Zep remasters: 1993 or 2003?

I like most of the songs on ITTOD more then most do.
I'm gonna crawl...carousalambra... and of course All my love.

They're good. Even underrated.
I know the '90 box set cd's sound good. I agree with you that they sound pretty good for remasters.
Not as good as the Barry songs I've been listening to. And what I've been hearing is compressed.

It's very strange to me that the original cd pressing of anything would be better then a full-blown remaster. I would just assume (wrongly) that more recent versions must be better.

 

This is an assumption you'll read quite often. Unfortunately, it's often more marketing hype than reality. There are some great remasters out there, but just because an copy of the master tape is used, doesn't mean the remaster will be better. If it's tweaked, compressed, boosted, etc., chances are it'll be done with "modern listeners" in mind, and the results might sound fine on an iPod or cheap car stereo, boom box, etc., but on a revealing system, the flaws can ruin the listening experience.

 

Hi Brian,

Thank you very much for your kindness.

Something just got more clear to me:

Going back to what you originally said,
"I asked a seller at amazon whether his In through the out door was remastered by Barry.
Here was his answer: Don't think it is.
Ours is an original pressing.
What you're looking for on Amazon.com is under the
listing of:
In Through the Out Door [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]"
I may have misread it the first time.

It sounds like you asked for a disk REmastered by me. But I did not do any remasters, I did the original masters.
The seller may not know I mastered the original ones and may have heard "REmastered", so he pointed you to Amazon's "ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED" phrase.

So, you might end up with the original after all.
Sorry for any confusion I might have added.

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

 

Don't all the remasters say "remastered by Jimmy Page" on the back? So there's your identifier; if it says that, don't buy it.

 

Hi hushypushy,

So George Marino did the guitar solos?

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

 

He wishes

edit: here we go. Remastered by Jimmy Page.


and George Marino, of course

Why did they put Page's name first? What was he actually doing in there?

 

Jimmy was in there making sure the guitar was LOUDER.

 

Yes, that's the back of the remastered disc. I'd forgotten about that. It's actually nice. Too bad the disc inside doesn't match the promise of the "remastered from the original master tapes". As for why Page first, because he can I guess. I recall reading interviews with him at the time of the first crop circle box set release, and he mentioned just sitting in on some of the mastering sessions and listening to George's work.

I might add that another way to tell the original CD might be by catalog number. Here's a list from another thread:

LZI
SD-19126-2

LZII
(NO "SD") 19127-2

LZIII
SD 19128-2

LZIV
(NO "SD") 19129-2 / EUROPE 250 008

HOTH
(NO "SD") 19130-2 / EUROPE 50014

PG
SS 200-2

PRES
SS 8416-2

ITTOD
16002-2 / EUROPE 059 410

CODA
7 90051-2

I seem to recall a chart with the remastered numbers as well, but I can't seem to find that right now.

 

Well that asnwers one of my questions! I just got an email saying a copy of HotH was 19130-2.
I was about to ask if that was the right one, I didn't even have to thanks for putting that up, Stefan
So now with that, I have I, II, HotH, and ITTOD.

 

I have been comparing some LZ and my quick observations are:

1. I like the original CDs (Barry D masters) better than the louder/less musical to me remasters

2. Some of the original CDs compare well to the original LPs while others don't:

* LZ II (Robert Ludwig) - I like this a lot better than any CD or any other LP version. The original CD seemed more like the non-RL version of the LP (same catalog number and Broadway address). The Classic Record is close but notable more tape hiss

* LZ IV (Peco Duck/Porkey) - I like this lp better than other lps and better than the CDs but not as big a delta as w/II

* Physical Graffiti - The CD sounded very good and similar in enjoyment to the Classic Record which now sells for $70. The CD seemed to have more bass where the Classic LP has more highs/a bit too much on my setup.

* HOTH - The original CD is outstanding...need to compare to LP

I haven't compared everything and my observations are just educated observations of a listener/fan.

 

I just landed LZ III. I just need LZ 4, PG, and Presence.

 

how about a LZ 4 cd with a catalog number of A2-19129?

 

You're safe with that.....it's the Columbia House Record Club pressing of 19129. Same mastering as 19129-2.

 

A thousand thanks, D.

This is one of those cases where a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

looks like this is right... PG D-212318
SS 200-1-2 on disc one and 200-2-2 on disc two.
thats the one I want, right?

 

Find a vinyl to cd transfer. Even with budget equipment it beats the hell out of either CD mastering.

 

Started a new thread on this topic but I figured I'd throw this in here to see if anyone has comments on this.

Has there ever been an explanation for the channels being reversed on the various masterings of Led Zeppelin's first album?
While comparing tracks from Mothership to previous releases here's what I found regarding the acoustic guitar intro to "Babe I'm gonna leave you"

Atlantic vinyl 8216- left channel
Atlantic vinyl 19126- right channel
Original CD (Diament)- right channel
Remaster CD (Marino)- left channel
Classic Vinyl (Grundman?)- right channel
Mothership CD (Davis)- left channel

I figure this has come up before here but I was wondering how and why this happens. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this and it really doesn't detract from the listening pleasure but it sure is perplexing.
I figure the masterings with the guitar in the left channel is the way Jimmy intended it which makes the fantastic Classic records and Barry's CD versions backwards (so to speak).

 

Well, then here are pictures comparisons of the only one really worth tracking down. The original HoTH is a way better. Top is the orginal and bottom is the remaster in all four pictures.




http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2063/2038275669_4112d91afc_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/2039068676_e66cd8303e_b.jpg

The only other disc I have a real preference on is I think the remastered PG is better than the original disc. It's easy to tell those two apart because the original comes in one of those old style two-disc CD cases.

 

Wait, the remastered PG is better then the original cd??

Didn't Barry do PG too?

 

So which PG should I get?
The original version has the original L and R reversed? But does it sound better then the remaster? Now I'm not sure which PG to buy.

I've already bought the original LZ 4 disc now.

 

Get all the originals Brian.

They're all just as good as the remasters, and in most cases better.

As a few folks say above "Houses of The Holy" is the one with the biggest difference-Barry's original version wipes the floor with the Page-Marino remaster.

 

Thanks again. Very, very helpful.

 

Buy both and sell the one you don't want to a used record store. The entire orginal vs remaster thing is less clear cut than what some people on this thread are making it. The Barry discs sound good overall but the PG discs have some warble here and there that the remaster doesn't have. It bugged me but it doesn't seem to bother everyone so maybe it's not that bad. The L and R channels being reversed is an entirely whole other issue. The entire catalog has issues with that and not just PG.

 

Not true. The only original CDs with a channel-reversal issue are the first album and some issues of the fourth. PG does not have the channels reversed, and neither do any of the other albums.

 

Someone at amazon is saying that the 2003 Japanese remasters are the best ones so far. Even better then Mothership.

I said that they are the same as the Page/ Marino ones. Just a bit louder.
But this person says the 2003 versions sound better.

Whats' the story?