Fanedit of Frank Zappa's Baby Snakes - Concert Cut (122 Minutes, Restored Audio/Video)

[eckoes]

Hey fellow Zappa fans!

I’ve spent a lot of time working on a fanedit of Baby Snakes that focuses entirely on the live concert footage. The original movie had a lot of cuts and interruptions, so I’ve put together a 122-minute version that restores full performances wherever possible. I also synced the film with the Halloween 77 box set audio, which sounds way better than the original DVD track.

The video was upscaled to 2160p after addressing various issues like compression artifacts, edge enhancements, and crushed black levels. It’s not perfect, but it’s a solid improvement over the original DVD, and definitely worth a watch if you’re into Zappa's live shows!

If you’re interested, feel free to DM me, and I’ll share the link!

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About This Fanedit:

This fan edit of Frank Zappa's Baby Snakes focuses entirely on the live concert portion of the original film, trimming away animations, backstage footage, and interruptions to present a more cohesive and uninterrupted concert experience. At 122 minutes long, this version restores the concert's flow and brings the full musical performances to the forefront, creating a more immersive and engaging experience for Zappa fans.

The original film often cuts or splits live songs, leaving some tracks incomplete. My goal was to restore the full performances wherever possible, and in some cases, reconstruct the concert to match the original setlist flow. I used the newly remixed, high-quality audio from the Halloween 77 box set, syncing it with the film’s visuals to replace the lower-bitrate AC3 audio found on the DVD. Extensive audio work was required, as many parts of the original film were overdubbed or edited in a way that disrupted the music. The result is a far more polished and authentic sound.

I hope this edit provides a fresh way to experience Baby Snakes, focusing solely on the incredible live performance from Zappa and his band during their legendary 1977 Halloween run. Enjoy the show!

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Key Restoration Highlights:

• Wherever possible, songs are restored to their full versions, including "I Have Been In You," "Pound For A Brown," and "Conehead," which were only partially included in the original film. While a significant portion of the concert remains missing, these tracks have been carefully reconstructed to provide the most authentic and uninterrupted performances available from the existing footage.
• While I aimed to present the songs in their original running order, it's important to note that the band did not play the same setlist every night. As a result, this edit is an approximation of the full concert experience. It also combines split performances, such as "King Kong," into a single, continuous track for a more cohesive listening experience.
• The audio in this fan edit is based on the Halloween 77 box set's modern stereo remixes, which are free of the overdubs that marred the original film's audio. I painstakingly synced these remixes to the film, using the original mixes as a guide. Where footage was missing, creative solutions were used, such as filling gaps with backstage shots or Bruce Bickford’s animations to maintain visual continuity.

[eckoes]

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Special Thanks
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This project would not have been possible without the invaluable help of Román García Albertos and his website Donlope.net. Román meticulously detailed every edit and provided the timestamps for the performances featured in the original film, as well as their corresponding moments in the Halloween 77 soundtrack. His research was instrumental in ensuring this edit could be completed accurately and faithfully.

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Tracklist
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Introduction – 00:00:00.000
The Poodle Lecture – 00:00:50.000
City Of Tiny Lites – 00:06:11.000
Pound For A Brown – 00:13:04.000
I Have Been In You – 00:22:16.000
King Kong – 00:30:58.000
Terry's Drum Solo – 00:39:23.000
Disco Boy – 00:42:18.000
The Demise Of The Imported Rubber Goods Mask – 00:46:18.000
Bobby Brown Goes Down – 00:52:01.000
Conehead (Instrumental) – 00:55:45.000
Titties 'N' Beer – 00:59:05.000
Halloween Audience Participation – 01:05:27.000
The Black Page #2 – 01:12:02.000
Jones Crusher – 01:14:54.000
Broken Hearts Are For Assholes – 01:17:51.000
Punky's Whips – 01:21:41.000
Halloween Encore Audience – 01:32:56.000
Dinah-Moe Humm – 01:34:29.000
Camarillo Brillo – 01:41:12.000
Muffin Man – 01:44:37.000
San Ber'dino – 01:49:37.000
Black Napkins – 01:54:39.000

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Notable Edits
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*** Pound For A Brown ***
The original film includes the second half of the October 30th performance and a brief bass solo from October 31st. Since "City Of Tiny Lites" ended with the October 30th performance, I decided to use the first half of "Pound For A Brown" from the same night to maintain continuity. Careful audio editing was required to seamlessly join the two performances from different nights, while still preserving the visuals.

