They have been appeasing the Cyber Gods for over a week. All they wanted to do was download two songs from a website. Thanks to the heavy site traffic, they simply couldn't get them downloaded.
However, after a week of staying glued to the website, young Rahmaniacs in the city have finally got the two songs saved in their systems. Now they are busy remixing the tracks and dreaming wild about the big prize waiting for them. Truly, spending a day with A R Rahman and getting to record a song at his private studio can easily be the stuff of the wildest dreams of any music-loving youngster, leave alone the Rahmaniacs. And that is exactly what the songs 'Gumsum' and 'Gulfisha' could do. Those of you who still haven't got the drift of what we are talking about, it's the remix competition launched by Rahman in association with Nokia Express Music. All you have to do is download the soundtracks of these songs from the upcoming Hindi flick 'Ada' from remixrahmansada.com, remix it and upload it back on the website. A first-of-its-kind remix contest in India, launched on May 1, the competition also offers ten winners the chance to star in the music video of the songs along with Rahman. Less than a fortnight into the competition, the website is already swarming with remixed postings of the songs, both sung by Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik. "It is really the chance of a lifetime. I mean, being with Rahman itself is gratifying enough," says Ranjith Nayar, a student of Sound Engineering Academy (SEA), a private sound technology institute in the city. Ranjith and three of his friends at SEA are participating in the competition together. Participants can remix the song either by using the customised Nokia Express Music mixer available on the website or using other audio softwares like Frooti Loops. Once you upload your remixed version, it's public. Which means people can not only listen to it at the Remix Gallery of the website, they can also rate your remix. The best of the top-rated remix actually gets entered on the home page of the website. But server-related complaints like compatibility of the website with certain audio softwares and problems in downloading had been worrying the participants in the initial days. "It could be due to the heavy traffic to the website, we were not being able to download the songs for a week. But fortunately we've now got it downloaded. Now it's all about doing our best,'' says Bibi S. Bose, another participant from SEA. It's not just the sound engineers who are giving a shot at the competition. Jayakrishnan B, a student of College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram (CET) is another youngster in the fray from the city. "This competition is really typical of Rahman who always encourages young talent. For fans like us, this is really like a wild, wild dream come true," says Jayakrishnan, a hardcore Rahmaniac. Jayakrishnan, however, maintains that he did not have any any problem downloading the songs. "Maybe it is because I downloaded it on the very first day, when not many people knew about the competition. But I have not been able to upload the remixed song. So I am planning to courier it now," he said. Technical snags are the last thing the participants are asking for, what with the May 31 deadline fast approaching. "We are remixing the song using the Protools audio software. All we want to do is win the competition, leave everything and go to Rahman," says Ranjith. On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 5:41 PM, Ranjit Babu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Check this out: > > > http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20080516004555&Page=O&Title=Thiruvananthapuram&Topic=0&; > > > -- regards, Vithur Whatever God wants to give, no one can deny; Whatever God wants to deny, no one can give. Be happy always
