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Re: zappa!




Yes indeed, a great report! Richard, thanks for posting Bob's comments, 
especially the tips on Frank's looping tracks.

I saw FZ play several times. I recall his great huge rack with many 
blinking 
lights and I have a rather vague memory of him referring to it as The 
Fridge.  And... let us not forget the Electro Wagnerian Emancipator!

F.Y.I.  Guitar Player '95 article with great gear discription, but doesn't 
mention looping;

http://members.tripod.com/~arf_she_said/fzints/gpoct95.html

Terry
wwww.anomalousdisturbances.com




>From: Greg Kucharo <telecaster@mac.com>
>Reply-To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>Subject: Re: zappa!(was Re: For G-bashers)
>Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 21:16:56 -0700
>
>Doctor, sir, you are appallingly well connected!
>
>
>1:07 PM Richard Zvonar
>
> >At 7:12 AM -0700 4/29/02, Evan Meyers wrote:
> >
> >>does anyone know specifically if zappa ever really experimented with 
>looping
> >
> >I asked Bob Rice, who was Zappa's Synclavier assistant for several
> >years. Bob sez:
> >
> >>yes, actually. During the sound checks for his live shows, he used to 
>send
> >>everyone away and he'd just work with his guitar rig for a while at
> >>extremely high volume levels, mostly just improvising stuff. He'd load
> >>snippets into a pair of MXR digital delays with extended memory of up 
>to, I
> >>think, almost 4 seconds! Anyway, on the MXRs, he' d usually create 2
> >>different loops so if they played together they'd eventually drop out 
>of
> >>sync. This was the only use for the delays in the rig and they'd have 2
> >>dedicated combo amps that were mic'd so that he could kick them in in 
>the
> >>middle of a solo and then play over the top of them with his main rig. 
>The
> >>drummer and bass player would have to find a groove based on or around 
>the
> >>loops and if both were on and they went out of sync, they would listen 
>for
> >>the polyrhythms that would result from the kaos. For a short amount of 
>loop
> >>time, there were pretty amazing possibilities for improvisation with 
>good
> >>players aboard.
> >>
> >>There is a live album called Make a Jazz Noise Here that has 2 pieces 
>that
> >>use quite a bit of looping. One is called Fire and Chains which uses a
> >>massive sample patch I built for him on the Synclavier with lots of 
>vocal
> >>samples from the Senate hearings on Porn Rock lyrics (and warning 
>labels 
>on
> >>records ect.), that loop around at various rates and have pitch 
>modulation
> >>patched to the polyphonic aftertouch on the keyboard. You'd hold down a
> >>chord and use varying degrees of aftertouch on each note to change the
> >>speed of the samples going round and round. Again these mutant 
>polyrhythms
> >>would result and you could play off of them if you could feel them.
> >>
> >>The guitar loops with the MXR delays happened at least once everynight 
>and
> >>an example of that is on the cut (also on Jazz Noise) called Star Wars
> >>Won't Work. There's also a pretty good helping of these delay solos on 
>the
> >>"Guitar" album (2 cds of Zappa guitar solos! NOt a desert island disc 
>but
> >>interesting in small doses).
> >
> >--
> >
> >______________________________________________________________
> >Richard Zvonar, PhD
> >(818) 788-2202
> >http://www.zvonar.com
> >http://RZCybernetics.com
> >http://www.cybmotion.com/aliaszone
> >http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?autostart=rz
> >
>






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