Some of the best songs of the world exist in the form of long play records (LPs) and cassettes, which are quite rare today. Being bulky and technologically obsolete, many are disposed off by their owners resulting in the loss of priceless art. An IT guy-turned-entrepreneur, Moloy Ghosh is not just converting such records into audio CDs but enhancing their sound quality as well.
Based in Delhi, Moloy Ghosh’s career as a marketing executive took a hit when the engineer from MIT - Manipal, faced a Hepatitis B attack in 2008. Recovering from the disease, Ghosh decided to teach students music. Being trained in ‘Rabindra Sangeet’ with a professional diploma, he wanted his students at the music class to listen to his father’s old music collection. “But, it was all on 78, 45 and 33 RPM records. My gramophone was damaged, and no one was willing to repair it,” he says. This was an eye-opener for Ghosh who then decided to convert LPs in to CDs himself. This endeavour soon turned into a business venture. “I wanted to stand out amongst companies that were digitising music. I decided to offer some value addition by remastering. I purchased the required software from the US and began working,” he says. However, the engineer faced certain problems with the technology which was designed for western music. He altered it by setting Indian acoustic presets to recognise instruments like the mridangam, tabla and dholak which are prominent in our music. “It was a trial and error method. I wanted to save those songs and banked on my knowledge of music to help me out,” says Ghosh.
Although friends and relatives were appreciative of the idea, customers were few in the initial stages. After substantial marketing on social media, Ghosh started getting offers from different cities of the country. “Customers had great collections. There were western music records, Indian and Carnatic music cassettes and private recordings. I have restored over 1,000 LPs and 1,500 audio cassettes,” says the music lover. He finds restoring private recordings very interesting as they contain recordings of songs sung at weddings, grandfathers telling stories to their grandchildren and even dinner-time conversations.
Ghosh who receives orders from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Kolkata takes up the process of restoration with great care. “I listen to the LP or the cassette, take about15-20 minutes to remaster it and about 20 minutes to restore it. Cover designs have sentimental value for quite a few customers, so I preserve it or replace the original with one from the web. Ghosh says that he is immensely satisfied with his line of work, but has an unfulfilled dream. He says, “I started this business to preserve our heritage. I eventually want to work with the archives of India.” He wants to work with the All India Radio and Vishwa Bharati (Kolkata) for this purpose. “Working with certain Chennai-based audio-restoring companies is on the cards as they were impressed by my remastering. A lot of people do restoration, but enhancement is rare,” he says.
The artist charges about `7 per minute of recording and has restored a wide range of music including Kate Smith, Jim Reeves, Bob Dylan, LPs of the Maharaja of Tehri Garhwal and carnatic music artists like Madurai Mani Iyer, Chitraveena and Dr N Ramani.
Details: audiorestorations.blogspot.in; 91-74283 59116