*** Conehead (Instrumental) ***
Originally, this track featured a lengthy guitar solo lasting about 7 minutes. In my edit, I reduced it to around 3 minutes to create a tighter, more focused performance, while still showcasing the musicianship of Zappa's band.

*** King Kong ***
In the original film, this track was split into two parts at different points. I restored the full performance by joining the two halves together, using creative editing techniques and brief cutaways to fill in any missing footage. The result is a more continuous and coherent version of the performance.

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Technical Details
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Format: MKV (with chapters)
Audio: Original PCM soundtrack (48 kHz, 16-bit)
Video: x264, two-pass encoding (veryslow, grain profile)
File Size: 10GB

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Image Quality
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The source for this edit is the original NTSC DVD, which was invert telecined to restore the film’s native 24fps framerate. The DVD presented several challenges, including heavy compression artifacts, excessive edge enhancements, crushed black levels, overbright highlights, and a burned-in noise reduction effect that introduced ghost trails during low-light scenes.

I invested significant time in enhancing the image, reversing many of these issues as much as possible. The process involved carefully refining the source material with a blend of modern tools and techniques, including upscaling the footage to 2160p. To maintain the original look and feel, I selectively retained elements of the unfiltered DVD footage and applied film grain to prevent the overly smooth or artificial appearance often associated with upscaling.

While this restoration is a major improvement over the original DVD, it's not meant to replace a true 4K scan of the original film. It is, however, a thoughtfully crafted version that respects the original aesthetic while making the best of the available materials—until an official restoration is done by the Zappa Family Trust.

[surfling]

Watched this last night - it looks and sounds great and the synching is excellent! Nice job Eckoes!

[Rupert Pupkin]

Thank you so much for this tremendous work and this great share.
Keeping in mind that you worked using the official DVD (which I had bought day one when it was released), the 4K upscaling looks great and natural; with film-like argentic texture (a fine grain) more HD details improved.
That really impressed me because Roxy official blu-ray is heavily de-grained and lost its film argentic texture. I was a bit disappointed when that one came out.
I have not seen some better works since the Pink Floyd 4K (which often used DVD source).
The sound quality is also improved.
"Baby Snakes" was not that bad in terms of edit in comparison to "A Token..." which was so frustrating because the complete guitar solo live footage from "Inca Roads" is replaced by some animation (Peter Gabriel probably saw that when later we got the video-clip of "Sledge Hammer").
If you are a Kate Bush fan I wonder what you could do with the non-official pro-shot Manchester 1979 video.

Please don't remove your Roxy torrent because I'm really curious (to say the least) about how good this one could look.
No chance to replace the animation of A Token Of An Extreme video with the live footage ? ;-)

My favorite (I have many) is "Muffin Man" when Frank Zappa is cleaning the scene from toilet paper and is soling while shaking hands (considering Frank was throw away from the stage (and was still "lumping" during the Hot Rats sessions (I remember watching some footage - and could have stayed stuck on a wheelchair) this is great to see a moment like this.
The other is the mini-opera with Terry Bozzio drooling after an epic drum solo and Frank nasty guitar solo (perhaps it was a clin d'œil and a kind of tribute to The Who mini-opera "A Quick One While He's Away" - which was the first one in rock-pop I think).

