The Ilaiyaraja Signature Style Synth Explained | Suvai Snippets ep-8

Composer Ilaiyaraja uses the Synth with an Indian touch, featuring many glides (or gamakas, or portamentos), which gives his signature "feel" to it. He uses this western instrument in a way that the western pop scene hadn't. There are glides and portamentos in western pop, but not to this extent, and style.

Synthesizers can be made to generate continuous pitches in several ways:
(1) By pressing time: Specific models  allow certain "synth" voices to glide the pitch continuously when the next finger is pressed slightly before the previous finger is released. Note: your keyboard may not have this functionality. It is dependent on the model and mode. I used a Yamaha Motif Xs synthesizer, which has many synth "voices" - you can turn on and off, this gliding functionality.
(2) By pitch bend  - a wheel can make the pitch go from one note to another continuously. This is found in advanced keyboards.
(3) By software - A keyboard may be a controller for a software generated synth sound. You may be able to generate continuous pitches by even drawing on the screen.

The method is not important, but the final quality of a synth that makes these gliding sounds gives that "Ilaiyaraja" feel. You may start to recognize many synth glides in his popular songs.

The synthesizer voices used from Yamaha Motif XS are:
(1) Mr. Finger - Punnagai Mannan
(2) Soft RnB - Idhayam Oru Kovil
(3) Mini Soft - Pothi vecha

Apologies for the hissing noise. Will try to reduce next time.

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