Candid conversation with Tetseo Sisters - Mercy, Azi, Kuku and Lulu

Music has always been rife and rich in the northeastern corner of India. The legendary Bhupen Hazarika and Lou Majao from the days of yore to contemporary favorites like ‘Soulmate’ and ‘Boomarang’, the lush greens of the North East has consistently produced music that is synonymous with brilliance.

The last decade however, has witnessed its widespread recognition and assimilation in the mainland of the Indian subcontinent, thanks to many upcoming musicians from the region. Among the forerunners of this league of young and ambitious musicians endorsing Northeast India’s music, the Tetseo Sisters have carved quite a niche for themselves. This quartet of four sisters from the Nagaland is devoted to the tradition of vocal folk music of the state. An ‘a cappella’ style of singing combined with storytelling, and the occasional use of one-stringed instrument tati or heka libuh (mithun horn), their compositions are mostly lores on Nagaland. It’s little wonder that they named their debut album ‘Li’, which means ‘songs of the people’.

The Tetseo Sisters - Mütsevelü (Mercy), Azine (Azi), Kuvelü (Kuku) and Alüne (Lulu) caught up with Jim Ankan Deka and spoke about their music, their inspirations aspirations, and their album Li: Chapter one - The Beginning.

Tetseo Sisters

Jim: Tetseo Sisters! One of the most popular female bands from Nagaland. With over 7000 fans on Facebook, hundreds of views of your YouTube videos every week and hundreds of live shows, how does it feel?

Tetseo Sisters: It has been a long but fruitful journey. We wake up every morning with renewed faith and enthusiasm to continue doing what we love to do. We love it…..the whole lot. There is no high like the high you get while performing on stage and getting warm applause at the end of each song.

We feel truly blessed to be a part of the current music scene. What we do is more than music. It is also about preserving and promoting Nagaland’s art & culture and fashion and creativity; and presenting “our best” to the audience every single time we get up or sit down to perform. The most rewarding thing about what we do is the constant learning process, meeting new people and wonderful personalities while sharing our music and also getting a chance to display our Naga culture and helping dispel the myths and negative impressions people have about our Land. We often have elders telling us how happy they are to see us keeping the old songs alive and how proud they are of us; and sometimes very young people walk up to us and tell us we inspire them. Such experiences are so humbling and at the same time a huge morale boost, making it worth all the extra pains and the effort.

Jim: Tell us little about Tetseo Sisters – the band. Like how did it start, when did it start, who were involved?

Tetseo Sisters: We hardly think of ourselves as a band but we have been singing together for as far as we can remember, right from our childhood. We are best known as the Folk singing sisters but we like to project ourselves as modern Naga artistes who are equally at ease performing Western Music and Naga Li, and doing great in both. We belong to the generation of change and adaptation and have coped pretty well, growing with the times and yet embracing our cultural heritage and identity.

We are four sisters and a brother and though you would often see us in twos or threes at shows, we try to perform together as a foursome whenever possible. The girls play “tati”, “bamboo drums” and “khro-khro” (gourd tamborine) and Mhaseve plays the guitar, keyboards and do the music arrangements. We started singing early on in the 90s but made maximum stage appearances in the early 2000s till date. We have appeared often on Doordarshan and performed to exclusive gatherings of State heads, distinguished guests, tourists and at private events; and also at many Concerts/Youth Fests/Cultural Festivals across the country and abroad. Our parents were the driving forces behind us all along and they continue to inspire and push us to do better everyday.

Jim: Your music is different compared to many other groups like you. How do you define your music?

Tetseo Sisters: Our music is simple, melodious and harmonic, focusing on vocals and involves oral presentation of stories. Our performances call for some translation as we sing mostly in the Chokri dialect and there is some storytelling and sharing too. We call our ‘Li’ the ‘songs of the people’ not just to catch attention but because they are truly the songs of the people.

Li documents and records the stories and lives of our people, their dreams, aspirations, joys, sorrows, hopes and the happenings of daily life. We have great stage chemistry and our costumes add a lot of drama and color and for all the hard work that goes into it, our audiences love our shows and performances calling it very unique and enjoyable. Our western music performances are fun and we try to bring across a simple selection of covers of enjoyable popular hits, our playlist is carefully put together keeping our audience in mind.

