ICC and colonial work ethics

I was reading an article by Michel Holding on Cricinfo. In a nut shell the article summed up that there is a colonial work ethics built around ICC. I have to agree with Michel Holding. Ricky Ponting recently gave an interview that he would prefer best umpires for the [self proclaimed] world’s best cricket clash – Ashes. Ya! 6 out 10 times Ashes seems one sided to me. Ricky “the wanting” Ponting went on to name best umpires around the world, notably many were "Australians" including our friend who wanted half million dollars to walk away from the case he orchestrated.

In my opinion, I see a hidden Ponting agenda here. ICC does not permit local umpires and Ponting wants Australian umpires to stand in games involving Australia. Ok! I am just speculating, but tell me this; will "ICC" tolerate similar statements made by a player from India or Pakistan? I am sure ICC will reply rudely stating "it is ICC’s responsibility to nominate umpires hence others just shut the @#$@# up". But ICC officials ignored the brave "demand" from Ponting. It went unnoticed. If Ponting makes such demands it is treated as "command", but if a Dravid or Inzi makes such statements it is called undue or excessive or uncalled for, more over ICC will collect fines to buy a new water cooler. People, don’t you see the colonial attitude built around ICC? Just like Mr. Holding says, we have to live with it, and as I mentioned last week in my Blog, our cricket boards has to shred their submissive attitude until then ICC will not respect our opinions.

Ravi “the Slowchana” Shastri joins the bandwagon. I am quoting from PTI and the article at DNA India - Given the way the drama unfolded, I would have refused to carry on unless umpire Darrell Hair told me who the bowler was who had tampered with the ball. In my [Sastri’s] opinion, what happened is a travesty of the game. Going by the book is one thing, looking at the bigger picture and spirit of the game quite another. That is where umpire Darrell Hair's approach was flawed. He not only had to believe, but also had to show that the game was paramount bigger than the players, Inzamam-ul-Haq and himself. I'm afraid the big Aussie made a hash of it with his stand-offish approach. In this day and age when technology is available at the click of a mouse, I see no reason why Hair did not use it to his advantage. In fact, had he referred that matter to the third umpire or the match referee, the issue could have been settled within minutes for all that was needed was for somebody to check if any footage of ball-tampering was available. It was apparent that without any proof, Hair was skating on thin ice. Thereafter, his ego and stubborn personality took over, complicating the matter to a degree from where it became extremely difficult to come back. I like to know Navjot Siddhu’s take on this episode.

Mr. Darrel Hair apologized for the email he sent to ICC, "I wish to apologize for an ill-advised but entirely confidential e-mail that gave people opportunity to question my motives. Of course, world will talk about the motives, here is a person who yapped about principles yada yada yada suddenly nose dived asking for ½ million to get away from the case, dude, it does create a "fish" aroma. Also get this, Cricket is bigger than some umpire and his "personal" crusade

Moday Musings

Vinayaka Chadhurthi weekend on Sun TV; the non-believers had their customary special movie treat titled “English காரன் ” [it should be Ka”run” instead]. The moral of the story “Encourage your kith and kin to do things they like to do". I think Mr. Satyaraj did the needful to his son Sibiraj. [சரி சரி what else to do, "படிப்புவரல" -that will be an all together another discussion.] Based on the moral I think a 30 minute "வணக்கம் தமிழகம்" with Satyaraj as special guest would be a cost saver mint for the producer. And most of all, the movie insulted athletes around the world – it was a sheer “comical” [I swear] to watch Namitha run along with athletes. The good old Siva Kumar’s thriller “Ladder Steps” [அதான் sir ஏணிப்படிகள்] script could have been reused instead.

People!, listen to this crap - Namitha is a "village" girl born to a male chauvinistic "conservative" dad and a boxed snake [பொட்டிப்பாம்பு]tight lipped mom. But Namitha the village girl is allowed to wear a narrow “pepe” jeans and a juicy Gucci T-shirt. Due to “other" noticeable distractions with a great difficulty திருவாளர் பொது ஜனம் accepted Namitha as an athlete.
ஏங்க “Satyam sir” கொஞ்சமாவது logic வேண்டமா?. When there are producers to spend on such craps, there are also “good” directors struggling to find money to produce genuine movies. Yes I am taking about VAV. vettai Adu ViLaIyAdu.

Looks like கரார் Kamal’s cheque was cleared for payment. Vetaiadu Villayadu was released finally yesterday. Director Gautham spoke about his movie on Sun TV. I think Director Gautham top most Tamil directors who can communicate their production efforts. He never minces words or statements, yesterday in the promotion program, his expressive eyes spoke million words on the whole effort. Their experience on flying over NYC was an interesting one to hear. I just like to know this, it is that hard to make a Tamil movie in New York, when there are tons of Hindi movies shot in Manhattan area, why our guys seems to struggle? All about funding I suppose. We are busy spending on movies like “English Karan” which serves no purpose [Breaking News: die hard Namitha fans are protesting against his statement.]. I hope VAV movie does not disappoint, though Hj’s songs have already done the needful, I believe a movie is not a just million dollar music video. More than Kamal, Prakashraj or Jothika, I trust Gautam’s ability - he is a director from a different generation. He told about the first song in the movie – it seems that it was not need for the story however being Kamal fan, he cannot let go the opportunity to shoot a “kamal song”. He also made a request and asked people to stay in the theater until the last frame rolled down. Hope VAV is Wow – [WOW=Wetai OAdu Wilaiyadu in Rajinee style]

I might have to wait for the DVD. My home theater is better equipped than Desi theaters in DC area. Knowing Gautam’s and Harry’s mixing ability, I not wasting my money on Desi Theater and its customary sound system. I also prefer an Aiyangaran DVD, why I am saying this because off late in many Desi video stores I see Tamil movies from a DVD company called “Sruthilayam” from Canada. There are simply the worst DVD manufactures known to man kind. The sound quality is pathetic; some times you get camera prints dumped on a DVD which creates a doubt about their legality. Yo! “Sruthilayam” Dude - Dolby Digital or DTS is not spreading the same channel to all the 5 channels. Why can’t our Tamil community get organized in providing legal channels for Tamil movie distribution on DVD around the world?

Good weekend.

Hum for the day

Do you want guess the cost of a voluntary hair “cut” - it is about $500,000. It seems Mr. Grumpy the courageous Hair negotiated with ICC for a $500,000 payout. Meaning, he would quit and walk out of the ordeal [orchestrated by him] if ICC pays him for the loss that he is going to suffer in next 5 years.

This is kind of getting muddy, why should Mr. Hair worry about the money that he is going to make in next 5 years? Has ICC already committed to him? If Hair believes that Inzi and company are guilty why in the world he should fear job security? What happened to his over blown so called “Determination” “strong mind” “strength “ etc - Only Hair loving folks in Down under has to clarify.

ICC has already booked Inzi on 2 counts hearing is pending while they were busy negotiating terms with Mr. Hair. There were rumors yesterday on press that there is slight confusion in the Pakistani dressing room. Things are getting muddy day by day. May be this is first time we see a version of Dirty Hairy without client East wood in it. –Hum for the day “HaIriHaIri om HaIriHaIri om”

Have a great weekend.

False Hair

The ICC refused a request from Pakistan to stop umpire Darrell Hair from standing in future matches involving their team. ICC Chief executive Malcolm Speed threw “a faster one”, he stated that "It remains the role of the ICC and not our members to appoint umpires. Here is my doubt, for whose benefit ICC is for ? Ok! May be for betterment of Cricket, how will cricket become better - When the cricket playing nations play it better, in order to make this happen, the playing nation has be provided with better cricketing conditions.

Time and time Mr. Hair has had problem with various teams, let me discard all my racial rummies, still you cannot deny the fact that Umpire Hair has had problems with Pakistan and various other teams in the past. Hence when a permanent ICC member makes a request, ICC should consider it. Bottom line “collection of permanent members” = ICC. Assume if countries like India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan who generate a lot of cricketing funds shut down to form say Asian Half boiled Cricketing council, jokes apart such move can drain ICC funds. Seriously no other place in the world Cricket can be sold better than the subcontinent. Mr. Speed should slow down before displaying his powers. ICC is simply nothing without the subcontinent market.

Moving on, Players from Down under gave their tube of supporting gel [or Jell] to Hair -, why would not they support their favorite umpire. How many time Hair has rescued them from crisis.

“aleikekeeeeereckuere” – tape Rewind sound -

Adelaide, January 1992 - Australia beat India by 38 runs.
Just peruse through old articles during that time, you will know that the game was "marred... by controversy LBW decisions - Indians got about 8 bad LBW decision , while two of their own appeals were rejected". Who did this? Answer: Mr. Hair

1993 Adelide - Peter Kirsten [SA] was blessed by a series of LBW decisions from Hair, desperate Kristen gave and spoke to umpire, ICC put up a new water cooler using this incident. - Who did this? Answer: Mr. Hair

Next the ill famed MCG Boxing Day Test - 1995 – Murali was no balled by Hair – Lieutenant General Hair No balled Murali for chucking while umpire [Steve Dunn] at other end had no problems with Murali’s action. I remember watching this game on Star TV [Channel 9] when I was in Chennai. Steve Dunn pointed out later that the rules stated that any suspect action should be reported to the match referee rather being called immediately, and that it was governing body the ICC not the umpires who should rule a bowler's action legitimate or not. Mr. Malcolm Speed Sir - do you get this, when governing body is the ICC - not the umpires, how can you let Hair do such things in mid field time and time again? Was hair punished for this act? No – when all powerful cricket governors of ICC gave clean chit to Murali –Mr. Hair in his autobiography called Murali's bowling action as "diabolical" – meaning extremely cruel.

