what effect makes this sound ? like a lazer ... Zappa I am the Slime

[Derringer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1IzySRln_I

what effect is making that sound starting at about 33 seconds?

I guess it's the bass playing it? Some kind of filter? Any specific design?

Thanks

[Scruffie]

How about this... http://www.moosapotamus.net/THINGS/fsh-1a.htm ?

[Mark Hammer]

No.  More than likely it is George Duke making a Minimoog do interesting things using several oscillators and pulse-width modulation.  You can't get there from here.

[BAARON]

I agree with Mark.  There's a very good chance it's the synth player playing that part.  The closest you'll get with guitar is probably a nice envelope filter and a bit of overdrive.

For what it's worth, when ZPZ plays it live, Jamie Kime (the rhythm guitarist) plays that synth lick on his Les Paul with a lot of gain from his Bogner and no effects at all.  Dweezil plays the main riff of the song on his SG with overdrive and an envelope filter.  Last time I saw him, he was using dual Fractal Audio Systems rigs of some sort.

[Top Top]

It sounds like it could be a guitar with octave down and envelope filter, but the note bends make me suspicious. It probably is a synth. It actually sounds like two instruments panned left and right. I do hear a guitar in there somewhere it seems.

[Derringer]

cool, thanks for the info guys

That moosapotamus design is definitely cool


is there a filter somewhere that anyone would recommend as a first filter build ?

thanks

[roseblood11]

The MXR Envelope Follower is quite easy to build. Layout at tonepad.com

I really like the Mad Professor "Snow White Auto Wah". It was just retraced at ... pssst! ... "the other forum"

[Rodgre]

UGLYFACE. Won't be exact, but the closest thing I can think of.

[boogietube]

There's another forum? Where? Well, this one is home anyway.

[Paul Marossy]

From the October 1995 issue of Guitar Player magazine, page 80:

'Frank produced gorgeous tones with the Mu-tron Bi-Phase and Octave Divider, as well as a voltage control filter (VCF) circuit from an old Oberheim keyboard, which provides the insanely funky sample-and-hold percolation effect heard on "Ship Ahoy" from "Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More".

In '77 he touted an "attractive little device" he called the Electro Wagnerian Emancipator, which he claimed contained a "frequency follower with a device that puts out harmony notes to what you're playing. You can have your choice of 12 chromatic notes in four parts following your runs. You can't play chords with it, but linearly it will follow you whether you bend or whatever. Its main drawback is that the tone that comes out of it is somewhat like a Farfisa organ."

On later tours, Frank's rack boosted a pair of MXR digital delays, a Roland GP-8 processor, and Electo Harmonix Big Muff, two Oberheim VCF cards, and a Mu-tron Bi-Phase. He'd also incorporate the Synclavier into his stage sound, controlling it via a Roland synthesizer pickup. The only devices Zappa kept footside were a Rat distortion box and his CryBaby (which were sent through a Hush IIB noise reduction unit) and a 12-button stereo relay switcher, designed by David Robb, which directed Frank's signal to one of three or four amp setups and brought effects in and out as desired.'

I don't know if he used any of those things in the first tune linked above, but with Frank, anything was possible as far as the gnarly guitar tones he got are concerned.

[Mark Hammer]

If we are talking about what enters the fray at 0:00:33, it's not a guitar, it's a synth.  There are probably a dozen or more instances of Frank and the boys performing it on youtube, including one Saturday Night Live performance.  My bold prediction is that you'll see George Duke do something at that very point.

Again, assuming we are talking about the same sound.

[Tonemonger]

  What's wrong with Farfisa organs ? - I'd love one of those !

ps. If there's a more fun riff to play - I don't know it yet !

[Ace]

Mark is correct. at 0:33, it is a synth. the pitch bends are a dead giveaway.

[Derringer]

RE: synth

right on. I definitely wouldn't put it past Zappa crew to use a synth whenever they could to get whatever sound they desired.
And I do trust the ears of you guys on this board 100%. 
That's why I posed the question in this forum 

again, thank you for all of the insights offered

Anyone know if Frank was a builder?

[Paul Marossy]

Everything I have ever read suggests that Zappa had other people build him his whacky noisemakers.

[BAARON]

Everything I have ever read suggests that Zappa had other people build him his whacky noisemakers.

+1, very much so.

[bluesdevil]

I'm a contributor over at the zappateers site. Any of you guys members there?