The Story from the Underground
Have you ever asked yourself, "what does really the person who produces an album do?”, or "What is meant by mixing and mastering?”. We have talked to Ramin Mazaheri in the sixth week of "the Story from the Underground”. Ramin is a sound engineer who has worked with most of the singers and musicians of the recent years of the music sphere in Iran. Many filmmakers know Ramin. He has recorded the soundtrack of about 50 films in recent years.
NN:
As the first question, would you please introduce yourself?
Ramin:
I am Ramin Mazaheri, born on 21 April 1983. Sound engineer and music producer.
NN:
Why did you choose the field of music? And when did you start?
Ramin:
I started playing the piano at the age five. When I was ten, my father asked me why I didn’t play anymore despite my playing skills? And I told him: "now I like to play the guitar”. I was lucky that on the same day, my father bought me a guitar and I started to learn playing. Since I was 15 or 16 I started to build my own home studio, and at the same age I started to record music made by my friends.
NN:
So, do you recognise yourself as an instrumentalist too?
Ramin:
Well, I have played the guitar in a few albums and some concerts.
NN:
How about singing?
Ramin:
One day in the studio I felt like singing and playing the guitar. But I had moved all of my instruments to my home. So I told my assistant how badly I felt like singing! He suggested that I sang on the music we were working on. So I sang and recorded it! But I kept it for myself.
NN:
Why did you choose sound engineering, among all the branches of the music industry?
Ramin:
After a while that I had bought and worked with recording equipment to record my, and my friend’s (Naeem Meschian) works, I realised that I am drawn to this side of the field, and want to follow it more seriously.
NN:
Among the activities that you do in the field of music, which one do you like most?
Ramin:
I prefer the actual process of production. Even my university major, graphic design, was due to my interest in production.
NN:
In your opinion, what does Underground Music mean?
Ramin:
My interpretation is that it’s a music which is not yet professionally produced and not many people have heard it. And this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not good music.
NN:
How do you evaluate the musical sphere of Iran? Is it promising? is it not? Is it doing okay right now?
Ramin:
I have been mainly active in producing Iranian traditional music. I think in this genre, except for few examples, it’s been about five years that nothing remarkable has happened. In some sense, it is dead now. But as for pop music, I think we were making progress, but then it turned around. And I think in rock music we are progressing, but at a very slow pace.
NN:
Could we possibly say that in Iran, we don’t really have rock music?
Ramin:
Perhaps we don’t really have rock music in Iran, but we have some things similar to it. We have had good examples such as Kaveh Yaghmaei, or like "raz-e-shab”. There was a gap in the activities of these bands but now some bands are active again, like "Manoha”, or "May 86”.
NN:
As far as I know, you have worked with a range of artists from "Barobax” to maestro Shajarian. Which genre would you prefer to work with?
Ramin:
When I am recording in the studio, I often prefer the sound of an unplugged instrument to a synthesised sound. That’s why for a few years I stuck to the traditional music, which is mainly based on actual instruments. And in other genres like pop or rock too, I prefer it when we have real instruments, that’s why I chose to record rock and jazz ensembles like Hamzeh Yeganeh and Mahan Mirarab.
NN:
In recent years, music in Iran became more professional. Professional in the sense that it created a bigger financial revenue. My question is, do you think this professionalism helped our music, or not?
Ramin:
The profit really didn’t belong to the musicians. It belonged to the managers and businessmen, and in the best case scenarios, some pop singers benefitted from it. Since 2000, when I officially had a music studio, the wages of instrumentalists and lyricists have had a certain growth, which is a negligible growth. For example the money that an instrumentalist gets has reached from 600,000 IRR to 1,500,000 IRR.
NN:
Could you tell us about the albums that you have ready for distribution?
Ramin:
An album by the band "Faseleh” (distance) which is coming out in two CDs. One CD has a more traditional vibe and the other is more fusion like. Another album is by Karina Kimiaee, which is a guitar solo album called "Guitar and the Hungry Cat”. There is also an album for Mehdi Moghaddam which was ready in 2009 but hadn’t got the Culture and Guidance Ministry’s permission until 2010. We changed some songs and now it’s ready for production.
NN:
In Ali Shokat’s first album you did the mix and mastering. Will you work with him in his second album?
Ramin:
Yes, so far I have done some recordings and mix and mastering in his new album, but we should wait till the final stages of the production to decide.
NN:
As a sound engineer and a musician, which concert hall do you find the best among all the available halls in Iran?
Ramin:
From the acoustics aspect I would say Milad Hall in the International Fair complex of Tehran would be okay. But this hall doesn’t have good equipment. Considering overall aspects, I would say "Ivan-e-Shams” is the most satisfying hall.
NN:
One complaint that is most often heard from some musicians is that some other musicians have reduced the quality expectation of people’s ears. How much do you trust the general taste of people?
Ramin:
I look at this issue like this: I assume that the work that I like, will be liked by people too.
NN:
What does mix and mastering mean? I mean, what does a person who is responsible for mixing and mastering, do in the process of producing an album?
Ramin:
At the beginning, there are sounds, individual sounds from the instruments and the singer(s). Then we add some sonic effects to them, then we assign a virtual layout to them. For example, instrument A is put on the left, while instrument B is put in the back, virtually. Therefore A is perceived as louder than B. Then you try to improve the sounds by removing the acoustic defects, and then you lay them alongside each other. This is mixing. Although the whole process of mixing and mastering is in fact one process, but in Iran mastering is defined as the process of raising the quality of the mixed work, to the standard class, in terms of loudness, clarity, etc. In the old days this was called the "mother version”. You can look at this version as follows. Imagine a number of musical pieces which include some that were recorded 30 years ago, and some which were recorded just recently, some recorded in Turkey and some in Iran. After the mastering of the album, all these pieces need to have the same quality and levels.
NN:
Could you explain arrangement in the same manner?
Ramin:
Arrangement is in fact both an artistic and a technical activity. The person who does the arrangement has access to the melodies, and has to decide which instruments should play it, and how.
NN:
With record producers becoming bold in the music industry, especially some with very little musical knowledge, will music in Iran suffer, do you think?
Ramin:
Yes it might suffer. But this issue can easily be addressed, for example if each producer hires two artistic advisors. This happened once, and a producer who also owned a record label company, considered having three artistic advisors with different tastes, and this collaboration led to good results.