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ZZTop "playing" live to bass tracks !?!

#62
I honestly can't tell. Good tone though. It sounds to me as if the notes are still playing.

And whoever mentioned KISS Alive! Being 75% studio, that's not true, it's actually the other way around, and is about 75% real, and I can attest to that, bevause I've heard the raw material from the shows. Eddie Kramer confabulated a good bit of that. They didn't replace whole songs but there were some fixes here and there, such as vocal mistakes, solo flubs, bass flubs, etc. And the audience was partially fake.
 
#64
They are a 3 piece and they use a lot of dubbed guitars and some dubbed bass parts. I have definitely heard 2 distinct guitar parts before. So what? Do you think somebody else is playing those parts? It doesn't really bother me.

BTW, I'm not sure "mis-underestimate" is a word.
 
#66
TL5 said:
Agreed. I just google the product and read what's available, taking everything with a grain of salt of course.
I'm relying on my poor memory as well. :hmm:

Fairlight CMI and Synclavier also came to mind. It'd still be a stretch to think that ZZ Top took one of these out on the road on late 1979 into 1980.
Again, I don't doubt that there where horns being manipulated for the audience in some way.. I was just trying to figure out how it would be done.
Click to expand...

Other acts took Fairlights and Synclaviers on the road (as there weren't too many other options)--the Police for example. The 'Top could certainly afford the state of the art at that time I would think!
Even pre-midi you could have setup a triggering system a few different ways with CV gates, etc., but by the time they would have been doing this you could have simply used something like Taurus pedals to trigger a sampler. Any midi device could do it--drum pad, whatever.
I would guess of course that on any songs using something like a horn section part where it's a longer phrase and not just a short hit, those songs they had to play to a click (on the fly time-stretching of audio a la Ableton Live wasn't exactly there yet in those days!).
More likely though, they were just playing to tracks, and Frank was hearing a click. Even with all the tricky ways to trigger stuff, etc., if the arrangement is set in stone, that's STILL the most sure-fire way to do it.
 
#67
TL5 said:
I was looking up info on Taurus pedals to see if maybe that could've done it.
I'm not that familiar with how much sound you can get out of'em. A convincing horn section sounds far-fetched based on what I'm reading but.. who knows?
Click to expand...

The Taurus pedals are a simple (but very PHAT) mono synth. That's it.
So, you could not have a polyphonic horn part coming out of them, let alone a sample. But you could just use them as a midi trigger for another device--sampler, synth, etc.
I've owned both the original and the second version---still a very cool, recognizable sound as far as analog mono synths go (though certainly not impossible to create other ways). However, as a midi-triggering device, thank god there's cheaper and LIGHTER options out there these days!
 
#68
Fuzzbass said:
Dusty is totally live. His very first note is a clam (E instead of A) and there's a dropped note or two.

His tone is grungy and compressed, so he gets tons of sustain. Also, I sometimes tap notes with my fretting hand while gesturing with my plucking hand.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think there a couple of clams in there at least. That would be extreme trickery to put clams in pre-recorded backing track! With Billy Gibbons though, you never know...
 
#70
StrangerDanger said:
They are a 3 piece and they use a lot of dubbed guitars and some dubbed bass parts. I have definitely heard 2 distinct guitar parts before. So what? Do you think somebody else is playing those parts? It doesn't really bother me.

BTW, I'm not sure "mis-underestimate" is a word.
Click to expand...

There may be another guitar off-stage -- there's a moving part still, but I agree- it does seem to be live. Doesn't bother me either way -- the music biz is what it is -- I'm just always interested in how things are done live.

And thanks for the grammar -- did you notice the smilie?? I'm well aware that "mis-underestimate" is not a word... GW Bush coined it and took a lot of flak for it. It's a running joke.

Glad I could "refudiate" your assumption. :)
 
#71
Isn't that the name of ZZ Top's next album?

'Refudiator'

Anyway, it's tough to tell - you can always go in and 'patch up' the audio before releasing the show on DVD - if indeed there was anything to 'patch up' to begin with. Of course the other option is that Dusty has another fret in his beard...
 
#72
Living proof that Jeff Berlin is right about playing rock bass......you don't need to attend formal music school to it to make a huge living! Just do it......whatever it takes to do the show, smoke and mirrors and all. It's a processed bass track that was doctored after the fact. What else is new?;)

"I know, it's only rock and roll, but I like it."
 
#74
Hughsie said:
RE: Horns on the Deguello tour - in the Rockpalast video from that tour, they introduce the horn section, which is a back-projection of themselves miming to the horn parts from the album. The live ZZ Top then plays along with the video ZZ Top.
Click to expand...
dusty backed it up with synth pedals, though.

btw, every note on that deguello tour besides the saxes on the two songs was 100% live.
 
#77
Thanks for the better looking and sounding clip.

I hope this clears it up for everyone who thinks this band would need to have things done by machine rather than playing the instruments live themselves.

I know they use second and third guitar tracks, some synth parts, and rhythm tracks on the 80's stuff.

This song is played as a three piece, 100% live.
 
#79
Fuzzbass said:
Dusty is totally live. His very first note is a clam (E instead of A) and there's a dropped note or two.

His tone is grungy and compressed, so he gets tons of sustain. Also, I sometimes tap notes with my fretting hand while gesturing with my plucking hand.
Click to expand...
Yup.

It's the clams and a couple moments of sloppiness throughout that have me convinced that this is legit. Why leave those blatant mistakes in there if you're taking the time/effort to overdub?
 

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