Zep remasters: 1993 or 2003?

The one's released in Oct 1990?

 

I don't think this will work. The original LZ CDs were released in the 80's. Anything from 1990 is most likely from the Marino remasters.

 

I've never heard or read any reference to baking for the 1990s remasters or in fact any LZ studio album releases. That was for the 2003 DVD/HTWWW releases and was mentioned a lot in interviews at the time by both Page and Kevin Shirley. Some of the tapes were slow baked for something like 60 hours! At that time they found all the original multitracks for all the studio albums intact, but I've never read anything about their being baked as well.

 

I just found all of them (except 4) and the date was Oct. 1990.

I can't find any older then that. So....the 1990 cd's are the Page/Marino's?

 

do no trust amazon's date for old cd's...1990 is as far back as they go.

 

I'm pretty sure that they're not but really when you're buying used you never know what's going to show up until you get it. You can always just buy them on ebay and look at the pictures to be sure.

 

Yes, I did the rematching of levels for the 10 CDs, but, no, I didn't receive mastering credits for this...and I'm not sure I should have, but, yes, it was important to do so. My name is on the credits....at least for that!


As far as baking, I can't tell you. I never found the need to do so when working with the tapes....and I think I did utilize them, but really can't remember exactly when or/and why.

The tapes DID live in our library and I did see them often enough....

 

Thanks for correcting me. I knew I read about some Zep tapes having to be baked.

 

Zal, can you tell us about the tapes for Led Zeppelin II? There' been a rumor around for awhile now that the original tapes were lost and that all that's available now for remasters are safety copies, or Eqed copies, etc. I've asked about this on FBO and someone there speculated that the lost copy was Atlantic's and that Jimmy Page still has the original stereo master in his private collection. I know an inferior tape source would explain, for example, the big difference in quality between the Classic Records LZII and the rest of their LZ reissues. Do you know if you had Atlantic's original copy of the master to work with?

 

Hi hushypushy,

Well, you phrased it correctly but the two links you provide don't.
Both of those folks refer to "production tapes", which, with the possible exception of "In Through The Out Door" and "Presence" was simply not the case.

To clarify, to me a "production tape", aka an "EQd limited copy" is a tape copy made during initial vinyl mastering. This copy contains all the EQ, level and dynamics changes made during the mastering session. By using this EQd limited copy or "production tape", subsequent parts for vinyl production can be cut without having to re-do every mastering move. These tapes were often used to create cassette and 8-track masters as well.
(How good -or bad- an idea it is to use a tape copy is another subject. Basically it is the standard trade of quality for convenience. It depends on which is considered more important.)

Aside from the two albums mentioned above, where, if memory serves (a big "if"), I had EQd limited copies (aka "production tapes") to work from, all the rest of the Led Zeppelin CDs I mastered were, to the best of my knowledge, made from flat copies of the original tapes.

There may be a tiny chance one or more of these was an original tape but I would doubt this for a number of reasons. (At the time, I was told Jimmy Page supposedly had the masters but could not locate them. I do not know whether these were somehow located for other masterings or if they in fact, used the same tapes was given to work with.)

So, I hope I've made it clear that there is a very significant difference between a "production tape" and a flat copy of the original. Also, I hope it is clear that all but two of the CDs I mastered were to the best of my knowledge, from flat copies of the originals (to which I applied some gentle EQ and some level changes but no compression whatsoever).

Also, the ones I mastered were all done in the mid-1980s... certainly before 1987.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

Barry, thanks for the info. It's very interesting.

 

What about the Classic Houses of The Holy? That one has a lot of hiss compared to other versions I've heard.

 

The ones I found were from 1990. So Page/Marino did not do the '90 versions?? Who did them then?

Anyway, I'll pass those up now.

Yeah I'm SOL on finding any Zep cd's from the 80's.
I guess I'll just pick up the 10 cd set.

 

No they weren't, that's just Amazon's default date for an older CD when they don't know the real release date.

 

So I actually did find them then??

 

Yes.

I'm guessing if you ordered all 8 of them from Amazon merchants you might get one or two remasters in there from some vendor that doesn't know the difference. That's been my expereience when ordering non-remasters of many different artists through Amazon merchants. The safest way is always ebay because they post pictures.

 

I haven't been able to find ebay sellers for these.

I've got every one except Zep4. All for around 50 bucks total.

What should I type in the search at ebay? I can't find any of Barry's cd's.

No compression at all? Now I really want them.

 

Older ones look like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Led-Zeppelin-II...goryZ307QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

and not like the photos of the new ones on amazon (look at the front and back cover):

http://www.amazon.com/Led-Zeppelin-...5265446?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1194264531&sr=8-1

 

Amazon is better than ebay IMO and experience, the safest way is to ask the seller the cat. numbers or/and matrix numbers! No reply or lack of correct info indicates they are not what they appear to be, just ask by email it is simple to get what you want, i have never been sent a wrong cd!!

 

If the 'zon page says 1993 or 94 I immediately move on.

I have the cd's listed from '90.

 

How did you find that II cd? What did you type in the search?

 

how bout for Zep1 B00000DOZ3
Zep 2 DOZ4
PG DOYH

those are the ASIN numbers.
Sorry bout the multiple posts. Didn't realize that till now.

 

I typed 'led zeppelin II cd'

 

I had to keep an eye out at a few local used CD shops to get my Diament LZ CDs. It takes a bit of time, but they always show up eventually.

 

Excellent post sir, thanks for the clarification