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GOLDEN BOY After graduating from the Film & Television Institute of India in Pune with a Gold Medal for Sound Recording and Sound Engineering, Daman Sood was determined to stay at the top of his game. Throughout his career, he made regular trips to the UK, to ensure he always had his hands on the latest technology available, which arguably made him the go-to recording engineer in India. One thousand albums later, Sood tells his fascinating story...
WORDS PAUL WATSON
D
aman Sood’s first break was a four-year stint at Bombay Sound Services which began in 1969, where he worked under the late B.N.Sharma, who recorded film tracks for Madhumati, Mugle-a-Azam, Talash, and Bandini. During that time, most of the recording setups in India were optical, and Sood was well trained in working with the format. “In India, everything was recorded live on one-track, 35mm mono, but at Bombay, we had an RCA three-track machine,” Sood explains. “We had a very basic mixer, with two auxes, but we managed to record some incredible pieces on that three-track, including an 80-piece orchestra. We’d have the orchestra on the floor, and artists in a separate iso booth, playing soft instruments like guitar, sitar, and banjo; one track was for the rhythm;
one was for harmony and solos; and one was for the voice.” That period of Sood’s life was a real learning experience, and from there, he developed a passion for recording. In June 1973, Sood established a recording studio for Western Outdoor Advtg. Pvt. Ltd. in Mumbai, where he worked as recording director. He started off recording radio and TV commercials, which he describes as “a completely different art”. “I was responsible for fixing the booms, placing the mics and the musicians, and switching recorders on and off, basically.” he explains. “I had a good salary, and I was independent; the company started making these huge billboards like you’d see in Hollywood, with space for multiple adverts on them, so I was making a lot of commercials. I’ve done more than 1,000
radio and TV commercials in my life, which is pretty crazy, when you think about it!” MULTITRACKING Because there are so many dialects in India, it was always key, even in those early days, to keep one track totally free for the voice. “We have 20 different languages in India – I think there are around 700 films that come out of the country each year now, and only 200 of those are in Hindi, our main language,” Sood reveals. “We’d do the full commercial in Hindi in the morning, then throughout the rest of the day, we’d have to do the voiceover in all the other Indian languages!” In that same studio, Sood eventually got into album work and recording songs for Bollywood films. He received a Platinum Award for his recording and mixing duties on the 1980 Bollywood action movie, Qurbani;
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and other Bollywood blockbusters he worked on include Dilwale Dulhaniyan, Ley Jayenge, Darr, Dil To Pagal Hai, and Devdas. “No-one had multitrack in India, and people were still working in mono, but at this time I was starting to record in stereo, using several two-track machines. The trends then were classical Indian music, instrumentals, and film songs,” Sood reveals. “I had a 24-42 mixer, but it was so expensive, as duty was 160% on any kit we were bringing in, so we used to get machines through other means to reduce the cost. I then bought Tascam four-tracks, and Otari eight-track machines. I’d use Q-Lock to lock two Otari machines to get myself more tracks, then I locked those with a video machine, so I could route TV commercials to the musicians, who were then able to record whilst looking at the screen. Multitrack became fashion of the day!” SWITCHING TO DIGITAL In the early ‘80s, Sood started working with Akai 12-track Hi8 machines with remote control, and a Mitsubishi X86 for mixing, “because CDs would soon be coming to India”. “I knew technology was evolving, so I thought, ‘why not do it digitally?’ I was attending APRS (The Association of Professional Recording Services) every year by then, and in 1983, I did a two-week course in Surrey, England, and saw the new SSL 4000 console,” Sood recalls. “Then in 1993, I went to Amek in Manchester, England, and that was my big breakthrough... I picked up a console with Steinberg software, and I started working with automation; suddenly, I was able to fade in and out, do groups, equalise, insert in and out... It was lovely automation.” By the mid-’90s, Sood had purchased a Studer A827 multitrack, and was getting heavily into recording songs for Bollywood. “In the film world, the maximum was four-track, and since I had 12 tracks, people flocked to record with me. Since I had my Hi8 machines, and I was trained, I saw it as a good opportunity to introduce the technology to my country,” he says, proudly. “That same year, I got my first introduction to Genelec, and that really changed everything for me.” Sood had previously been a Tannoy user, but quickly became a huge fan of Genelec’s 1031 monitors, after being offered a demo by a friend who was distributing for Dolby in India. “The [Genelec] 1031s were the world standard at this stage, and I remember the first time I gave them a listen, they felt odd to me... I soon realised this is because they were so wonderfully neutral, and simply didn’t have that colouration that many of
“IN THE FILM WORLD, THE MAXIMUM WAS FOUR-TRACK, AND SINCE I HAD 12 TRACKS, PEOPLE FLOCKED TO RECORD WITH ME.” the other nearfields had at the time, so I had to have a pair. Out of the 1,000 albums I’ve recorded in my life, I would say 850 of them were done on those Genelec 1031s; it doesn’t matter what the genre of music is, they just feel right on any project.” “Even when tracking, I don’t want big monitors – I used to say to people, your ear is more or less linear, so you get absolutely all the spectrum and imagery at 85dB; and for me, that’s the optimum listening volume. Another thing is, I never get tired when using them over long periods. There’s no fatigue, which is amazing really, considering an engineer’s daily routine might be 12 hours of listening, with perhaps an hour or so break for lunch!” Over the years, Sood developed a passion for microphones, too. He rates the DPA 4011 as “the perfect tool for recording guitar, violin, and flute”; the AKG C414 was always his favoured mic for percussion; and in many of those old studio sessions, a Neumann U87 would be his go-to for vocals. Sood remained at Western Outdoor until 2002, and in September of that year, he started teaching a sound recording course at Digital Academy, a film school in Bombay, where he remains head of his department to this day. Around this time, Sood also got into designing studios. He was senior technical consultant for the building of Mumbai’s vast facility, YRF Studios, in 2004, which remains the only complete soundproof and air-conditioned studio in India.
“That was a huge, two-year project, and possibly my most challenging yet,” Sood smiles. “We made a tower, like you have in Abbey Road, and I made floating floors, all sorts – I was there from start to finish, and I’m very proud of what we achieved.” Today, Sood helps out his son Shiv with the running of Sound Team, a consultancy firm which he helped found in 1994 to offer acoustic design, equipment, and training for people who wanted to open recording and post-production facilities in India. The company now distributes product for manufacturers including Genelec, DPA, and Prism Sound, throughout India. How far then, has India come, over the years Sood has been in the business? “When I retired from sound recording, I wanted to teach people what I’d learned on my travels, and I’m fortunate enough to be doing that today,” Sood says, with a hint of reflection. “A big move was of course mono to stereo, and then Bollywood changed many things; a Bollywood film without sound has no meaning, so that was a real turning point in my career. Another change is 5.1; today, it’s mandatory to have an HD channel with 5.1 audio transmission, whereas in 2002, it wasn’t even a concept. It’s amazing to have witnessed all these changes!” www.soundteam.in www.yrfstudios.com www.genelec.com www.dpamicrophones.com