I was surprised to not find any threads on this CD ( only 2 threads mention it) . For those of you who don’t know (and I only recently heard of it) Zaireeka is a 4 CD album that should be/can be played simultaneously on 4 different stereo systems (8 speakers).
The problem to perfecting the exact sound intended for the recording is said to be very difficult because no two CD players either load or play at the same exact speed. The Album comes with a guide to set up the playback but also mentions that the beauty of Zaireeka is that you will most likely never hear the same album twice.
Now, although there are 4 CDs, you are not required to listen to all 4 at the same time. You can mix and match and become your own Flaming Lips producer. Play 1 and 3 only, play 1, 2 and 4 etc, etc.
Tonight will be my first atempt to listen to Zaireeka. I want my first listen to be all 4 CDs and as close to unison as possible. Here is the catch, I will be by myself. The Album is really should be a listening party for ease of CD playback. I have 2 CD players with remote controls and 2 w/o. If I have this set up right I should be able to start them together (with delays as needed).
Can anyone give me any insight into the album. Will I be disappointed or blown away? Am I trying to do too much by listening to this by myself? Any CD combo playback recomendations?
When we listened to it we had 4 different listening stations set up- 1 pc with speakers, 2 portable CD player boomboxes, and the stereo system. It took us a minute to get everything synched up- figuring out the time delay between when you pressed the button and when music played. By track 7 the oldest cd player/boombox was off by a good 1-2 seconds so we had to resync. I suggest a slightly larger room with all players pointed to the center so that you can hear 1 cd at that player, but can hear the entire composition from the middle of the room.
As for the results, they were kinda mixed- some songs were pretty cool and you could really hear the “quadraphonic” separation but everything still came together as a whole song, other times it sounded like 1 track of music with 3 tracks of ambient noise in the background. Definitely worth checking out at least once but expect a mixed bag. If you can, invite some friends over and make a little party of it- not only is it easier to get it all synched properly, but sometimes you’ll hear a certain sound or effect from one spot that isn’t noticeable from the other spots, and it’s easier with more sets of ears there.
The party idea is great, that’s how I listened to it… my friends & I had a Zaireeka listening party, and spent a good half hour trying to synchronize them correctly the first time (the first time we ended up switching ome of the players just b/c it was so diffcult to synch up…) It ended up sounded great, a lot of fun, and the repeated listens do help one appreciate the different layers. Since all cd players are slightly vary in track-to-track times, it will end up deviating no matter how precisely you synchronize track one.
Well I tried my best to listen to it by myself but it was just too hard. I had them close to being in sync with each other from time to time but I always was a split second off somewhere. I will see if I can recruit some of my friends for another try. Another problem i had was with the volume control. Because each player has a different sound level I wasn’t sure if one CD was too loud or too low. A sound that my have been intended to be low was blarring and vise versa.
I only got one chance to listen to it this past weekend so I can’t really give my thoughts yet. I usually need at least three listens to an album before I make an assessment. The problem here is the diffuculty in getting to listen to it. So far I am impressed and now that the hype is over for me I can listen to it without the anticipation factor.
Don’t mean to dredge up an old post, but does anyone know of a way I can play 4 different sound streams at once on my machine? I have XP Pro and the Soundblaster Audigy card with a 5.1 speaker system. I’ve also got 2 CD drives, but I figured I would copy each disk into one directory.
Would it even be worth it, or would it sound crappy? Would it defeat the purpose of the 4 disks?
I actually heard an interesting bit of news - there were apparently plans for a DVD rerelease, using multi-channel sound to replicate the 4cd effect so you can listen to it on your surround sound system.
Apparently the Flaming Lips themselves thought this was contrary to the concept of the album itself, so it was cancelled.