KVR Audio

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Fri May 26, 2017 5:08 am

Ghetto, I love sparring with you, but that is kinda weird. I dunno, maybe it's a murica humor thing.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri May 26, 2017 5:44 am

incubus wrote:

Ghetto, I love sparring with you, but that is kinda weird. I dunno, maybe it's a murica humor thing.

I just think that it's not interesting. I especially think that it comes across as not as funny as Zappa thinks that it is. I think that the contradiction to serious music isn't interesting and my sense is that's supposed to be part of the funny. OMG Look we're so serious, but yet we're not, whoa, my mind is blown with the contradiction.

I have a good sense, I think, of what it's all about, especially the cynicism, but there's no point in me droning on about that here. There's been enough ink spilled on that and I'm not going to add anything of substance with my seat of the pants bathtub analysis.

In short, it just needed more funny.

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Fri May 26, 2017 6:04 am

But others got it.

Again, no problem, it's fine and all. I don't think it's droning on about anything.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Fri May 26, 2017 6:10 am

sqigls wrote:it's interesting that this video has 110,408 views... unauthorised... yet Diva and Ahmet continue to break Dweezil's balls for using his own f**king name.

Yeah Frank was a ball-breaker himself. He expected the best from his musicians.
He got into some pretty crazy computer arrangements too.
There was one famous quote, something like (ok gotta search)...

"The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows."
- Frank Zappa

Not really a Zappa fan and this is quite an interesting quote, one of the main reasons I've never clicked with his music is it's clever but seems to lack emotional depth.

Maybe it's not all that's missing is the eyebrows?

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Fri May 26, 2017 6:11 am

ghettosynth wrote:
incubus wrote:Oh, but recently I saw this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjMO_ewZxIQ

BTW, for fun, please go to 9 minutes and listen
I can't even watch a full interview of him, let alone listen to a full track. I suppose that's something, eh? I can't think of another artist who triggers such a feeling of imminent dread at the thought of having to listen to them. I know that if I click play, I'm just going to regret wasting the time. He's just boring and it's pretty clear that he doesn't think so.

I'm not saying anything about his skill as a musician, I just find his messages utterly uninteresting. Does he think the whole bit with the brown lipstick is funny?

You're not the only one.

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Fri May 26, 2017 6:13 am

I just thought it was funny. And informative and the 1983 "digital" aspect was intriguing since we've debated it to extremes

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri May 26, 2017 6:23 am

incubus wrote:I just thought it was funny. And informative and the 1983 "digital" aspect was intriguing since we've debated it to extremes

That was at least an interesting snapshot of attitudes from that time. The industry really was all about digital.

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Fri May 26, 2017 6:27 am

Finally!

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri May 26, 2017 2:51 pm

Having seen the brown lipstick routine at least once, I found it tiresome myself. It's 'brown lipstick in the corporate suite', NB. However I find 'These executives have plooked the f**k out of me' totally compelling.
I also disagree with certain of his politics. So?

FZ's music, so much of it moves me (and so many) so deeply, is so gorgeous that I have to say that it's you, ghetto, not the music with the bad disposition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7msf3Fv06Q

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri May 26, 2017 2:59 pm

go dig some EDM, & FO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A-_e5vrBcM

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri May 26, 2017 3:07 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb_dVPJWRn4

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri May 26, 2017 3:30 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9DqykUsqRY

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri May 26, 2017 3:43 pm

incubus wrote:Well, I thought it was really great, but the part that stuck out to me is that it was "digitally recorded, mixed and mastered" which would be A SIN in this day and age. But he seemed to think it was ok.

What?

That was recorded to some form of DAT. He says there's no tape hiss and other degradation of quality.
How many people record to magnetic tape today? It seems rare to me. He started recording multitrack, 24-track digital as soon as he could and these are really fine recordings. I don't get that bit.
A few of the older records, the first CDs were really not good because the masters hadn't been dealt with, they were too bright and sounded harsh. My copy of Chunga's Revenge, I can't even listen to it.

You Are What You Is is a notorious example of a later master that was f**ked-UP but Spence Chrislu remastered it ca 1996 and it's very good. Frank did weird shit sometimes. One posthumous release (Trance-Fusion) has the mixing engineer's liner notes talking about how FZ had 'pre-mastered' it so things like the toms were ridiculously huge and had to be 'un-mastered' essentially to create anything reasonable out of it.

Harry_HH · Post by **Harry_HH** » Fri May 26, 2017 4:09 pm

sqigls wrote:it's interesting that this video has 110,408 views... unauthorised... yet Diva and Ahmet continue to break Dweezil's balls for using his own f**king name.

...

I didn't know about that dissonance. Sounds strange.

BTW, although just the beginning of the song appears on that 1973 studio out take, it sonds fantastic and much better to me than the live performances of the Cheepnis documented in the albums Roxy & Elsewhere and You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 2. (Live in Helsinki).
(Documented) live versions lack e.g. the woman background singers central role and many nice details in the instrumental part.
The studio tape(s) must lay around in Zappa's huge vault. I wish it will be published some day.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Fri May 26, 2017 5:01 pm

Ahmet's been extorting Dweezil in the same fashion Gail did. DZ has not been enjoying merchandising rights because of the ownership of the name as a copyright. Ahmet does not appear to be doing very much with the Vault, additionally.

There is quite a bit of video footage of the 1982 tour, only one thing has come out (besides St Etienne some time ago), RDNZL. Thomas Nordegg shot video throughout the tour. That RDNZL came out last summer. It's official, I believe you can buy it, it's up on Youtube. I don't know if Ahmet is very active removing vids from YT like Gail was. That isn't good business, people will buy something they've heard often enough.

Zappa - what a tight music arranger