Frank Zappa - Studio Tan (1978) (Discreet DSK 2291) [24-bit/96kHz & redbook format]

In early 1976, Zappa's relationship with manager and business partner Herb Cohen ended in litigation. Zappa and Cohen's company DiscReet Records was distributed by Warner Brothers. When Zappa asked for a re-assignment of his contract from DiscReet to Warner in order to advance the possibility of being able to do special projects without Cohen's involvement, Warners briefly agreed, which led to the 1976 release of Zoot Allures on Warner. At this point, Zappa was contractually bound to deliver four more albums to DiscReet and Warner.
Early in 1977, Zappa claimed he delivered master-tape copies of four individual LPs to Warner Bros.(see [1]), which would have fulfilled all of Zappa's obligations to DiscReet and Warner, allowing him to move to another distributor for his next release. Zappa In New York, a two-LP set, was delivered first, complete with Zappa-approved artwork. This was followed closely by Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites, for which Zappa supplied tapes only. Claiming that the material was sub-standard, Warner refused to pay Zappa for his production costs upon delivery of the four albums (over five discs).
Due to Warners' breach of contract, Zappa decided later in 1977 that he was contractually free to reconfigure the material on the five discs into one quadruple-LP set, entitled Läther. Though both collections contained unique material, the four-disc set was trimmed down from the original five-disc configuration, not the other way around, as has been commonly claimed. While Gail Zappa claims that "Läther was always conceived as a 4 disc set", she was apparently unaware that all the material on the original five-disc configuration was already recorded between 1971 and 1976, and completed a year before Läther. Zappa In New York was completed and released in 1977. It was later censored and re-sequenced by Warner, without Zappa's authorization, in 1978.
Zappa then attempted to forge a distribution deal with Mercury/Phonogram to release Läther on his new Zappa Records label. This led Warner Brothers to threaten legal action, preventing the release of the Läther compilation. Over 1978 and 1979, Warner elected to release the three remaining individual albums they still held: Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites. As Zappa had only delivered the tapes, the three individual albums were released with no musical credits and some mistakes in the song titles. (see [2]) Warner commissioned their own sleeve art by Gary Panter, which was not approved by Zappa.
When this material was first issued on compact disc, Zappa made the decision to re-issue the individual albums, thus strengthening the argument that this was his original artistic intention. The material on the album was made available to the public again when Läther was finally officially released to the public in 1996, after Zappa's death.
Of the four albums that comprise Läther, Studio Tan is the only one of the individual albums to be represented in its near-entirety. It is also the only one that could have been possibly taken from the Läther tapes. The only clear differences are that "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is presented in a slightly different mix on the CD edition Studio Tan and that the ending of the song had been faded on the original vinyl release on DiscReet. The CD, in addition to using a new remixed version of "Greggery Peccary" changed the running order of the album, switching tracks 2 & 3. Later CD editions have a severe dropout during 'Rdnzl' that is not present on any LP pressing or on the initial CD edition (Barking Pumpkin; ZAX Capitol matrix).

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Analyzed folder: /2496_studio_tan/wav
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DR Peak RMS Filename
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DR14 -5.55 dB -21.64 dB A1 Greggery Peccary.wav
DR11 -9.22 dB -22.02 dB B1 Let Me Take You To The Beach.wav
DR13 -6.05 dB -22.44 dB B2 Revised Music For Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra.wav
DR13 -4.97 dB -19.66 dB B3 REDUNZL.wav
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Number of files: 4
Official DR value: DR13

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“The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary”: studio, December 1974 (with 20-piece orchestra)
“Let Me Take You To The Beach”: Record Plant 1976 (probably 1976 overdubs on ca. 1969 rhythm tracks [Hot Rats sessions])
“Revised Music For Guitar & Low-Budget Orchestra”: Record Plant 1974 (band-only sections) plus Royce Hall 1975 sessions with overdubs (orchestral sections–Royce Hall, UCLA sessions 1975 (plus some studio overdubs))
“REDUNZL”: Caribou Studios, January 1975
Date of release: September 1978

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals, percussion
George Duke – keyboards
John Berkman – piano
Tom Fowler – bass guitar
Chester Thompson – drums
Davey Moire – vocals
Eddie Jobson – keyboards, yodeling
Max Bennett – bass guitar
Paul Humphrey – drums
Don Brewer – bongos
James “Bird Legs” Youmans – bass guitar
Ruth Underwood – percussion, synthesizer
Michael Zearott – conductor
Pamela Goldsmith – viola
Murray Adler – violin
Sheldon Sanov – violin
Jerry Kessler – cello
Edward Meares – upright bass
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Don Waldrop – trombone
Jock Ellis – trombone
Dana Hughes – bass trombone
Earle Dumler – oboe
JoAnn Caldwell McNab – bassoon
Mike Altschul – flute
Graham Young – trumpet
Jay Daversa – trumpet
Malcolm McNab – trumpet
Ray Reed – flute
Victor Morosco – saxophone
John Rotella – woodwind instruments
Alan Estes – percussion
Emil Richards – percussion

HW: Project RM 1.3 / Sumiko Pearl / Advent Model 300 (Tom Holman phono stage) / E-MU 0404
SW: Audacity 1.3.9 (ripping 24/96) / iZotope RX Advanced 2 (manual c.r. & resampling) / xACT 1.71 SBE correction / XLD (FLAC encoding)