Frank Zappa's Quadiophiliac on DVD-Audio

I enjoy that they're finally releasing stuff, but the material they seem to be picking is weirdly scattershot. Ahh well. Beggars...

 

Finally got a chance to listen to this last night, and was impressed. Here is the track listing

1.Naval Aviation in Art? - 1:34
2.Lumpy Gravy - 1:05
3.Rollo - 6:00
4.Drooling Midrange Accountants on Easter Hay [#] - 2:15
5.Wild Love - 4:07
6.Ship Ahoy [Live] - 5:47
7.Chunga Basement [#] - 11:48
8.Venusian Time Bandits [Live][#] - 1:54
9.Waka/Jawaka - 13:23
10.Basement Music #2 - 2:43

I only listened to this in DVD-Audio surround, and although the title is Quadiophilliac, all of the surround mixes are 5.0.

The surround sound content is great, it is aggressive without being gimmicky, and I felt it personnally fit Zappa's music perfectly. Please note that these mixes for the most part were done by Frank himself.

Wait to you hear the sick guitar solo in Rollo (Rollo kicks butt) or Ship Ahoy in surround, this disc is basically a guitar tour de force. 8 of the 10 tracks are strictly instrumental, with the exceptions being Frank speaking on Drooling Mid Range Accountants on Easter Hay and singing on Wild Love.

This disc comes highly recommended by me.

P.S. For the stereo only guys out there, I haven't listened to the stereo mix yet, will report back when I do.

 

It depends on the song. Some songs were mixed left+center+right+surround (mono surround, not split surrounds), so you'll hear some center. Some were mixed LF+RF+LS+RS, so no center and you get quad.

The theory given is that the stuff mixed left+center+right+surround was being considered for film soundtrack use.

The stereo seems to be a simple fold-down. It would be cooler if they had made it binaural. If I had a dummy head I might do it myself.

 

I thought it was very good myself. I really loved the groove and feel of the surround mix on Chunga's Basement. And, yes, Rollo was great. The weakest track on the whole thing was the one track from ShiekYerBouti.

 

I agree with you there Mike T, in fact the whole disc had a great groove to it. It is well mixed and the tracks flow really nicely into each other.

I look forward to more Zappa surround releasesfrom DTS Entertainment.

 

Yes, I'd really like more. The fact that there has now been a second disc is probably a good sign. I'd like to see every complete album that was mixed in quad (Apostrophe, Over-nite Sensation, and the rumored titles like OSFA and Roxy) given an official release, plus more compilations like this where applicable.

A new Zappa album that isn't 'just' a live album. Pretty cool. Yes, it recycles tracks, but it's not the first.

And yes, it has a good groove.

 

I just got mine, but it will not play in my Pioneer DV-563A. Grrr!!!

 

Grrr, indeed... mine either... the 563a has a documented flaw in that it will not recognize new encoding on some recently-released DVD-A's.

There is a painless and free firmware fix available at Pio authorized service centers... you may have to pay one way for shipping if you're not close to a service center.

I knew about it for months, but didn't do anything about it til it failed to play Quaudiophiliac... had the fix done, works great.

Information here: http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3020

 

I have used my own head, and I am a dummy. Seriously, I bought pc board mikes that have great response, soldered them, and then put them in my own head.

Here is my webpage with examples.

http://www.krisbee.com/Field Recording.html

 

Add me to list, too. The DTS tracks play, the DVD-A do not.