[eckoes]

Thank you so much for this tremendous work and this great share.
Keeping in mind that you worked using the official DVD (which I had bought day one when it was released), the 4K upscaling looks great and natural; with film-like argentic texture (a fine grain) more HD details improved.
That really impressed me because Roxy official blu-ray is heavily de-grained and lost its film argentic texture. I was a bit disappointed when that one came out.
I have not seen some better works since the Pink Floyd 4K (which often used DVD source).
The sound quality is also improved.
"Baby Snakes" was not that bad in terms of edit in comparison to "A Token..." which was so frustrating because the complete guitar solo live footage from "Inca Roads" is replaced by some animation (Peter Gabriel probably saw that when later we got the video-clip of "Sledge Hammer").
If you are a Kate Bush fan I wonder what you could do with the non-official pro-shot Manchester 1979 video.

Please don't remove your Roxy torrent because I'm really curious (to say the least) about how good this one could look.
No chance to replace the animation of A Token Of An Extreme video with the live footage ? ;-)

My favorite (I have many) is "Muffin Man" when Frank Zappa is cleaning the scene from toilet paper and is soling while shaking hands (considering Frank was throw away from the stage (and was still "lumping" during the Hot Rats sessions (I remember watching some footage - and could have stayed stuck on a wheelchair) this is great to see a moment like this.
The other is the mini-opera with Terry Bozzio drooling after an epic drum solo and Frank nasty guitar solo (perhaps it was a clin d'œil and a kind of tribute to The Who mini-opera "A Quick One While He's Away" - which was the first one in rock-pop I think).

Thanks for the kindd words! The trick was to do so many test passes of different settings with upscaling until I found something that looked a bit natural, and merging back the original DVD picture on top of it to retain details, and add grain at the last moment. It took a long time. Its far from perfect but it does fix some of the DVD imperfection.

[Rupert Pupkin]

did you use Topaz Video AI ?

[eckoes]

did you use Topaz Video AI ?

In part, yes. Most, if not the vast majority, of its users are using it wrong. It can be a great tool to clean up some elements but not to create details. The trick is to identify the problems of the source material. In this case, it was 1) Heavy MPEG2 Compression, 2) Edge enhancements (hallo), 3) burned-in denoising techniques from the 90s. Next, try to fix each problems at a time, leave the options to SHARPEN or IMPROVE DETAILS to 0 at all times, and try to find an ok setting for each of the problems, and then dial it back voluntarily.

Then, overlay the original DVD picture on top of it all to add back in possible lost details. That is important, if not the most important step.

One thing I hate is the waxy / not-human look of upscaling that I see popping up online. This is terrible. I dont think you can create details that arent there, but you can mitigate the technical problems of the original source material and voluntarily dial it back afterwards.

First step: Hybrid encoder to IVTC the original DVD and export it in Prores 422 HQ

Second step: Topaz AI.
- AI Model: Iris
- Input Condition: Low Quality
- Parameters: Manual
- Fix Compression: 7%
- Improve Detail: 0%
- Sharpen: 0%
- Reduce Noise: 4%
- Dehalo: 12%
- Deblur: 8%
- Add Noise: 0%
- Recover Detail: 100%
- Grain amount: 5 / Grain Size: 2 (it was the best approximation of 16mm film grain I could get when scaling this source at 450%)
- Scaling: 450%
- Export: ProRes 422 HQ

It is very very conservative, but it gave me the best results FOR THIS SPECIFIC SOURCE. THERE is NO one-size-fits-all settings, it just doesnt exists.

Third step: importing it back into Adobe Premiere and overlay the IVTC DVD picture on top of it (12% transparency) - after editing, export again in ProRes 422 HQ

It took a lots of trial and error (choosing a Topaz Model that worked best for this specific case, getting an ok settings, etc...) but it was worth it.

Final step: importing the 680GB edit in Hybrid to encode it in x264 veryslow/grain two-pass setting, with the original PCM soundtrack included in it. The final file is around 10Gb, which retained the grain structure alright. I wish I could have achieved a smaller file size but it wasnt possible without introducing artifacts.

[Rupert Pupkin]

thanks for the settings and the approach is the same I tend to use when encoding/upscaling DVD with Topaz AI (or you on Mac or PC ?). Topaz works great in de-interlacing a DVD and with a double-framed rate. Regarding the A.I model, you have - like you said - to look at the source material - if this is argentic film, adding some slight grain would be more convincing.