Tetseo Sisters

Jim: ‘Li : Chapter one - The Beginning’ is your debut album. What paved way for it?

Tetseo Sisters: Li : Chapter One is a result of more than 15 years of performing Li and a dream to put our efforts to bring out a visible product. We have tried to showcase a sample of Li that we have been singing over the years. The album has 12 tracks, all sung in Chokri dialect of the Chakhesang Nagas: a track for each month and a Christmas Li to top it all. Love songs, odes to women’s beauty, a lamentation, a lullaby, work songs and dueling duets make up the album. There are thousands of Li and choosing just 12 was not easy and we are very satisfied with the result. The feedback has been very positive and encouraging. People have loved it and want more.

Jim: Apart from music what interests the four sisters – Mercy, Azi, Kuku and Lulu?

Tetseo Sisters: Mercy and Kuku share a love for writing and blogging while Azi is quite the design diva as she loves playing with clothes, accessories and make-up when not tending to her newborn son, our darling little nephew. Lulu and Mercy love reading, surfing the net and watching movies. Kuku loves trekking, bike rides, painting and visiting new places. We are all fond of art, fashion - clothes, shoes and jewelry and dressing up for fun, photography, travelling, reading, shopping, cooking and trying out new cuisines.

We are just four simple girls enjoying the beauty of being alive and making the most of life with our loved and dear ones by God’s grace.

Jim: Do you think singing Traditional Folk Songs will give you the international mileage that you need at a time when people are more interested in rock, hip-hop or pop music? What do you think of the present music scenario?

Tetseo Sisters: There will always be fans for each genre of music. No kind of music is inferior or superior and tastes are as unique as the individuals who enjoy a certain type of music. Every generation thinks his or her time was the best and we also think we are in a very good period as far as opportunities and creativity is concerned. For instance, the worldwide web has made the world very small and has made accessibility to all kinds of music very easy. Everything is only a click away, including recognition and success. So visibility is also much more. The only setback is that this also means ‘clever marketing’ will make one more famous than real talent.

The world is always hungry for fresh tunes, talent and something special and ‘Li’ is all that. People say the language we sing in can be a deterrent to our success but we feel that everyone appreciates good music and language will never be a barrier if the music is great. The present music scenario has loads of talent, immense creativity and very competitive.

We also listen to a lot of different types of music since all of us have different tastes and many different artistes from around the world inspire us.

Tetseo Sisters at Williamnagar, Simsam, 2012

Jim: If any other group of musicians would like to follow your path, what would be your advice?

Tetseo Sisters: Our only advice is “do try and be the best you can be in whatever you do”. We are perfectionists in what we do so we keep doing our homework and it is hard and sometimes frustrating, but striving to be as professional as we can get is a reward in itself. A job well done is always fulfilling and we try to give our 100% every time.

Jim: What are your future plans? Any collaboration with other musicians?

Tetseo Sisters: Our plans are many. We are working on a couple of music projects of our own and also collaborating with other personalities. Collaborations are very exciting and we look forward to working with other artistes who believe in us and respect our work. We just did a Christmas single with Alobo Naga and launched it on YouTube. There is a docu-film by Anuska and Iswar called “Uramili” of which we are a part of, awaiting release. We have a few other projects under wraps as of now and more International appearances soon. A Christmas album, Folk-fusion album and Chapter Two are on their way.

We will continue singing, writing, updating and interacting with people via Facebook and our website www.tetseosisters.com and prepare for more performances, while engaging in art, photography and fashion whenever the opportunity arises.

Follow Tetseo Sisters on Facebook and Reverbnation. 
(Edited by Parmita Borah) 

Candid chat with 2Blue - the lead singer of Zedde

Truly reminiscent of a rock star, his awe-inspiring stage presence is always met with thunderous applause and gorgeous ladies swarming around him like bees. And, despite being a lighthearted conversationalist, and what I’d like to describe as a ‘fun guy’, 2Blue is a true blue musician with viable love and dedication towards music. Along with his Mumbai based band Zedde (one of India’s leading Rock bands), 2Blue is committed to making original music that rocks the worlds of many.

2Blue talks about his band, Zedde, his upcoming album with the band, his connection with North East India, and holy cow – his wacky name …

2Blue - lead singer, Zedde

Q.   Zedde – fan base from all around the globe, more than 5000 likes on Facebook and counting and many prestigious awards. How does it feel? 