I feel with such wretched and diabolical record to his credits I think Mr. Hair has no qualification be an international umpire. I feel he is a misfit for cricket because time and time again whenever he officiates he has acted in a high-handed manner. The cricketing elite’ often utter “no one is bigger than the game itself” – Yah! This damn golden word applies to the umpires too. It’s high time - Fire the Big “Wig” aka Mr. False Hair.

Good day.

The “Hair” matter gains momentum;

I don’t know if you would agree with me on this I feel there is a clear cut disparity on how ICC views a degree of offence. Seriously it does look like players from countries like Australia, England [yes! my man Mr. Ricky the loquacious Ponting and his team] are let go easily while similar breaches from other cricket playing nations say India , Sri Lanka or Pakistan are treated as thought they are criminal offenses. Match referees like Chris board are notorious for nepotism. I can quote many such incidents. Instead of calling ICC racial body etc, I would say ICC often plays the favoritism game. They suffer from superiority complex syndrome. More over I also feel this “soup complex” was born out of problems that infests the country cricket boards. For example our Indian cricket board, a worthless pack that never supports the players’ opinion as the Australian Board would support it player’s opinion. Board members in order to retain their “post” they side with ICC forgetting the sport and the players.

When Cricket Australia makes a statement supporting its player, it is very authentic and unanimous – a single voice opinion. However this would never happen in Indian cricket scenario. If at all the board comes forward to say something supporting the player, an Ex-board member, [Mr Leele for example] would call the press and give his esteemed opinion trashing the team, for which the board members would reply…etc. This chat will go on and one, in due course the creditability on a genuine opinion raised by the board supporting the player is lost deep in the hole. Unless and until there is clear cut unity within the boards, ICC will favor and side towards cricket boards that are more organized.

Coming to this Hair raising issue of Ball tampering, Inzi has stated in an interview that their stance on the forfeited test is matter of honor. I wish Pakistani board continues to support his opinion.

Moving on, let us check the credit history – without doubt Inzi is a very calm person when compared to say for example Mr. Ricky the loquacious Ponting, where he and his team mates gets pardoned for various sport misbehaviors. Inzi hardly raises his voices with the umpires Inzi in the past has accepted the rules of the game may be he was in a grumble mode for first hour of the incident. But he did settle quickly respecting the game. While time and time Mr. Hair has had problems with various teams, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan in particular. Apart from goofing up on decisions, Hair’s haughty tone is known to every cricket following person around the world. When you compare the level of arrogance between Inzi and Hair, Duh! Even a child would know that Mr. Hair is light years ahead.

Secondly Inzaman is a captain of a national side, he is holding a highly respected portfolio; it does demand a respect from the umpire automatically. Umpires like Hair or my favorite Steve “the AH” Buckner cares a damn for such portfolios.
Such umpires feel that they can do anything to establish their authority. They don’t hesitate to treat the players as though they are bunch of animals.

What if Pakistan cricket board had told to ICC that they will not play if Hair or Bucky is standing in the middle. There would be no problem here. Period, I am sure ICC will take this matter seriously if more boards start objecting to crazy umpires like Hair. But boards never cared to support its players.

Also Tell me this, How can the umpire ask the batsmen to pick the ball? So what next the non striker will pick the next bowler to bowl? Press Reports suggest that no one has seen the so called “tampered ball”. If Mr. Hair’s claim is truthful why not ICC display the ball to the press? There are about 25-26 camera in the ground, and I am really surprised that there no pictures supporting Hair’s accusations. Seriously TV camera men are so efficient they capture such incidents better than their game coverage. I am sure one of the 26 would have captured it clearly. We still remember how poor Dravid was made to pay for doging something with the ball. Hope you remember Umpire Buckner’s mime act describing the incedent. On a cricket - TV camera is always watching you.

More over there is rumor saying the whole episode was triggered by English side. English coach had some suspicion on this and reported to the umpire, Hair who is closely associated with yadayada - did the needful. However English coach has denied this allegation.

[Like horlicks,]Inzi has been around for ages now, in my opinion he is very nice and clam slow natured person. I read this interview on CricInfo and I feel that his claims are genuine. There is a foul play and Mr. Hair , ICC has to answer this.
Will Hair do the same thing if it had been Australia v.s England? Don’t tell me those teams don’t do such things, the first case of ball tampering in India was by the visiting English team – John lever was caught using Vaseline from his forehead. Indian Umpire/Bedi found it. He was caught red handed, so when it comes to Cheating, every country has its own set of bad elements. Just blaming Pakistan here cannot be accepted.

It is another controversy for Mr. Hair; I think it is better send him home; there are better umpires in this world. Having said this, ICC to safe their ass have asked Ranjan Madugulle to take care of the proceedings, and he is another known cymbal [Jalra] for the ICC. Hence! The case it put to rest, I am sure Mr. Hair will be the world cup elite panel.


Finally, Chennai Day is being celebrated from today…, I am from Chennai and I dearly miss Chennai. My contribution to Chennai - my song - 80s in Chennai --
Happy Chennai day!

Monday Musings

What is the problem with Umpire Darrell Hair? He was in a controversial “love” tangle with Murali couple of years ago; Hair ruled that Muralitharan was a chucker; however ICC using its “most” modern facilities cleared Murali from this ordeal. Still Murali faced humiliation from the Aussie public. But for the myopic treatment, Mr. Darrell “the” Hair [what a convenient last name] was let go free. Ball Tampering is a serious offense, having said this I would also say it is a very hard case to prove such incidents. How can you prove the ball has been tampered? Event CSI Miami sleuths cannot help! Secondly the Cry Babies XI aka Pakistan team should not have walked out simply dishonoring the game of cricket. There is a process in place called “protesting’ - will it work or not, that is a different issue. If you feel what the Umpire did was incorrect, I would say what Pakistan team did is also incorrect. Both the parties insulted the spirit in the game and forgot about spectators who have paid money. It was comical to see the veteran Mr. Imran “the political” Khan blast out the umpire, the Cookubara company, the pitch, English weather etc…– let me tell you I have not forgotten the confession of his team mates in the past – “ball tampering using soda bottle lids”. I wish ICC investigates the ordeal properly [hahaha], if Hair is proved wrong once again - ICC needs to fire him at once and Pakistan team should get an open apology from him in public. What if the ball had been tampered? Was Pakistan right in forfeiting the games? They have to account for this too. Cricketing law should take its course.

Yesterday Sapthaswargal came to back to its grooves. All girls show again, most of them sang very well. My best singer vote goes to “Shruthi”, it seems she has been learning music for only 4 years, wow! for such a voice she must be in play back already. When it comes to singing, apart from perfect technical accuracy, it is all about conveying expressions. She had a voice & expressions that was similar to Bombay Jayashree. I had some spare time in the evening hence I continued with the Aug 15th specials via DVR, One program I should commend SunTV for was Actor Suriya going to a village of army families. Amazing stories and the program was apt for the day. “Suriya” is shining better day by day. Waiting for “sil” or “jill” or what ever is kAdal :)

Yesterday KTV was showing a movie called Manithan – Ebba, I remember cutting classes and going to this movie on the first day. Seriously KTV has been showing well made craps like Manithan, Nanum-oru-Thozilalai. The music director for Manithan was one Mr. Chandra Bose. I caught him on Sun TV late night serial during channel surfing. He had a dada getup in ujjala white and white, he was busy torturing a female and the script, it looks like he has an alternative career now – good thing is the torturing factor still remains intact.

Finally, “The Try” cricket series in Sri Lanka finally closed. , I saved some hard earned money by not subscribing.

Good day,

#350

Munchings...

Sun TV specials, The preset lineup of course included the usual interview with our Snake + Akka, experts believe that her SunTV appearance is much more than her appearance on [pirated] Tamil DVDs. Seriously I am wondering when the “joke” called “pati mandram” would stop? TGS [Tangaladasami] .[Customary] Interview with A.R.Rahman, V for Vazisal Sarathay made sure he asked superficial questions that had no real answers. How do you feel being among Icons like Sachin? Enna questionYa idhu? I have one thing here to say [seri seri - jAlrathane - adi machi adi] , Some words from Rahman were totally inspirational. [ya! Thala enna sonnalaum adu enaku veda vAku]. Over all the Independence Day programming on Sun TV gave a clear picture on perils of too much “freedom”. Thanks to the DVR technology, just like what I would do before quarterly exams - skipped most portions.

As expected, Cricket was washed out due to rain and other political events in Sri Lanka. Currently the news is BCCI/ICC/SCB/TNCC/DMK is planning for an in-door book cricket tournament. Our great Coach Chapel is busy deciding the opening pair for the game. The game did not start on time again - reason - the book was missing so was Viru, it is rumored that Viru was napping using the book as pillow. Earlier in the day Kaif was caught red handed for tearing all pages divisible by 10. He later said he did it to save a duck’s life. Dravid was not available for comment as he had to gone to the near by stationary store to buy some fevicol.

People, do you know that the solar system planet count has been just increased from 9 to 12. Wow! "Gujjal!" time for Raj TV / Vijay TV and other TV "Josiyam" experts. [Gujjal=Hallelujah!]

