1986 September
Vol. 2 No. 9 Frank Zappa and His Digital Orchestra
Interview by John Diliberto, 5 pp
EM: You've had a few of
your orchestral works performed by the London Symphony Orchestra . .
.
FZ: Yeah! Right! And those
pieces cost a fortune. I could've bought two of these machines for
what the LSO album cost me.
EM: And what about the
pieces commissioned by Pierre Boulez?
FZ: Well, that wasn't really
orchestral. That was only a chamber orchestra with only 27 pieces
and there's a slight difference.
EM: Are you doing outboard
processing on the Synclavier?
FZ: You mean when it goes to
tape? Sure! We add digital echo to it and there's some equalization
that's done, especially on some of the synthesizer sounds that come
out of it since there's no tracking filter in there. It's digital
synthesis; the synthesizer sounds in that machine are subject to
aliasing noise and that often has to be filtered off.
EM: On the track "Outside
Now Again," was the solo on that improvised?
FZ: Yes. It came from the
Joe's Garage album on a song called "Outside Now." That's why
it's called "Outside Now Again" on the Boulez album.
EM: So this wasn't
improvised on the Synclavier.
FZ: No, it was played on the
guitar. Then it was transcribed by Steve Vai. Then the transcription
was entered into the Synclavier.
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AlterDudes – Zappa in 1986) |
