Mizmaar guitarist sets up state-of-the-art music, film studio

Kashan Admani’s Dream Station Studios is Pakistan’s first international-standard facility

KARACHI: The Pakistani cinema has been facing a number of concerns since its so-called revival. Lack of solid government support, the infrastructure needed to encourage young, educated film-makers and the technical facilities on par with the international quality, are just some of the issues that plague the industry.

To counter that, Mizmaar front man Kashan Admani has set up Pakistan’s first international standard, commercial 7:1 surround audio recording and post production facility in Karachi. Called Dream Station Studios, under his Dream Station Productions company, it offers musicians and film-makers the means to create output of international standards.

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Earlier this week, Admani held the launch of the studio and invited several musicians to come and test the facility out themselves. “Many came to check out the studio and jam to test the acoustics and all,” Admani told The Express Tribune. “Only a select number of people were invited but so many showed up that they had to take turns playing!”

The Mizmaar guitarist said the studio will be of help not only in the music industry but also for films. “Most of our big banner productions are taken to India and abroad for post-production because local facilities do not match up. And politically, we are at times on good terms with India and at times not, and it affects our artists as well,” he said. “We saw the recent ban on their films, too. I believed it was time that we got our own international standard studio so that we don’t have to go anywhere else to produce work of international standards. That’s how the studio should help the industry.”

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Renowned studio designer John H Brandt, who has been designing studios around the world since 1970s, has designed Dream Station Studios as well, taking into consideration all aspects of studio design, from the electrical, HVAC to acoustics, sound proofing and transmission levels between the rooms.

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The new space offers complete audio visual production facilities including album production, jingles, voice-overs, film score, ADR, surround film mixing, tracking, mixing, mastering, music video production, live studio video production, corporate film and TVC production.

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Admani is a renowned musician himself, having established Mizmar in 2000. The band participated in the 2002 Pepsi Battle of the Bands and released two albums, Kash in 2003 and Sitara in 2007. The title track from the latter also became the soundtrack for South Korean action-adventure fantasy film D-War. Admani also played guitars in Coke Studio’s ninth season and has collaborated with well-known artists such as Shani Arshad, Shiraz Uppal and Shuja Haider.

The band returned from a seven-year hiatus in 2015 with a new track called Jee Loonga and then Dur, later in the same year. Since then, they have released a couple of singles and collaborated with popular Indian band Euphoria’s vocalist Dr Palash Sen on a track promoting peace between India and Pakistan.

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