They now have 3 more entities to mix and match. As per Vijay TV’s Josiyam program, from today your personal finances are controlled by the planet called “Chatru”, derived from the 10th planet on Solar System called “Charon”. Charon was formerly owned by Pluto [not the Disney dog, I meant the real planet that fetched us 2 marks in 8th Standard 1 word Q&A]. Charon the Stone was finally granted independence on Aug 15th 2006; it is now officially the 10th rock from sun. Can you guess the planet after mars? It is not Jupiter, it is Ceres. Ceres was promoted from Asteroid to planet. Josiyam experts say Ceres controls agriculture. Paddy seeds will be sown based on its position. I hope the 12th planet “2003-ub313” helps promoting my music.

Tell me this, what is the big fuss in adding new planets to the solar system that cannot be seen with your naked or nude or stripped eye? May be the only persons benefited would be Josiyam experts and of course the REMAX Realtor.

Good day!

My Next Music Album

Download Audio trailer

Monday!

The Tri Series in Sri Lanka might be washed out. This is not a laughing matter, when so much money is spent on these games, why not ICC get hold of someone who knows the local geography and weather?.

Thank you God for keeping ICC under control [ICC=Internal Cricket Cravings]. I have not signed up anything yet to watch it live. More over games are scheduled on “busy week days” [starting at 5.00am EST.] I wish the honorary cricket planners, schedule game over the weekends, - most of the fans watching are not “honorary” workers. On second thoughts I think there is no point in watching Dravid Tortoise hunt game plan planned by our coach who flip-flops more than popular democrats here.

Our popular coach cried out loud to the press that Sachin cannot throw the ball etc, later flip flopped to cover up the whole “olaral” ceremony by saying deep throw, short throw etc. Sachin did play in the practice games without any problems. Having been certified by the team physiotherapist and a bunch of responsible doctors, there was no need for the coach to make silly statements. He is not a “doctor” and secondly it was really childish, just assume that there was some truth to this claim, he should have raised this to the board directly but instead he leaks it out to the press, which can help the opponents. This is the “n” goof up incident for the Aussie coach in the press. Talking about “Aussie” Mr. Dean “the bigmouthed” Jones was penalized for passing comments on a South African player. I wish commentators get this clearly - in most pay-per-view channels there are no commercials breaks, I have also heard lots of comments during live broadcasts. At least broadcasters can install a big red light sign saying “ON AIR”, So that the commentators can keep all their sarcastic orifices shut when the light is on.

Had a glimpse of SunTV “sapthaswarangal” yesterday – it was professionally awful. When someone forces their agenda in the name of art - quality suffers. Sun TV for about a month now is trying badly to push their management’s agenda in programming. Yesterday participants were asked to sing songs from popular Kannagi story - “silapathigaram”. There was huge Kannagi statue in the back drop. First and fore most, seriously none of the participants could sing [or wink wink pronounce Tamil properly]. The so called compositions lacked musical values, I wish someone could have composed them in a better fashion; it was a pathetic display of literature.

Finally Sun TV is busy advertising their August 15th special program line up, and the announcer says "cherish our freedom and independence", agreed very patriotic , however when he makes this announcement – on the screen - Ariya was seen busy holding his "dash" ….. And singing for a copied rap flick – Damn, can’t they choose a better decent "spot" to place this "patriotic" voice over message.

Good Day,

Ps: Aratai aragam is now taken over by Mr.Solomon Papayya and the well known speaker Mr. Raja, they are funny and knowledgeable people, still after watching it for 10mins I felt the has been diluted [with an agenda] and has lost all its seriousness. It sounded like another “patti mandram” that required a lorry load of Laughing gas to get a smile.

Only A.R.Rahman!

"jil enu oru kAthal" – A great track with Broadway style Big band Jazz– in my opinion – “Zimply Superbbu!” Rahman has produced an honest track keeping the genre intact till the final bar.

ARRangement - [simple walking] Bass, Drums, Rhodes, Brass section, muted trumpets, tap dancing thumps and Finger snaps. Concentrate on each instrument separately and see how they complement each other with the vocals. The Recording is crystal clear you get a fantastic separation.

Vocalist - Tanvi is amazing”. Her expressions are of top quality and the most important – “picture perfect pitching”. I highlight this because movie tracks today have various “keyless” entry and exit points. Just listen to Tanvi’s vocal tone variation for the line Jil enu oru kathal – this is quite amazing and the female Jazz scats are very authentic. I just do not know what special Rahman does to get such fantastic vocals on the track. Only Rahman!

Tanvi’s slightly accented Tamil pronunciation - honestly I liked it, and there are no serious “pronunciation” issues to complain, she pronounces hard Tamil sounds quite well. You cannot find fault here - having said that - in software development we often say “there is always one more bug” in music appreciation - there is always one more “nitpick” - who knows – by dropping few drops of castor oil in the ears “pundits” will identify faults like “pronunciation for the word “seiyuthe” is irritating” - I would leave those nitpicks to “Tamil pundits”. Bottom line here is - I understood it and I have a great track to play in my car Stereo during office rush hour traffic. “The energy in the song inspires me and creates a greater level of enthusiasm to be creative in life”.

Ps: Next track that caught my attention at once was “New York Nagaram” I will write a detailed review on every song once I come out “Jil en oru kathal” joram– Man! Rahman Rocks.

Something interesting

Remote production - I have been doing [remote] production for about 8 years now. Right from inception of my site in Mp3.com till now, the process is kind of similar. My crew is often spread around the globe and I user various communication methods to communicate and get the work done. There is a lot co-ordination and management involved in this process.

Today I am really happy to see many Bloggers take similar path in music production. Working on such remote productions requires proper co ordination. In order achieve efficiency a Music producer or a composer needs to be organized, he or she needs to communicate their requirement clearly to their peers or crew. For example if my good friend Udhaya writes a song for me, I need to communicate my requirements clearly to him. For such communications, we used emails, conference calls through which I will explain the structure of the song etc, Other than email and chat-windows there is no proper tool to facilitate such remote production tasks.

What if , a software tool using which composers can create a track, package it with time coded markers and description and export this as a bundle to the lyric writers, who then using the same tool opens it and gets its instructions, then writes the song and sends it back to the composer as another package? Sounds interesting to you?

Folks, having understood this production nightmare for about a decade now, I went on to develop a software program to facilitate such production tasks. I developed this software using dot NET V2.0 and the Free C# Visual Studio Express from Microsoft.com.
Let me explain program modal and the work flow:
Production - a production is a collection of audio and video bundles.
An Audio bundle consists of an audio file [mp3 or wav or windows media], a time code file and a lyric file. A video bundle – a video file [wmv or mpg], Time code instruction file and a director comments file. User opens a production. Once the production is activated, using the project explorer window [check the screen shots] users can load audio or video packages. Using the work bench windows composers can create markers and its related instructions can be entered. A Marker is a time code in “hh:mm:ss” format. The entire production can be compressed as single file and can be mailed to the lyric writer or programmer etc, who can open it and read the instruction using the same tool. There is simple rich text editor is provided to write lyrics and notes. I have not tested this completely; I think I have addressed all the requirements based on my experience, but there is no such thing as complete software hence if anyone has any ideas to incorporate let me know. I can try to add it.
If you need this tool let me know I will upload this tool some time over the weekend.

New song Release - Lehrom pe

Lehrom Pe, my second Hindi track after H1bees,

I take great pleasure in introducing 2 more talented personalities. Vocalist: Raghu - A versatile vocalist based out of the New England region, Raghu has a wide range and we are working on more tracks. Lyricists Ajay - based out of UK, very talented writer. and finally, thanks to Bharath, he has worked on additional drum programming and audio mixing.
Please download the song from my website. http://www.srikanthd.com

Since I am running short of time I had to cut short the Blog, Please check back again for more.

- Thanks.

Weekend story..

Over the weekend stopped by SunTV; Sun TV serial [killers] artists displayed their other cinematic talents in form for Record dance. I could not take it at all, especially when veteran actor Siva Kumar displayed his “dabba” capacity, he listed about 100 flowers and verbally dropped them all in the golden feet of his “Talai”– however he missed the main flower that would have worked better “kathula poo”. The Pathetic Villy from oxymoronic “Soga Anadam” was seen dancing in all almost all the record dances. Thank god for “change the damn channel button” in the remote control.

I also saw a movie, “Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu” - Bharath, Mallika Kapoor, Arun Kumar, the funny guy Bhaskar. Frankly I got this DVD to squeeze some juice for my Blog, but you know what, I was disappointment.

Director Vijay Milton must be a very funny guy. His direction and screen play was fresh and visible in every frame. Each frame was filled wit and humor. The movie had lots of fresh ideas like very nice introduction and mostly perfectly timed funny dialogues. Mallika Kapoor was very impressive and competed well with talented Bharath. – Usage of Vividh bharathi’s “ungal viruppom” theme music is worth a mention.

I laughed loud; it was really different from the usual [pathetic] Tamil movies that spend about 3000 feet of film roll for just character introductions. The story line and its twist carried the movie well, Director had to cook this meal for 3hrs hence he did lost his grounds in middle. Like the usage of animation was fun but in my opinion it was an over kill. All said and done, Director Vijay Melton came back quite well to end the finish the movie. The conclusion was crisp, short and sweet.

The sound tracks - in fact the music was “sagikable”, at times impressive too, but when it came to singing ability of Yuvan Shankar I am surprised who in the world told Yuvan that he can sing. Dude get straight - you cannot sing, please don’t even try. It is horrible to hear, as your voice and pitching is no where near basics of any kind of singing. A song is to be sung in one key in a particular harmony but often he tries to sing [“nosing”] in all the 8 keys per harmony/progression. Is Tamil Nadu short of “good” vocalists?

