Things That Are Annoying Me About Pompeii

I don't know what those were for. If I'm not mistaken, solar power wasen't very 'far-gone' in 1971. Maybe they ran something small...


However, they didn't rely on those solar panels becaue they ran the entire rig, including extra lights, at night.

yeah, what were those things for?

So that you could harness the power of the sun from a distance, as opposed to getting too close to it and it ****ing you up.

Wings, brown,

Mark

I think in a previous thread we hhad established that that was indeed what they were. Of course I can't remember for sure, and of course the "we" involved is nobody but us here, so who knows for sure.

yeah, i got the concept of solar power, thanks.

It's all about your nick, big boy

1. I don't know. Instruments don't take any power, just the amplifiers. (Unless it's Rick's keyboard).

2. Are you sure about that? It doesn't sound out of key to me.

3. I don't know what you mean...

I agree that it's out of key...it may not even be half a step, but I think it's off from the studio tuning.

It is half a step - all of it is moved up one fret if you're playing the Pompeii material on guitar.

i think I've previously mentioned this fact, but Pompeii was a film for theatres. Now, cinema standard runs at 24 fps BUT home video runs faster, PAL system runs at 25 fps and American standard NTSC runs even faster if I remember correctly (possibly 30 fps, not sure though). If it runs faster than the original recording speed the sound is obviously slightly moved up in key.

yes I said that already

let's hope it all gets fixed up for the DVD

Damn Mad Yannis, that's about all I can offer to that one. Guess the question was not as rhetorical as I had assumed.

I think that it's 28 fps

No, it's slightly faster... 29.97 fps. But something's not adding up here:

An change in tape speed of 100% yields a one-octave shift. There are 14 semitones in an octave. So about a 7.14% change yields a shift of exactly one semitone. But 7.14% of 24 fps is 1.71... which is more than the discrepancy between film and PAL and less than the discrepancy between film and NTSC.

So either the Pompeii cameras were running even slower than 24 fps for some strange reason (maybe due to an electrical problem), or the change in key is not exactly one semitone.

Or maybe the shift isn't due to film speed conversion at all. Perhaps, as suggested by FloydWright, they would have had to tune everything to the Hammond organ (again, due to an electrical problem). But that doesn't explain the fact that the original theatrical release of Pompeii (without the studio footage, which was added later) did not have the key change.

Hmm.

How the hell did they power a 4,000 watt PA system and all of their electrical instruments? With generators?
ANSWER: Yes, generators. There would be no other way. Unless.........THEYRE NOT EVEN IN POMPEII!!!! OOH NOOO!!!!! lol.

Second:
Does anyone know why the key of the songs was moved up a half step? It's annoying to try to play along to Pompeii because of this!
ANSWER: I know exactly what you mean. I hate trying to imitate this video's performance on my standard tuned Fender without having to tune up 1 note/fret higher before hand. Maybe the tape speed is off, which is doubtful really, but still possible.

Third:
What are those things on Nick's drums?
ANSWER: As any drummer would know, these are cheap effective ways to dampen the heads of drums, as to cut down on the resonation, to give a more tight sound, possibly just used for this recording.

these are MY views only.

one more thing, 'A Saucerful of Secrets' never sounded better. i just wish they would have done 'A Pillow of Winds'...(sob sob)