Re: A Zep kinda day. . .

["S R.-Weiser" <s_dweisr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Hugh,
Since you now have a re-issue of Zep II, and In Throught the Out Door, let
me ask. Are these the re-engineered releases remastered by Jimmy? Or are
they the standard original mix from a master taken either from a vinyl
lacquer master disc or a copy of the master tapes? Just curious?
Right now I think I must have five copies of II , or more. Wore out the
original vinyl, bought a second vinyl,
bought the Half Speed Master vinyl(incredibly detailed and beautiful),
bought the BMG CD version (sucks) got
a regular Atlantic CD version as a gift, (better, but still sucks) and then
got II as part of the remastered 10 cd set (excellent, but does exhibit
noticeable changes in the separation and balance). The remastered II
compares very favorably with the Half Speed Master vinyl recording.
However, and I almost hate to say it, the Half Speed Master disc in some
ways is richer than even the remastered CD. All I can attribute that to is
that the Half Speed Master disc is taken from the original tapes at an
earlier time. My concern is that there might have been a very slight
difference in the tonal quality due the age of the master tapes when Jimmy
had them copied and then remixed them. I remember reading Jimmy saying that
there was a genuine worry about the possibility of the tapes breaking due
to age.
It was obvious from the quality of the remastered CD's that every attention
to tender loving care was lavished on copying the original masters as fully
and completely as possible. Has anyone else had a chance to compare these
two versions? The remastered CD has rejuvenated segments that exhibit
better separation by a justifiable factor without losing the detail of the
other tracks. By tracks I mean the number of tracks within the same song
that separate instruments and voices. So rather than just go in and remix
the tracks so that the guitar jumps out, Jimmy very judiciously assessed
each song and arrived at what he felt best represented the richest colour
that the tracks could reveal in interplay. He did that throughout the
entire studio release issue and the results are unreal as my daughter says.
Perhaps Pagey got more out of his stint in art school than we know.
Sincerely,
Shar The Pink Lady
As Robert Plant was reported to have said later,
(all together now)
"Who the hell needs to understand everything anyway?"