I wish more movies are made in this fashion; I would reduce the time to just 2 hours max. If you spot and laugh for witty humor I recommend that you should watch this movie with your family – Yes. It is family movie too - Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu, better name would be (a - b)2 [= a2 - 2ab + b2]

Finally, As you know I have been working with Mr. [Altanta] Ganesh, Veteran Tamil movie and Stage artist, in his cross over English feature film - “Dance to My Tunes…” for which I did the music scoring recently, The crew has come with a Trailer for promotional purposes, I have obtained permission to upload it in my website and Blog, I will upload this in a day - since the file size it too big I am trying to getting it down to a quick one minute cut using windows media format, best viewed in 320x270 screen; If time permits I will also upload the sound track that I composed for the trailer as a separate download.

Good day.

Wednesday Talk

When I browsed through the Google news, one major headline topped the charts. If you think it is about the war in Middle East, you are wrong my friend, or may be the change of regime in Cuba, No you are wrong again. It the story of Mel "the Full" Gibson, the popular macho Hollywood star was arrested on DUI charges, that is one side of the issue, the other side is during the arrest Mr. Gibson taunted racial remarks on a particular community. After a full "Alcohol drain" MelJi realized that this issue would grow against his movie career, at once he changed his name to "Gel Gibson"; He apologized to the community and expressed his willingness to talk to the community leaders in order to obtain a free “Saba Vimochanam” coupon. Few years ago when Mr. "Dull" Gibson released his dull movie Passion of the Christ, there were similar nose cry in the press. However in due course of time, it subsided down as Hollywood has better news like Britney becomes pregnant, get ready in about 2 weeks the same news would take over Mel DUI drive. This one and half “aNa” news was discussed to full extent on TV, Radio and other popular media outlets, popular Blogs and less popular Blog [Yes, Mine].

Example of manipulating news, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1838782.cmsSo what did you feel, is this about the popular cricketer?

While browsing through Times of India , I saw this news, “Cher's charity clear out”, yes some of her old body parts that she replaced over the years are on sale now, like “Build the Bear” , you can build you own Cher.


Finally, Team India on the final day of pre tour camp, went through military training in Parachute Regimental Centre. Chappell says it was fun filled training, we need to ask Viru and I hope the training camp slowed down his growing circumference. It seems Players underwent a lot of activities, not only aimed at improving their physical strength, but also concentration. Kind of a joke, were they playing international cricket without physical strength and concentration till date? What ever, the way Sri Lankans are playing today, I don’t mind to send a real army regiment to defend. Dravid and the coach have lot of stakes in this series; it is not enough if Dravid scores runs, as a captain he has to win games & series. One good thing for him is Master blaster Sachin is back in the team, another experience shoulder, or to put it crudely, - the blame is easily transferable.

Another can of worms:

"It took me about a year to convince them that running between the wickets and fielding were quite important in one-dayers

He reveals that he didn't have a contract for nearly half his tenure but was well supported by the management in BCCI. "I actually didn't have a contract for about 40% of the time but it didn't really matter because they were honourable people. I got paid every three months"

"My peeve with the selection process is that I have never liked the system


John Wright, the former NZ batsmen and the former Indian cricket team coach has spoken loud vis his new book "Indian summers", he talks about various issues in the dressing room, select procees etc. Various media reports quotes that he talks about Dravid’s unceremonious declaration. It seems Sachin was unhappy about this in the dressing room, Why Sachin? Yes! If a captain declares when you are a scoring shot away from a land mark, any batsmen would get upset. In a professional career this happens, and the land mark might be very important. In my opinion, Dravid should not have declared regardless be it Sachin or anyone. Anyways it is a dead issue now and there is no point in digging further, Dravid and Sachin have done a lot for betterment of Indian Cricket, we can throw this issue in the attic and keep moving.

Wright in this book says, Gavasker was appointed as batting coach without his consent – dude, you could have questioned J. Mohini [Dalmiya] then and there! , Why did you maintain silence? you could have spoken earlier to press or if the contract did not allow you to do so – Dude, just quit the job that you don’t like. You were swimming in the pool with others and having been kicked out please do not complain that the pool stinks. Why Wright ignored these incidents when he was in service? Reason - he was being paid a large sum, no idiot will want to give up a high paying job.

As far as Wright’s book goes, it is “Freedom of speech”– this is perfectly ok, I am just wondering will John “Mr. Right” have the same level of guts to write similar things if he had been New Zealand’s national coach. Can he write about his tenure as captain for New Zealand and the issues in the dressing room etc? I am sure no team is immune to “pavilion passions” or “Selectors Stink” Every team has their own pile of dressing room crap. Be it India or Australia or the TNCA’s 5th Division team - Mambalam mosquitoes.

Some media reports say that this book has helped Indian cricket. Duh! - Entire country already knows about our unbelievable selection process and its related filth. This book would be just another collection of such craps. More over, when a non Indian writes about India, - 6 out 10 foreign writers do not hesitate to add their myopic views on India. I remember a person asked me in Minneapolis if I ride an elephant to work in India. The global media at times vents out biased views on India. Mr. Dobbs of the CNN, time and time used to complain about India. His complain was that India was not buying enough American goods to offset trade deficit. He squarely blamed India for improper balance of trade, but a week ago Washington post reported – “US exports to India has nearly doubled in past 4 years”. I demand an apology from him for such accusations.

John Wright book is another such accusation or Pandora’ s Box, or an New York street hotdog – Every Indian knows that Indian cricket management is “disorganized” in such fantastic manner - no one has clue about its composition or its functions. Like after “Dalmiya’s Deals and cases”, he manages to retain his portfolio for CAB.

As far as John Wright book is concerned , it would serve as a good gossip column for Sanjay [asa]Manju & co during tea time in the forthcoming Sri Lanka series., the fact is that politics surrounding Indian cricket is a stinking pot, anything that comes out of it is definitely going to stink, our wise men – aka the selectors are born with clips in their nose, they will not mind to swim regardless, like if Wright is invited to swim again, I am sure he will dive just in closing his nose and his book deal.

World cup is round the corner and I feel team India should focus on their game rather than these nitpicks.

Back to Cricket!

Various things are happening in India cricket, and few of the major
controversies are being created by people who are no longer listed
active for duty or service.

Case 1: Gangully Vs Jagan "Mohini" Dalmia, broken horses are waging
fierce verbal war. Gangu used this fingers again, he showed his middle
finger and pointed at his so called mentor Dalmiya , he held Dollmia
responsible for the celebrated Chapell email leak that sealed
Gangully's cricketing carrier. Mr. Dolly is notorious and known for
his of such activities is busy denying his charge - only a naive soul
will believe Dolly's side of the story. These guys have made enough
money why they are still hungry for power? Like thenga Srini would
say "antha karuppaNNasami than kapAthanam".

Case 2: Majeraker/Sachin issue, ManjuJi made "sweeping" statements on
Sachin. Sanjay the "technically blah blah blah" Manju wrote in his
newspaper column that Sachin is afraid to accept failure; when ever
Sachin goes low on batting form he takes a medical break Yah! The team
of orthopedic surgeons and other doctors who diagnose his problems
must have had an IQ below 25. Well, it is his opinion - he has to
right to express it. But just about few years ago Manjuji had
different sets of opinion on Tendulkar. In the past his swaggering commentary on
TV established his blind faith on Sachin the cricketer in High
definition digital color. But what is that "something" that suddenly
changed San"juice" course? And Sachin usually never replies to such
opinions or claims by anyone, however may be for first time he has
shown displeasure directly to the press.

Team selection, I am just wondering how Dinesh Mongia made it back in
to the team. He has an average of bowling not more than 10 balls per
innings in the past. How did he make it to the team? Why was he
recalled? Did he attend a special camp or is there some one who can
push so much load [of crap] in that part of India? Seriously the board
was brutal to the new faces in spite of performances. Sri Lanka is in
top form. It is very hard for India to beat them at home and if India
losses badly again in this one day series, people would not hesitate
to show the coach his name sake - Patharatchalu. In my opinion he is
totally inefficient.

Tamil Single Release!...

If he had taken an alternative career path or his music seriously he could have gone all the way to the tinsel town kodambakkam, but like many “talented” Desis he side tracked his music for a day job. Folks, meet Siddharth from Richmond, Virginia. The singer I am introducing today is a genuine vocal power house.

Having worked with various talented singers, my observation is that often a singer is influenced by their idol; Do not get me wrong, this influence is perfectly ok and normal. But when I heard Siddharth, it was hard to guess his idol; he had a voice and a tone that will identify him. Siddharth was able to bring in expressions that I had in my mind.About a month ago, I auditioned him in my studio. We recorded peppy folk song which would be a sequel to the Vasiyakari (Written by Udhaya); officially that was his first song in my studio. This is his second song;

Coming to the lyrics part –why I choose to write it? The subject that I had worked for this is track was kind of personal. I had to write lyrics so that I can convey my emotions directly..

How many times a friend, a colleague or a peer or a trusted someone abandoned you? How many times you helped someone for their growth and they simply discarded you when you are no longer needed. This happens to every human being, people in the art field are soft targets for such ugly incidents. Regardless of what of the twins says ["thick skin" "face reality" etc] nevertheless these are painful circumstances to deal. This is when an artist tends to seek spiritual refuge, over period of time every artist will get over it and life continues. I am not trying to prove anything to anyone however this does reflect my emotions on such issues.

I kindly request you to hear the song couple of times on a good speaker system.

You can download the song from my website...click the image below.

Good day!.

Crap seen on TV

I was watching a TV show called "America's got Talent" on NBC [Nations
Boring Channel]. The show did not make any sense to me at all; even
kids show on NICKtoons is better, they are interesting and
challenging.

