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Soundboard - Sounds like it may actually be a close mic’d recording as there is little audience noise and yet there is a sense of the venue and atmosphere in the vocals especially. Very good! -
Audience 8.4 - Pretty darn good for a small club gig with amateur audience recording technique, if indeed it was done by an audience member. As you know, Frank sometimes recorded the band, not always through the board either. -
Audience 8.5 - Sounds typical of medium halls where there’s some atmosphere but not terrible echo, a nice balance. Sonically, this is a little above average maybe, you get everything in balance, no ultra high highs or deep throbbing lows either. -
Audience 9.0 - I like the sound of this recording, it’s got a very nice and smooth bass which is pretty articulate, and the instruments in general are in perfect harmony with each other, you would be hard pressed to get a better mix even through the board. It’s also a historic concert, for the obvious reasons, and hearing it knowing what happened later, it adds another dimension. A great one! 04-12-1971 Montreux Casino, Switzerland 1. Intro, 2. Peaches En Regalia, 3. Tears Began To Fall, She Painted Up Her Face, Half A Dozen Provocative Squats, 4. Call Any Vegetable, 5. Anyway The Wind Blows, 6. Magdalena, Dog Breath, 7. Sofa Suite, 8. Pound For A Brown, Sleeping In A Jar, 9. Wonderful Wino, Sharleena, Cruisin' For Burgers, 10.King Kong (interrupted by fire) 11.FIRE! -
Audience 8.8 - This is a well rounded recording that delivers most of what is required to ensure a show remains worthy of repeat listens. The only real limitations I could discern are a slight “noisiness” somewhere between the upper mid band and the high band frequencies that are more noticeable during cymbal crashes – and even then it’s minimal. Maybe another critical observation is the overall audio mix coming from the stage is not ideal, it’s not bad, but it’s not as guitar/vocal prominent as you might be used to, again even that is being overly critical because it’s also not that bad. This is a good tape that may not satisfy the perfectionists out there but will take care of the rest of us (me included!). Frank Zappa Chapiteau Mulhouse (France) July 1, 1980 Disc 1 01 -Watermelon In Easter Hay 02 -Keep It Greasey 03 -Pick Me, I'm Clean 04 -City Of Tiny Lights 05 -Pound For A Brown (Mo & Herb's Vacation, Sheik Yerbouti Tango Coda, Filthy Habits) 06 -Cosmik Debris 07 -You Didn't Try To Call Me 08 -I Ain't Got No Heart Disc 2 09 -Love Of My Life 10 -You Are What You Is 11 -Easy Meat 12 -Mudd Club 13 -The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing 14 -Joe's Garage 15 -Why Does It Hurt When I Pee? 16 -Dancin' Fool 17 -Bobby Brown 18 -Ms. Pinky 19 -In France (incl.La Marseillaise) 20 -In France - Luigi & The Wise Guys 21 -Stick It Out (incl.Looney Tunes) 22 -The Illinois Enema Bandit Line-up: Frank Zappa's Band, March - July 1980 FZ, Ike Willis, Ray White, Arthur Barrow, David Logeman, Tommy Mars -
Soundboard 9.4 -
Soundboard 9.4 - Highly enjoyable, good guitar tone, and good mix! (Early show) This show is also included in the 4CD set from Munich, both Early and Late show (also offered). -
Soundboard 9.4 - (Early and Late Show) - Both sets are predominately 9.4 Soundboards with occasional audience sources patched in for completeness. Both shows are highly enjoyable too. Good guitar tone, and good mix! -
Audience 9.6 - This one is loaded with razor sharp guitar, a gem of a show. -
Audience 9.4 - A real good one this is! Like a sharp dressed man entering a room and commanding attention, this show does the same. Frank sounds great, and I like his guitar tone here. Frank Zappa Cirkus Krone Bau Munich (Muenchen), WG 1984-10-04 Early Show Disc 1 01 -Zoot Allures 02 -Tinsel Town Rebellion 03 -Trouble Every Day 04 -Penguin In Bondage 05 -Hot Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel 06 -The Evil Prince 07 -Cocaine Decisions 08 -Nig Biz 09 -Willie The Pimp 10 -He's So Gay 11 -Bobby Brown Disc 2 12 -Keep It Greasey 13 -Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me? 14 -Carol You Fool 15 -Chana In De Bushwop 16 -Let's Move To Cleveland 17 -Sharleena 18 -Dinah-Moe Humm 19 -Whipping Post Band: Frank Zappa - Vocals, Guitars, Conducting Ike Willis - Vocals, Guitar Ray White - Vocals, Guitar Scott Thunes - Bass Chad Wackerman - Drums Allan Zavod - Keyboards Bobby Martin - Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals -
Soundboard 9.1 and Audience 8.5 - Beautifully mixed, with some tiny over-sizzle on crash cymbals at times, which seems to get worked out on the mix, but more problems with vocals getting distorted, mostly is the “ssss’s” which isn’t a deal breaker because the problems are not a large percentage of the music. The second show is an audience recording that sounds a little distant until the guitars begin and then it sounds practically right next to you! Strange. -
SDBRD 9.2/Audience 8.8 - Two sources comprise this offering, with the first (and thankfully the bulk of the recording) being very good quality, I would say excellent more precisely. Being a soundboard it does come off a little on the dry side, and by contrast the audience taped portion (the last 1/3 of the show) is very good, and lively, which wakes up certain instruments giving them more accuracy as far as what they actually sounded like coming through the at the show. The guitar in particular has a different attack and dynamic from the audience tape, in a good way. This is almost the perfect example of what kind of differences there are, both positive and negative, between a board and an audience tape source.
Frank Zappa Hemmerleinhalle Neunkirchen am Brand, West Germany 25-Feb 1978, Disc 1 01 The Purple Lagoon 02 Dancin' Fool 03 Peaches En Regalia 04 The Torture Never Stops 05 Tryin' To Grow A Chin 06 City Of Tiny Lights 07 Baby Snakes 08 Pound For A Brown 09 Is That Guy Kidding Or What 10 I Have Been In You Disc 2 11 Flakes 12 Broken Hearts Are For Assholes 13 King Kong (incl White Person, YCDTOSA 6) 14 Wild Love 15 Yo Mama 16 San Berdino 17 Watermelon In Easter Hay 18 Dinah Moe Humm 19 Black Napkins -
Stage Recording 8.7 - These kind of recordings are in a unique category – they are technically “audience” type recordings but the signal is sent straight to the recording deck or into a sub-mixer under the control of an engineer. A “professional audience recording” I suppose. So, you do not always have absolute control over the sound mix but this can be a good thing if you get lucky enough with ideal mic placement and ambience, and other things like that. In this case, well, it’s a fine recording limited perhaps by the mic and tape deck quality or ability to capture in high fidelity. It’s a great reference, a decent recording, and there’s plenty of interesting stuff here to make you want to find out what Zappa does next. -
Audience 8.4 - A somewhat narrow sound field but a thoroughly enjoyable 1973 performance nonetheless. There are one of two tape flips and a little audience conversation (in Norwegian) but that is to be expected. -
Audience / Soundboard / FM - This is a very special Halloween Marathon from 1981, with perfect clarity and sound balance. Another outstanding performance in NYC. -
Audience 7.3 - Hissy, compressed leaning towards bottom end side and vocals are drowned out. Somewhere in the middle is where all the music is and you can actually discern pretty much all of it, mainly bass, keys, and some drums in there too (drums in the stew).