Re: Warning: Do Not Waste Your Money On The Japanese Celebration Day CD

[pauleh@xxxxxxx]

   Ok Kurt,

       Listening to the Japanese CD you are definitely correct that it is off. 
Just at first listen on my home system which is a Marantz amp into, JBL 3 way 
LR120's  - 

which I  got from the Boys 2 Men studio, and a decent Sony CD player - I was 
shocked. Even before the mastering stage, which was overly loud, compressed

and boomy - it sounds like the mix is really off. JPJ's bass is lower in volume 
and has less low end than the kick drum, and every time the kick drum hits the

low end from the bass enters the sound stage. It's a very jarring effect that 
is unsettling at times. Sometimes it complete buries JP's guitar.

To me the audience noise is often distracting from the performance as well. I 
listened to it after hearing a couple of properly recorded and mastered tracks

 one of which was Ronnie James Dio "Voodoo" , and some Dead from "Live Without 
a Net" and it made the Japanese Zep CD sound like a bad bootleg,

which is what it sounds like to me. I'll put it on some of our more high end 
systems when I get a chance, my home system is pretty forgiving but I did

think I heard some digital break up or the hash of too many clips over zero, so 
I will look more into that when I get a sec. I would've had some

serious questions for whomever released that CD. Cheers! PH





On Dec 8, 2012, at 6:26 PM, Kurt & Susan Rompf <romler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> Typed Friday A.M.
> Okay, so now that I¹m more awake, let me elaborate.   I¹m on vacation from
> work today so when I got home last night from work it was like Friday night
> for me.  So I came home, cracked a beer, put in the Japan CD and started
> straightening up a bit.   This was not a sit down audiophile listening
> session, more like Zep in the background to start the night off right.  But
> whoa, was it a bad start.   Even just while walking around the house I was
> like what is this crap?   The sound was so bad that it flat out stopped me
> in my tracks.  I HAD to sit down and really listen.
> 
> But I couldn¹t.  It was literally hurting my ears.  It was brash, noisy,
> messy and overly loud.   First thing I had to do was turn it down.    And
> then I tried again.   Whoa, I mean really WTF?   It was completely
> unlistenable.
> 
> Break.
> 
> Typed Saturday P.M.
> Sorry, I had to go Friday morning and I¹m just getting back to this now.
> 
> Anyway, everything on this CD is just WAY too loud.  Overly extended loud
> and distorted.  There isn¹t any separation; it¹s all one big garbley gook
> mess.   And there is this constant whine of brashness behind everything.
> It¹s hard to tell if it¹s just loudness by itself, or a combination of
> excessive loud and poorly mixed.   All I know it that I absolutely hate it.
> It¹s probably the worst sounding CD I¹ve ever heard.   I turned it off.
> 
> Later, I had my wife listen to it when she got home and her reaction was
> ³This is horrible.  Who the hell is that singing because it doesn¹t even
> sound like Robert?   And what is that constant noise that¹s over
> everything?²
> 
> It took me a bit to really nail it down.   I left it on this time, and
> decided to just let it play to see if songs got any better as they went.
> Nope.  But I was able to figure it out somewhat.  While walking around I
> literally went out in my garage, which needless to say muffles the sound a
> bunch.  Usually what gets muffled are the highs, and all you hear is the
> bass.  But this was the opposite.  What came through loud and clear was the
> hi-hat cymbal crashing over and over and over, like a constant bashing in
> your ears.   I think this is the source of the constant noise, but I¹m still
> not 100% sure.
> 
> But it¹s not just that.  Jimmy¹s guitar just sounds totally out of range of
> what is possible.  It¹s just gibberish.  And like my wife said, Robert is
> just weird.
> 
> I listened to all I could stand and turned it off.  I never even put in the
> second disc.  [I guess maybe I should try that eh.   I mean I guess it¹s
> possible I got a defective disc?]
> 
> But then I was worried about the U.S. CD, which I hadn¹t listened to yet.
> Or had my sound system suddenly gone to shit over night?   So I nervously
> put it in and sat down.   Whew, was I relieved when it sounded a gazillion
> times better.   There wasn¹t time to do a full sit down listening session,
> so I just scanned over a few songs and got what I was looking for.
> 
> I have always been skeptical about people raving up the Japanese CD¹s saying
> how much better they sound.  With Jimmy normally involved in such things,
> I¹ve never held much merit that the mixes or mastering would be done that
> much better or differently than what is released in the U.S.  I mean why
> would that be?  The U.S. is Zep¹s largest market, so why would Jimmy put it
> out sounding one way in one country and another way in another country?
> Well that was my belief until now.  Since I haven¹t done a full sit down
> listening session with the U.S. discs yet, I can¹t say they are awesome or
> not so great, or somewhere in-between.  But what I can tell you is the U.S.
> CDs are very listenable, enjoyable, and sound at least fairly good.   This
> Japanese CD is just down right horrible.   Totally unlistenable.   Whether
> it¹s a loudness war disaster, a mixing freak out, or a combination of both,
> I don¹t know.  I¹m not a recording engineer and I won¹t claim to be.  I
> would love for someone in that profession to have a listen to this thing and
> tell me what¹s wrong here.
> 
> What ever it is, it¹s just wrong.  Do not waste you money on this piece of
> garbage.  It's embarrassing really.
> 
> 
> 
>