INSTALL STORY: STUDIO INSTALL SHOWCASE
The CHORDFATHER Experience
Neumann's first Studio Monitor Experience Center in Mumbai.
Neumann monitors complement the Dolby Atmos Music Mix Room 7.1.4 configuration
setup at Chordfather Productions.
Recently Neumann in collaboration with well-known music composer, producer, sound engineer, and live
engineer, Sunny M.R.'s Chordfather Productions announced the launch of its exclusive Studio Monitor
Experience Center for audio professionals in Mumbai. India is one of the few countries worldwide to
have a Neumann Monitor experience center. PALM+ AV-ICN met with Sunny at his Experience Centre to
fathom the roots of this collaboration.
Born in the city of Patna, Sunny M.R. boasts over two decades
experience in the music industry. He
calls himself an accidental producer, he started his journey primarily as an engineer assisting his
elder brother Shadaab Rayeen and moved to Hyderabad, where they worked for seven years. Sunny never
had formal training in music but being surrounded by musicians piqued his interest, which led him to
explore production and composition. "The learning should never stop. If I'm in one field, I'm just
learning about that, but then I wanted to expand and explore. it's all about consistently learning
as much as possible," says, Sunny.
The Sunny-Neumann Collaboration
Sunny opened his studio - Chordfather Productions, in a picturesque neighbourhood of Mumbai. The rise in
demand and workload inspired Sunny to start his production studio, a space that offers an end-to-end
solution to artists. The studio caters to service encompassing music composition, production,
engineering, and recording. Elaborating on the idea and vision behind the whole concept of the
experience centre, Sunny says "In 2007 we did a partnership with
Sennheiser/Neumann
India, and they had
sent Klein + Hummel speakers for us to try. They had recently integrated
Klein + Hummel
into Sennheiser
& Neumann, and the company were redoing some designs. I was blown away by these speakers, and that's
when I decided that these speakers were the best option for my Studio. Neumann is huge in the audio
business, and I have been using many Neumann microphones for a lot of my recordings. Neumann India was
kind enough to partner with us on this experience centre. The partnership is aimed at building a
community for artistes striving to get their musical work done. We give a huge amount of credit to the
quality and finesse that Neumann gears add to the sound. The idea is to make more and more music in an
environment, which is loved by artistes alike."
Sunny's earlier studio setup had Sonodyne speakers but now for the new space, he wanted something
even better. "I wanted my work to reflect well for which I chose the KH 310
speakers. The KH 310
monitors are special for me; Neumann speakers have been my favourite for a long time, and
now 13 years later, I have 13 of them!" he says.
Sunny was working out of his home studio in an individual flat in a residential complex with a 7.1
surround setup but was seriously contemplating an Atmos setup to enhance his workflow.
"When I decided I want an Atmos setup, I also knew I needed a bigger space," says Sunny. In 2021
August, Sunny started building Chordfather Productions but before that in July, he reached out to
Rishikesh from Neumann to plan and execute the speaker setup. Sunny and his wife designed the entire
space and acoustic architecture layout after which they also reached out to Karan Grover of Dolby
and his team for the 7.1.4 configuration. After the speaker setup was completed Bhasker Pal from
Dolby came in to tune and calibrate the speakers.
The studio is a multiroom facility divided into three rooms. The primary room consists of Dolby
Atmos Music Mix Room with a 7.1.4 circular configuration setup and two stereo rooms for music
production, mixing and mastering for Bollywood films and Indie music artists. The mixing room is
calibrated professionally for music production, monitoring, mixing, and mastering services.
Chordfather Productions houses cutting-edge technology and an arsenal of various Analog gear. The
Atmos
Music monitoring setup has 11 KH 310 speakers and Dual KH 810 Subwoofers,
driving the space. The studio boasts of Sunny's collection of synthesizers and hardware that he has
collected over the years in his career. He is passionate about all his hardware equipment,
especially the 808 Roland, which he proudly wears as a tattoo. "Getting a lot of hardware synths and
hardware equipment made me realize and learn how to use software efficiently. Software plugins are
easily accessible, but many don't respect them as much as the hardware counterpart. Only once you
use the real hardware is when you realize that they are equally well made these days. I prefer to
track using analog gear but mix completely in the box," says Sunny.
Sunny M.R.
Challenges
Being an Atmos setup, the placement of speakers and the dimension is calculated on paper with
drawings, but Sunny faced a major challenge during the physical setup. "We had to fix the monitors
at least four times. From theory to practical things differ a lot," says
Sunny. "Technical detailing is time-consuming because we had to figure out routing in a way wherein,
we can do our regular mixes, regular tracking, recording multiple instruments everything is
interconnected. At first, it took a little while to configure and figure it out. I have four sound
cards attached to one system and shuffling between those is a task."
Chordfather Productions houses a cutting-edge Atmos Music monitoring setup of 11 KH 310 speakers and Dual KH 810 Subwoofers
The Idea behind Chordfather
The six-month old studio's unique name Chordfather Production is derived from Sunny's love for the
movie Godfather. With Chordfather, Sunny hasn't just created a studio but an experience center that
creates an exuberant environment for music and artists and people who can come and listen to the
quality and finesse that Neumann gears add to the sound. Chordfather Studio is open for the old as
well as new and upcoming artists who can come together and form a beautiful community of like-minded
music professionals and admirers alike.
Sunny's admiration for Neumann equipment has grown over the years and he is now in the process of
enabling the third room at Chordfather with an Atmos setup comprising a setup of Neumann KH 120
speakers.
Chordfather Production's third room to be enabled with Neumann KH 120 Speakers
Music with Sunny
The pandemic opened a new avenue for artists to unleash their creativity and unveil their music.
Even Sunny embarked on a series called Unsung Verses- a solo project that he produced, composed,
wrote, and even sang himself. "The challenge was to make one song every 15 days. I released ten
songs in six months," says Sunny.
Sunny's secret to creativity is to ensure that he takes short breaks during his project to avoid
monotony and mental exhaustion. "I practice not sitting for more than two hours and ensure a
15-minute break minimum to unwind and then resume," says Sunny.
Sunny is currently working on Shalmali Kholgade's album 2X side B, an independent EP
for Nikhita Gandhi, and on films like Laal Singh Chaddha
Brahmastra. He is also touring with Arijit Singh as
a show director, music producer and FOH engineer.
He also encourages people to listen to a lot of music without analyzing or criticizing it. He says
it is essential to explore other music genres as well. "I have a different approach to listening to
music, which is I keep my musician and technician side away. I listened to the song a couple of
times, then dive into it if I like to explore what exactly is happening in the song," said Sunny.
"For musicians, upcoming or existing ones, I have to say that to keep on learning and unlearning
because these are the most important aspects of being an artist. The minute you stop learning or
experimenting or unlearning, you're not going to be able to do new things in general in life and
musically," concludes Sunny.