B+ (Be Positive): Enchanting Engineers

After the monthly session last week, we at Enchanting Engineers were so happy with the outstanding results that we had feelings of a dream come true. All members felt fortunate to be part of a group of people who have an admirable combination of talent, passion, and commitment. I look back with satisfaction on what we have accomplished in a short period. It has been a roller-coaster ride for us with never a dull moment. We have certainly come a long way in past couple of years; but the journey goes on..

Before you ask, "Who are Enchanting Engineers and what do they do?", let me tell you that this post is my attempt to capture their story. As I begin to write about it, I get a very warm nostalgic feeling, with images and sounds of cherished memories floating in my mind in random order. Where should I start? To keep it simple, let me start from the very beginning.

The Starting Point
Enchanting Engineers is a music band formed by employees of Synopsys in Delhi and Noida. Its journey started two years back in September 2011, when Jagminder initiated the formation of a music group in the company with an email. He did not get a lot of response at that time; but the email got the two of us together. Jagminder is an accomplished Guitar player, who had extensive experience of being a part of a band earlier, and was keen to start something similar at Synopsys. The two of us hit it really well together, doing impromptu Jam sessions after office hours, in which I learned some relatively new numbers from him, and he got to accompany on some of my most favorite old Hindi songs. At that time, we had no idea that this will soon grow into a full-fledged music band.

First Performance
Around the same time, a team dinner was being organized for Diwali in October 2011, and we decided to do our first performance there. We prepared five songs, including baatein, dooba dooba, taarif karun kya, dum maaro dum, and hai apna dil to awaara and performed it live without an audio system. It was a wonderful experience for us. Before this, I was used to performing a song or two at informal events, but never did five songs at a stretch. We got good appreciation from the team and it gave us the confidence to go ahead.

Proving our Potential
We continued our after office Jam sessions and then Karan joined us as well. Karan has the voice and persona of a rock-star. In January 2012, we thought of participating in the worldwide Synopsys Talent Competition. The three of us got together and spend a day working on an adaptation of the beautiful song Ashayein. A lot of effort was needed as the entry was required to be less than two minutes long. After a lot of trial and errors, we managed to complete the entry by evening and were so thrilled at our first creation that we spent the rest of the evening singing a lot many songs.
Next day, we submitted the entry and frankly, did not expect a lot from it. So, when it reached the top ten, we were really thrilled; And our excitement knew no bound when Synopsys employees worldwide liked our song and made us the winner of the contest. This was scary as for the first time in our lives, we came face to face with our own musical potential. We decided that it is time to get serious about music.

First Stage Performance
Synopsys completed 25 years in 2012, and we planned an all employee event in July 2012 in Taj Palace Hotel to celebrate the silver anniversary. The event was named Confluence 2012, signifying the fact that many different teams from recent acquisitions were part of Synopsys NCR team. Enchanting Engineers were asked to put up a performance in the event, and we did a lot of preparations for it.
Radhika joined us around this time. Radhika's mastery on violin has to be heard to be believed. It is her addition to the team that really helped us qualify to be a band, since before her, it was just one instrument. Shyam also joined us, which increased our strength in the singer's department. We were a five member band now. We took services from Mahesh, an external drummer for the event to complete the band for the event.
We put up a memorable performance that evening with several songs including Pani da rang, Neele Neele Amber, A medley of Kishore songs, Woh Lamhe, Hosh walo ko khabar kya etc. We also did an instrumental number Saawariya. The performances got a lot of accolades, and we got a great exposure to stage performance. Performing on stage is a very different experience as the only feedback you have is through the monitors kept near the stage, which sound very different from what you hear when you sing in a small room. The difference of feedback can easily throw you out of tune or rhythm if you are not careful.

Rise of a New Star
Later in the year, we got another good singer when Rubal joined the team. Rubal is no less than a singing sensation with his fresh voice, wide range and versatility in singing. When we were asked to perform at the Diwali team lunch of SLS team in November 2012, it was a difficult time for us as I and Karan were not available to prepare. Rubal and Jagminder pulled it off completely on their own, and filled the performance with popular foot tapping songs like Hai Mera Dil, Saiyan, Luka Chipi, Purani Jeans, itti si hansi, Bulla ki jana, and Challa. It was a hit performance and announced the rise of our new star, Rubal.

The Birth of Enchanting Engineers
We got together again when we were asked to do a performance for Synopsys annual dinner in June 2013. We got Himani to join us, filling up the void of female vocalist in the band. Himani's voice and command over higher notes is really exceptional. Given the fact that she has to manage a full-time job, home and kids, her sense of commitment deserves appreciation.
Rothin and Gaurav also joined us around the same time, with great singing talent. We were a nine member band now, with two musicians and seven singers. It was time to give a name to our band. We thought of several alternatives for days, and then Radhika came up with the name "Enchanting Engineers", and all of us took an instant liking to it. We also came up with a logo for the band and decided to wear it during our stage performance.
Given the abundance of singers, we decided to do a 20 minute medley of songs at the annual dinner to trace the 100 years of Indian cinema. There were a couple of solo performances as well - Hai mera dil by Rubal, "You say it best" and Tum hi ho by Rothin. The performances went well with the audience. It was our first performance after the birth of Enchanting Engineers.

