One of the upcoming projects Dweezil plans to attempt is a surround remix of one of Frank’s classic releases:
“I can’t wait to go from the ground up on a classic record,” he says. “The problem we will encounter is the way that Frank worked. He would often take stuff from alternated takes and build something out of it, and insert it into something else. That stuff is usually not documented, so even if you have the master tape and the stereo mixes, if you go to the source tape you won’t find everything there. Our challenge will be to either find those little snippets or re-create them. If it can’t be done, then we can’t do a complete version of those classic records.
Because, you know, who wants that silly Roxy DVD released anyway, right? What the world needs now is rehashed classic albums in [expletive] surround sound!
(Pardon, is that my spit on your face?)
Bake the tapes !!
I begin to wonder, does a video-tape recording of the roxy show really exist? Maybe Gail just has us all waiting, swallowing all commercials disguised as news, hoping to get ANYTHING just relating to the ROXY DVD. “Hmm, let’s pretend we have some ROXY-tapes just so all the fools out there will continue drooling for anything we might have to say!”
Dweezil must think I’m as stupid as he is if he expects me to buy Hot Rats again. It’s fine as it is! It’s disappointing that the ZFT is behaving just like any other record company, trying to get us to buy all over again stuff we’ve already got, just because some geek has invented another format. And there’s a reason Quadrophonic sound didn’t catch on back in the 1970s; it requires the listener to buy new equipment and then to remain stationary to enjoy the ‘surround sound’. This is not the way most of us listen to music most of the time!
With the upgrade to UMRK it is easy to understand Dweezils and the ZFT dedication to surround sound production and I view it as most welcomed news. In a coversation I had with Gail at Carnegie Hall this was the key point of my question of producing classical events in surround sound and I am a most happy to be hearing Dweezil will be working on a classical surround sound production of Franks works.
Releasing new music should take priority over re-releasing the old Zappa catalog. You can’t even put DVD-A’s on your iPod. Disappointing.
quad didn’t survive, but surround is here to stay. Lots of people have surround gear (I don’t!). Frank himself was obviously into surround (Quad; the Yellow Shark concerts).
I agree about the Dub Room Special or whatever it’s going to be called. I work in the video business, and I know there is no technical reason this material shouldn’t have been out a long time ago. The film transfer, etc. is not cheap, but….I can’t believe the whole deal wouldn’t be a money-maker for the ZFT in the end. Maybe there are legal issues….?
The two things I am most interested in are the two things which never get released: the Roxy film, and the Varese album. You just know the Varese album will be a revelation. Where the fuck is it?!!
Trendmonger (is that you, Warren?): I have no problem with ZFT releasing surround sound stuff per sé; it’s just that right now they seem to be turning it into their core business, and on top of that it looks like they will be using the format to re-release polished-up versions of albums we already own. Nothing really new/original has gotten released for quite some time now. You’d almost be tempted to think the Vault is nothing but a myth…