2Blue: It sure feels good to have a growing fan base and the awards. But an artist needs to live in the present and not bask too much in past glory. While Facebook likes and fancy awards may put his name out there, they should not be used as a certification of his talent... because there will always be many out there with far more talent and far less luck. The funny thing is: the vice versa is equally true. Switch on a radio or a television set and you will see what I saying (winks).

Q.  What is the connection between Zedde and North-East India?

2Blue: I was born and raised in Agartala, Tripura. Two of my friends from Guwahati, Assam — Akashdeep Gogoi and Deepu Saikia — handle bass playing duties for the band depending on their availability. So that’s one half of the band with its roots in the North-East.

Q.  2Blue! Very unusual name.  What is the story behind?  We would also like to know your alternate name, if any.

2Blue: Here are a few other ‘unusual’ names: Skrillex, Bono, The Edge, Sting, Eminem, 2Pac, Slash and Babul Supriyo. Just wait till I get famous enough for ‘2Blue’ to sound really cool (laughs out loud). Okay, on a serious note, Tublu is a very common pet name amongst the Bengali community that I come from. I just like its alphanumeric incarnation better. Had this article been for a business magazine, you would have been addressing me as... wait for it... Tirthankar Poddar. You can now laugh all you want (smiles).

Q.     Vayu to Zedde. How did it happen?

2Blue: All things come with an expiry date, no matter how good (or bad) they are. So soon after the Vayu album ‘Wings Of A Dream’ was released, Zedde was founded. One phone call was all it took. Guitar player Claver Menezes, who was at the other end of the line, readily agreed to come onboard. That’s how the nucleus of the band was formed.

Q.     Tell us something about Zedde’s members and the gears they use.

Claver Menezes - guitarist, Zedde

2Blue: Zedde (pronounced zēd) is essentially a 4-piece rock band featuring Claver Menezes on guitars, Akashdeep Gogoi (and sometimes Deepu Saikia) on bass as mentioned earlier, and Trevor Berchman on drums. While each member of the band keeps upgrading their gear, the last time I checked, Claver used Ibanez guitars with Tech 21 Liverpool Distortion, Tech 21 DLA, Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, and a Boss GT8 processor. Of course I can’t resist the urge to mention the Makita drill machine he uses on our recent single ‘Blame It On Her Youth (The Electric Drill Song)’ which is now available for free download on our website www.ZeddeLIVE.in (smiles sheepishly). Akash has way too many bass guitars to mention: right from a 6-string Ibanez SR3006 and a 5-string Fender Jazz, to a headless Steinberger and a Asbory rubber bass. His choice of pedals includes (but is not restricted to): Boss Super Octave, Boss Bass Equalizer, Hartke Bass Attack, and EBS Micro Bass II. Trevor is a fan of all things Zildjian. When recording in the studio, he likes his Yamaha and/or Roland virtual drums. When touring with the band, he settles for whatever the event organizer has the budget for (laughs out loud). When it comes to my personal favourite, I like to use a Shure SM58 cordless along with a Boss Digital Delay pedal. And of course, I like my megaphone (smiles again).

Q.     What/who inspired you to create your milestone project ‘Mumbai’? How did you promote it?

If you pay attention to the lyrics, you’ll see it’s about taking the “one-way train” to the city with “just a bag of dreams”, “knocking the doors”, “chasing the sun”, “until she hears your silent screams”. Then “she puts her wings around you”, “takes away your crown of thorns”, “nurses your wounds”, “washes you clean”, and “saves you from the howling storm”. So in more ways than one, it is the story of my life... of the small town boy who moved to the city for a better tomorrow. How did we promote it? Well, the initial plan was to debut the song at the erstwhile south-Mumbai night club (Not Just) Jazz By The Bay on Saturday, November 29, 2008. Then all hell broke loose on Wednesday, November 26. The city bled for days. Innocent lives were lost. It was no time to celebrate music. So we cancelled the show. Then on November 26 the following year, the music video for ‘Mumbai’ debuted on VH1. It may not be the fanciest thing you’ve watched on TV but it managed to climb to #1 position on the YouTube India charts within 24 hours of upload. It sure has emotions that run deep.

Q.   The new Zedde CD is currently being recorded. What would be the name? Any collaboration with any other musician or band?

