FLAMING LIPS ZAIREEKA.

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Does anybody know whether I should buy this album, because it seems a bit, well... odd. I don't have 4 CD Players, and was wondering if you could listen to each CD individually, with it still sounding good.

Thanks.

Yoshimi rules by the way.

― JOHN-DENVER, Monday, 25 November 2002 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

i was wondering that too. it's, like, 25 quid or something.
some cd players travel faster or slower slightly
than others so if it's not exact does it matter ?
i can see there's way more questions than answers on this one.
it wouldn't work live either that would spoil the whole
sense of acheivement from doing it at home.
really tho who has 4 cd players ?
and what were they *thinking* ?

― piscesboy, Monday, 25 November 2002 11:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I think there were one or two tracks from it on the Waiting For Superman CD singles and they seemed pretty good.

― tigerclawskank, Monday, 25 November 2002 11:58 (twenty-two years ago)

A group of us tried the 4CD experiment exactly once - it's bloody hard work! Of course it sounds great on 4 loud machines, not least because no 2 CD players run at exactly the right speed, so even if you manage to synchronise yr cd players and operators the different discs soon begin to warp out of time/space w/ each other. One of the discs contains most of the vocal melodies and basic instrumentation - the others are more abstract.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 25 November 2002 12:06 (twenty-two years ago)

You can listen to the discs singly and they still sound alright. I ripped all of the tracks from all four and combined them onto one disc -

I've done two CDs at once .. it's really a gimmick that isn't worth trying..

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 25 November 2002 12:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Only buy it if you want to do the multi-disc thing with other people. That's what this album is all about. You can download or trade for mixed copies if you're just interested in hearing the songs. I wrote a Pitchfork piece about this album w/ more detail.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 25 November 2002 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Wait a minute; unlike say a turntable, the CD's "pitch" doesn't depend soley on the rotation speed of the disc. If for some reason the drive motor malfunctions and goes way too fast or slow, the data won't be delivered at the proper rate for the electronics section of the deck; what you'll get is either choppy gibberish or silence. I don't think anything can cause improper pitch.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 25 November 2002 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

"really tho who has 4 cd players ?"

erm, me, at least. CD-Rom drive in computer, stereo CD player, CD walkman, and a cheapo ghetto blaster thang in the kitchen (not to mention various CD players housemates have, or dvd player). i should imagine, what with how cheap this shit is now, lots of people have a few CD players at home.

― stevie (stevie), Monday, 25 November 2002 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, but you need to have them in 4 corners of your room to play the album, no? Solution: have 3 friends bring over boom boxes, and only listen to the album on special occasions.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 25 November 2002 15:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't see anyone mentioning "pitch", Sean, but what I can confirm is this: even with four identical players, the only thing that drifts is the time, and there's no silence or gibberish..it just takes slightly longer to play back the same amount of data. It's not enough that you'd notice it listening to one at a time, but when you've got them all going, things get out of sync pretty fast depending on how good the player is.

We tried this experiment out at a stereo store where they had a wall filled with the same CD player hooked up to a bunch of different speaker sets. We preloaded the CDs and pressed play and then pause before any of them started to actually play. Then we stood across the room and triggered them all at the same time using one remote control.

It's a lot of work. I too ripped all four CDs to a single mixed version, which is actually not bad, even if it does destroy the intended experience.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm, Sean, maybe you're right. The reason I used the word pitch is because when an analogue device is running too fast or slow, not only does it affect the playing length of the track, but the pitch goes off as well. I do believe I'm right that if the CD drive motor experienced a gross error in speed you'd hear hash or nothing; but perhaps there are other factors at work as well.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

But now I'm thinking; isn't the data stream "locked" in a way that the exact speed at which the track plays can't be altered? I'm at a loss to explain the phenomena you experienced at the hifi shop.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

True, but the thing at work here isn't so much an error. You say "gross error" but it's actually just a natural...well, LAZINESS in the players, counting back time just close enough to make the music sound natural to the listener, but not quite rigorously enough to fully sync. In that respect there's no real error happening, as far as the player is concerned.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been involved in two Zaireeka parties, and they're quite fun. However, the disc is designed to be a social experience. My understanding is that the Lips noted that no one sat around with a group of friends to listen to records anymore (as a result of the ubiquity of playback technology listening to recorded musica has become a more solitary experience), and one of the motivations for creating Zaireeka was to force you to have at least four people together listening at the same time.

The second of the parties I went to was really large -- about a hundred people (it was actually one of the sanctioned release parties for Yoshimi). It took place in a local recording studio, which allowed a bit of freedom about speaker placement, etc. IMHO, the best way to listen to Zaireeka is by walking around amongst the speakers as the album plays, since the sonic experience is more memorable than the actual songs on the record.

― J (Jay), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

And the neatest thing about the phenomenon is that while some players always count fast or always count slow, the majority of players out there sort of approximate real time and sometimes count ahead and sometimes count behind, so sometimes when you're doing the 4-disc Zaireeka playback, you'll hear the echo after the source sound, and other times you'll hear it before, as your players go in and out of sync.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Perfect Sound Forever...

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I like to listen to the individual discs by themselves.
On a side note, at the Montreal museum of modern art, over the summer there was a room with 30 speakers set up with a song playing. It was a lot like Zaireeka, but with more tracks. The best way to listen to that was to walk around in circles by each of the speakers, and turn my head around.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 25 November 2002 18:26 (twenty-two years ago)

CD players are cheap simple electronic devices, they cannot keep *perfect* time, so yes the data is "locked" to a fixed clock crystal, but that crystal is affected by manufacturing imperfections and temperature, amonst other things.

Pitch will vary with speed as with an analogue device.

< /boring nonsense>

― Graham (graham), Monday, 25 November 2002 18:54 (twenty-two years ago)

It's also fun to listen with your finger in one ear, and then push in that little bit of ear flap on the other ear at intermittent intervals.

This trick will work with any record, by the way.

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 25 November 2002 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

It's also fun to listen with your finger in one ear, and then push in that little bit of ear flap on the other ear at intermittent intervals.
This trick will work with any record, by the way.

Holy crap. Im not the only one who does this!

I also do it when at a crowded place, like an arena or something.

...so odd.

― David Allen, Monday, 25 November 2002 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, get it if your interested. The point is to have the cds warp/overlap/fall out of sync/etc. It is also necessary to have four people with you. Each person is suppose to manipulate the volumes/bass/treble/balance/etc. Its an interactive listening experience. The Lips are surrealist, and most importantly hippies at heart. If your into that sort of thing, then I highly recommend it. Its very fun. They sound great. And you will never hear it the same way twice. It is NOT a gimmick. But I don't think it was meant as an "everyday" record. Play it with friends, or experiment with different volume/delay/balance/etc. levels on your own. Or try to find a Zaireeka listening party. They are quite fun. And you don't have to buy the record. Just have some drinks with people and enjoy yourself & the music.

― Juan (Juan), Monday, 25 November 2002 20:09 (twenty-two years ago)

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