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Anyone enjoying Steve Vai's last album? I'm going out of my cave sometimes to listen to some other than flamenco stuff. I enjoy Steve's new album. makes me want to buy an ibanez and shred....lol
Posts: 15318
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: steve Vai's last album? (in reply to kitarist)
quote:
So did Al solve his problem with the pitch discrepancy, and how? Did he figure it out finally?
Well, if you recall, it was never “his” problem, the problem was he baked the tapes himself and the producer that did a fairly recent remaster of Friday night noticed the ambient sound did not match and Al was beside himself as if he was being accused of not realizing the tapes he had were from a “different venue” altogether. So he is not aware there is even a “problem”. I pointed out the issue this producer was noticing was probably the speed of the tapes…which by default affects pitch…and on that concept we have proof from live video that the Friday master was fast.
So Al, not knowing there is a “problem” takes the producers word for it that he did a bad “baking” session or whatever and sent the tapes to Skywalker studio. Obviously, whatever they did to the tapes had nothing to do with the speed issue because, as you can hear here if this is indeed what is going to come out, it is in standard tuning like the live video.
Again, if anyone is confused, the Saturday gig is on YouTube video and this tune he shares has different improvised solos…so I assume the entire record will actually be left over tracks from Friday night. For me it is cool either way. And who knows, maybe after it comes out I might recognize something from the video again suggesting Al did have both nights on tape.
I like how he said John was pissed at Al’s huge charts!
Well, if you recall, it was never “his” problem, the problem was he baked the tapes himself and the producer that did a fairly recent remaster of Friday night noticed the ambient sound did not match
yes, I phrased it badly. I meant his problem (that we know is about speed/pitch discrepancy)
Posts: 15318
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: steve Vai's last album? (in reply to kitarist)
Al does still have a “problem” I suspect, and that is what day is Friday vs Saturday. Years ago he claimed to have the actual video of Friday night in his vault…and I drove far to get a copy he was selling at his shows. It turned out to be the Saturday vid we see on YouTube. I think in his mind, the first 5 min of Saturday he recognized from the record and assumed what he had in his vault was Friday on Video, and Saturday on tape, but it was the exact opposite. The most odd thing is that who ever engineered it knew what was going on, and they probably did the splice (having both nights on tape) with the original source tapes, and fixed Al’s concluding run (perhaps using the Friday tape since it had the right ambiance)….but never told Al about it, so he remained clueless. I guess they gave him a copy of Friday night original full concert and the Saturday video, and the rest was on the cutting room floor discarded?
In any case, now ITunes has become Apple Music, so I am not sure I will get the CD or just download the stupid thing to my phone like everyone else. For sure I will get the vinyl double record (probably will be expensive, as I just found a cool local record shop where I see used records at $7 and fancy new colored discs of new releases up to $40!).
The most odd thing is that who ever engineered it knew what was going on, and they probably did the splice (having both nights on tape) with the original source tapes,
BTW, the fact this was spliced so seamlessly seems to be proof that the Friday night was recorded at the right reference pitch, same as Saturday night, i.e. that both sources are at the correct pitch. It is only after this splicing and fixing Al's run was done that the result was sped up a quarter tone (was transferred with the recording tape running slow?). So Al Di Meola has both nights, the original sources at the right pitch, in his 'vault'.
Posts: 15318
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: steve Vai's last album? (in reply to kitarist)
quote:
ORIGINAL: kitarist
quote:
The most odd thing is that who ever engineered it knew what was going on, and they probably did the splice (having both nights on tape) with the original source tapes,
BTW, the fact this was spliced so seamlessly seems to be proof that the Friday night was recorded at the right reference pitch, same as Saturday night, i.e. that both sources are at the correct pitch. It is only after this splicing and fixing Al's run was done that the result was sped up a quarter tone (was transferred with the recording tape running slow?). So Al Di Meola has both nights, the original sources at the right pitch, in his 'vault'.
That fact plus the extra track Guardian Angels was recorded in a studio, not live, and is also sharp of pitch. Meaning once the record was mixed, the entire album went to MASTER sped up. In the case of other albums this has happened to like kind of blue, also on Columbia, they claim the machine (tape reel to reel) ran slow going to master…hence a normal machine (record player) plays that music on vinyl or whatever, faster than recorded. The CD came out of Kind of Blue explained this and they corrected the new master from the source tapes, and part of the same master series I assumed Friday Night would have been the same deal but they didn’t have the source tapes obviously (cutting room floor). Who knows, maybe they tried and realized all the editing going on and gave up?
There's a couple of numbers I like but again, I find myself disappointed :( I was a massive Vai fan in the '80s and early '90s. But IMO he isn't a great riff writer, and kinda needs a great artist to work with. Loved Flexable and his work with Zappa, Alcatrazz and DLR, and the PIL album was great. Passion and Warfare was something I was soooo looking forward to, but it mostly was a bit of a let down for me. I like it when he does some off the wall compositions best.
I have the same issue with Eric Johnson, fabulous guitarist and tone hound, a few wonderful tunes, but most of his productions leave me a bit cold, weak vocal, and strange production decisions from my POV.
Alex Lifeson has been my favourite rock guitarist for decades, he's just so clever and soulful. And a brilliant composer. I fell in love with RUSH in the late '70s and they are still my favourite rock band.
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