Oner,
I wondered about the possible enhanced value of my misprinted (or should
I say mis-stamped) Presence cover myself. Don't worry, I intend to take
care of it!
ITTOD doesn't sound radically different. I have an old copy I bought
after finishing university in the early 80's (let's just say my original
copy bought the day it was released in '79 was rather ravaged by 4 years
of parties in a university dorm ;). I compared the two on the weekend
and the Classic is a bit more dynamic but I think a lot of the album's
sound is due to the choices made during its recording at Polar Studios.
Classic simply took the two-track master and ran it through an all-tube
cutting system. Thus the LP is as close to sounding like the master tape
as is possible. The biggest disappointment for me personally is
Carouselambra. It's just a very dry, brittle mix with not much of a
soundstage or depth. If you listen carefully, the guitar in the song
buried way down in the mix is tremendous (actually Page's only recorded
use of the double-neck so I've read). However, the keyboard is mixed so
high and so dry with no effects that it drowns out both Page and to a
lesser extent Bonham. It almost sounds like they took a dry output from
the synth, forgot to run it through chorus or reverb, and cranked the
fader up too high. It might be a creative choice but it's not one I
like. I think what could have been a massive Zeppelin track was neutered
by the mix (and by a less than steller vocal from Percy. Sad since I
like his vocals on the rest of the album).
All My Love and I'm Gonna Crawl don't have the dry synth problem.
Everything sounds in balance on them. I also notice the acoustic guitar
on AML seems to be slightly more distinct on both LP versions I've
heard. I read one review recently that praised the bass on the Classic
ITTOD and I agree. It sounds solid, deep, round and with good
definition. The drum sound is solid, natural and full.
All in all, I've now heard all the Zeppelin LPs except Coda as a Classic
Re-issue, and I have to say that they did a tremendous job in
transferring the master tapes and also achieving a certain sameness of
sound. As discussed before, LZII and III seem quite bright, but they're
great to listen to. Tracks I never really appreciated that much in the
past seem to stand out. For example, Friends seems to shimmer with a
sense of realism that's just stunning! Ditto Four Sticks--the suspended
guitar strums in the middle section are crisp and ringing with presence.
To get back to ITTOD, the same quality is there, especially in that
middle romp from Fool In The Rain, but again the album suffers from the
mixing choices. Those Bonham drum outtakes that surfaced last year or so
truly reveal the kind of sound on the original multitracks. Imagine what
could have been done remixing those! The same thing goes for the LedZep
II & III multitracks that have surfaced.
Anyway, probably wishful thinking. I doubt Page has the desire to go in
and spend all the time required to reconstruct those mixes. I was
reading on another forum a discussion among Beatles fans who speculate
on what songs would be physically impossible to recreate a couple of
tracks (Strawberry Fields for example) for the big Beatles remastering
job that's apparently in the works and I was thinking the same thing
could be said for some Zeppelin. Imagine the work involved in trying to
recreate the middle section of Whole Lotta Love! It's possible that the
panning exists only on the 2-track master tape. Hmm, maybe Cirque de
Soleil could do a Zeppelin show. But I digress....
As for ITTOD, like the rest of the Zeppelin catalog, the Classic
re-issue is the closest we can get so far (possibly ever) to the sound
of the original master tape. I've always had a special love for this
album as it was the only LZ studio album to come out after I became a
fan. The incredible euphoria of cranking In The Evening that first time
in late summer '79 is something I will never forget!
Back to work...
Steve.