Not exactly remixes

Here are a couple of songs in recent times, which are not exactly remixes but are inspired / lifted from old songs.

1) "Ah mudhal akku thanadaa" from Jithan

This is one of the few kuthu songs that I like. Music is by Srikanth Deva. Only later did I realize that the full tune is lifted from an old MGR song: Koduthathellam Koduthaar. They have changed the time signature to 6/8 (kuththu beat) and have written new lyrics for it. I have overlapped both the songs and you can listen it below. You can listen to the new song on the left channel and the old one on the right.

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2) "Jalsa" from Chennai-28


Some couple of lines alone remind you of the popular old song "Senthamizh then moziyaai". Listen to the mix below.

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I used Audacity, the free audio editor and recorder, to mix these tracks. I had to change the pitch so that both the songs overlapped are in the same shruthi. Because of this, the voice would have changed. Now-a-days, with the help of technology, the tempo of a song would be constant through out the song. But in those days, the tempo has to be maintained manually and hence the tempo will not necessarily be constant throughout the song. Because of this, I also had to alter the tempo in various places. I will also post a series of articles on this blog on how I do sound editing.

12 comments:

  1. Ramesh, great sound editing and good catches. Especially the one Jithan.

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  2. hi ramesh,
    sound editing is excellent.

    kumar

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  3. Thanks Mr. Kumar. Nice to get such encouragement from you. Your profile page shows your occupation as sound engineer-musician. May I know what you are into?

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  4. Hey man, good R&D. Jalsa was a known one. but jithan song is new to me. certainly inspired...

    Check out my findings,

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  5. Hey, Thanks Vinith. You have got a nice blog as well. I have subscribed to your blog now.

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  6. Thanks Ramesh!!! :) :)

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  7. True about being lifted from the MGR song, but it's such an immmaculate remix, actually one of my favourite kuthu songs - beautifully done - so it deserves credit in its own right.

    Sometimes this talk of lifted ideas reminds me of the controversy about the Matrix and Terminator being lifted of an idea of a woman to which she never got credit and then sued the studios.

    The thing is, the idea may very well have been hers... but I read through her concept - the core was definetely hers... but the totally new STYLE of filmmaking was entirely the Wachowski Brothers.

    Which made me ask myself.. what about the matrix really made it for me? The core concept, or the presentation style? The truth is, it is both, with equal importance.

    The Jithan song is very similar... the melody is one thing, but the arrangement is so compellingly relevant also.

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  8. Interesting view point. In this case, the main attraction for this kuthu song is the melody combined with the accompaniment (especially beats). And the melody (or tune) plays a vital role and it is the job of the composer to produce the melody. Here the composer took a shortcut by copying the melody while not crediting the original. Anyway I have already said in my blog: "This is one of the few kuthu songs that I like."

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  9. Dear Ramesh,

    Good work. My friend and Music Lover Mr.Sethupathi introduced this blog to me. I loved this Ah mudhal Akkuthanada..

    Will any bell ring in ur mind when you hear a song or what?? Good catch of that song.. Koduththathellaam koduththan...

    jeyakumar

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  10. Thanks Jeyakumar. I didn't notice the similarity initially. I noticed after a few days. And that too I thought only the 1st 4 lines have been lifted. But when I listened to the old song again, I knew the whole song was lifted / adapted.

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  11. Couldn't stop laughing at the jithan thing.. Cha! Vekkame illa olagathula oru silavangalukku.. ! sirutha 16 adi paanja kutti 31 adi paanjirukkku!

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