Three great Judges were trying to find best among apples, toilet
tissues, keyboards, hairclip, ants and coffee. They are being paid
high dollars to press the X button and of course the package is not
complete without superficial statements on love, pride, passion, so
called wit filled pithy comments in British accent. For the money
paid, we also get see how celebrities fight amongst themselves. Regis
must be getting couple of millions for a portfolio that is now way
superior to the Airport PA announcer. Studio audience gets to watch
the crap live while as a bonus they get to boo at the judges.

Seriously the whole concept seemed dumb to me, it has too much act
diversity with well cooked chaos. May be NBC can think of splitting it
like LAW and ORDER – SVU/Crime unit etc say "AMT–Childish" or "AMT-
Silly", "AMT-Ridiculous" or AMT–Pathetic.

Irony here is a talented Brit producer is running the show to pick the
most talented American. Simon Cowell knows "America's got Gimmicks."
He is using it quite well. Tell me what is talent got to do with a
person throwing and catching a set of bowling ball with knife attached
to its or his ass? How this is different from a fear factor
participant who swallows leaches and who don't hesitate to swim on
skunk puke in name of Determination. This act is followed by a 6 year
old prodigy playing Bach on a grand piano.

Talent is a natural ability to do something well, stunt is something
dangerous mostly done to as a challenge or to entertain people A stunt
or show piece will have caption "do not try this at home - this was
performed by professional stunt personnel". Most gigs shown in this
show was pathetic. The crying Russian dancer in particular; the 70
year male strip dancer, the horny guy, he had about 20000 cycle horns
tied on to him, plays music using it. Sounds interesting? But the way
he played it sounded worse than a circus seal playing the same. The
judge told that he looks amusing, yes, just like a Bear riding a bike
in the circus.

Do you know the "America's most desperate" - TV producers for NBC, CBS
etc, these folks need to attend a full time course on entertainment
rehabilitation; if it works for them, we should send our Sun TV
producers and directors.

Our Sun-TV directors are superior primates when compared these guys. I
need to congratulate the director of Tamil serial Kolangal, his
thought process is seriously as unique as an alligator or a jelly
fish. Someone please patent the gustatory system in his brain. His
taste process is so useless even Brahma rues his creation. There is
another comedy when you read the title card of Anandam, there is a
person with a portfolio called "Creative head". I would change this
dude's title to Dick Head instead.

Good day.

Next Tamil Single!..

Musicians Mantra - 3

Please note this discussion would get some what technical - hang in there.

What is this Receptor? Medical books defines it is as a nerve ending that is sensitive to impulses, engineering books defines it as an electronic device that receives electronic signals or chemistry book calls it as specific cell binding or a molecule. What ever! I cooked all this from MS word lookup feature.
What is Muse Research Receptor? Let me explain features of Receptor one by one and map it to my initial requirements. [Listed earlier]

• A product that can host VST instruments and effects without the host software– Yes! Receptor hosts VST instruments and effects standalone –it is a VST host that drives VST plug-ins; a stand alone box that can be an open ended sound module, an effect processor or both.

• That is housed in a separate rack, like every other sound module controlled via midi sequencer or feeds via direct audio inserts from a mixer or wired digitally within the digital domain YES, Receptor is housed in a 2 rack unit. Can be triggered via midi, has audio inputs /outputs and direct guitar, USB,S/Pidf ADAT in/outs and networking.

• That can be easily added on to any existing setup and work flow; of course! Receptor has Midi in, outs and thru, just plug in your midi keyboard or midi hub and start using it directly or can be called from your midi sequencer or DAW. Direct audio inserts from the mixer or wired digitally within digital domain: This is where Receptor shines like a star; receptor [5.1] uses a technology called Uniwire. Uniwire enables communication between software based instruments/sequencers or VST plugs via Ethernet. This is the best feature I like, effects are hosted else where so that pc can spend its power on audio processing instead. When tested there was no latency at all.

• That is multi timbre Yes! - Receptor supports 16 channels of Midi.

• That is not really 100% PC/Mac OS dependent; The Entire show is driven by Linux and set of proprietary/open source software. The OS image is small and occupies less space; the shutdown and start up is very quick. This is a remodeled computer that has CPU, a 160gig hard drive with VGA, keyboard and mouse interfaces. Though sounds like a PC, behaviors wise it is totally different from a PC; there are no hidden virus scanners, or automatic update checks or no other unwanted window services to worry about. A PC or Mac is needed to install software upgrades.

• That has an easy learning curve: Receptors is very easy to learn, it just like another sound module. It does have some networking implementation concepts; however it no big deal it is as easy as installing a DSL modem.

•The last but not the least something that is very easy to control with or without GUI: There are button, knobs and a LCD display in the front panel using which we can control the receptor, Receptor can take VGA monitor, keyboard and a mouse, Or, they provide software to drive receptor from a pc/mac, something similar to the Remote desktop connection in windows XP.

What Receptor can do for me? Receptor can host VST plug-ins; Receptor can serve as a multi timbre Sound module handling multiple channels of midi or it can host Effects processors that take [dry] signals and add effects and return a wet signal. Receptor offers 16 channels or I would call it as slots to host VST, meaning I do not need a midi/audio sequencer to host VST plug-ins anymore; each receptor slot can accommodate VST effects or VST based soft synthesizers. Each slot has the ability to respond to Midi and audio inputs directly or transmit midi and audio. More over you can route each channel to 3 additional effects. And some more, Sound effects can be routed or ordered using 3 paths - series, parallel or a combination of both. As an instrument alone, Receptor can have 16 different software instruments with 48 effects. As if this was enough, we have 2 x 3 master effects slots that can be used by every channel. You can save all the setting, patches and recall them when needed. These are stored as data files that can be backed up.

What are the instruments or effects it can host? A huge list can be found in their website, they list few of them as unsupported - mostly due to “non technical reasons”, but you can give try, 8 out 10 times it works.

Other than being VST host, what are the other powerful features of Receptor?God gave the power of speech - for humans to communicate [supposedly] better. Human beings created networks protocols for “their creations” to communicate; Receptor supports TCP/IP - You can access Receptor’s hard drive via networking. Receptor comes with DHCP and IP protocols for windows and apple talk that will automatically hook on to your network. Receptor wires itself as network a resource using an IP address. For non computer folks, every network resource is identified by a unique number [E.g.: 111.111.111.111] in a network.

Data can be transferred to and from receptor using the shared work space. Plug-In installations are done via network using a pc/Mac, Yes! In way Receptor is kind of computer dependent. I contradict my earlier notion little here. To install a new component, I should put the component in a predetermined folder in Receptor; May be someone hard coded the location in the code. I prefer this install directory as user configurable folder; like I should be able to use my USB stick/drive to install components. Receptor should take user inputs for getting the active install folder name. I am sure future versions will have this feature.

With its Network capabilities Receptor can communicate with other software products using Uniwire. Uniwire is a single cable solution using standard Ethernet protocol. Muse Research provides a VST plug-in that can be hosted on the DAW [Digital Audio work stations - a fancy name for an audio sequencer].
This plug-In will establish a path between the DAW and Receptor via Ethernet. Using a single network cable receptor can transmit audio and midi data in all the 16 channels. You can them connect directly or via network hub/switch. I tried using Uniwire in Protools, via VST to RTAS wrapper [converter], it worked but was sluggish; may be due to the wrapper, it is matter of time before Muse gets out a native RTAS UNIWIRE plug-in. Until then I am better of using S/Pdifs outputs for digital audio transfer. Receptor also comes with USB ports, using which you can connect an external hard drive or DVD drive, very handy for data backups. Or you might host a 1 gb grand piano sample from USB hard drive. There are ports to connect keyboard, mouse, and a VGA monitor. This is very hand in studio environments. Or you can use the remote control application, which is something very similar to windows XP remote desk top connection tool. Type in the IP address, the front end of the Receptor appears in a window. This window application has few limitations like the clip board is not common between the windows etc. this is really painful, if you want transfer some license key number, you have no other choice other than to type them one by one. Other than that, it works really well. I have a monitor/mouse connected to it.

Receptor comes loaded with 265mb of ram, this is too “low” and seriously with 256mb you will hate this box right away. A plug-in like Spectrosonics Atmosphere is destined to fail due to low memory in Receptor. Best bet would be to go for the highest supported upgrade – 2 gigs. You will not regret it, even mammoth plugs work easily with such configuration.

Receptor also comes with slew of plugs preloaded; for those “privileged” Receptor owners some of the premium plug-ins are free. I tried almost all of them; few of them are very cheesy. I don’t think few in the list will be off any use in the professional circuit, these many be handy for a marketing person who can show it off in a demo. Muse should take a note of this; they should not dump plug-ins because they are free.

“Poor Musicians” who “own” cracked plug-ins might have a question, well…will cracked plug-ins work on Receptor? I really do not know, but bottom line here is Receptor is a serious music instrument for serious musicians who want stability “yada yadas”, so regardless of anything - using cracked plugs anywhere warrants trouble in the production cycle. So it is better to avoid such “cracked” investments. A musician who can afford Receptor will be able to afford premium plugs-ins. Musician who can afford? What is the cost? - The full upgrade cost ranges from $1800-$2200. Samash has live demos available, you might want to check it or visit Muse website for demo videos

There are questions asked in Muse discussion boards like why can’t I invest on a PC instead? Well yes you can, Receptor is technically a desktop PC, but please go back and read my 4 basic points. I believe that I can get more out of Receptor than a PC or Mac because Receptor is dedicated to do a single PC task properly. Host VST! , do you pay $2000 just to host VST plug-ins? True can be argued, bottom line “you need to make a choice based on your comfort zone”.

