Speaker/Ipod sruthi in concerts

Rasika911 · Post by **Rasika911** » 28 Aug 2009, 14:00

Before reading this please excuse my limited knowledge in technology used today

I've noticed that a lot of musicians these days have their sruthis saved on their ipod docks? or have them coming out of these pretty little speakers. The quality is usually very good and I wanted to give it a try for my music room. I was hoping someone here can tell me how i can go about setting this up. Thanks.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 28 Aug 2009, 17:15

1. Buy a good set of small speakers
2. You need to purchase a commercial CD with the tampura sruthi which would/should be from a real, nice tampura recorded in studio etc.
3. You need to transfer the "songs" to your iPod. For that you "rip" the CD into your computer in MP3 (or AAC for iPod) format using iTunes/Windows Media Player/WinAMP software and then transfer to your iPod.
4. Enjoy

Of course it need not be iPod - it can be any mp3 player.

Arun

Music · Post by **Music** » 28 Aug 2009, 19:46

Sounds like this kind of a set up with a good CD recording of a live tambura played thru good speakers would sound even better than a regular radel/raagini electronic tambura. The sound quality would probably be better this way. Any comments from technical/audio experts?

shishya · Post by **shishya** » 28 Aug 2009, 23:58

My daughter and I regularly use this set up to practice at home. I have purchased shruthi CDS from ragachitra.com (http://www.ragachitra.org/showpage.asp?pid=home) and have loaded it into my ipod. Now I attach the ipod to a dock called ihome and its right in our living room. I do not have a fancy home theater system (meaning- I don;t have the sound coming from different speakers at different locations in the room) but the sound qaultiy is very good if not better than my saarang. I still use the traditional electronic tambura (saarang) for concerts but this is what we use regularly to practice at home. And I have made CD copies of shruthi CDs and play them in the car. More avenues to practice I guess.

pramodh · Post by **pramodh** » 29 Aug 2009, 01:03

If you have ipod touch or iphone, you can download an app called itanpura, which provides 2 tanpuras, and clearly provides the best sound, when connected to speakers, when compared others including radel, sruthi downloaded onto CDs etc. Slightly expensive at about $15.

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 29 Aug 2009, 05:22

Actually, this might be a good place to mention it, but one of the musicians in our area, Prasad Upasani, has come out with a software called "iTanpura" for the iphone. Fully programmable.

Edit: beaten to it!

sankirnam · Post by **sankirnam** » 29 Aug 2009, 05:23

http://www.upasani.org/home/iTanpura.html

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 29 Aug 2009, 18:43

This app looks cool but is certainly very pricey particularly compared to other music related apps (western music). For e.g. there are say guitar chords related apps which allow you to try hundreds of them and also listen to see how they sound. Those are like 4.99 or so. This one costs four times that!

Arun

pupasani · Post by **pupasani** » 29 Sep 2009, 01:34

Hello All, I'm the developer of iTanpura and the soon-to-be-released iLehra. Came across this post and thought I'd respond as well. Thanks to the members that recommended iTanpura (think I know who you are). Just a couple of points:
1) iTanpura has better quality and features than anything on the market. I would really challenge anyone to find a better-sounding electronic tanpura, heck it sounds better than most real tanpuras because of the quality of the tanpuras used to make the sample recordings. As a practicing musician, quality was my foremost concern - this is something I can use for any of my concerts without any concerns. Especially since using this with a battery-operated speaker dock gives me 10+ hours of wireless sound! And with every version I've added the most requested features including presets - this lets you pre-tune for all the raags you're planning to sing in a concert and then quickly switch to the next one. Intend to keep adding features as well. And unlike the physical models, all users get all updates for free.
2) Regarding the cost, this is certainly subjective and I respect the opinions of people who may find this expensive. However there is a reason its priced where it is. The potential market for this cannot compare to say a guitar tuner or chords app. The number of people who are practicing Indian classical music and have an iPhone or iPod Touch is a very small fraction, so there is no way I can price this app the same way. However if you look at what dedicated units cost (the Radel unit is about $100) this is way cheaper, and has the added advantage of extra mobility. For example, just plug it in to your car stereo and you have the ability to practice on your long commute. As a data point, there was another similar iPhone app a few months ago called iTabla that cost $150 (its since been yanked from the app store since the developer got cute and advertised it as free even though you needed to pay $150 to get an activation code).

Anyway, having got that off my chest, if any of you have ideas or feedback for this or other similar apps do let me know.

-Prasad Upasani
http://upasani.org

gn.sn42 · Post by **gn.sn42** » 29 Sep 2009, 02:26

pupasani, your online demo video looks impressive. Do you have plans for a similar product that is a standalone device or runs on a PC, say, and does not require an iPhone/iPod?

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 29 Sep 2009, 04:39

arunk wrote:3. You need to transfer the "songs" to your iPod. For that you "rip" the CD into your computer in MP3 (or AAC for iPod) format using iTunes/Windows Media Player/WinAMP software and then transfer to your iPod.
4. Enjoy
Of course it need not be iPod - it can be any mp3 player.

Now, won't conversion to mp3 lead to quality loss?!

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 29 Sep 2009, 07:53

Yes - but if your original is from a CD and you encode at 128 kbps or higher, it would be CD quality to most people (i.e. most of us except for audiophiles). AAC does better than MP3 and besides in iPod you can also store in uncompressed format.

Arun

pupasani · Post by **pupasani** » 06 Oct 2009, 01:12

gn.sn42 wrote:pupasani, your online demo video looks impressive. Do you have plans for a similar product that is a standalone device or runs on a PC, say, and does not require an iPhone/iPod?

Thanks for the kind words! Actually, no there is no plan currently to have a standalone version.

pramodh · Post by **pramodh** » 08 Nov 2009, 19:39

the developer has been extremely dedicated towards upgrades and sorting out minor issues, which makes this even better and therefore I would still say that being a carnatic music lover and listener, this is easily the best app I have downloaded, and has to date been an invaluable asset. Well done Prasad Upasani.