Noise control

Jam pads have come up all over, providing the mushrooming bands in the Capital with a place to practise - without the neighbours screaming hoarse.

Forming a band is not that difficult these days — all you need is a vocalist, keyboard player, guitarist and drummer and you have your very own band. However, the biggest problem established as well as new bands face is finding a place to jam — away from neighbours complaining about “where the hell is this noise coming from”?

But with a number of jam pads which have come up all over the city, bands are now practicing in peace, letting the neighbours live in peace as well. Ritnika Nayan is co-founder of MGMH (Music Gets Me High), an artiste management company which runs Sound Station, a jam pad in Okhla. “A lot of bands make use of our space. It’s a much-needed space for them,” Nayan says. Sound Station is a spacious 22 x 13 ft room, fully equipped with instruments.

Then there is Studio Groove, run in a tiny pocket of Patparganj, which provides absolute sound isolation. Bands from faraway areas like Ghaziabad come to use Studio Groove’s facilities. The “Jam Pad” at Studio Groove comes with a drum set, a Roland guitar amplifier, an Aria bass amplifier, and JBL public-address system. “We understand what problems bands face and make sure that they don’t have any constraints,” says Sohini Basu who runs Studio Groove. She has had bands recording for a few advertising jingles as well at her recording studio.

Surojit Deb, lead guitarist of band ThemClones, says that it’s essential that such places come up in Delhi as bands often waste a lot of time and energy finding a place to jam. Much to the bands’ relief, these places don’t charge too much either. On an average, most jam pads charge anywhere between Rs 150 and Rs 200 per hour. Often discounts are thrown in if you book the space for a month or even two weeks. Some studios also offer “bonus” jam hours to bands who are regulars.

Earlier, most bands used to struggle to find dinghy places or, if they were lucky, to find an empty garage to jam. “The music scene in Delhi is improving and a lot of local bands have come up in the last few years,” says Manu Saxena who runs Fender Music Academy in Shahpur Jat. “And these bands don’t have the funds to get all the equipment.”

These jam pads are designed funkily with bright coloured walls so that they also become chill-out zones for bands. “It should be a place where they would love to come back,” says Basu.

Most of these pads have their own music schools as well as recording studios. So while bands pay nominal charges for use of the studio, they have to shell out relatively more if they want to use it for longer. Most importantly for bands, people who have opened such pads understand what they are looking for. “It’s not only about having space, as cramped pads can be quite taxing,” says Deb. The key to a good jam pad is the acoustics, so pads have to get that right.

In cities like Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore which have a deeper culture of bands, jam pads are more common. But Delhi is slowly catching up, both in terms of the number of independent bands as well as jam pads. Such is the demand that jam-pad owners are not worried about so many opening up all over the city. “The more the merrier,” says Palash Bedi who runs Overgroove Studios in Lajpat Nagar. Bedi has been running his studio for the last three years and has seen the number of bands increase. “From heavy metal to bands performing Bollywood songs, we get all types of musicians looking for a place to jam,” he says. Setting up a pad does not require too much investment. “It costs anywhere between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakhs to set up a studio,” says Bedi. Of course, it all depends on how large the space is and what specifications you’re looking at.

With these jam pads in place, at least, the neighbourhoods of Delhi aren’t complaining about too much noise next door.