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Topic: The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka (Read 6109 times) previous topic - next topic
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The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

The above album was released in the form of four cd's which were meant to be played concurrently to achieve the artist's desired effect.

I'm looking for software which will enable multiple files to be played concurrently, or, better still, to be merged into one file which can be played on any standard player.

Any ideas please??

The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

Reply #1 –
Any audio editor (try GoldWave, Audacity, or Adobe Audition) has the capability to mix audio files.

However, you'll be creating two channels of audio from eight, which is a big mixdown. If you want to preserve (most of) the individual tracks, you could make a 5.1 mix in Audition. Of course, you'd need a 5.1 speaker system to play it.

There are also stereo and surround downmixes available on the internet, if you're willing to go illegal. I believe a DVD-A reissue of Zaireeka is in the works.

The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

Reply #2 –
Quote from: slks on
However, you'll be creating two channels of audio from eight, which is a big mixdown. If you want to preserve (most of) the individual tracks, you could make a 5.1 mix in Audition. Of course, you'd need a 5.1 speaker system to play it.


I think the mixdown would be appropriate for this album.  I know both mixdowns have already been done, and you would require 8.1 sound to preserve all of the tracks anyway.  Even then, the artistic intention, at least when the box set was released, was to have 4 entirely different systems playing each of the discs.  The disorder to this approach is intended and this album sort of tries to bring to their fans a studio version of The Parking Lot Experiments.

For the original question, many audio editors exist that can easily do what you are asking.  Unless you have a very good system, you might want to do it track by track, rather than try to handle 4 full CDs worth of audio at once.  Have fun.

The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

Reply #3 –
Thanks for the replies.

Empyrean, a track at a time sounds great.

Please recommend an audio editor.

The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

Reply #5 –
I think a surround mix is a nice gimmick and comes closer to the way playback of this album was originally intended (having four stereos placed in random places in one room or one apartment), but then...

Flaming Lips are not really hi-fidelity band or audiophile's favorite (like those boring old farts Pink Floyd and the official promotion band for the Audio CD, the Dire Straits). So a stereo mix isn't that bad either... giving that the "tracks" already contain reverb.  A surround mix would be too proper (compare the perfectly aligned 5.1/7.1 box sets with the four stereo sets pretty much randomly aligned), and a stereo mix would be too far away from the originally intended playback experience yet more practical for listening on a stereo set...

Btw, I'm going to make a stereo mix now myself, this thread got me hooked.  I've never listened to the album that way actually...



Quote from: dogbreath on
Audacity it is then!

Make sure to lower the input gain of all the four tracks or else you will get clipping! For the first track I had to apply a gain of at least -6db for each track in order to prevent clipping of the mixdown. The other songs will eventually require even lower input gains.

The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

Reply #6 –
If you select the tracks and use "Quick Mix", it should take care of the necessary attenuation for you.

The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

Reply #7 –
Fandango, thanks for that. Please let us know how you get on with your mix.

dv1989, thanks to you also. I'm basically lazy and simple means good to me. "Quick Mix" it shall be. LOL

The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

Reply #8 –
Yeah, it should work out best, when you let the audio editor do the gain adjustment. Does anyone know how to do that in Audition? Actually I'd like to use one static input gain suited for all 8 tracks and not let the audio editor decide all over again per track.

Btw, since Audition uses 32bit internally for mixing the tracks, does anyone know what settings I should use for dithering when converting the mixdown to 16bit?

The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka

Reply #10 –
TOS #9.
err... i'm not using windows any more ;)