User:Pakinfocenter/Tahir Gul Hasan

Having started a pop band in the late 1970s, Tahir Gul Hasan belongs to the singer-songwriter tradition of organic music.

In 1982, Tahir was probably the first person in Pakistan to start a home-based recording studio with a humble 4-track recorder and a Roland TR-606 drum machine.

Honouring the sound-on-sound recording techniques of guitarist-inventor, Les Paul, Tahir named his studio SOUND ON SOUND. At that time many musicians (who would later become famous) simply came over to oggle at his Gibson Les Paul guitar, Yamaha TA-90 guitar amplifier and other equipment. He wrote his own songs in English, played jazz-blues furiously, and dreamed of recording his own album at home.

While commercial recording studios struggled with tape-based echo and reverb producing machines (e.g., Roland Space Echo), in 1986 Tahir was the first one to own a digital multi-effects processor, Roland DEP-5, which was supplemented by Korg SDD-2000 digital delay unit that sported over 4 seconds of delay—something unheard of in professional Pakistani recording circles.

But Tahir soon postponed the idea of recording his own debut album in favour of doing commercial voice-overs and jingles for advertising companies. His love for recording technology led to an upgrade of the recording equipment: an 8-track 1/2" analogue multi-track open-reel recorder, and full-track 1/4" 15 ips for stereo mixdowns.

By then, ex-PTV producer, Ghazanfar Ali, had started a music programme called MUSIC CHANNEL from Karachi; Tahir was ideally placed to handle the demands of Pakistan's new wave of pop and rock bands.

Tahir Gul Hasan further polished his recording techniques by attendeding professional audio trade shows in London (APRS) and Frankfurt (Music Messe). He met with world-renowned music producers and engineers such as Sir George Martin (The Beatles, America) and Alan Parson (Alan Parsons' Project), and made friends with equipment manufacturers to procure high-end equipment that was not seen in Pakistani recording studios until many years later.

A young duo called FRINGE BENEFITS commissioned Tahir Gul Hasan to act as a producer for their debut album: TANHAI. Since Tahir played bass, acoustic and electric guitars in the album, it led to his appearance with the band in at least one song video.

JUNOON came in to record their third album: TALAASH. Their second album was recorded at Karachi's EMI studio yeilded thin-sounding guitars, something that was expertly taken care of by Tahir in TALAASH. Junoon's basist, Brian O'Connell played Tahir's Musicman Sabre bass guitar, while Salman Ahmed used his Roland JC-77 amplifier throughout the third studio album.

Tahir Gul Hasan also lent his voice on one of the tracks, mimicking Presdent Ghulam Ishaq Khan speaking of a crashed C-130 airplane with President Zia-ul-Haq onboard. The successful release of TALAASH led to Tahir providing concert sound engineering services for JUNOON at Hashoo auditorium, Karachi, using a brand new Bose-Soundcraftsmen system loaned by Hi-Fidelity’s owner Mr Mutapha Chinoy.

SOUND ON SOUND was a one-man studio, and its reputation for quality and perfection brought in clients such as VITAL SIGNS (re-make of DIL DIL PAKISTAN), AWAZ, SEQUENCERS, and others. From setting up the microphones for recording guitars (something unheard of in Pakistan because musicians preferred using Rockmans or other devices that squeezed the life out of electric guitars) to splicing tape, labelling, and final mastering, everything had Tahir's inimitable stamp.

By 1995, Tahir's home studio had gone 'digital' 16-track, supplemented by some of the finest outboard equipment ever to be seen in Pakistan: multiple compressors-limiters (some of them vintage valve units), noise gates, noise filters, and digital effects processors came in from Milton Keynes' famous Great Linford Manor studios.

More later...!

Pakinfocenter (talk) 06:34, 26 October 2009 (UTC) pakinfocentre