Recording Tarun Bhattacharya in my studio

September 28, 2008 09:11
  Last week I got a call from an Indian Music concert promoter asking if he could bring some musicians to my studio for some recording.  We set a date and in comes the great Tarun Bhattacharya!  I was amazed.  He had me mic his Santoor on the top and bottom, (for bass) and I sat spellbound as he performed Raag Saraswati, (a flat 7 and 9, I believe).  His Alap lasted 24 minutes and when the Tabla finally came in it was just magical.  I was praying for one of our 4 black labs not to bark outside the studio door...and only once - 14 minutes into his Alap - Lucy, our older one, let out a soft yelp.  It's way different than recording a 4 minute or less pop song for 2 reasons:  1) it's not 4 minutes long so I can't just say, "can we do that again?" and 2) it's the EXTREMELY QUIET FIRST PART OF THE RAAG!  I jumped, closed the blinds and happily nothing more happened but I learned that next time I have a true genius recording my studio - I'm bringing all dogs to the downstairs backyard and out of earshot!  At the MINIMUM, I should be providing silence for these musicians as they are trusting me with my equipment in my studio to record them.

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