2Blue: We have 10 original songs that have been tried and tested at several venues across the country. As soon as we have a couple of more songs that all members of the band are happy with, we will start knocking a few doors again (smiles). We haven’t settled on a name yet, and since this is going to be our first full length album, I think it is best we exploit the band’s intrinsic talent pool to create it so we can grow organically.

Q.   Are you satisfied with the present music scenario of India? Do you want the industry people and the Government of India to change anything?

Claver & 2Blue, Zedde

2Blue: The music scenario in India is definitely a lot more promising now than it used to be say about 10 years back. The focus has shifted to originality and in spite of the steep uphill climb, a lot of self-respecting musicians have embraced the Do-It-Yourself model. Musicians today are not afraid to be their own publicists, producers, distributors, and managers amongst other things. The success stories are quite a few. But the thing about success is that when some milestones are met, a whole new world of ambitious milestones gets created. So some more support and appreciation from mainstream media would help motivate, spur, and channelize creative efforts. Another thing I would like to mention is the lack of adequate attention for the ‘artistic middleclass’. Music companies, promoters, journalist et al are all busy promoting either fresh talent or iconic acts, with brazen lack of concern for those that don’t fit into these extremes. Let the aforementioned people be reminded that it is the artistic middleclass that connects with its audience at a very personal level. It is the artistic middleclass that builds long lasting relationships with their fans and supporters via social media and intimate club concerts. Fresh talent does not have that luxury while iconic acts have way too much going on to maintain that personal touch. So the artistic middle class is what brands and music business people need to take more interest in to push the right kind of marketing communication out to their target audience. As far as the role of the government goes, cultural exchanges beyond the realm of domestic pastures should be encouraged more vehemently. Entertainment taxes should be made more reasonable too. 

Q.   If a new band or a singer wants to follow the footsteps of Zedde and 2Blue, what will be your advice? 

2Blue: I am not sure if I would make an ideal role model but I sure have had my share of good and bad times to know that it’s a brutal world out there. But if you are armed with talent, passion, ambition, and faith, nothing can stop you. So follow your heart. You stand to lose way too much if you don’t.

Follow Zedde on Facebook, Reverbnation and Youtube

- Jim Ankan Deka

Live Banned concert at Park Plaza Hotel ● Photo Showcase

Live Banned, a band from Bangalore known for their original single The Auto Tune, performed at a concert in Bangalore on Sept 22, 2012. The band has played in more than eight hundred gigs in India since their inception in 2011.

The band consist of Amrit Rao on vocals, Sridhar Varadarajan on Guitars, Siddhart Kamath on Keyboard, Dheerendra Doss on Drums and Raveesh Tirkey on Bass.

The event was organized by Artha Properties, Bangalore on the occasion of launching their new project ‘Brickfield Gem Park’ in Sarjapur, Bangalore.

Live Banned (Photo - Jim Ankan)

Live Banned (Photo - Jim Ankan)

Live Banned (Photo - Jim Ankan)

Live Banned (Photo - Jim Ankan)

 - EFNI

Ruskin Bond celebrates 25th anniversary of Penguin in Bangalore

Ruskin Bond at Landmark (Photo: Jim Ankan Deka)

Ruskin Bond, author of many widely sought after books, was at the Landmark store in Forum Mall, Bangalore, on June 6, 2012, to release his new book of poems "Hip Hop Nature Boy and Other Poems" published by Penguin Books India. The event "Meet Ruskin Bond at Landmark" was organised by Penguin Books and Landmark to celebrate their 25th anniversary this year.

With around 200 spectators, the event was grand and aesthetical. After the inauguration ceremony, the author cut a cake along with his favourite audience - children, recited a poem from the new book, answered few questions of his fans and signed autographs.

Ruskin Bond is an  Indian author of British descent born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh in 1934. His first novel "The Room on the Roof", written when he was seventeen, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial prize in 1957. He received the Sahitya Academy award in 1993 and the Padma Shri in 1999. Presently he is staying in Landour, Mussoorie, with his extended family.

Ruskin Bond reciting a poem from his book Hip Hop Nature Boy and Other Poems (Photo: Jim Ankan Deka)

Audience asking questions to Ruskin Bond (Photo: Jim Ankan Deka)

- EFNI | Jim Ankan Deka
 

Derek Paravicini - Musician or a Superhuman?