When thinking about future possibilities, I foresee something very promising for the music industry. Assume Roland decides to bundle their VSynth technology into a windows based VST module, or some other synthesizer manufacture plans to create cross platform VST software versions, Receptor can host them for you. Does it not sounding too promising? Is there a catch? Yes there are few, both technically and logistically, technically Mac users have few issues. Receptor supports VST plug-ins made for windows platform only. Mac users should cross convert their plug-Ins. But most premium plug-ins seems to be cross- compatible. Some windows based plug-in might not work due their implementation. From a manufacturer perspective I am sure Muse is working on this cross compatibility and will get more manufacturers to “receptorize” their VST products. Logistically, Muse has to deal agreements with companies. This will never be easy in a market that is brutally competitive. The crude truth is it is matter of time before we see hybrid clones of this product.

Will this ensure “good” musical productions? The word “good” is very subjective; no one can define “good music”. People don’t decide music quality based on musical instruments – often decided based on the person playing it; Mandolin was just a European instrument, mostly used in film music genre, but when one “little guy” from South India called “Srinivas” played it, the whole complexion of the instrument changed. World heard something new! Today whenever we hear the word “Mandolin” our god given neural network will automatically map the name “Srinivas” to it. I read that Receptor is owned by many top class musicians around the world, it is also used by some of my favorite bands and musicians. U2 is said to have stacks of them, and it is also believed that “A.R.Rahman” owns this so does Harris Jeyaraj and few other Indian musicians who are technology savvy and who are NOT intimidated by technology;

In my case [a small scale musician] Receptor will definitely aid my music production in a better fashion, and over all, I am thrilled to see the possibilities using receptor and I am looking forward to produce music as usual, may be this can add more color and perfection to my creations.

Finally, I am yet to fully realize the potential of Receptor but on the first go it is simply awesome! And remember first impression is often your best!

Musicians Mantra - Part 2

If you have missed the previous part of this series, please click here…

Any goodies to work properly, there is a price to pay. Apart from the monetary aspects, there are various technical overheads like CPU cycles, memory limitation.

A VST plug- in cannot run on its own. It requires a host that it can hook on to or call it piggy backing; having VST plug-ins without the host is like me owning Hindi literatures, just occupies space in the hard disk. This is not the major issue - Most software sequencers today support VST [Yes, today many Tamilians read/write Hindi including someone “wink-wink” who opposed Hindi]. No worries here, but the real issue would be, Software synthesizers and Effects demand lot of CPU time/Cycles - processing power and memory space. PC or Mac must be equipped with acres of memory and powerful processing capabilities. In general adding plug-ins drains processor cycles, soon system ends up in being slow or sluggish [like watching a mind blowing game of Golf on CBS or swashbuckling batting display of Geoffrey Boycott].

The situation can become volatile under PC environments [Duh!]; apart from the sequencer OS essentials like windows explorers and travelers will be drawing additional CPU juice. Also from an exiting VST users perspective if they go live on stage, using the funky-Vocal-Slice effect that was used in the studio recording is not easy, you can though, by carrying the pc or a lap top or iMac along, host your favorite software synthesizers & effects, wire them etc., believe me this is a cumbersome process and if PC goes into one of its hanging or brooding mood, we are done.

What if I use software that does not support VST or in my case I use Protools, Protools supports RTAS plug-Ins - native for DIGI design products. On the contrary there are plenty of RTAS products, but most of them will bankrupt you in day or two. Easy approach here would be to change my base software if I need to use VST, a costly proposition as I cannot let go my favorite Protools, it is damn stable and dependable, and who knows other software might come with problems or might have a steep learning curve. Having said that, at the same time I don’t want to skip VST from my producer palette, today’s industry norm is such that, musicians have limited choices if their work flow fails to support VST instruments and plug-ins.

Bottom line: Mac or PC – plug-in overload during live shows or studio recording is not a very pleasant scenario. And it is very hard for musicians to change their work flow. All said and done, in spite of pains ready to strike musicians do not hesitate to play around with VST instruments and effects why? Simply because these things inspire, they open new avenues and doors for musicians. VST is such a great tool that it has become a must for Musicians. How do we come to a compromise here? I should be able to use VST without worrying about the processing cycles crap, or changes in my work flow crap?

What if? I find a product that can eliminate or reduce the pains mentioned above; A product
• That can host VST instruments and effects without the host software
• That is housed in a separate rack, like every other sound module controlled via midi sequencer or feeds via direct audio inserts from a mixer or wired digitally within the digital domain
• That can be easily added on to any existing setup and work flow
• That is multi timbre
• That is not really PC/Mac dependent
• That has an easy learning curve - you can use your existing VSTs as is.
• The last but not the least something that is very easy to control with or without GUI

The above is a massive requirement specification. Let go the fancy sides like multiple platform support etc, when it comes to musical gizmos, in my opinion apart from inspiring them, “serious” musician worry about 4 major things.

Stability: The product must be stable, period. Not once my triton or motif has hung up on me, they just keep working on and on and on… [Touch wood! in my case my head comes really handy]. The reason I still use Protools in spite of no VST support is due to its damn stability. Never once it has hung-up on me.

Latency: Reaction or Response time between gadgets, assume you turn on the TV using your remote, and it comes up after 10 minutes, the latency here can termed as "pathetic". Software synthesizers are notorious for such goofy behavior; notes would sound 1 or 2 seconds after actual play time . Few software products try to compensate for such latency however at times it gets ugly which in turn slows down music creation and composing. Musicians will have to try some other alternative patch up work flow. Serious musician cannot tolerate latency. When transmitting and receiving (midi/audio) data, the unit has to respond faster [than human beings] without latency.

Adapting into my work flow: In order to accommodate the new comer, I should not order upgrades for my other trusted gadgets; with very minimum process change it should fit in automatically; Easy learning curve is a must, like the product should use same terminologies, like it should not rename the common jargons like “patch” to say something like SAVE - simulated algorithm for Virtual Entities [I just made that up]. Simplicity – Korg Triton is a complex instrument but its front is designed so well, anybody can pick it up within a short period of time.

Genuine Life time, Future upgrades and Support: I want my investment protected; I need upgrades in future and good support. When the product comes to the market it should have cleared hurdles in the beta version stage, and should have a proper life time say 2 years. The product should then grow with the industry. As soon as I buy it, since the old version had serious bugs, the company should not release a completely redesigned new version that is not downward compatible. Some companies are notorious for such gadgets.

These 4 are vital statistics for me to buy a musical instrument. You can add a 5th, Cost factor: How much you are willing to pay. This is very subjective, and depends on individual needs and economics.

Are there such products out there to do this? If not say why don’t a bunch of experienced software geeks who are also expert musicians design this for the world?

Yes! That is exactly what Muse research and their Receptor is all about. Folks! The product I will be talking about from now is called RECEPTOR. Designed and developed by Muse Research. People in Muse Research fit my description perfectly. Receptor was developed by computer hardware/software/network geeks who are also avid musicians. They come from various backgrounds and popular companies in the music industry. Before stepping on to receptor development, they have done other things to music industry. Using their experience in both the worlds, they have designed and built receptor in such a way that I am marveled as composer/producer/keyboardist and as hardcore software professional, I am thrilled to see its architecture and implementation. They have exploited technology in every possible way and have clearly addressed the needs of musicians. Honestly when heard about this gadget, I “assumed” that was just another complex thingy and I was not seriously keen to get one for me, but I was totally wrong. Receptor is a powerful gadget; its open ended architecture ensures a great future ahead of it.

Tommorrow, let use see what is this Receptor all about?

Let me clarify that I don’t work or market any thing for Muse research; I am just an avid musician who would not hesitate to use any kind of modern technology if my composition warrants such usage.


Good day..

Musicians Mantra

Few days ago I mentioned about a new gadget for my studio, few of my friends tried guessing however none came even close but before going into it, let me write an intro for non-technical people so that it helps them to understand what I am scribbling about. The goal here is to explain few concepts and create a step by step valid reasoning or justification for need of such gadgets. .When I finished the article today I realized it was about 10 pages long, hence I decided to divide the article into smaller parts based on average time spent per Blog by a Blog reader [aka ETWDO - Effective Time wasted during office hour]. I know what you are thinking! I promise, article completion is assured as I have finished the article in full. If you have been a dormant reader of my Blog please do share your thoughts, honestly such participation encourages me to write more in these topics. Alright here we go!

How many times you have heard the word software Plug-ins?

Time and time again I have “yada yada ed” about Electronic Music instruments and how they have evolved for generations, starting from a dumb electronic circuit that generated calling bell sounds to something more much complex like Software based instruments that match or mimic any natural instruments to perfection. Technology growth in the music industry is phenomenal. Today we have incredible tools that inspire musicians to produce great music. One such growth is “PLUG-INS”.

The word “Plug-in” is an important “mantra” for musicians. Assume a plug-in to be a component that does a specific task in a process chain, it can be added, updated or removed based on needs. When you order something on the Internet, your order actually travels through a pipeline, like from adding the item into shopping cart, capturing address details, validating your credit card, creating the order, and finally it ships to you. The each activity mentioned in the pipe line can be called as plug-ins that does specific predefined tasks. Or another simpler example, while entering the free way we see traffic meters in some cities [e.g.: Minneapolis, MN ] , these meters permit one or two car per green, it is a plug-in that aids smooth traffic flow. This can be turned on and off based on traffic congestion.

