singers and write lyrics. When I have the vocal recording, I then work in > reverse for the music. We record live rhythms sometimes, and then start > programming, and everything is complete. Then of course all the editing is > done, and we go through the mastering. That’s pretty much it. > What role do the Apogee Symphony systems play in your process? > > I use Symphony with Logic in the studio while I’m writing. I use the mobile > system when I travel, because I do a lot of my writing in hotel rooms; it > happens all the time. Right now I’m huddled up here (in Los Angeles) with my > MacBook Pro, which I also use to work on flights. > Did you use a lot of Logic effects, instruments, and plug-ins for the > “Slumdog” soundtrack? > > Yes, most of the processing was done with Logic plug-ins actually: Ring > Shifter; Multipressor; Space Designer. I also really like EXS24, EVP88, and > Sculpture, and I use them a lot. > You used guitar on certain tracks? Did you use specific plug-ins on the > guitar? > > Yes, there is sitar and guitar too. I used Guitar Rig as well as Native > instruments plug-ins on “Ringa Ringa” for the Indian rhythms and to give it > a very edgy kind of feel. > Did you use an orchestra, or mostly individual musicians? > > There was a string orchestra for one of the tracks, “Liquid Dance,” but > most tracks had single instruments, like guitar, sitar, and then taiko > drums. > How does Logic make it easier to handle those different kinds of > instruments and sounds? > > Well, since I work almost exclusively with Logic, it’s the only thing I > know. Most of the songs were written in Logic. And Logic’s mixing features > allowed us to meet a very tight deadline for “Mausam & Escape,” a track with > lots of instruments such as sitar and guitar. > > I’ve looked at other programs but never cared to try them because the > timing in Logic is the best. Friends used to ask, how do you get that > timing? Most of them switched because of it. Songs are mostly about grooves, > so when they hear something tight and nice, they want it, too. > > Logic becomes a part of your life. I have three or four programming rooms, > and I exchange files across the Internet with London; it has become a whole > philosophy of using the Logic tools. > > >
