Flaming Lips In Surround

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neil wilkes

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
4,365
Location
London, England
Still cannot find this in stick anywhere in UK.
Stuff we cannot get over here is sometimes unbelievable - we can't get the last-but-one Flaming Lips DVD-A either - the one before "At War With The Mystics".
Can't see the Clapton album/DVD at Amazon either, so can someone post a link to a US store that will ship to UK with the Missing Lips album & the Clapton Robert Johnson tribute please?
 
CD Universe it is then.
Flaming Lips:
I have Yoshimi.
I have Zaireeka
I have ordered At War With The Mystics.
There was one between Yoshimi & At War With The Mystics on DVD-A though, and I cannot remember the title.
 
No DVD-A, it's basically rehearsals and recording sessions for Me and Mr Johnson. DTS is F-ing awesome sounding!

I agree. This is one of the best DTS tracks out there. I love it because it is 4 different sessions. The one with just Eric and the guitar I think is my favourite part now. I forgot it had a CD with it......
 
Still cannot find this in stick anywhere in UK.
Stuff we cannot get over here is sometimes unbelievable - we can't get the last-but-one Flaming Lips DVD-A either - the one before "At War With The Mystics".
Can't see the Clapton album/DVD at Amazon either, so can someone post a link to a US store that will ship to UK with the Missing Lips album & the Clapton Robert Johnson tribute please?

Neil:

Another link. http://store.acousticsounds.com/sea...ry=all_6&Field=Artist&searchtext=eric+clapton

Justin
 
Hi Neil!

I have Zaireeka

I've seen this the other day on Amazon and was wondering how many people have actually tried to play this using 4 CD players.

I guess, first you'd need the necessary hardware (of course), it seems really a big effort to set this up properly (with all the speakers involved; is there a description for the setup included), and then you would need to figure out how to start all 4 players simultaneously; this really gives me a headache.

I would be really interested in your experiences if you actually tried this...

Many thanks & best regards,
Oliver
 
Hi Neil!



I've seen this the other day on Amazon and was wondering how many people have actually tried to play this using 4 CD players.

I guess, first you'd need the necessary hardware (of course), it seems really a big effort to set this up properly (with all the speakers involved; is there a description for the setup included), and then you would need to figure out how to start all 4 players simultaneously; this really gives me a headache.

I would be really interested in your experiences if you actually tried this...

Many thanks & best regards,
Oliver


This would be an excellent title for the Flaming Lips to reissue with their 5.1 treatment. To finally join these 4 stereo recordings in sync on a disc format made to order for this recording. It would be cool!
 
This would be an excellent title for the Flaming Lips to reissue with their 5.1 treatment. To finally join these 4 stereo recordings in sync on a disc format made to order for this recording. It would be cool!

I guess there would have to be some downmixing involved? Assuming that each of the 4 CDs contain a stereo mix, there are 8 channels on this set.

But yes! It would be cool! ;)
 
I did an 8 to 4 downmix of Zaireeka for DTS and DVD-A. It turned out pretty good! However, according to the liner notes for "The Soft Bulletin", it appears we'll eventually get the real thing:

"...a whole other complicated tale that will be explained when Zaireeka is made to DVD".

It will be interesting to see how The Lips' decide to present their octophonic acoustic social experiment.
 
I've seen this the other day on Amazon and was wondering how many people have actually tried to play this using 4 CD players.

I guess, first you'd need the necessary hardware (of course), it seems really a big effort to set this up properly (with all the speakers involved; is there a description for the setup included), and then you would need to figure out how to start all 4 players simultaneously; this really gives me a headache.

I would be really interested in your experiences if you actually tried this...

I tried it when it first came out, and I'm talking "by myself", which was a task. There are instructions in the set, and each CD had a voice which says something to the effect of "this is Track 1, disc number 1", or "this is track 1, disc number 2", "number 3", "number 4". When you hear the command of each number, you are supposed to press pause. Once they are at pause, then with timing you start them all at the same time. When you did that, then the "experiment" would begin. You could have the sound of airplane ambience coming out on one end, drums on the other, guitar and bass on another, and voice on another. Or a Hammond B-3 could rip through all four CD players.

It was difficult to do all four CD players at once, but you could do a combination of any two to make some interesting listening experiences. True to what Wayne Coyne is about, it was very much like someone with a quad reel or quad 8-track recorder and making your own custom tapes.

I'm just glad Warner Bros. kept them around after that, because I know Zaireeka was not a big seller compared to whatever they were selling by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, or Green Day at the time.

Should they make a DVD-A of Zaireeka? I hope they don't, because the project is unique in itself, unless 8.1 surround sound becomes a reality.

On a WB-related note, I'd like to hear RHCP's BloodSugarSexMagik done in a 5.1 surround sound mix.
 
Should they make a DVD-A of Zaireeka? I hope they don't, because the project is unique in itself, unless 8.1 surround sound becomes a reality.
It's already in the works, as mentioned in the liner notes for the Soft Bulletin DVD-A (and this thread).

There is no reason why an 8 to 5 channel mixdown will not work for this title. In fact, my own 8 to 4 channel mixdown sounds great (in my not so humble opinion). I will be anxious to hear the Lips' own take on their social experiment.

Speaking of which, accidents and variability were built into the original four disc set, allowing the listeners to contribute, even if unintentionally, to the final composition. You get some interesting sounds when the four CD players inevitably go out of synch with one another.

In fact, there is no way you can get the four separate discs to synch up perfectly all the way through Zaireeka. There was variability built in. I found this out when I did my own mixdown.

There are extra bits of silence padding some tracks on one disc but not the others. For example, there might be 1 second of silence after track two on discs 1, 3 and 4, but 1.5 seconds after track two on disc 2. This extra silence is present after every track but on a different disc. There is no doubt in my mind that this was done on purpose. Don't quote me on the specifics since I can't recall how long the extra silence is. One thing I do remember is that it was consitently the same length for every track.

In any event, when I did my own mixdown I removed the extra silence so that everything is perfectly synched all the way through. Did I ruin the original social experiment? Not at all; In fact, such an effort is wholly in line with the Lips' original intent: to have Zaireeka listeners participate in and contribute to the final composition. Every Zaireeka experience is unique; it's just that I've captured mine on digital media. And now the Lips are preparing to do the same. Again, I look forward to hearing the Lips' own take on this intriguing audio social experiment.

Besides, I still have the original four discs and can have a "Zaireeka party" whenever I want.
 
In fact, there is no way you can get the four separate discs to synch up perfectly all the way through Zaireeka. There was variability built in. I found this out when I did my own mixdown.

Which is why I liked it.

In any event, when I did my own mixdown I removed the extra silence so that everything is perfectly synched all the way through. Did I ruin the original social experiment? Not at all; In fact, such an effort is wholly in line with the Lips' original intent: to have Zaireeka listeners participate in and contribute to the final composition.

I did a few mixdowns and make my own mixes, which I had put up on my website a few years ago. People liked it and some FL fans wondered where was the stereo CD version. I like being able to rearrange one of the tracks, or to chop a certain element of the song, filter it, and make that the basis of the instrumental. I know when Todd Rundgren did the whole TR-I thing, I had hoped more artists would allow fans to create their own mixes/remixes, even if the technology was not widely available at the time.

It's also fun to be able to create mixes that are your own, or to add your own production style by recording your own drum tracks, or sampling from other sources to make the Flaming Lips' music fit into your world.:banana:
 
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