Recently I’ve been listening a lot to Frank Zappa and, almost even more so, read about him. I think he was truly a fascinating character and certainly a smart one as well. I don’t give a flying about what Jesus would do. The question is: what would Zappa do?
What struck me was how he used a lot of odd recording techniques and his attitude towards recording and mixing. A lot of people bitch about how it’s too much editing these days, and way too much MIDI and digital sucks and what not. Well, Zappas recording career spanned many decades. If it was one guy who would use sharp editing back in the tape days it was him. If it was one guy who would use digital recording long before the Pro Tools era it was him. And synths? Don’t get me started.
What would Zappa do? The title refers to my belief that if he was alive today he would do the opposite of what the gear freaks of today are doing. He would be the first one to have Pro Tools. By now he would probably have ditched it and gone for a more flexible solution. Analog board? Yeah, right. Not in Zappa land. And editing? Wow, we can do shit now that he only could dream of.
Beneath are some links worth checking out.
Frank Zappa in Wikipedia
Some general info here.
Xenochrony in Wikipedia
A strange technique Zappa developed that’s easier than ever to do today.
Comments (9)
Indeed, big fan here also (got to meet him, go to his home/studio once) and saw many LA shows. My first exposure was sometime around 15 years old (that’s about 33 years ago for me), my friends and I ‘borrowed’ his brothers ‘reel-to-reel’! copy of ‘Apostrophe’ and stole some beer…the beginning of a life long love of Mr. Zappa’s music and thought.
Xenochrony remains an underlying ‘philosophy’ for many of my explorations and the question, ‘Does humor belong in music’ is a definite yes for me. I continue to search for/develop my own ‘conceptual continuity’ (the historical collage of ones musical expression seen as one ‘gestalt’ informing every work.
I knew there was a reason I was ‘drawn’ here Mr. ‘Stiff’
btw, not sure what Zappa would do, but pretty sure ‘The poodle would bite, the would chew it’!
(Slapdelay.com…not a speck of cereal
)
Wow… That’s a great great story Loopy. What kind of beer was it?
I heard his studio now has a Nuendo system installed BTW.
Zappa was always the first for music technology, e.g. the first person to digitally record a symphont orchestra (1983 the LSO). Music today is just a rehash of old ideas. Zappa was a true innovator.
I love Zappa too, but can anyone explain the recording nightmare that spawned the “You Are What You Is” album? I’ve never been able to sit through the whole thing. It never gives your ears a rest.
You Are What You Is a Nightmare? Dude, that album is arguably the pinnacle, certainly it eclipses Sheik and Joe’s.
It never allows your ears to rest. It’s not that the songs are bad.
Oh shit, just found this on Wikipedia. I must have the over-compressed version…
The album was first issued on CD by EMI in the mid 1980s, albeit only in the UK and Japan. It received a worldwide release on both Ryko and Zappa Records CD in 1990, and was standardized under the Ryko banner in 1995. However, the digital master prepared for both the original Ryko/Zappa release and the later Ryko 1995 release suffered from several severe audio problems that appear to be caused by an overuse of digital techniques like compression and reverb, and also contained a shortened version of the track “Dumb All Over.” In 1998, the problems of these previous CD issues were fixed in a “silent remaster”, and the guitar solo from “Dumb All Over” was mostly restored.
Early remastered CDs can sound really, really horrible to me. Whenever I can I go for the vinyl instead if the album was recorded for it. Vinyl rules!