Monthly JAM sessions
Till this time, we were not holding our Jam sessions regularly, but we decided now to meet once a month on a Saturday and spend the day pursuing our music. It speaks a lot about the passion and commitment of the members that we eagerly look forward to the monthly meeting and make it to the session even in the midst of a busy schedule. We work on a few songs in each of these sessions. Over time, we have done instrumental by Radhika and Jagminder like Sholay theme, Ye jo Halka Halka suroor, Bol na Halke Halke, Ek pyar ka nagma. We have also done songs like Aane wala pal(Sanjay), Tinka Tinka(Himani), Do Lafzo ki(Himani), Love ki Ghanti (Rubal), Khuda Jaane(Yash and Sadhana), Kyon na hum tum (Rothin & Rubal), Kabira (Rothin & Rubal), and Jaane jaan (Sanjay).

Gaining Popularity
In our monthly Jam sessions of July this year, we recorded the popular number Slow Motion Angreza from the movie Bhag Milkha Bhag and uploaded it to Youtube. Jagminder and Radhika created fantastic music for the peppy number and Rubal sang it perfectly. We expected it to get good feedback, but the results astonished us. The video started attracting lots of hits on Youtube from the day one, and it has already received more than 17000 hits. I believe that this outstanding success is as big as the Synopsys talent award we got last year.

Expanding the Group
By now, Enchanting Engineers was already well known inside Synopsys, so we decided to invite more members to the team by sending an email. To our surprise, we got such a good response that we had to do a round of auditions with the new members. We got extremely talented members - Prashant Dubey, Prashant Joshi, Ankit, and Sadhana in the process.

Becoming Wholesome Entertainers
At this point, Yash joined us. Yash has a freshness in his voice and has a great potential as a singer. In October 2013, SLS staff gathered in Noida for a offsite and we planned a team dinner on this occasion. Enchanting Engineers were asked to take charge of entertainment for this occasion, so we prepared for an hour of performance with songs like Slow motion Angreza by Rubal, Debut performance by Sadhana with Iktaara and Hona tha Pyar, Pyar Hua chupke se by Himani, Pal Pal by Yash and Himani, Batein on violin by Radhika, O mere dil ke chain by me, and Zoobi Doobi by all. To utilize the singers in the team, we chose to have songs with chorus in them. However, this event was radically different from earlier ones since here we were responsible for everything. To break the monotony of a music only program, we added a dance, and many games as well. We also took care of compering, which was very ably done by Rubal. This went very well with the team and we received a lot of positive comments after the event.

Our Shining New Gear
By now, we had started to see ourselves as a group on its way to become a full-fledged band. We felt that to reach there, we will need to procure some essential equipment for improving our skills, so we listed the following equipment for procurement:

Congo and Zembe
Dynamic Microphones with stands
Condensor Microphone
Zoom R16 - mixer-cum-digital recorder
Stranger PM 102 Amplifier.

When we approached Synopsys with the list, they readily agreed to fund our purchase. So, we got our shiny new gear in October 2013. Our feeling on getting it was not very different from a kid who has got hold of his favorite toy. The new equipment gave us an ability to do our music in a far better way, but it also caused a major change for some of us.

Enter the Sound Engineer, Zembe Player and Congo Player
When we think about Jagminder, we think of Guitar. But when we got a Congo, it got him interested in trying it out, and it turned out that he is naturally good with Congo as well. We tried to have him play Congo in our last session, but there was a practical problem - if he plays Congo, who will play Guitar? Well, technology came to our rescue and we used layering to solve this issue. Simply put, we recorded the song with Jagminder playing Guitar, and then recorded him again playing Congo over the previously recorded song.
Along the same lines, Radhika tried her hand on Zembe in the song Do Lafzo ki, with layering again, and it came out quite good.

Similarly, I started working on the recording equipment and mixing techniques. You may ask me," Why do you need to do recordings? You are a band, why not work on performances alone?"The answer is simple. Recording our performances allows us to share it with others and test the waters. Besides, it is also a valuable tool for working on our performance and technique:

Recording allows us to listen to our own performances and identify the weak spots to be improved. This way, we can learn from our mistakes.
It allows us to give feedback to each other and thus is a great tool for improving our skills.

But for good mixing and recording, every band needs a sound engineer, and with my past experience with Audio mixing, I found myself gradually drifting towards that role in our band. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got more satisfaction by ensuring a good recording than what I would have got by singing the number myself. The more I explored the art of mixing, the more I felt that there was a lot yet to be discovered in this exciting field.

Conclusion
The sum total of the story is that in a span of two years, we have grown to a 14 member team, sung hundreds of songs, done many memorable performances, and had a lot of fun together. All this and more while simultaneously juggling our full time jobs. As a result, we convinced ourselves that there is no such thing as being too busy to find time for activities of one's interest. If there is passion, you will make time for it.

We know that the journey has just begun, and there is so much more to explore - Prashant Dubey's flute and singing, Prashant Joshi's songs, fresh singing talent of Yash and Sadhana, Ankit's flute, find a drummer, add a Bass Guitarist.. the list goes on and on. We look forward to a lot more learning and fun moving forward.

Before I sign off, If this post got you interested in checking out our performances and recordings, you can access them at the following links:

Videos on Youtube - Click here to see our videos
Audio Files - https://app.box.com/s/71te0usefzqu4uc6c956

Read next post in the series - My Recipe for Home Recordings