[jimfisheye]

Curious for sure!

Frank's mixing and edits are always very pointed to his vision of the arrangement. And he really doesn't give a fuck! It's still usually audiophile-ish but it's arrangement vision first... and middle and last and that's just that! I like Frank's productions for that. I also love anything I can get to hear and anything live. The recent live extras they've been releasing the last few years really sound and feel like listening to bootlegs with no 'stamp' from Frank on them.

Interested in this all the same!
I'm not sure where I sit with preferring un-stepped-on video over tinkered with. Probably depends on the tinkering. I do a layering approach like mentioned here with the video with audio restoration work, FWIW. I probably think of it the other way around... I'm isolating elements that need help, cleaning up the original copy appropriately, then mixing the isolated elements into the original program. I could call that blending the original back in at the end too. Same move. And yeah, finesse is everything!

Wasn't there rumored to be a quad mix of Baby Snakes by Frank's hand? It would be buried in his vault and unobtainium of course. I know there's a Frank quad mix of Roxy and Elsewhere that was never released. Apparently there is not a Frank quad mix of One Size Fits All. At least they recently finally reissued Over-Nite Sensation and (') original quad mixes, right? Those surprise 12 channel remixes of Waka Jawaka and Grand Wazoo were sure great to see. And shockingly on point for not being mixed by Frank's hand! And genuine 24 bit masters of the albums are finally coming out! But I digress as usual. Definitely interested in what you did here Eckoes!

[eckoes]

Curious for sure!

Frank's mixing and edits are always very pointed to his vision of the arrangement. And he really doesn't give a fuck! It's still usually audiophile-ish but it's arrangement vision first... and middle and last and that's just that! I like Frank's productions for that. I also love anything I can get to hear and anything live. The recent live extras they've been releasing the last few years really sound and feel like listening to bootlegs with no 'stamp' from Frank on them.

Interested in this all the same!
I'm not sure where I sit with preferring un-stepped-on video over tinkered with. Probably depends on the tinkering. I do a layering approach like mentioned here with the video with audio restoration work, FWIW. I probably think of it the other way around... I'm isolating elements that need help, cleaning up the original copy appropriately, then mixing the isolated elements into the original program. I could call that blending the original back in at the end too. Same move. And yeah, finesse is everything!

Wasn't there rumored to be a quad mix of Baby Snakes by Frank's hand? It would be buried in his vault and unobtainium of course. I know there's a Frank quad mix of Roxy and Elsewhere that was never released. Apparently there is not a Frank quad mix of One Size Fits All. At least they recently finally reissued Over-Nite Sensation and (') original quad mixes, right? Those surprise 12 channel remixes of Waka Jawaka and Grand Wazoo were sure great to see. And shockingly on point for not being mixed by Frank's hand! And genuine 24 bit masters of the albums are finally coming out! But I digress as usual. Definitely interested in what you did here Eckoes!

Baby Snakes didn't have a quadraphonic mix. There was better: a discrete Dolby Surround mix by Frank (4 tracks: L-C-R-S) that found in the vault when they made the DVD, it was converted to 5.1 and included in the original DVD. It is really something incredible to listen to (especially during the recording sessions segments), it is in lossy AC3 from 2003. There was also a stereo mix included that had to be reconstructed from different elements. The Halloween 77 boxset was different: showing the concerts as they happened, no cheats. The footage have a different feel when synced with it, its way more clearer.

Check out the official Quaudiophiliac, its https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaudiophiliac a lot of his original quad curious, starting from 1970. He indeed mixed and released those two albums you mentionned, and did Roxy and Elsewhere too. But Frank also mixed also parts of Waka/Jawaka, Orchestral Favorites, Studio Tan and Sheik Yerbouti in QUAD. There is an unreleased quad mix of Greggary Peccary!!

The atmos mixes were actually based on some of the quad mixes in some aspect, its really well done.