I've always had this tune in my head right from the time we had performed a fusion piece with Tarun on Guitar, Ganesh on keyboards and me on drums. But it never really sounded the way I wanted it to.

I have tried this piece many times in the past, but have never got the nuances of the instruments right. This time, my attempt was using SwarPlug.

I have changed the vocal samples of SwarPlug by first getting it onto my Triton Sampler and then looping the sample and appropriate points to allow for a longer continuous sound. Then I have taken it into Reaktor and added the expressions of vibrato and bends.

The flute is something I picked from the Triton and emulated using SwarPlug Samples on Reaktor (nice peice of soft synth). I have used a lot of detune to give it a realistic feel. You can almost feel this when some of the notes seem a little off-tune during the passage.

The Tanpura, tabla, mridingham and ghatam are the factory presents of Swarplug.

The piece is itself based on Raag Bhairav. It starts with the "Pakad" of the raag after which the instruments take over. It was hard to stop with such a small peice. My intent was to emulate a typical "Drupad" performace. But it was taking just too long to get Triton loaded with all required samples (extra sample memory is already on my shopping list).

So far... this version is a lot better than the previous ones. But I'm still working and hopefully some day I'll have this piece just how I am imagining it in my head.

Comments most welcome.