Derek Paravicini

There are people we say who are gifted. There are people who are differently abled. And there are people who have triggered their talents to do extraordinary deeds. But what can we say about a person who can listen to a ten minutes piano solo once and deliver a ditto rendition instantly? Can we call that person Superhuman?

Derek Paravicini is a pianist with superhuman talents. He is one of the few gifted people with 'absolute pitch'. He can listen to a song or tune once and can perform it on piano exactly the same. He can identify every note in a chord. While most musicians can pick out only five notes from a chord, Derek can distinguish up to 20. The irony is, Derek is blind and was born with a 'savant syndrome'.

Derek was born to Nicolas Paravicini and Mary Ann Parker Bowles on July 26, 1979. He was a 25 weeks premature baby weighing just a pound and a half and due to the oxygen therapy given during his time in a neonatal intensive care unit, lost his eye sight. He had a twin sister who died at the time of birth. In fact, doctors at the Royal Berkshire Hospital believed that Derek would not survive too, as any baby born 14 weeks prematurely in the hospital never survived. But Derek made it and today he is creating world records.

Derek started playing the piano from the age of two and later learned it thoroughly from Adam Ockelford in London. He showed talent from beginning and gave his first performance in the Tooting Leisure Centre in South London at the age of seven. As Derek was blind, he could not read music or take reference to an external standard of music. Moreover, Derek's emotional capacity is limited with severe learning difficulties and he can't read braille. But that did not stop him from understanding the essence of music. He had his ears to rely upon. And at the very age of nine, Derek gave his first major public performance at a concert at the Barbican Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Pops Orchestra.

After the inception, Derek did not have to look back. He has been playing at numerous concerts with famous musicians. He performed at places like Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and twice at Downing Street for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

He was featured on 'Wogan', a chat show on British television, hosted by Terry Wogan and 'NOVA's' "Musical Minds" episode, a popular science television series from the U.S. Later he was featured on 'Extraordinary People's' episode titled "The Musical Genius" on Channel 5 and was the main subject of a documentary film called 'Musical Savants'. Derek also became famous in US after appearing twice on the CBS News programme 60 Minutes.

Young Derek Paravicini at a Concert

For his outstanding ability to remember tunes, Derek is also known as 'The human iPod'. He can remember tunes which he had heard decades ago and play them exactly. His memory has a databank of thousands of songs and can play any one of them at will, improvising as he goes. And he prove this many times through his concerts.

Because of his unique ability, he was featured on History Channel's 'Stan Lee's Superhumans'. He has received many awards in the last three decades of his life. Alongside of 'Barnardo's Children's Champion Award' which he received as a ten year old from Princess Diana, there are numorous Performance-assessment certificates from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Despite being a masterful musician with all these achievements, Derek's condition makes him dependant on round-the-clock care and help with even the simplest of tasks - from dressing to washing. Presently he is staying at the residential care home in Redhill, Surrey, run by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, UK. Derek is the great-grandson of the writer William Somerset Maugham.

Professor Adam Ockelford, a music psychologist at Roehampton University and the mentor, coach and the biographer of Derek Paravicini says, “I have never heard anyone play quite like Derek. He can hear a song just once and play it back perfectly, adapting it and improvising along the way. He has thousands of pieces in his repertoire now. It's like he's got libraries of pieces and styles in his head”.

-by Jim Ankan Deka

Ritchie Valens - the Pioneer of Rock and Roll

There are not many musicians who could make it to the list of  'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame', and for someone with a track record of only eight (8) months in the music industry, it could be a mammoth task. Richard Steven Valenzuela or popularly Ritchie Valens was the first Hispanic rock star who could create a record like that.

Born in May 1941, in Pacoima, LA, Ritchie started his career at the age of sixteen with a band named 'The Silhouettes' as a guitarist. He was a left handed, but mastered the art of a right handed guitarist. He was known as one of the pioneers of 'Rock and Roll', 'Chicano rock movement' and 'Latin rock'.

Ritchie received worldwide fame with his version of a Mexican folk song called 'La Bamba' released in 1958. The song, infused the traditional Mexican tune with a rock drive, ranked number 98 in VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Rock and Roll and number 345 on Rolling Stone magazine′s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. This is the only non-English song to be listed.