In music production cycle, plug-ins executes specific tasks, a “plug in” by its name, plugs itself into the main task or chain of activities. VST, DirectX, RTAS, AU are few famous plug-in technologies available today. Plug-Ins can do various tasks like providing reverb, delay, phase, sound modeling or even pitch corrections, or act as virtual instrument to play drum grooves. All the plug-In technology match each other in quality and performance, however let me jump directly to the most popular form of Plug-In called VST.

VST is an acronym for Virtual Studio Technology developed by Steinberg, makers of products like Wave Lab, Cubase, and Nuendo. VST refers to an interface standard for connecting audio synthesizer and effect plug-ins to audio editors, sequencer and hard-disk recording systems. VST allows the replacement of traditional recording studio hardware with software counterparts. Example, Today, if you need an industry standard reverb like Lexicon, you can get the VST version of Lexicon instead of the hardware version. Such Plug-ins can be chained into the audio track. They get the feed from the audio track – adds effects and sends it back. The sources is retained in the format it was recorded. Effect is just an insert over the source and it can be changed without affecting the source. VST Plug-Ins has various flavors and has their own Graphic user interface [GUI], using which users can play around with the parameters [Value Semantics that changes the behavior of input data]. Meaning you can configure or tweak the plug-in independently. The host software will not know or worry about these changes other then sending and receiving data. Like I said before there are also other interfaces like RTAS, AU and Microsoft DirectX; VST is the most popular among all because slew of powerful VST effects, instruments and synthesizers can be found on the internet. Some of them are free.

What is VST based software instrument? Let us consider Yamaha Motif ES sampler/workstation/keyboards for example. Motif comes as software & hardware bundled and housed in a big “silver” shell. It is a dedicated piece of hardware with its own control sets. Assume we pull the software from Motif ES and make it run on the PC abiding by the Virtual Studio Technology standards and protocols - this becomes VST based Software Synthesizer Plug-In. Instead of stand alone dedicated hardware, the computer midi devices triggers it, and the hard disk stores the sounds samples and its processor does the processing for you. Technically Yamaha motif is a computer in a different form; it has processors, memory and executes code. The idea here is - Why not use the PC/Mac to do the processing. I should also mention about Digi Design, [makers of Protools] as one among the pioneers in developing such concepts. Advantages of such software based instruments are, Costs can be kept considerably low to its hard ware counter parts, the reason being it does not need processors & memory to be bundled along. Once it becomes downloadable software it is now open for wide range of upgrades and possibilities. A fantastic concept and a powerful mechanism widely used today in most audio production. Be it a Blogger musician or a professional musician, they have access to tons of free and premium VST plug-ins.

However even God’s first creations came with a catch called “apple” restrictions. For these goodies to work properly there is a price to pay. Apart from the monetary aspects, there are various technical overheads like CPU cycles, memory limitation.

More on Moday....

Have a great weekend.

its Tuesday - keep it short

Good morning, as I start another trip around the sun I thank….. [Inaudible whispers]. I left home at 6.00am, Traffic was ok this morning; Weather seems to be perfect around DC metro. No rains for past few days. My midi 8x8 Hub that was fried due to power surges is back in action. I received the firmware chip from M-Audio and it took 20 minutes to get going. Sachin looks to strike form, basically his minimum score for past few weeks has been hundred, yesterday in a rain shortened game charity game against Pakistan, he fired a quick 50. Good going for him, I wish he gets back on groove before the world cup. Dravid leading the Indian team and lost the charity match to Pakistan.

As you see there is nothing much to scribble, it ends here :)

Good day.

OGIM [oh! God its Monday]

Monday Morning Traffic was crawling on 270 towards 495 belt way. It was more or less of a "Janavasam" for everyone. Like starved rodents let go lose, little topless cars zigzagged through lanes. In the name of music some cars were blasting "the Brigade road thuds". I really do not know the purpose of having 10 lanes. My agony was padded well by the morning show on DC-99.5. These guys come up with some crazy gigs and remove pain from the every lasting "Janavasam ride".

Yesterday on Sun TV I managed to catch "sapathaswarangal", an all kid show, presided by Gana Ulagananthan. Every kid sang with perfection. One that got my attention was "Srinithi" she should be about 10 or something, apart from a sweet voice, the expressions she was able to deliver into the song was simply amazing. She seemed to have all the qualities of a play back singer; it is just matter of time she reaches the lime light.

Italy won the world cup, France lost. I did watch the game. Penalty shootout seemed ridiculous to me that too in a final. 90 minutes of regular time was simply mocked. You can ask me, how you can then finish the game. I would change the rules – have 2+1 penalty shoot outs, one in the beginning and one during ½ time. The regular time should be used to score something more than achieved in those penalty shoot outs,. If the score are equal still, one more shoot out at the end. This will restore some honor to the regular 90 minutes. Play your heart out but if the result is end based on last 10 minutes in the shoot out, seriously it makes the game really dull than what it is already. btw: The French captain did a head butt to an Italian player. It was like watching "Chimbu" in action.

Yesterday NBC had a short news clip on why Americans don't like Soccer. The report said it was a boring blah blah blah and they termed Soccer as "Rest of the world sport" and the winner as "rest the world champions". Topic then shifted went towards baseball; but they covered up baseball with its old tradition etc duh! How interesting is Baseball? To me the entire 11 innings fiasco feels like watching hibernating polar bears roll over in their bed; or watch VVS and Dravid play for a draw [with 2 turns each]. Nothing much happen other than swing and a miss. Desi scientists in Harvard or Berkley can try this, create a turbine that traps the air flow from each swing and miss to generate electric which powers the beer refrigerator in the stadium. Homer Simpson was damn right on money. Unless you get drunk nothing seems interesting in this sport. My take is in order to make this game interesting - the spectators should get drunk - more the merrier- while the players get doped.

Finally – as per US sports media, I guess playing Baseball between Main Street and Wayzata blvd fetches the world champion title but in Soccer playing against world teams gets only the "Rest of the world champion" title.

Friday Sermon

The recent downpour in Maryland had caused power surges in my studio; in spite of spike busters etc, firm ware in one of my midi hub was fried; M-Audio resolved it at once, thanks to their fantastic support. Currently things are back to normal. During this cleanup work, I managed to co ordinate serious gadgets upgrades. The studio is now properly wired for foreground and background scoring. A new powerful gadget landed in the studio for this and other purposes. I am now a proud owner of a brand new gadget! What is it? Musicians never tell their secret. I would discuss more after I churn out songs using it. However the manufacturer tells me that I am the 5 th Indian to own this thingy; this will change my work flow to something remarkable. I am hoping that my musical carrier will take a serious step forward; please wish me luck;

One main reason I went for upgrades was to work on film scoring, but the bottom line MPGD ["Man Proposes God Disposes"]. Things don't happen like you had planned for or the trusted someone takes you for granted; life shall takes it course; priority changes for people, nevertheless I have been doing music for long enough that I usually don't deviate for such petty issues. It did make me feel gloomy but consolation is – "what can you do? It is not your fault" Sea is full of fishes or Saravana-Bhavan is not the only restaurant that serves "paper dosa"; - Hold it, I see that you frown and wonder what the heck this guy is whining about, nothing, just my "@#$@#@" story.

Moving on - My next song is a Hindi track, you can see the banner below; I would be introducing two more wonderfully talented folks. "Raghu and Ajay" I will talk about them once the track is released. One thing I want to say is, it was a pleasure working with Raghu and Ajay. Bharath has played my drum score with lots of punch and flow. I am sure this track would be a new beginning for me and my talented team. Following this there are 3 or 4 Tamil songs in the production bin for this summer, I will be introducing more vocalists. The collection includes a sequel to "vaisayakkari" track called "Nadodi kalaignan" - Introducing - Siddharth, Just hang in there for more updates.

Have a great weekend;

Next Release...

Blah Blah Blah....

After a bashful session on Soccer aka Football, I am back to my favorite topic "Cricket". Anybody still following India VS West Indies fanfare? I did the ritual for some time on the Internet.  Like the good old 70s or the 80s I was back to the era of audio commentary. This is because cost of watching live cricket on TV in US seems to rise like gas prices, "another word to note". When I say the word Gas, rest of world thinks about a stomach malfunction, but in US it is something that powers Automobiles. I know where we are getting to now, but let me move on. Direct TV offered plans for about $180 for the series.

 

My question, is there a big satellite up linking cost involved here? I can understand if it is from the other side of the world it doest cost to carry the signals all the way, however when the game is played near here, why in the hell ICC charges $200?   Simply Greed for money; the greatest joke here is ICC wants to popularize this sport in South and North America. I don't think a football fan would spend $200 to watch Kaif score a duck or VRV Singh doing something with the ball and call it bowling,  they are better off watching Ronaldo, Babito or Up-it-Toe.  Even cricket crazed Indians [like me] would think twice to subscribe paying unreasonable amount.  1^st leave the the cost factor- think about this scenario – Should I pay and watch Kaif cook ducks or VVS and Dravid defend the ball to their best potential.   2^nd the Indian "Indic-PatheicKometer" , [a device used to measure pathetic performances of Indians] readings is mind boggling.   Dravid failure to win test matches despite having very good opportunities. Dravid lost the one day to the underdogs quite pathetically. Overall did nothing great happened other than gaining personal mileage, and the usual baggage - Kaif scoring some runs after "Gajini" number of attempts , What the heck our million dollar coach doing? Enjoying his paid vacation in the Caribbean?

 

While I am still dreaming about winning the world cup next year our little neighbor Srilanka is busy trashing the English.   Srilankans have improved while we are going from bad to worse. Taking about self acclaimed all powerful English players, be it Soccer or Cricket, I feel major portions of their body constitution is made of Golden temple brand Atta+Maida.  They seem to get injured quickly.  

