Zappa.com

I just can't seem to let go of this...
I took a look at the new Apostrophe(') CD and observed that although the metallic layer was free of holes or bumps the entire surface had a wavy mottled appearance to it. Similar to what painter's call 'orange peel'. I then looked at my old Ryko Overnite Sensation/Apostrophe mfd by LaserVideo and it's metalic surface was perfectly flat and no waviness. You could even see the individual tracks! Which were not immediately visible on the new CD.
No doubt these new CDs are made differently. If I had the equipment I would like to scan both new and old CDs and compare the different levels of errors.
Looks like there is more reason than ever to rip CDs to a hard drive for safekeeping.
The new releases made from analog masters do sound Frikin' Awesome!

No problems with the Amazon sourced "GW" down under...........

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Thanks for the music Frank.

Well I'm about to get sick from watching my TV

I use this utility to scan CDs. It's free.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Rip-Other-Tools/Nero-CDDVD-Speed.shtml

Yeah, that's okay for data cds but for audio discs somthing like a QA-101 COMPACT DISC ANALYZER is needed.

I'm going to have to go to my local Best Buy just to see some FZ CD's! Ah, the good old days....Makes me also want to stick with my old vinyl GW. Hmmm....

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One two, buckle my shoe!

My GW was fine both in the car and in the PC when ripping it. I rip with dBpoweramp.

Waka/Jawaka played fine in the car BUT I had to try 4 times to get my CDRom player to recognize it. Then it failed on track 4 while ripping. I tried it again and it was fine. I haven't checked the MP3s yet.

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Make your checks payable to QUENTIN ROBERT DeNAMELAND, Greatest Living Philostopher Known to Mankind.

I emailed UMe and asked for news about this. We'll see.


According to LInkedIn:
Sujata Murthy is Senior Vice President, Public Relations and Artist Relations at Universal Music Enterprises
sujata.murthy@umusic.com

Wazoo came today. I tried it in the car and no problems. I brought it home and put it in my laptop and at first, it wouldn't recognize it. Then, I tried an external disc drive and it loaded with no trouble.

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Come visit my Progressive Rock forum at: http://zombyprog.proboards.com/index.cgi? ... its good for your health, national and otherwise!

"Who tortured you and made you listen to Yes?" - Roger Dean

Mine was jacked, too. Only worked in my GF's iMac. Ripped it (FLAC, of course), burned a backup, and mailed the original back to Amazon.

Updates as to how UMe responds to you, F.Natural, would be greatly appreciated.

Call any record label, and the record label will respond to you....?

Surprisingly, Saturday afternoon the PR person I responded :
"I forwarded to the appropriate people and they are looking into it.
They will be in touch next week."

It must suck to have to check your email on the weekends...

In the mean time, if anyone has some high power magnification and can compare a new release to an old release I think that will tell the story. I don't have access to anything to do a better job. Maybe one of those 200x microscopes with digital camera would do the trick???

I returned my GW to Amazon today. When I put it in my car player it started acting up about minute or so into the first track. Guess I'll use Best Buy, which I did for the other 15 or 16 albums I've ordered/received. Good prices. Free shipping. Fast.

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Plastic people. Oh baby now. You're such a drag.

Has anyone confirmed or not if the Best Buy versions have the same problems or not? I ran into a problem with my copy of One Size Fits All, but I closed Windows Media Player, opened up the disc in Windows Explorer and got it to work finally.

Mine hasn't given me any trouble, and I bought it from Best Buy. It sucks that some people are struggling with it, though...

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Come visit my Progressive Rock forum at: http://zombyprog.proboards.com/index.cgi? ... its good for your health, national and otherwise!

"Who tortured you and made you listen to Yes?" - Roger Dean

still no word from UMe.
I may order the next batch from Amazon.Uk.

still no word...
(by the time 'they' respond someone will have up'd it to the cloud)

I think I'll just order mine from Best Buy.

Amazon no longer has it in stock. Looks like they have been pulled for the moment.

Just received GW among others and it plays without problems. It is an EU pressing.

BTW, it is the first time I get to hear this album with the switched track order. I had been used to the original vinyl and the first Ryko which both have the "right" order. I say "right" because I will probably never get used to hearing it with The Grand Wazoo at the beginning. It doesn't work as good as starting with Calvin.

Since the source for this was the original analog master of course, could it be that the master tape always had TGW first? Maybe the sequence was changed at the last moment during disk cutting in 1972?

Th.

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Active forum member since 2005 - R E T I R E D from this forum in 2013

One of the great mysteries of Zappa-dom. I always prefered Calvin first, even though I grew up on the Ryko.

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Come visit my Progressive Rock forum at: http://zombyprog.proboards.com/index.cgi? ... its good for your health, national and otherwise!

"Who tortured you and made you listen to Yes?" - Roger Dean

I got my refund from Amazon and promptly bought a shiny new TGW from Waterloo Records (the best record store in the world!). Yes, they actually had it in stock! Plays fine. I don't know how all that works. I guess Amazon has their own pressing plant?

Anyway, I just received the newest batch (Orchestral Favorites through Thing-Fish) which I ordered from Best Buy online. They were cheaper, but be warned, they don't pack their CDs as diligently as Amazon. No packing material whatsoever. CD's stacked loosely in a box. Several jewel cases were cracked. Also they ship via UPS. Don't get me started on THEM. Whatever. I should be buying locally anyway.

"Eat all your Zappa, kids. There are starving kids in California."

I've had problems getting the Grand Wazoo to boot up in any computer drive, the PlayStation 3 included, believe it or not! I took it back to HMV and got another copy, but it's the exact same problem, so I assume that it's the whole batch that's whacky. Plays fine in my Blu-ray player, and it plays OK in the car CD player, but I can't get it to boot in any computer-based ROM drive!

I kind of have a similar problem with Sheik Yerbouti, but it will play in the PlayStation just fine, as well as in my Blu-ray player. For any "computer" I have tried it in, though, the sound gets extremely choppy around Track 17 or so, and it's the same thing in the car CD player. Frigging weird, and disappointing, too, because Sheik is absolutely one of my favourite albums!

I finally got word from UMe.

"We have found a problem with the stamper in the initial run. I have a copy made with the corrected stamper..."

Sooo, there is, or will be, a second run of these. I have no info on when or how you could tell the difference. Hopefully whatever was wrong is now checked by their QA department and won't happen again.

No problem with my copy.

I have in my possesion one of the cds made with the new stamper. It has played fine twice and my PC was able to read it with no logged errors. Should it fail in the future I will update this thread.
I still have no idea how to identify the new from the old.

They may have different matrix numbers and/or barcode if the stamper number is encoded in these.
As well, it is possible that the US and EU plants have received different stampers.
Do you know if your new copy is a US (UMe ZR 3849) or an EU (Universal Music Group International 0238492) edition?