Ritchie Valens (1941-1959)

In 1958, Ritchie was introduced to Bob Keane, the owner and President of Del-Fi Records, who recorded few of the famous numbers of Ritchie like 'Donna', 'Framed' and 'Come On, Let's Go' in the Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. Ritchie has three albums all together - Ritchie Valens (1959), Ritchie (1959) and In Concert at Pacoima Jr. High (1960).

Ritchie was still in his teens at the time of his demise caused by a plane crash. He was on a plane on February 2, 1959, after his performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, which crashed shortly after takeoff in a snow storm.

For someone who could have adorned the throne of fame and success in the realm of music, Ritchie's death was tragic and untimely. His contribution to music though limited by his short lifetime, is remarkable and defining. Today we remember his death as 'The Day the Music Died'.

-by Jim Ankan Deka

iPad - the Musician’s Genie

In a few years from now, people would probably consider the majestic gramophone as a pre-civilization invention, thanks to the colossal onslaught of handheld technology. Portability has become the ‘apple’ of the eye, lean is in and lean in here to say. The music industry has always welcomed and adorned portable inventions with gadgets getting more and more sleek, smart and sassy. The iPad, from the product lines of Apple Inc, is once such avant-garde merchandise that redefined the experience of music.

A line of tablet computers, iPad has established itself as a necessity among gadget freaks, techies, celebrities, musicians and the music loving hoi-polloi of today. Lyricists and Songwriters widely swear by its efficacy. Since its inception in April 2010, Apple iPad has been the most used mobile devices in the world.

iPad is equipped with thousands of ‘apps’, a colloquial term of software applications aimed at catering to people with diverse tastes and interests. A Pandora box in its own way, iPad offers e-book reader, games, news, video, audio and two of the most important applications for musicians - audio recording and MIDI. The audio recording apps are mainly for music composers, arrangers and journalists. Some of the apps like 'FL Studio Mobile HD', 'VC Audio Pro', 'studio.HD' or 'GarageBand' allows one to sequence, edit, mix, master and produce her/his musical or audio works.

Though the apps have to be purchased from the 'App Store' and downloaded to the device, they can be conveniently used as professional digital audio workstations (DAW). Most of the apps come with 8 to 16 track recorders, drum machines, virtual guitars, virtual synths, virtual amp modelers and virtual samplers. 'Recorder' is a very simple application from Retornyms and one of the most popular recording applications.

Guitarists, Pianists or any other instrumentalists use iPad to enhance their musical abilities. Apps like 'Pianist Pro', 'JamPad', 'DM1 – The Drum Machine', 'Progression – Guitar Tab Editor' or 'SAS-1' help musicians to practice at home or on tour easily. Some of the apps found on the App Store are also known as digital multi-touch jamming machines and can play multiple instruments at once. One just needs to select an audio pattern, instrument like guitar and a chord and the instrument will start strumming automatically in sync with the tempo. One can switch to any chord, note, beat or tempo in real time.

The iPad has the ability to record audio for broadcast, which has made it very popular amongst journalists, making them ditch their laptops and microphones. A journalist can record, edit and master an audio with the apps and the internal microphone and e-mail it from the iPad itself for a radio or television show or share it on Facebook, Twitter or Youtube page. As the iPad is controlled by a multi-touch display and uses a wireless local area network ("Wi-Fi") connection to access local area networks and the Internet, it becomes easy for anyone with little knowledge to handle it.

The other interesting area is 'connecting MIDI controllers to iPad'. The Musical Instrument Digital Interface is a protocol that enables electronic musical instruments like keyboard or drum machine to communicate and synchronize with computers and other electronic equipment. Apple Camera Connection Kit or Line6 MIDI Mobilizer can be used to connect the iPad with any USB device that supports MIDI class and USB MIDI interfaces. Some of the MIDI apps for the iPad are 'Midi Monitor from iOSMIDI', 'AC-7 Core', 'NLogSynth PRO' and 'FL Studio Mobile'.

There are millions of recordings done every day. People and bands who are on the go most of the time, iPad can be a valued device. The British virtual band Gorillaz's 2010 album, The Fall, was created exclusively using the iPad by the group founder Damon Albarn while on tour with the band.

Using a small portable mobile device for recording can be humorous to the traditional musicians, audio engineers and live journalists. But it is not very far when the tablets like iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab or the HTC Flyer will become household devices exercising power or authority over the music and recording industry. 

-by Jim Ankan Deka