 

Wimbledon Tennis is going on if anyone still following it. Agassi has finally decided to quit, if I am correct he is been playing from 2BC. He has played against Chandragupta Mouriya , Ashoka, Alexander, then the real Jesus Christ till Mel-Gibson.  I salute this amazing player with determination. I have never seen anyone come back to win like the way he does.  Our popular tennis dream girl of India was kicked out in the first round. I am sure press will not dare to ask her [and of course get snubbed].  If she keeps failing, even her hard core fans will discard her, talking about discarding, have ever been discarded like a playing card? Like if the card is not needed you just drop it, if so I too know the feeling.

 

Ok enough of complains, something good now, that too about Indians, if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.1 - Click on the about box in the help menu, when the about window shows up, click on the credits button, you will find the one more proof that we are a software super power.

 

Have a great weekend.

 

Ps: I saw on news that Britney spears is moving back to New Orleans, I pity people of New Orleans, after Katrina they need to face this now.

Goooooooool

Well, world cup soccer is in full swing mode.

Let me warn you before hand, if you love soccer - keep loving it and do not read the following. This is a meticulous attempt to make fun of this uninteresting sport. I have never been a soccer aficionado and will never be one. I find this game runs short of events. [Dude! this is not windows computer program to generate events, it is a Sport]

Ten players chase the damn ball while another 10 seem to chase the ten who are busy chasing, while few color clothed officials direct the traffic like a railway guard with a flag and a whistle. The goal keeper stands there waiting for M18 bus at Laxmipuram Bus Stand, [formerly well known remote place in Chennai outskirt, currently a mini-city]. Goal keeper waits [not to be confused with traditional waitees], he is waiting waiting waiting and waiting, he practices his skill by catching passing flies and other domestic bugs. At times the round thingy with logos called the ball shows up, he catches with perfection.

Most of my friends are adherent soccer fans, they tell me it is the fastest sport and compares this to cricket, and says cricket is a very slow sport [Dravid! see what you have done]. I never watch and enjoy the sport based on its speed. A good picture painted by an artists takes time while it takes less than 2 minutes to scribble something [heehaw.. like this Blog] , yes agreed scribbling is fast but still you see - it is a scribble.

MOJO for a game is calculated based on difference between Delta 2pi x 5gama/2 in simple words - MOJO for a game is calculated based on the events that happen in the game. [Dude, don’t bore us, tell us what are these events?] Let us take a Cricketing example: Every action in cricket is filled with events, Consider this event - A spinner or a medium pacer bowls – let us see the outcome: he can spin the ball, he might not if his name is Anil Kumble, he can bowl in-line, but can disappoint if his last name is Agarkar, get a wicket, but it can be a no ball or if his first name is Zaheer it can be a well directed donkey drop, while on the other end, a batsmen can launch this to a six, or a four, a single, or if it is Dravid he will just defend it or the batsmen can get out for a duck [Yaw! you guessed it, - it is Kaif]. Just a single event has the potential to generate about 10 outcomes in a minute. Note the time interval between events, it is very short (

Let us take Soccer, IMMAO [in my most arrogant opinion] there are very few events that happens in this game. Scoring a goal, a free or corner kick or passing the ball, sometime teams make donations – score goals for the opponents. This goal scoring event is something similar to filling water into a big bore well in order to restart a weak motor [called priming]. The time interval between these events is too long, thank you St. Peter this game is just played for 90 minutes.

After 90 long plus some extra minutes for wasting time, if they find out that there is no soul in either team to score the winning gooooooal, Woh Woh Woh! The winner is decided on penalty kicks. Few players are selected for penalty kicks while the rest are asked to take rest. After 90 minutes of mind-boggling running and chasing, the game is literally in the hands of the M18 commuter oops, goal keeper. What a waste. [Dude, test cricket ends is draw after 5 days of nonsense, but one day/twenty20 saves your ass here]. Referee rules: The rules were so tight, even if a player scratches his head due to excessive lies - he gets a Yellow card. If the player asks another player to scratch for him – referee shows him the Red card. Still if the players keep scratching, Referees will seize player’s credit card and use it. There was record number of penalty cards shown during this world cup. Experts believe that this is due to minor rumor; some one had told players that these cards contain hidden casino codes, after each violation players will get to know this by scratching the cards.

Q1. Why is Soccer not popular in USA? Answer: Winner of MLS [Major league Soccer] cannot be called as the world champions. Generally winners of all major sport events in USA are blindly termed as world champs. According to geography books available in US, World starts near Niagara Falls, Canada and ends somewhere near Tijuana, Mexico

Q1.1. World calls this game as football Why US calls this as Soccer?
USA has a sport played using hands but calls it Football. Hence! to avoid confusion for already confused people.

Someone asked me why Indians are not playing soccer; I told them with an awkward smile that we outsourced it to China. Another good reason for me not to follow soccer is - India sucks in this sport at various levels. So it does in hockey, athletics, tennis, golf, volley ball, sugrivan ball, water polo and the talented mind boggling sport of Canada –curling.

Finally,
In my humble opinion [after all this trash talk], the only good thing about this sport is it is damn simple to understand, may be that’s why even the French are playing it with ease.

Good day!

All Right! Sit Tight! If anyone cares! My Blog is back.

The world wide networks are blessed. From today WWW network packets would carry this additional garbage. To celebrate this return, TCP/IP has been renamed as Trash Carrying Packets of Important People.

SFAQ: [short F…asked question] Why in the hell you came back?
My so called boasted busy schedule never seem to end hence the only way to prime my Blog back is add this as a task in my busy schedule.

Today as I woke up in the morning, I saw a bright light that came through the window; I thought it must be God making his usual appearance in my dreams to cleanse me from my sins. Nop! Since the list is too long, based on frequent chatters in Gods network, I corroborated that God has outsourced this effort to St. Peters. Poof! Within few seconds I realized it is not even St. Peters, the light came from something big, bright, round and orange, Yes! damn it, it was something called The Sun, not the putrid Tamil TV channel, the real one, the one that provides light, energy , Viagra “blah blah …” to our Bhoomi mAtha – the Earth.

After about 200 million years of non-stop rain. Gees’ Sun shine in DC metro, Water! Water! Every Where - Average speed on interstates - 160934 Centimeters per hour, time taken to travel 10 miles is equal to time taken to reach India via Air India. Few unlucky people in and around DC were busy loading stuff in their version of Noah ark, this time instead of almighty God, it was the government who got them evacuated.

Weather grandfathers and grandmas in all the low and high definition Radio and TV have predicted that everything is over and we should see sun and only sun for next couple of days. I wish we stay dry for next 6 months, all said and done based on their prediction records mmmm.. it does look cloudy out side now.

Finally, People, while liberal radio and other green peace groups are busy blaming Global warning for this rain, Psst… here is a secret, I have a better reason for this non-stop rain, Yes! People I have been working my full quote of 40 hrs without wasting even a minute for past month. It has to rain!

All Right! Sit Tight! If anyone cares! My Blog is back.

Good day.

Song Release

வசியக்காரி
Vocals: [Introducing] Vidyu
Lyrics: Udhaya
Music:Srikanth
Credits:
Flute:Raman
Framedrum/Hand drum: Srikanth
Sound Engineering/Mixing: [Introducing] Bharath, Srikanth
Additional drum programming: Bharath

As I was browsing through Udhaya's blog , Vasikayakari got my attention, it took me about 30 minutes to compose the lead tune for this song.

I have great pleasure in introducing 2 new artists in this production.

Lead vocalists Vidyu, based out of Virginia she contacted me via Email with her audition tracks. After hearing her tracks, I wasted no time to book her in for the song. Vidyu can sing in Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada. Vidhyu simply rocks all through the track, she sang every expression I expected from her in the composition. We are currently working on more music.Here is another news leak - Vidyu would be singing live along with popular Hindi play back Abijith during July 4th weekend in Houston. My best wishes to her for the show.

Next Introduction - "Sound Engineer" - Bharath [Bharathidasan Venkatesan]. Based out of the Bayarea CA, Bharath owns a state of the art audio studio equipped with Protools HD system and tons of other musical gigs, yes I found one more person just like me with MTNC Syndrome [Musical Technical Nut Case]. Bharath using his engineering expertise has done a clean job in sound balancing and mixing the track. This song was mixed on the latest Protools HD system. Bharath is also a drummer and a keyboard programmer, he has also played few drum parts in this track. I think we have a long working friendship in place.

Flute Vidwan Raman, I had the great pleasure of meeting Raman in a concert couple of months ago. Raman is a disciple of Indian Classical Flute genius N.Ramani. Raman is an accomplished musician with fantastic accolades. A great pleasure for to me work with him and learn from him. Raman conducts flute training classes and workshop around Maryland area. Currently Raman and I are working on few instrumental albums . We just completed an album for Yoga and Mediation.H1Bees Inc will be producing this and it should be out around Fall 2006. This will also be sold in India. Soon Raman and I will be performing live on stage. Plans are being drawn by H1Bees inc.

Finally - There is a rumor that Udhaya cultivates variety of plants in his back yard that blooms all round the year with Tamil and English lyrics. I need to check it out, I know him for about a decade now and you know, I am yet to meet this damn guy in person. As always I have my studio1234, I have Udhaya for lyrics.

With such a dedicated team, I am sure you will like the track , well with this overloaded hype in place - I present , "Vasiyakari", This will also feature in my next album scheduled for Winter 2006 release.

Happy listening.

ps: had some spare time - rebuilt my website:)