Isaiyaraaja's Synth Style

Its inevitable that the maestro has started delving into the synth territories but it seems quite alot of fans are displeased with his synth usage. I for one am not displeased as i started listening to his songs at a time when he had restructured his songs using synth.

The trendy sound made famous by ARR,HJ,YSR and others have become the synth sound we are used to hearing with ARR innovating in this area. However when we listen to raaja's synth sounds alot of us think it sounds out of place and very unpleasant. Is this true or is it a result of us "expecting" Raaja to have a synth sound matching those of the younger generation?

If that is so, it shows we have failed to understand the man's composing style actually. Even a hardcore fan with average music knowledge can distinguish that he has such a unique style that if he started to adopt a synth sound matching that of the younger generation, it will sound pleasant but it is not certainly what really makes his music.

The parody is simple; while the composers today(pan-indian e.g. pritam, SEL, YSR) have a very stylish synth makeover, the genres can be easily distinguished and the overall mixing shows more of enthusiasm rather than substance. You can find out that the composer is incorporating celtic, arabic etc patterns in the song by just hearing, but no unique output to really hail them as close to Raaja's style.

I think Violin Vicky put it best when he said Raaja builds his orchestration using the basics of every genre and composing them in his own style. There could be a shenai, a bass drum and a saxophone but they are made to play in a pattern only possible by the man himself. Truth to be told, it is basically a new genre where we dun't know how to name it(Quite obvious that How To Name It album illustrated what Violin Vicky described. Just listen to How To Name It's main track).

It is in such a style that his synth sounds have been presented. It does sound very "out of place" at first as we are used to hearing a manual instrument in place of them but the IDEA is that the synth sounds are orchestrated in his STYLE. Just listen carefully to Pachaimenia(the raunchy song) from his new album Kannukkulle especially the ludes. You can substitute the synth sounds preceding the first stanza with a guitar and a flute and you get exactly the same result. You can do the same for any song that Raaja uses synth sounds and the result is a constant.

It is well known that Raaja can have various instruments playing different patterns together in his older days. This is what the synth sounds are doing nowadays. Problem is our ears. We have "taken Raaja for granted" for his maximum usage of live orchestra that when we hear synth in its place, we feel distraught and angry. And add to that the additional side effect of judging synth to be ONLY played in the trend that is nowadays and we get tons of "insulting" reviews as the output.

I think its time we open our ears and listen carefully to Raaja's songs once again cause we fail to notice the man's orchestration has always been unique no matter what the instruments are used, it is only us misled by the sounds we hear today that we forget that a style like that of Raaja existed. It does not mean that other composers are cringeworthy. This is just to illustrate how unique Raaja's music is compared to any other composer. In fact, Raaja is probably one of the super few or perhaps the only one to have ATLEAST three genres in one song yet they can never be spotted easily because they have been carefully cooked and given to us for a full meal making us think it is just a typical south indian dish.