"Kambhodhi - Dr. N. Ramani (Sangeetha/Anand CD)" - mrudangam

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Enna_Solven
Posts: 827
Joined: 18 Jan 2008, 02:45

Post by Enna_Solven »

This album contains an excellent Kambhoji alapana by Dr. Ramani. He follows it it with the kriti 'mari mari ninne.'

I have a question about the sound of mrudangam in this album. It sounds as lifeless as a 'cluelessly compressed 96kbps' mp3 file that degrades the rich tone of mrudangam. I have uploaded a 30-sec segment from the start of thani (wav file):

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=4b22 ... f6e8ebb871

Could anyone please listen to it and tell me if my ears are to blame or otherwise? I played this CD on my home systems and in my car; both sound odd.

thanks

gn.sn42
Posts: 396
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 23:56

Post by gn.sn42 »

It does sound flat, and no wonder - the track is a mono recording masquerading as stereo. The left channel appears to be a slightly attenuated copy of the right. If I were to guess based on this and the relative volume of the tambura, I'd say the recording was done with one microphone placed near the flute.

Sangeetha's web site mentions a kanjira. How does it sound later in the tani? Also, how do the flute and violin sound during the alapana?

Enna_Solven
Posts: 827
Joined: 18 Jan 2008, 02:45

Post by Enna_Solven »

There is no stereo separation as you say. I verified in Audacity. The waveforms are pretty much identical. All the instruments appear to be clustered at the center of the two speakers, while listening.

Kanjira sounds all right. Here is a small snippet from the beginning of the kriti.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=8f2c ... f6e8ebb871

It is sad that anything goes. Very few brands focus on doing it right. (This was an offload from Sangeetha -> Anand.) I like the quality of Amutham, old Music Today & Charsur studio recordings.

thanks
Last edited by Enna_Solven on 10 Sep 2009, 08:16, edited 1 time in total.

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